The Paranormal Database

Woman's Skull

Location: Appley Bridge (Lancashire) - Skull House
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This item is said to be impossible to remove from the building - it always teleports back!

Chatty Fellows

Location: Balsham (Cambridgeshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend tells of talking skulls found in this graveyard, though what became of them is not known.

Bony Guardian

Location: Bettiscombe (Dorset) - Bettiscombe Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Home to the skull of a slave, the object is said to scream if removed from the house. One former owner threw the skull into a pond, only to fish it out two days later after being kept awake at night by supernatural 'sounds'. The site is also home to phantom coach and horses, and/or a phantom funeral procession.

Woman in Black

Location: Blackpool (Lancashire) - Ripley's Odditorium
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: When the skull of a local girl was displayed here, several people reported seeing a spectral female figure standing by it. The skull's owner was convinced the item was cursed and died a week after finally giving it away.

Upset Skull

Location: Bowland (Yorkshire) - Bowland Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Removing this macabre item from the hall results in a sudden increase in the family mortality rate. Hence, it stays.

Footfalls

Location: Bradshaw (Lancashire) - Old Timberbottom Farm
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Loud footsteps can be heard traversing empty parts of the building - it may be the last remnants of the haunted skulls that once were on display here, since relocated to Turton Tower.

Cursed Cranium

Location: Brougham (Cumbria) - Brougham Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The cursed skull created havoc whenever removed from the property, so a solution-focused individual finally walled it up in a room of the hall.

Cursed Skull

Location: Browsholme (Lancashire) - Browsholme Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1850s
Further Comments: When the skull was last removed from the hall (as a joke), it was blamed for spontaneous fires and family deaths. The skull was quickly returned and has not left since.

Anne

Location: Burton Agnes (Yorkshire) - Burton Agnes Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Seventeenth century?
Further Comments: Falling in love with the hall, Anne decreed that upon death her head should be severed and stored within the house. Immediately after she was murdered, the house was plagued by crashes and bangs, which ceased when her head was removed from the coffin and brought inside. Her skull has since been bricked up to ensure it never accidentally leaves the homestead.

George Whewell

Location: Bury (Greater Manchester) - The Pack Horse Inn, Affetside
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: If removed from the public house, this discoloured skull which once belonged to executioner George Whewell is said to scream until returned.

Old Bury Gaol, Bury St Edmunds.

Screaming Skull

Location: Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) - Old Bury Gaol (possibly)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The skull of William Corder, infamous for the Red Barn Murder, was stored in the prison - it was thought to be possessed by evil, and strange sounds and spectral figures were seen around it. The skull was finally removed and buried in an unknown local country graveyard.

Haunted skulls.

Duellists

Location: Chapeltown (Greater Manchester) - Turton Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two skulls are currently stored in the Towers, that when stored in previous places, have been blamed for causing two ghostly men to appear and begin fighting. Poltergeist activity is also attached to the stories, and a woman apparently dressed in mourning costume haunts the staircase of the tower (and possibly an old path outside the tower). The area outside the tower is haunted by a phantom coach.

Theophilu Brome

Location: Chilton Cantelo (Somerset) - Higher Farm
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Local legend says that when the skull of Theophilu Brome (or Broome) has been removed in the past, the house has been besieged by howls and wails. When the tomb of Theophilus Brome was opened in the local church, the skull was found to be missing.

Drink Obsessed

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - O'lafferty's public house (once known as The George), Sadlergate
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This entity, which enjoys switching the barrels off and causing general mischief, could be related to the thousand year old skull discovered in the basement.

Drifting Nun

Location: Fawkham Green (Kent) - Pennis Lane
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Autumn (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Appearing at dusk, the figure of a nun has been reported floating down this lane. Her skull is housed at Pennis Farm and it is said if the object is ever removed a great curse will befall the valley.

Livvy

Location: Great Urswick (Cumbria) - General Burgoyne public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2016
Further Comments: The bar manager watched a faceless girl in a white nightgown walk through the closed front door. The ghost is thought to be Livvy, who drowned in the Urswick Tarn. A skull nicknamed 'Jimmy', believed to be bad luck if touched, is kept in a cupboard that sometimes opens on its own.

Dafydd

Location: Halkyn Mountain (Clwyd) - Ffagnallt Hall Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The skull of Dafydd, a Welsh Prince, can be found here. The last time it was removed from the building, the person responsible was plagued by shadowy figures and screams - these stopped once the skull was returned.

An old woodcut of a moody-looking skull.

Unhappy Skull

Location: Heathfield (Sussex) - Warbleton Priory Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The skull (or skulls - one version of the story has two) causes trouble whenever removed from the site - it is said that to prevent 'accidental removal', the skull is now part of the brickwork.

Dafydd

Location: Holywell (Clwyd) - Flacgnallt Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The skull of Dafydd Prince of Wales is housed in a box at the hall. A curse is said to befall the owners of the building if it is ever removed from the property.

Freda

Location: Hull (Yorkshire) - Ye Old White Hart public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: It is said that if the Freda's skull located behind the bar of this pub is moved, the former owner returns and haunts the building until the cranium is replaced.

An old sketch of a skull (public domain).

Reappearing Skulls

Location: Lake Windermere (Cumbria) - Calgarth Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Sixteenth century?
Further Comments: Belonging to a married farming couple, the skulls came back to haunt the person who framed them for a crime that resulted in their execution. No matter how they were destroyed, the grinning skulls always returned to the hall, until the death of the man they cursed.

Talking Skulls

Location: Long Melford (Suffolk) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend speaks of a pair of skulls which once resided in the churchyard which would chatter away after dark.

Walled Up Skull

Location: Lund (Yorkshire) - Manor house
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown if still present
Further Comments: Not much is known about the skull and its surrounding legend, other than to prevent the removal of the object, it was bricked up in the attic.

Francis Downes

Location: Manchester (Greater Manchester) - Wardley Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is reported to have had a skull bricked up within its walls, to prevent it from accidentally being removed and condemning the house's occupiers to misfortune or death. The macabre relic is thought to belong to Edward Barlow, a Catholic executed by Protestants in 1640.

Sister

Location: Peak Forest (Derbyshire) - Unnamed farmhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two sisters once lived here and fell in love with the same man. One sister murdered the other, but before dying, she said that she would never rest in any grave. The dead sister's bones were stored in a container on the property and if moved, strange noises could be heard at night and the farm's cattle would die.