The Paranormal Database

The ghostly Blanche.

Blanche

Location: Disley (Cheshire) - Lyme Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: A mistress of Sir Piers Leigh who died 1422, Blanche pined away after hearing news about his death. Pier's funeral procession is now seen advancing towards the house, with Blanche wailing a short distance behind it. Another group of ghosts, this time children, have been seen playing on a bed in the Knight's Bedroom.

Crying Children

Location: Farndon Bridge (Cheshire) - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Two young princes were once thrown off this bridge into the river below by Roger Mortimer - their cries for help now heard on windy or stormy nights.

Sir Gaulter and Lady Friend

Location: Northenden (Cheshire) - Area near the Mersea
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: These two figures reportedly haunt the shoreline of the Mersea.

Lost Fisherman

Location: Polperro (Cornwall) - Willy Willock's Hole (cave system)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: A local fisherman once died in the maze of caves located here - he can still be heard crying out for help when the atmospheric conditions are right.

Murderer Begging for Mercy

Location: Dartmoor (Devon) - Gibbet Hill, Black Down
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: One fellow was hung in the gibbet while still alive - it took many days for him to slowly die of thirst. His voice is occasionally heard begging for someone to kill him.

Detail from Salvator Rosa's painting The Witches' Sabbath.

Sobbing

Location: Moelfre (Gwynedd) - The Druids' Circle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Cries, sobs and loud moans are heard from the Stone of Sacrifice on certain nights of the year. During a meeting of witches in the dim and distant past, this stone communicated with the pagan group - two of the women dropped dead on the spot, while a third went mad.

Anne Isabella Milbanke

Location: Seaham (Durham) - Along the cliffs
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: During stormy nights, a grey lady is reputed to walk along the cliff tops, pausing close to Seaham Hall. She has been named as Byron's former wife.

Coach and Horses

Location: Rockfield (Gwent) - Road between Rockfield and Monmouth (Ancre Lane?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: A coach pulled by a team of frantic horses reputedly vanishes into a field after crashing through a wall on the roadside.

A reminder not to play on the tracks.

Pointsman

Location: Bispham (Lancashire) - Rail tracks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Swinging his lantern, this ghostly lone figure walks slowly along the tracks.

Sound of Stones

Location: Sheringham (Norfolk) - Cliffs
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: The bodies of twelve sailors were buried in a gap in the cliffs; the corpses were covered with stones and left, rather than being taken to the nearby church. Now when the weather is right, the sound of the bodies being buried can be heard.

White Horse of Clumly

Location: Hestwall (Orkney) - Clumly Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Both horse and rider were killed in an accident as they galloped back home, the rider having just disposed of a body. Now the pair only appear when the environment is right.

A horned devil (public domain).

Croydon Hill Devil

Location: Rodhuish (Somerset) - The nearby Croydon Hill
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: An old lane on this hill was once reportedly home to a creature with horns. A local lad, who once dressed up as the creature to play a joke on strangers who used the lane, disappeared without trace; it is known thought his ghostly screams can be heard on stormy nights, as the real Devil takes him.

Rebecca

Location: Horton (Yorkshire) - Bracken Hall, village green, and surrounding moor land
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Murdered the day before her wedding by her fiancee, Rebecca now appears in her white dress in protest over her rough treatment.

Sailors

Location: Warton (near Wrea Green) (Lancashire) - Boggart House (no longer standing), on the road leading to the riverside public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights (pre-Second World War)
Further Comments: Before the house was demolished to make room for landing strips for wartime aircraft, locals believed it to be a haunt for dead sailors who lost their lives in the nearby Irish Sea. It was also reported that a murder occurred in the house, and the screams of the victim could still be heard.

Off the coast of Blackpool.

Kilmigrol

Location: Blackpool (Lancashire) - Off the coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: stormy nights. Last heard 21 May 2013?
Further Comments: A town lost off the coast of Blackpool many years ago, the bells can be heard ringing on stormy nights. The bells may have last been heard by a mother and daughter walking near Sandcastle Water Park.

Phantom Army

Location: Deeside (Clwyd) - Ewloe Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: Aside from the occasional ghostly echo of marching soldiers, a soft singing can be heard as the rain and wind knock against the castle.

Galloping

Location: St Just (Cornwall) - Road between St Just & Tregeseal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: The sounds of horses pulling a carriage have been reported coming from this stretch of road during stormy nights.

Bolting Horses

Location: Trent (Dorset) - Trent Barrow, pool
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: The pool was once the scene of a tragedy when a horse drawn carriage crashed into it, drowning all on board. This mishap can still occasionally be heard. The pool was once believed to be so deep that it could never be measured.

Coach

Location: St Andrews Bay (Fife) - West Sands Road, and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: This spectral coach and four is seen passing through the area, vanishing in a puff of blue smoke and leaving only the reek of sulphur.

Parcy Reed

Location: Redesdale (Northumberland) - Pringle Haugh, Batinghope Glade (author's note - could not locate on map, so likely to have been renamed)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: Parcy (or Percy) was murdered by a family named Hall, who lured him from his home using the pretext of hunting. Although the murderers were caught, Parcy's ghost, with rifle slung over one shoulder, remained in the area.

Dashing Lady

Location: Crowborough (Sussex) - Alice Bright Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: A young woman was found drowned in a stream along this lane early in the twentieth century - now when the weather is right, her shade is seen running down the road in the conditions which lead to her accident.

An old postcard of Goodrich Castle.

Drowning Lovers

Location: Goodrich (Hereford & Worcester) - Goodrich Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Stormy weather (screaming)
Further Comments: A failed escape from Cromwellian soldiers resulted in a young officer and his lover drowning in the river Wye. Their ghosts, mounted on horseback, have been reported struggling in the river, standing in the ruins of the nearby castle, or heard screaming during storms. In addition, an imprisoned Irish chieftain who died trying to escape is said to haunt the Macbeth tower.

Barbara Palmer, nee Villiers, painted by John Greenhill.

Barbara Villiers

Location: W5 (Greater London) - Walpole House, Chiswick Mall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy, moonlit nights
Further Comments: Barbara, mistress to King Charles II, was once a beautiful young lady, until she contracted a disease that swelled her body to a huge size - her bitter, misty shade walks the house, acting threateningly towards any who see her.

Secret Tunnel

Location: Little Abington (Cambridgeshire) - Jeremiah's Cottage and Old House
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Visible during snow
Further Comments: A secret tunnel used by highwaymen is said to connect these two properties. When it snows, the snow is said to melt above the tunnel, revealing its location.

Fast Moving Old Lady

Location: Farnham (Surrey) - West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Wet winter nights
Further Comments: Limping, this OAP runs by witnesses at a rate of knots and disappears into the doorway of a house along the street. The same street is also haunted by a black dog which performs a similar action to that of the old woman.