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Church Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Countess of Salisbury

Location: Warblington (Hampshire) - Castle and Churchyard ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury, walks around this area without her head. The shade of a smuggler is also reported to frequent the castle.

Reverend F W Densham

Location: Warleggan (Cornwall) - St Bartholomew's Church, pathway leading to the vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onward
Further Comments: The Reverend Densham was not a popular man within the local community, and after dying in 1953, it could be that his ghost is seeking redemption with the villagers.

Stone Throwing

Location: Warrington (Cheshire) - Houses close to the churchyard, Stockton Heath
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1885
Further Comments: Several greenhouses had glass broken after paving stones were dropped upon them. Despite sentries being posted, the source of the stones could not be found.

Waking the Dead

Location: Watchet (Somerset) - St Decuman's Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A schoolmaster walking past the church was approached by robbers who forced him to take them to the grave of a wealthy woman who had recently died. Opening the crypt, the schoolmaster was made to remove the gold rings from the corpse's fingers. Halfway through this ghastly task, the dead woman sat up and cried for her brothers and sisters to help her - nearby coffins opened and the dead sat up. The robbers and schoolmaster escaped, but the schoolmaster died soon after sharing his story.

Mr Cooke

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravished the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).

Sounds of Coach Crash

Location: Weeley (Essex) - Pond near Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend tells of the phantom sounds of a coach crash near the pond.

Unbottled Ghost

Location: Welton (Northamptonshire) - Field next to the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, likely to be pre twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost in a field by the church was said to have been tricked into a bottle by members of the local clergy who cast it into a well. The ghost managed to escape and continued to haunt the area.


An old postcard of Wendover Church.

Moved by Fairies

Location: Wendover (Buckinghamshire) - Church
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was planned to be built elsewhere, however the local fairy population had other plans, and moved the building materials to the place the structure now stands.

Devil Summoning

Location: Weobley (Hereford & Worcester) - Churchyard
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown - traditional
Further Comments: Anyone reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards whilst walking around the large cross in the churchyard will call upon the Devil.


A phantom child dressed in white.

Child

Location: West Auckland (Durham) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 March 1873
Further Comments: A local postman named Barker passed the church and spotted a phantom child dressed in white clothing. The postman fled home, with the ghost in following close behind. Entering his home, the man ran upstairs, but still the ghost followed, the panicked postman then running back downstairs and grabbing his wife from the parlour, fled the house. This time the ghost did not follow, but remained inside the property, along with the couple's young child. Such was their fear, they found an old woman and sent her in to recover their offspring.

Dragon Slayer

Location: West Clandon (Surrey) - Exact location unknown, but woodcarving in local church
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dragon which was given the locals a hard time was killed by an ex-soldier and his dog - the dog leapt onto the creature's face, while the man decapitated the wyrm.

Crying Lady

Location: West Deeping (Lincolnshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 January, 01:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The date of this woman's death is marked by her phantom sobs heard emanating from the church. Her husband was so distressed by the death that he took his own life the following day (see Tallington, Lincolnshire).

Turquoise Light

Location: West Harling (Norfolk) - Woodland near the church
Type: Other
Date / Time: July 2014, 23:00h-00:00h
Further Comments: Five people metal detecting at night near Mickle Moor Hill watched an illuminous turquoise green light which moved rapidly out of the wood. One of the witnesses said that it moved like no other light, at great speeds and turning at irregular angles. It made no noise, did not flicker, and they all experienced a strange negative feeling. After watching the light for a few minutes, the five witnesses ran away.

Dropped Tower

Location: West Walton (Norfolk) - St Mary's Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Church still present
Further Comments: Attempting to steal the bell tower, the Devil dropped it shortly after flying off. The tower landed a few dozen metres away, where it still stands.

Three Dimensional Shadow

Location: West Witton (Yorkshire) - Church Lane
Type: Other
Date / Time: 18 September 2010, around midnight
Further Comments: Retrieving his son's teddy bear from the car, this witness was startled by a metal clanking sound. In the lane he saw a shadow which appeared to be three dimensional. It threw something down the road that appeared ring-shaped. There was another loud metal clanking noise behind the witness which caused him to look briefly over his shoulder - when he looked back in the direction of the figure it had vanished.

Corporate Suit

Location: Westham (Sussex) - St Mary's church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost has been seen wearing a modern day smart suit - he disappears when spoken to.

Witch's Stone

Location: Westleton (Suffolk) - St Peter's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Standing by the chancel door, this stone is said to be used to summon the ghost of a witch. Any object placed in a hole in the wall above the stone would vanish after the owner ran around the church seven times, and the chinking of chains would echo around the area. Legend has it that grass will not grow in the area.

Clanking

Location: Westleton (Suffolk) - Unnamed cottage next to churchyard
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Pre-1924
Further Comments: A couple living in the cottage would hear sounds coming from their garden that resembled a donkey with a clanking chain. When investigated, they could never find anything.

Nun

Location: Westmeston (Sussex) - St Martin's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Reputed to appear only in the afternoon
Further Comments: This lonely figure leaves the churchyard, crosses the road, and disappears through the wall of a nearby house.


A cave filled with wealth.

Jack o'Legs

Location: Weston (Hertfordshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Jack o'Legs was said to be a very tall man (perhaps fourteen foot tall!) who, armed with bow and arrow, robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. It is also said that a cave somewhere near here may still contain some of his ill-gotten gains.

Four Figures

Location: Whitlingham (Norfolk) - Ruined church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Figures move at midnight, but not known if still present
Further Comments: Only visible to unmarried people, the four stone figures which stood around the ruined church tower would animate at midnight, moving around and shaking each other's hands.

Man in Red

Location: Whittington (Gloucestershire) - Church of St Bartholomew
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 22 January 1985
Further Comments: A man dressed in red who vanished from the church was named by some as a former landowner Sir Lawrence (or Laurence) Tanfield.

The Not Quite Dead

Location: Whittlesford (Cambridgeshire) - Churchyard
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 24 April (St Mark's Eve) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: All those who will be buried in the churchyard over the next twelve months appear here and lay in the correct place, before being absorbed into the ground.

Little Creature with Glowing Eyes

Location: Wichling (Kent) - Wooded area and the church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: A group of four people in the church yard at night reported seeing a small entity with glowing red eyes run by them. They quickly left after hearing a strange whistling and watching a fast moving cloud cover the area. There are other stories which involve small figures seen standing by the edge of the woods.

Petrified Knight

Location: Wickhampton (Norfolk) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: For the crime of tearing his brother's heart out bare handed, the knight was turned to stone by God - the fighter now rests in the church, still holding the heart. Another version of the story says each brother tore out the heart of the other, and both are present in the church.

Records 726 - 746 of 746

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