The Paranormal Database

Photogenic Monk

Location: Coventry - St Mary's Guildhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1985
Further Comments: Caught on film at an official function, a figure in a hooded gown can plainly be seen standing a few meters from the head of the table. A good image of this photo can be found in 'Haunted Britain and Ireland' by Richard Jones.

Flying Dustpan

Location: Coventry - Swanswell Gate, Hales Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: June 2003
Further Comments: Three men decided to spend the night here to raise money for charity after they saw a dustpan unhook itself from a wall and fly across the room.

Unknown Force

Location: Coventry - Terry Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: April 1994
Further Comments: A 'very transparent ripple' hit a person walking their neighbour's dogs, chilling the person with such dread they screamed out loud. It was a week before they were about to sleep properly.

Little Boy

Location: Coventry - The Establishment bar and grill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: A deputy manager was said to have seen on CCTV a child-like figure looking like they were playing hide and seek. When investigated, no one could be found. A newspaper photographer claimed to have taken a picture of a ghost in a mirror, although the 'phantom' resembles a normal person/slow shutter speed combination.

Coach

Location: Coventry - The Phantom Coach public house, Fletchampstead Highway
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Coach seen 1938, Charlie in 1995
Further Comments: Named after a spectre that sometimes repeats its fatal crash (the coach left the road and sunk in a marsh, killing all on board), the pub is also haunted by an entity which could be the coach driver - he has been heard moving around after lights out in the old building.

Spontaneous Curtain Combustion

Location: Coventry - Unnamed house, Treherne Road area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: October 1968
Further Comments: A minister blessed his property after a curtain and window frame mysteriously burst into flame. Fire officers were unable to find the cause. On a previous occasion, a lamp had also caught fire.

Great Shaggy Beast

Location: Coventry - Whitmore Park
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1949
Further Comments: Standing almost six feet tall, this black dog made itself known to a couple of water workers along Watery Lane (who wisely ran away). Prior to this, the creature had appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century and said to denote a death in the witness's family.

Saucer

Location: Coventry - Wyken Croft
Type: UFO
Date / Time: Summer 1972
Further Comments: While staying with relatives, a witness watched a saucer shaped object with blue lights. The saucer was bright metal, and the object hovered for a while before moving off at high speed. The witness ran downstairs to tell someone but was so shocked that they were unable to speak and soon realised that even though the sighting only appeared to last a few minutes, three hours had gone by.

Female

Location: Coventry - 160, 166 & 167 Spon Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The same female shade was reported to haunt all three of these buildings, witnesses claiming that the short woman wore black and white with her hair up in a bun. The owner of 160 said the ghost would turn on and off electrical appliances, while in 166 the occupier said that the entity smashed glasses and threw stones.

Lorry

Location: Coventry - A4028 road (now A428?) eastbound, connecting Coventry and Rugby
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: This phantom HGV travelling at speed vanishes just before hitting the vehicle travelling in front of it. Another version of the story dating back to the 1930s says the vehicle moves straight across the road, emerging from a hedge before vanishing into another.

Escaping Cats

Location: Coventry - Area bombed during World War 2
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: Locals say that prior to the blitz which levelled a large part of Coventry, all the neighbourhood cats disappeared as if they knew what the future held.

Anti-Cleaning Cleaner

Location: Coventry - Aston Court Hotel, Holyhead Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Several ghosts are thought to be at home here, including a former cleaner who disliked her job so much she now hides the cleaning equipment in the hotel! A slightly younger ghostly girl is blamed whenever men are hurt on the site - it is stated that she was beaten by a former master and is now extracting revenge.

The ruins of Coventry Cathedral.

Droning of Aircraft

Location: Coventry - Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post-Second World War (aircraft), January 1893 (torchbearer)
Further Comments: Since the city was levelled by German bombers during the Second World War, some people have reported hearing 'old' aircraft over the ruins of the cathedral. In 1893, witnesses spotted a human arm holding a blue torch in the north aisle. The arm vanished when one man grabbed a poker and approached it, although manifested again a short time later.

Raining Apples

Location: Coventry - Coundon, area around B4098
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 December 2011
Further Comments: An eighteen metre stretch of the B4098 was left covered in smashed apples after the fruit fell from the sky. One witness watched the apples rain down onto the bonnet of her car, while a man living along the road discovered his garden covered in pulp. A mini tornado was blamed for removing the apples from an orchard and dropping them close by, although the orchard remained unnamed.

Girls in White

Location: Coventry - Gibbet Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1908
Further Comments: A teacher and clergyman travelling by the old gibbet spot watched twenty girls dressed in white pass by.

Banging

Location: Coventry - Golden Cross
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2016-2017
Further Comments: During renovation work, the landlady of the pub reported banging on the doors, open of which would always open itself.

A phantom serving girl.

Lucy

Location: Cradley - Black Horse public house (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Garret Room, located on the third floor, was said to be haunted by the ghost of a serving girl by the name of Lucy.

Green Lady

Location: Curdworth - St Nicholas Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghostly tall woman, wearing a green dress, is said to search the graveyard for the remains of her Royalist husband. The second myth from this church concerns a great treasure that is said to have been buried here along with human remains from a Civil War battle. Unfortunately, the hoard is protected by a headless phantom that intervenes if anyone comes too close to discovering it.

Mother & Child Statue

Location: Darlaston - St Lawrence's Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The child from this statue has been seen leaving the mother figure and walking off. The piece of art has also reportedly glowed in the dark, while a white phantom monk has also been observed in the churchyard.

Dudley Castle.

Gentlemanly Escort

Location: Dudley - Dudley Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A phantom couple are said to walk arm in arm through the gatehouse of the castle ruins. A ghostly Lady Jane Grey has also been reported on site, as has a grey lady who is thought to be Dorothy Beaumont - she may be the entity which pushed a man down the keep's spiral staircase in 1998. Finally, the clash of swords has also been heard here.

Lipsticked Lady

Location: Dudley - Jolly Collier, Holly Hall (former inn)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1953 - July 1954
Further Comments: The Westwood family had lived in the former inn for two years before their ghostly outbreak. A young blonde woman wrapped in white and wearing lipstick was seen in various parts of the house, as was a phantom bald man. Beds were moved, knocking started and footsteps were heard in empty parts of the building. Eventually, as strangely as it had started, the hauntings ceased.

Man with Child

Location: Dudley - Jolly Miller Inn (no longer operating, or a pseudonym)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 1951
Further Comments: Staying at the inn, Jeremy Collier awoke in the early hours of the morning and watched the manifestation of a man wearing a brown suit with a young girl. Collier observed the figures for around ten minutes, until the pair drifted through the wall. Collier later shared his encounter with the landlord, who said a former owner of the inn killed his daughter and then himself after falling into debt (the money problems caused by a poltergeist driving away paying residents).

Talking Man

Location: Dudley - Private residence, Holly Hall estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 2010s
Further Comments: Thought by the occupants to be a former resident, the sounds of an older man talking and doors opening have been heard. Cold spots and strange smells have also been encountered.

Footsteps

Location: Dudley - Road alongside Woodside Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2015
Further Comments: A woman and her son walking along this road could hear shuffling footsteps behind them, although when they turned around, nothing could be seen. The sounds, and the feeling of being followed, lasted until the pair turned off the road.

Banging

Location: Dudley - Spare Room Cafe (was the Crown Hotel), corner of Wolverhampton Street and Priory Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth / early twenty-first century
Further Comments: An icy cold chill and mysterious bangs and crashes from empty rooms are all blamed on an unknown entity which has found home in the cafe. A fish and chip shop based in the building also reported strange events and a string of bad luck.