The Paranormal Database

Suicide

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Hotel Piccadilly, Room 537, Denman Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost in this room was thought to have been a traveller who slit his wrists in the bathroom. Bumps and banging have woken those who have spent the night here.

German Officer

Location: W1 (Greater London) - The Langham Hotel, Room 333, Langham Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973, 2014
Further Comments: BBC Workers staying in room 333 have been awoken at night to find a man dressed in uniform standing in their room - it is reportedly a German officer who killed himself by leaping from the room's window just prior to the start of World War 1. The upper floors of this building are haunted by a butler dressed smartly, carrying a tray. It has been speculated that he is not a butler, but an early radio presenter wearing a dinner jacket. The hotel hit the news again in July 2014 when tabloid newspapers reported that members of the England cricket team had experienced strange happenings.

Molesworth Arms Hotel, Wadebridge.

Coach and Four

Location: Wadebridge (Cornwall) - Molesworth Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Materialising in the courtyard, this phantom coach driven by a decapitated coachman leaves via the hallway. While some people are said to have seen the apparition, others can only hear it pass by.

Road running through Walberswick.

Phantom Dog, Calf Size

Location: Walberswick (Suffolk) - Road between the Bell Hotel and the Vicarage, and the beach leading to Dunwich
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1500s onwards
Further Comments: For four hundred years, a black shuck has been reported in the area, local legend stating that it is the Devil incarnate. The creature has most recently been witnessed by two women during the 1980s; they reported seeing a large phantom dog, black in colour and the size of a calf.

King's Mistress

Location: Wallingford (Berkshire) - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Room 3 was reportedly the home of a ghostly mistress of Charles I, who cried herself to death on hearing of his execution. Room 5 appears to be the haunt of two children, who stand by the wash basin.

Walton Hall, from Country Seats by Francis Orpen Morris.

White Horse

Location: Walton (Warwickshire) - Walton Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 09 October, every five years (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This pale riderless horse gallops over the gardens, twice a decade. The hotel itself is haunted by a young man, who some speculate to be the former rider of the horse.

Maid

Location: Walworth (Durham) - Walworth Castle Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The castle is reputed to be haunted by a maid bricked up behind a wall after an affair with the lord of the manor resulted in pregnancy. She is reputedly seen emerging from the wall or heard climbing a spiral staircase.

Mary Queen of Scots

Location: Wansford (Northamptonshire) - Haycock Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary was held here briefly en route to Fotheringhay castle, and after her execution, it is said her shade returned here (as well as many other places throughout the UK).

Depressing Atmosphere

Location: Wargrave (Berkshire) - Bull Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Haunted by a depressingly sad woman who is occasionally heard sobbing her heart out, her mood is supposed to rub off on people and make them cry. One story says the woman was married to the landlord but after being caught having an affair, she was forced to leave her home and child, soon dying of a broken heart.

Reader

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - Blooms Town House Hotel, Bloomsbury - Room 1
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This part of the hotel, built on the site of a garden, is thought to be haunted by the spirit of a man who once enjoyed sitting in the sunlight reading books from the nearby library.

Dr John Cumming

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - Grange Blooms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Scottish clergyman, Cumming preached that the End of Days would take place between 1848 and 1867. Cumming's ghost may still loiter waiting for the end to come.

Short Pipe Smoker

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Howard Hotel, Temple Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 06 November 2004, 05:30h
Further Comments: A witness awoke to find a man standing at the end of the bed, looking towards the window. The entity was old with a short stature, with long curly hair and what looked like a long stem pipe in his mouth. After a few seconds the ghost disappeared, like dust motes.

Young Girl

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Savoy Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom girl is reputed to haunt the fifth floor of the hotel. The same entity is also connected to a mysterious lift which does not really exist.

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell, on display in The Cromwell Museum.

Cromwell

Location: Wellingborough (Northamptonshire) - Hind Hotel, Sheep Street
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2002
Further Comments: A teenage medium alleged to have spoken to the ghost of Cromwell in the hotel, who is said to have once used the building as a base of operations for a few days.

Man with Torch

Location: Wellington (Somerset) - A38, near the Heatherton Grange Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Appearing to be a man in a raincoat, this phantom uses his torch to try to flag passing cars down. One woman who refused to stop narrowly avoided hitting him. A truck driver reported once giving the ghostly man a lift to Holcombe Bridge, not realising the man was a ghost until a short time later; the driver almost hit the man as he stood in the same place where he was first picked up. Stopping to ensure that the hitcher was okay, the truck driver watched as the stranger vanished before his eyes. This may be the same entity which has been seen at Taunton.

Reading Man

Location: Wellington (Somerset) - Blue Mantle Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1990s
Further Comments: Owner Peter Green spotted an older man reading a newspaper in the lounge of the hotel, who soon vanished without being seen or triggering the alarm. Green later found a Victorian portrait which resembled the unknown man.

Black Barley Seeds

Location: Wells (Somerset) - Crown Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1990s
Further Comments: These apports would appear en mass in several of the bedrooms, with no source to be found. This could be called one of the least disturbing parts of the haunting here, which has seen shadowy figures vanishing down the corridors, and a presence that knocks candles from the tables.

Monk

Location: West Auckland (Durham) - Manor House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Several ghosts have been reported here. Room 34 has a locked wardrobe door that opens by an unseen hand, while a member of the public has claimed to have been grabbed by the throat by a man dressed like a monk. Room 18 has had reports of people being pushed and seances in the Knights Hall have resulted in a child's voice being heard on a walkie talkie and a possession.

Mad Maude

Location: Weston on the Green (Oxfordshire) - Weston Manor Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Burnt at the stake for having an affair with a monk, Maude wanders the hotel, which was once a convent. The eerie sounds of an invisible horse and coach moving around the courtyard have been reported by more than one visitor.

Walking Man

Location: Westport (County Mayo) - Hotel near coast (name withheld)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: A guest awoke and watched a man walk through the door before disappearing into the curtain by the window.

Female in Grey Crinoline Dress

Location: Weybridge (Surrey) - Oatlands Park Hotel, restaurant and room 1313
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Not known
Further Comments: The ghost is thought to be a maid who jumped from the window of room 1313 and killed herself, after a fight with her boyfriend.

Fisherman

Location: Weymouth (Dorset) - Golden Lion Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2023
Further Comments: A total of five ghosts are reputed to haunt the hotel; a fisherman who stands at the bar, two ladies who roam the landings, and another two women heard laughing in the courtyard. It is worth noting that the pub's website notes 'the ghosts do not bear much historical scrutiny', although more recently staff have reported spotting shadowy figures passing the side door and dance floor.

Mary Lane

Location: Whalley (Lancashire) - Swan Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mary was a maid who took her own life after being pressured into giving her child away.

Browne Bushell

Location: Whitby (North Yorkshire) - Bagdale Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: More often heard stalking the staircase than seen, Bushell was a pirate (so says legend, though the truth is probably quite different) who once owned the building. Children have also been heard playing just after midnight, in rooms devoid of life.

Sobbing

Location: Wimborne (Dorset) - Griffin Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around Christmas (reoccurring)
Further Comments: One room in the hotel is filled with sobbing around Christmas - some say the cries belong to a girl upset at her father's death. A grey haired woman in a brown skirt has also been reported in the hotel and was seen near Bedroom 4 during the 1940s.