The Paranormal Database

Henry Skinner

Location: Birmingham - Trocadero public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2012
Further Comments: Murdered in the late nineteenth century, former landlord Henry Skinner is held accountable for throwing around small change and beer mats. A former landlord claimed to have encountered Henry. Two other phantoms, girls who fell to their deaths on a staircase are also reputed to haunt the site.

Frilly Woman

Location: Birmingham - Victoria Road, Aston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: This shade dressed in green is reported to just 'appear' in the middle of the road or on the kerb before drifting across the street before vanishing again.

Giant's Stone

Location: Birmingham - Warstones Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: A giant who lived at Birmingham castle was killed when the Giant of Dudley threw a stone at him (launched from Dudley!). The rock also demolished the castle. The stone was erected as a memento, and the lane named after the War Stone used as a weapon. The rock is now on a plinth within the cemetery.

White Lady

Location: Birmingham - Warstones Lane Cemetery
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Though seen wearing several different sets of clothing over the past fifty years, this young girl with blonde hair is thought to be Victorian and has a habit of passing through parked cars.

John Wentworth

Location: Birmingham - White Swan public house, Harborne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: John went mad with grief when he found out his secret love had died in a coach accident - he shot his dog before turning the gun on himself. He has been heard moving around the building and has been known to tap people on their shoulder.

Hit and Vanish

Location: Birmingham - Witton Cemetery, Moor Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995, and 1974
Further Comments: A driver was convinced that he had run over a figure outside the cemetery (he felt and heard the 'bump' of the body on the car's bonnet), but the 'victim' vanished without trace. A police search of the area also failed to find any evidence of the accident. Twenty years previous, a driver reported seeing a ghostly airman drifting along the road.

Artist Wayne Lowden's sketch of a female ghost in modern clothing.

Pale Woman

Location: Birmingham - Witton Lakes Park, Erdington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s / 1970s
Further Comments: This female phantom who lurks at the edge of the lakes is said to dress in modern clothing, though her skin is frighteningly pale in colour.

Shuffling Feet

Location: Bloxwich - Hills House Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Most often on Sundays
Further Comments: This place was haunted by the sound of slippered feet walking across the carpet and sudden loud cracking noises. A shadow would pass by the living room window, and the sound of a car could be heard pulling up on the driveway, though nothing could ever be seen.

Marion Gorman

Location: Brooke End - Railway passing through Brooke End, near signal box
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: Marion was decapitated by a train on the tracks, slipping over in front of it as she headed to the signal box to meet her lover in the early 1900's. She has been seen several times since, always stepping in front of an incoming train before fading from view. One driver reported seeing her ghostly form wearing a bloody dress without a head.

Lost Monk

Location: Coombe - Coombe Abbey (currently a hotel)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Twentieth and twenty-first centuries?
Further Comments: Seen by witnesses as he floats around the grounds of the abbey, this monk is thought to have been murdered in 1345. Phantom footsteps have also been reported on the stable yard cobbles and are thought to belong to a young gypsy girl who cursed the family after they mistreated her. A maid dressed in old-fashioned clothing reportedly stares out of a window. Finally, a phantom cyclist, thought to be a Victorian woman, has been observed on the road just by the former abbey.

Pie Thrower

Location: Coseley - Old Bush public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1969 - 1979
Further Comments: This pie-loving poltergeist took the blame for customers' food lifting off the bar (whilst being eaten) and dropping to the floor. The entity threw spoons, cigarettes, and ashtrays around the site.

No Ghost Here?

Location: Coventry - Gosford Books
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: While a local ghost walker/storyteller says that the bookshop was haunted by children who would stack books in the aisles, the current owner of the establishment says he has not encountered anything during his 36 years of running the shop.

Three Bangs

Location: Coventry - Hairdressing Salon
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: October 2009
Further Comments: A visitor to this quiet salon was using the upstairs bathroom. The door would not close properly so was left slightly ajar. Suddenly there were three loud knocks and the door was pushed open with force, but no one could be seen and nothing more was heard, even though the area was covered in creaky floorboards.

Peeping Tom, from the 1911 film Lady Godiva.

Peeping Tom

Location: Coventry - High Street
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1200s
Further Comments: The original 'Peeping Tom', Tom was a tailor who looked out on the naked Lady Godiva as she rode through the city to protest at her husband's tax increase. All the town's inhabitants stayed in their houses and did not look; Tom was too curious for his own good, and gazed out as Godiva rode passed, and was stuck blind for doing so.

Unclear

Location: Coventry - Manor house (demolished 1964), Wilsons Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1964
Further Comments: Known locally as a haunted house (before being destroyed), but the exact nature of the phantoms at work is not clear.

Galloping Horses

Location: Coventry - Moat House Lane, Canley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - late twentieth or early twenty-first century?
Further Comments: Walking along the lane, one man heard wheels moving along the road followed by the sound of galloping horses - the witness had to jump out of the way. Other people have reportedly heard farm animals in the area, although none are around.

Art Student

Location: Coventry - Old railway building (currently Horizon Recording Studio?), Warwick Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This building is haunted by both an art student who died of a drug overdose and by a former rail employee. People recording at the studios have felt something brush past them or breathe heavily down their necks. Disembodied footsteps run down the corridors, while lights also turn themselves on and off.

Former Landlords

Location: Coventry - Old Windmill public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: According to the Spirit Team UK website, this pub still contains the memories of former landlords and staff. One entity tried to push someone into the fireplace.

Laughter and Music

Location: Coventry - Prince William Henry public house, Foleshill Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2004
Further Comments: The basement of this pub has recently been subjected to phantom music, laughter and a dark shadowy stranger.

Woman in White

Location: Coventry - Private cottage, Wall Hill Road, Allesley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s - 1960s
Further Comments: Occupants in this cottage witnessed three ghosts, one a woman in white who resembled a nun, a woman in black, and a man wearing a nightshirt, handing a candle, descending the staircase Doors would open unaided and footsteps crossed the upstairs landing. The family would also hear rattling chains several times a week; when renovation work took place on the roof, a secret room was discovered that had chains hanging from a wall.

Videoed Polt

Location: Coventry - Private residence in Holbrooks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2011
Further Comments: The Daily Mail reported that the family here were being terrified by an entity which threw things around the kitchen and opened and closed drawers. Video evidence, of a chair moving and cupboard doors opening, was less than convincing. The paper later stated that Derek Acorah had banished the phantom.

Chair

Location: Coventry - Private residence, Kenilworth Road
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown if still present
Further Comments: The artist John Heritage-peters lived at this site and threatened to haunt anyone who removed a chair from the gallery. The artist died in 1965 and subsequent house owners honoured his wish. When offered for sale in 1988, the house featured in the local press, complete with chair and associated folklore.

Piano

Location: Coventry - Private Victorian House, Humber Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: An occupier of a house along this road reported hearing the twangs of a piano, as if an unseen hand plucked the strings rather than hit keys.

Falling Items

Location: Coventry - Purdy's Pet Shop
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2020 - 2022
Further Comments: CCTV showed items falling from shelving and customers reported something tugging on their clothing. A ghost hunting group conducted a seance on the site to raise money for charity and claimed to have contacted a former male occupant.

Thomas Wildey

Location: Coventry - Ryton Bridge, River Avon
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wildey murdered a mother and her daughter, for which he was hanged. His body was then placed in a gibbet by the bridge where it slowly rotted for many years. The strange patchy mist that hangs over the area is blamed on the ghost of the man, as are the lights seen to flitter nearby.