The Paranormal Database

Examining folkloric, paranormal & cryptozoological locations in the UK and beyond

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Berkshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Vicar

Location: Cookham Dean - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: A dark shadow that generated a 'being watched' feeling in the church was named as a former vicar.

Man in Antlers

Location: Cookham Dean - Common
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: Summer, 1920s
Further Comments: A woman walking her two dogs spotted a man wearing a pair of antlers emerging from undergrowth. Her hounds were afraid of the figure, but she followed the figure, and watched as his vanished into an oak tree.

Something on the Track

Location: Crowthorne - Railway line between Crowthorne and Wokingham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several train drivers have reportedly hit something on the track while travelling at speed. Expecting to find pieces of body, when investigated, there is nothing there...

Creature from Curridge

Location: Curridge - Passageway behind the Women's Institute Hall
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: October 2012
Further Comments: A sixty centimetre tall, long necked creature was seen by Don Prater as he walked his dog. He described the creature as being dark or grey in colour, having a head like a deer, a neck similar to a swan and a bushy tail. The picture he sketched of the creature resembled an alpaca, although all local alpacas were accounted for.


A ghostly woman in white.

Dazzling Woman

Location: Darchet - Old Monastery between Darchet and Old Windsor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1923
Further Comments: A woman bathed in dazzling white was seen close to these ruins. A myth says that a golden carriage is buried somewhere nearby.

Partying

Location: Datchet - High Street and area around old Datchet Bridge (demolished 1848)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s, 2014
Further Comments: A story states that a coach containing many partygoers and pulled by horses came off the old bridge and ell into the river during the early nineteenth century. All the partygoers drowned. The ghostly coach may have been seen twice during the 1960s, while in 2014, three people on a boat heard galloping and partying which ended suddenly with screams and splashing. The witnesses investigated the area but were unable to find anything.

Frozen Handprint

Location: Datchet - The Royal Stag
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Last seen February 2000?
Further Comments: Belonging to a small child who froze to death outside the pub, a handprint appears on the outside of a window when it becomes covered in ice. A tour guide reported seeing the hand along with fifty three other people.

Powlett Wright

Location: Englefield - Englefield House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Powlett, a former owner of the house, was said to haunt the building and a tunnel, which is now bricked up.

Grey Lady

Location: Eton - Cockpit Restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A petite lady in grey was said to haunt this building.


An old postcard of Eton College.

Jane Shore

Location: Eton - Eton College - Lupton's Tower and the Cloisters
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Shore, who manifests as a grey lady, is said to haunt the tower where she died in 1526.

Mrs Hester

Location: Eton - Private residence, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: Hester would be heard to walk around her old bedroom and down the staircase, where her rustling skirt could also be detected. The ghost would also bang doors closed, though her old bedroom door would always open itself.

Man in Brown

Location: Eton - Private residence, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This home was shared with a little elderly man dressed in brown. He is thought to be a former doctor and has been described as non-threatening.

Overwhelming Fear

Location: Eton - Road leading to Windsor
Type: Other
Date / Time: December 2002, around 19:30h
Further Comments: While travelling from Eton to Windsor, a delivery driver turned down a dark trafficless road and was overwhelmed by fear, which slowly became absolute terror. The feeling receded when the driver reached a roundabout and was able to turn off.

Suicide

Location: Eton - Thomas's Hairdressers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a young man who committed suicide is said to haunt part of this hairdressers.

Modern Figure

Location: Eton - Three Tuns Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: As well as the unsurprising poltergeist experiences, one member of the cleaning staff encountered a normal looking man in modern clothing in at bar - he faded away shortly after being spotted.


A ghostly policeman returns.

Policeman

Location: Eton - Waterworks, Tangier Island
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: The local policeman would stop and share a cup of tea with the night watchman every night. However, for two consecutive nights, the watchman heard the policeman arrive on his bike and walk towards the office, but the officer did not actually appear. The watchman mentioned this to a co-worker the following day, who informed him the policeman had died a couple of nights previous.

Hamilton Pye

Location: Faringdon - All Saint's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: Pye lost his head in a naval battle before being buried here - his shade has been seen both in the church and churchyard cradling the missing object. Another version of the tale claims the headless entity is one of the Unton family who lost his head during the Civil War.

Wind and Shadows

Location: Faringdon - Oriel Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: This entity apparently made itself visible to a group of twenty or so witnesses while out on a vigil. The presence was exorcised, as the matriarch of the family living there was afraid of having a breakdown.

Former Landlord

Location: Farnham Common - Crown Inn public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: A former Edwardian landlord was blamed when furniture moved across the floor at night, items fell from walls, and a fire broke out. The building was exorcised on 18 March 2008.

Blood

Location: Finchampstead - Holy Well
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Saint Oswald is said to have spent time at this well, which was said to flow with blood during times of national crisis.

Woman

Location: Finchampstead - Queen's Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom elderly woman is said to sit by the bar, always on the same stall.

Butt

Location: Ginge - Manor House
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown (possibly never)
Further Comments: Fondly called Butt or Tubb by the first Lord Ernle, legend said that the resident ghost was a brother killed in a fight. Lord Ernle had a dream about two men fighting, but never saw the ghost.


The ghost of Wild William Darrell.

Darrell

Location: Great Shefford - Road passing Shefford Forest
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom of Wild Darrell will never be at peace - here he is said to lurk with his neck grotesquely twisted.

Old Tanner

Location: Hampstead Norreys - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure has been observed drifting amongst the gravestones.

Craven's Curse

Location: Hamstead Marshall - Morewood House
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still active in twentieth century
Further Comments: A curse placed on the Craven family by a pregnant servant girl kicked out of the household states that no earl will survive beyond their fifty-eighth year. The family sold the house to try to rid them of the ill fortune during the late twentieth century.

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