The Paranormal Database

Westminster Bridge, London.

Leaping Shadow

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Westminster Bridge (over)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December, midnight (reoccurring) - 'Ripper' seen. Woman circa 1900s?
Further Comments: Just as a new year begins, a phantom man is said to throw himself off this bridge - many believe it to be the ghost of Jack the Ripper, taking his own life. Another story tells of a policeman who encountered a woman who pleaded with him to follow her. The policeman set off and was led to another woman in the act of throwing herself into the river. Having prevented her suicide, the policeman realised that the woman looked identical to the girl who had taken him to the spot, who had since vanished.

Westminster Bridge, London.

Shadowy Boat

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Westminster Bridge (under)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A small boat, with three people travelling on its deck, has been seen moving under the bridge, only never to materialise from the other side.

Figure in White

Location: SW15 (Greater London) - Putney Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 1895
Further Comments: Newspapers reported that people were walking the bridge until the early hours of the morning attempting to see the phantom white figure which was said to have taken up residence in the area.

Headless Dog

Location: Swaledale (North Yorkshire) - Humpbacked bridge leading to Ivelet
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The appearance of this headless hound denoted a forthcoming tragedy.

The River Trent is reputedly home to a water elemental.

Water Spirit

Location: Swarkestone (Derbyshire) - River Trent, near Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The water elemental which frequents these waters is said to require three lives annually to remain pacified. The bridge was built, they say, by two young ladies who saw their lovers taken by the spirit and acted to ensure no one suffered the same loss.

Sisters

Location: Swarkestone (Derbyshire) - Swarkestone Bridge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sisters who built this bridge are said to haunt it, while others say phantom horsemen from Bonnie Prince Charlie's army can be heard crossing.

Upset Husband

Location: Tallington (Lincolnshire) - Footbridge over the railway line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 15 January, 17:50h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: After the death of his wife (see West Deeping, Lincolnshire) this grief-stricken individual jumped from the footbridge over the railway track and was hit by the train from London, which killed him instantly. The incident is re-enacted once a year.

Queen of the fairies.

Built by Fairies

Location: Tavistock (Devon) - South Down Bridge
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: It is said that the Queen of the fairies helped build this bridge by turning some of the water below into boulders.

Little George

Location: Thetford (Norfolk) - St George's Nunnery - Nun's bridges
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sixteenth century?
Further Comments: The seven year old George fell from a wooden horse in May 1559, cracking his skull on the wall of the bridge and dying from his injury. The young ghost haunted the area for many years (riding around on a headless wooded horse) before being exorcised.

Molly

Location: Tisbury (Wiltshire) - Tisbury Bridge (aka Molly's Bridge)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A local legend says that Molly Peart was hanged from this bridge (she was actually hanged in Oxfordshire) and that her ghost haunts the site. The legend also says a child was hanged at the site. One witness reported shadowy figures passing the window on their parked car while close by and something swinging from the bridge.

Potted Witch

Location: Toft next Newton (Lincolnshire) - Pilford Bridge - between Toft next Newton and Normanby
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a witch which harassed anyone using the bridge was finally caught and trapped in an iron pot.

Coach

Location: Upavon (Wiltshire) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Heard but not seen, a phantom coach occasionally crosses the bridge.

An old postcard of Wadebridge.

Coach and Horses

Location: Wadebridge (Cornwall) - Trewornan Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Once per year, on a night of a full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Moving at breakneck speed, a phantom team of horses pulling a coach race across the bridge before vanishing on the other side.

Fallen Horses

Location: Wakefield (West Yorkshire) - Denby Dale Road bridge, and river below
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Walking her dog across the bridge, Amanda West was frozen with fear when the sound of horses passed her - with no horses to be seen. Without warning, she then heard a loud splash. Looking into the river below, the water was calm, but the sound of panicking horses could now be heard coming from below. She later found out that the original bridge had collapsed in 1836 and a team of horses pulling a cart had drowned.

Blue Lady

Location: Wakefield (West Yorkshire) - Unidentified bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Her origin unknown, one story says that the phantom blue lady walked straight through a van while crossing the bridge. The driver was convinced he had hit someone until he spotted the figure continuing to walk unimpeded across the bridge.

Crawling Man

Location: Wakefield (West Yorkshire) - Wakefield Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pathetic figure reportedly crawls near the bridge, where he fell from while living, breaking his legs.

Victorian Girl

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - Gade Bank footbridge
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 19 August 2012
Further Comments: An Infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera was said to have caught a young girl dressed in Victorian clothing. Police officers could not see anyone when they looked for the girl.

Waterloo Bridge, London.

Headless Man

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Waterloo Bridge, Embankment
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The discovery of human remains near the bridge in the mid-twentieth century resulted in a ghostly apparition appearing for a few weeks after the incident. Earlier in the twentieth century, a criminal spotted a well-dressed young man on the bridge. As the criminal tried to grab the man, the young potential victim vanished.

Mist

Location: Wendy (Cambridgeshire) - Bridge over stream between Wendy and Shingay
Type: Other
Date / Time: August 1976, circa 23:30h
Further Comments: Travelling home on motorbike during a clear, hot summer's night, a man passed through a dense mist which had gathered just before reaching the bridge. Upon entering the mist, the rider became instantly aware of an evil presence - he quickly accelerated away, although felt something was following him.

Things

Location: Wick (Highland) - Black Brig, somewhere between Noss Lighthouse and Inkerman Farm (may no longer exist)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bridge had a 'sinister reputation', where people could visit at midnight and see 'things'.

One of Three Shucks

Location: Willingham (Lincolnshire) - Bridge at River Till
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of three bridges in Lincolnshire that is said to be a haunt of the black shuck.

Child in Yellow Dress

Location: Windsor Forest (Berkshire) - Callins Bridge, near Shurlock Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: This young girl with raven hair is reported to lead anyone who follows her to a mass grave of soldiers killed in the Civil War.

Man Monkey

Location: Woodseaves (Staffordshire) - Bridge along Birmingham/Liverpool Canal
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 21 January 1879
Further Comments: This strange black creature with glowing white eyes leapt onto the back of a horse pulling a cart - when its owner tried to hit the mysterious creature, his whip passed straight through its body.

Dunny

Location: Wooler (Northumberland) - Cave in Cockenheugh Hills, and Fowberry Bridge (and occasionally Tower)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Either a former Border reiver or someone who committed suicide (or maybe both), this entity would manifest as a dun coloured horse and scour the area for his lost treasure.

Glowing Train with Red Lights

Location: Wormit (Fife) - Tay Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The badly designed Tay Bridge collapsed in 1873, a passenger train crashing down with the faulty structure into the cold waters of the Firth of Tay below. The scene is re-enacted on the anniversary of the crash.