The Paranormal Database

Cottage with Pond

Location: Newport (Isle of Wight) - Sandy Lane
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1951 / 1952
Further Comments: A lad cycling down Sandy Lane recalled seeing a picturesque farmhouse with a pond just in front of it. Years later the (now grown) man tried to find the dwelling but could find no evidence the property or pond ever existed.

Fordson Tractor

Location: Normanton (West Yorkshire) - RAF Bottesford (aka RAF Normanton) - no longer operational
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 October 2009
Further Comments: A visitor to the site heard what he first thought was an old Fordson tractor ticking over, though the sound later changed to an aircraft carrying out pre-flight checks.

Crowned Man

Location: Otley (West Yorkshire) - Old Chevin Road
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 2005, around 23:00h
Further Comments: A witness walking towards a camp site encountered a man wearing a crown on his head dancing around strangely, like a 'village idiot'. The man stopped in front of the witness and stared hard into his eyes. The witness tried to push the man away, but his hands passed straight through the figure. As the witness moved away, he turned and saw many people in Victorian clothing pushing prams. The witness was said to be shaken up for days after the experience.

Cricket Pavilion

Location: Outer London: East Barnet (Greater London) - Oak Hill Park
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: An evening in winter, 1986/87
Further Comments: Walking his dog through the park, this witness spotted what looked like a cricket pavilion with a veranda about 100 yards from him. The building was quite brightly lit, illuminated from the outside. The witness was a little surprised never to have seen the building before, but being new to the area, was not perturbed. Walking back the same way a little later, the building had gone. Neighbours told him that they could not recall a pavilion ever being on the site.

An old postcard showing Pass of Killiecrankie.

Battlefield

Location: Pitlochry (Perth and Kinross) - Pass of Killiecrankie
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 July (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The bloody battleground between the English Government and Jacobite Highlanders, the anniversary of the battle is marked by the ground turning blood red. Reports of soldiers in English and Scottish regalia, both lying dead and others fighting, have also been recorded. As if this was not enough, the area is also haunted by the drifting head of a woman murdered on the site during the seventeenth century, and the tall white spectre who tries to grab people passing along the roads; anyone the ghost touches dies within the year…

Pluckley's 'Fright' Corner.

Dying Highwayman

Location: Pluckley (Kent) - Fright (aka Frith) Corner
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A large spectral tree has been seen here, together with a highwayman pinned to it by several swords.

United Reformed Church, Poole.

Lamps

Location: Poole (Dorset) - United Reformed Church, Skinner Street
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It has been said that sometimes one can see box pews and brass lamps within the church, even though the items were removed in the nineteenth century.

Overlord

Location: Portland (Dorset) - Unstated public gardens
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: May 1976
Further Comments: While walking his dog early one quiet May morning, Mr Murphy suddenly found himself surrounded by tanks, jeeps and American soldiers walking around. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the scene vanished, leaving both Murphy and his dog shaking. The witness speculated that he had fleetingly witnessed soldiers making final preparations for the D-Day landings.

Old Brazils

Location: Ramoan (County Antrim) - Off coast
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: A strange island, likely to be a Fata Morgana, was said to periodically appear off the coast. The island was covered in trees, ruins and tall towers, and would always disappear at sunset. It is not clear whether this phantom land was 'Old Brazils', an island which appeared once per year along the Antrim coastline.

Double Fronted Georgian House in Mist

Location: Rougham (Suffolk) - Kingshall Street?
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: 'In the days before automobiles' a house with a beautiful garden appeared along Kingshall Street. A witness had never seen the building before, so went to investigate, only to see the house engulfed by mist and disappearing to leave an empty field.

Coffee Shop

Location: Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent) - Calverley Road
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 June 1968
Further Comments: A woman in a supermarket spotted an old fashioned coffee shop frequented by several smartly dressed people, through a doorway in the shop. A little while later she returned to the site with her husband but was unable to find the coffee shop. After a little research, they discovered a bar had existed on the site many years previous.

Battle

Location: Scarawalsh (County Wexford) - Bridge
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of a ghostly battle, complete with screams, horses and cannon fire, have been heard here.

Monks and Priests

Location: Scattery Island (Inis Cathaig) (County Clare) - Church of St. Mary near the Round Tower
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A fisherman caught in a storm sought shelter on the island and went to pray at a ruined church. He encountered many monks and priests within the building, although when he closed his eyes and opened them, the figures had vanished, and the church once more appeared ruined.

Spencer

Location: Scrooby (Nottinghamshire) - Great North Road
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1952
Further Comments: A man walking home witnessed a figure entering a small cottage. A few seconds later, a couple of screams followed, and two figures ran from the cottage, one with a head injury. The witness panicked, convinced he had watched a robbery and ran off. Lost in the dark, he ran in a circle, returning to the scene of the crime, only there was no cottage... It is speculated he witnessed the murder of a gatekeeper and his wife, killed by John Spencer in 1779. The ghost of Spencer, or maybe the gatekeeper, has also been seen standing on the roadside.

Enchanted Island

Location: Shannon Estuary (County Limerick) - Off coast
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The mouth of the River Shannon is another place where an enchanted island has made an occasional appearance before vanishing.

Chip Shop

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Firth Park
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990
Further Comments: Walking home one evening, a mother and daughter spotted a chip shop which they had thought was new, as they had not seen it before. The shop was open, lights were on, and people were inside. A couple of nights later, they decided to visit the takeaway, but it was not there - a DIY shop stood on the spot, twice the size of the chip shop they had seen.

Hooves on Gravel

Location: Shoeburyness (Essex) - Countryside in area
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: While walking home through the nearby countryside, a woman reported hearing the overworked horses and the sound of crunching gravel. The site of the occurrence, upon investigation, proved once to be a brick yard.

House

Location: Slapton (Devon) - Battle Ford
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1939
Further Comments: A phantom manor house with large arched doors appeared here to a witness who described it as 'perfect but without substance'.

Army Marching On

Location: Souter Fell (Cumbria) - Side of Mountain visible from Wilton Hall
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 June 1744 (reoccurring?)
Further Comments: Over two dozen witnesses saw a mass of troops ascending the mountain on horseback, though there were no real soldiers in the area. The ghostly army had been seen twice before, always on the same date.

Chapel

Location: St Andrews (Fife) - North Bell Street (now Greyfriars Garden)
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: A slightly dubious source claimed that as a man named Allan turned the corner of this street, he could see the large chapel (which had not existed for many years). Allan entered the building in time to see a monk being decapitated by an assailant. Allan then found himself sitting on a nearby wall with a grinning skull by his feet. The skull briefly gnashed its teeth before flying into the sky and vanishing.

Enchanted Island

Location: St Finian's Bay (aka St Finan's Bay) (County Cork) - Off coast
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bay is another place where an enchanted island has made an occasional appearance before vanishing.

Altered Interior

Location: Stanningfield (Suffolk) - St Nicholas Church
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: A passing gentleman noticed the church doors open and went in to investigate - he said he found the altar adorned with flowers and set up for a Roman Catholic service, even though it was an Anglican church.

Army on Manoeuvres

Location: Stockton on the Forest (North Yorkshire) - Skies above area
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 13 January 1792
Further Comments: Several people reported seeing a forest in the sky, with soldiers in black uniforms moving around in formation. More soldiers wore white clothing, but appeared to be allied to the other troops, rather than in conflict.

Thatched Cottage

Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Ermine Street
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: A female cyclist caught in a storm took cover in a thatched cottage along this road, warming herself by an open fire with an old grey haired man for company. She later discovered that the cottage had been overgrown and dilapidated since the previous century.

Gothic House

Location: Tendring (Essex) - Exact area unknown
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter 1974, around 19:00h
Further Comments: Two cyclists passing through the village on a winter's evening spotted a large gothic-style manor house where they knew a bungalow should have been. Speaking later to a local, they were told no house had ever stood on the site.