The Paranormal Database

Big Cat

Location: Shelley - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: March 1996
Further Comments: This out of place feline stood around 350 metres from observers.

Fawn Coloured Cat

Location: Shingle Street - Unnamed country lane
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 23 March 2008
Further Comments: Prison Officer Heidi Hawley was driving to work when what she mistook for an Alsatian dog ran out in front of her. Believing it to have been an escaped pet, Heidi stopped her car to investigate further; she climbed up an embankment to follow the 'dog', only to realise it was a large fawn coloured cat with green eyes. The cat paused to look at her before running off.

Black Woman

Location: Shipmeadow - Road leading to lock (known locally as Geldeston lock)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1908 - January 1909
Further Comments: A small number of men reported seeing this phantom woman several times over two months. She was described as having a black, shadowy appearance, standing around 1.75 metres tall, and moving swiftly. On one occasion the entity brushed against one witness and, on another, disappeared over a gate and into a field.

Faces in the Trees

Location: Sibton - Village Green, Nearby trees
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The location where a fight between two gypsies resulted in both their deaths, the trees are said to have taken on a life of their own; faces will appear in their branches, and the leaves drip blood.

Grey Figure

Location: Snape - Road between Snape and Sternfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 22 December 1974, 18:00h
Further Comments: Reported to the BSIG, a couple driving away from Snape encountered a dark grey humanoid shape which moved from the middle of the road and vanished into a hedge.

Cat Kill

Location: Snape - Tunstall to Snape Road
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Reported to The Big Cats of Suffolk website, a muntjac carcass found here featured a bite to the neck, with other cat spoor discovered nearby.

Giant and Bloody Rain

Location: Somerleyton - Exact location not known
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Varies: 17 July & 19 November (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: Somerleyton was once the hunting area of a giant, who is said to briefly appear on the evening of 17 July. The giant once stumbled across a plot to murder him, so struck first and killed the would-be assassin. The assassin's blood is said to rain down from the sky on 19 November.

Somerleyton Hall, from Country Seats by Francis Orpen Morris.

Samuel

Location: Somerleyton - Somerleyton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This site is home to a ghost named Samuel who walks the corridors. Others have reported a small phantom girl and a grey lady.

Dead Zone

Location: Sotterley - Jay's Hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Along this road is said to be a patch of land, the site of a murder, where nothing grows.

Southwold beach, Suffolk.

Fisherman Swinging Tilly Lamp

Location: Southwold - Beach
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Carrying a large fish, a phantom fisherman has been seen walking along the beach, swinging a Tilly lamp.

Woman in Black

Location: Southwold - Cliff Face
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Emerging from the solid cliff face, a woman dressed in black has been reported along the coastline.

Falling sounds

Location: Southwold - Former vicarage (currently a bus office, wool shop & paint shop)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Many sounds seem to have once haunted this building - sighs, creaking of a chair, the rattling of chains, and the sound of someone falling down the stairs.

Gun Hill, Southwold.

Headless Gunner killed by Exploding Cannon

Location: Southwold - Gun Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After losing his head when a cannon backfired, the soldier is reported to return occasionally to stand by the old guns that face the sea. There are also reports that fairies once camped in little tents on the hill.

Poking and Tugging

Location: Southwold - Holiday cottage in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2014
Further Comments: A visitor to this cottage reported having their shorts tugged and being poked in the back by an invisible finger. A white mist was also observed to emerge from a kitchen lamp and drift across the room.

Off the coast of Southwold, Suffolk.

Long Grey Creature

Location: Southwold - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 21 October 1938
Further Comments: While casting their nets, two fishermen watched a long creature around thirty metres away. They stated that the beast was grey in colour, moved at great speed, and estimated the length to be around twenty metres. However, a story later appeared in the local press that the 'creature' was nothing more than several pieces of lumber bound together.

Path from Gun Hill, Southwold.

Beautiful and Elegant Woman

Location: Southwold - Path from Gun Hill, heading towards the sea
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two local men out for a walk watched a beautiful woman pass them by and disappear behind the Round House. Curious to know the identity of the strange woman, they followed her to the harbour where they found a capsized boat - the quick thinking of the two locals managed to save a sailor from drowning. The woman, however, had totally vanished. The ghost has since been seen at other times, always with a shawl over her head, and is said to emanate peace.

Man in Bath Chair

Location: Southwold - Private House along Child's Opening
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: First half of twentieth century, always around 01:00h, last seen 1948
Further Comments: This spooky figure, sometimes wheeling himself around in a bath chair, other times walking, was watched by occupants of a house several times. The entity would cross their yard and vanish into a bricked up doorway to a former hat shop.

Lady with Dog

Location: Southwold - Shuck's Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Late at night, a phantom woman is alleged to appear walking about the hill with her dog.

Sutherland House, Southwold.

Redhead

Location: Southwold - Sutherland House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 May (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: This young red haired woman is reported to wait for the return of Lord Sandwich, killed in a naval battle off the coast here. Footsteps and the sound of doors opening have been heard on 28 May, the anniversary of the Lord's death. Geoffrey Munn speculated that the ghost was Ann Cammell, a former resident of the property who was accused of witchcraft in the mid-sixteenth century.

Wild Man

Location: Sproughton - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 16th Century
Further Comments: The wild man is thought to have been a hermit rather than a large hairy hominid. A local pub was named after the man.

Black panther

Location: Sproughton - Road between village and Chantry Park
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: The Big Cats of Suffolk website reported that one witness watched a large black cat cross the road.

Penelope

Location: Stanningfield - Coldham Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (nun), October 1807 (older ladies)
Further Comments: When Claudia Schiffer moved into the hall, the Ghost Club contacted her with a warning concerning the phantom nun, Penelope, which came with the property. Two cursed paintings are also housed onsite, one purporting to show Penelope and the other a mother superior. It is unclear whether the two phantom older ladies seen in 1807 relate to the paintings.

Altered Interior

Location: Stanningfield - 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.

Large Cat

Location: Stansfield - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: July 1996
Further Comments: This feline stood about 25 metres from the witness.

Moving Coffins

Location: Stanton - Church
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1850s
Further Comments: Opened to inter a recently deceased family member, the French family vault was found in disarray. The vault was tidied and sealed; five years later the seal was broken and the heavy coffins once again found moved from their places. Tidied and sealed for a second time, a couple of years past until another death in the family. This time one of the coffins that required eight men to lift had moved to the stone staircase leading to the vault. While flooding was suspected to have moved the coffins, some believed an otherworldly force had played a part. A similar story exists of the Chase Vault in Christ Church, Barbados.