The Paranormal Database

Tapping

Location: Cheltenham - Suffolk Arms public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Heard in the cellar, this playful spirit knocks whenever anyone goes down into the darkness. As with so many other pub ghosts, she is blamed when items disappear.

Kiss Me

Location: Cheltenham - Thomas Hardy's House, Victoria Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The house of Captain Thomas Hardy is reputedly haunted, though by who is unclear.

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham.

Man in 1940s Suit

Location: Cheltenham - Everyman Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2011
Further Comments: Walter Charnock, a builder working on the renovation of the theatre, encountered a figure wearing a 1940s suit leaning on a banister. Within thirty seconds, the figure vanished. Music is also said to be heard within the building when none should be playing.

Nun

Location: Cheltenham - Former private school in the town, now flats
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940
Further Comments: A teacher and headmaster at the school, working late, both saw a phantom nun crossing the playground - they approached the figure to speak to it, but when their torch ran out of batteries, they ran away.

Tall Lady in Black

Location: Cheltenham - Garden Reach house, Pitville Circus Road (currently called St Annes?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 1882-1892
Further Comments: During the original ten year spell, the woman in black was seen dozens of times, during both daylight and night-time hours. Those who could not see her often reported disembodied footsteps walking down corridors. The ghost may have returned briefly mid-twentieth century; a similar figure was seen by a man, and then again by his brother a couple of years later.

Nanny

Location: Cheltenham - Hotel de la Bere (former girl's school)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A nanny who worked for the school hanged herself in her bedroom, and now walks along the corridors checking rooms to ensure her charges are asleep.

Ticking

Location: Cheltenham - House along St James Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: August - September 1965
Further Comments: A ticking could be heard inside the walls of this property, moving from room to room. One of the occupants watched a pram leap into the air, causing the baby inside to start crying. One newspaper said that a 'ticking spider' could be to blame (as a sidenote, ticking spiders were sometimes considered a death omen).

An old postcard showing the Devil's Chimney of Leckhampton Hill.

Devil's Chimney

Location: Cheltenham - Leckhampton Hill
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This limestone outcrop is said to lead straight to hell.

Man and His Dog

Location: Cheltenham - Leckhampton Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: A landlord asked a man standing at the bar with a dog what he would like to drink, only for the patron to vanish when he turned away for a second. The landlord was later shown a picture of a man long dead, who he identified as the disappearing customer.

Rattling Chains

Location: Cherington - Trouble House inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s onwards
Further Comments: Large gusts of wind were felt rushing around this public house, normally accompanied by clanking chains in the 1930s, and events grew so bad that the landlord and his family fled. A lady in a blue dress and pinafore, with either long dark hair or a hooded cloak, has been seen more recently; in 2002 she was seen carrying a tray of bottles through a back door.

Fisherman

Location: Cherington - Unnamed pool in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A phantom fisherman was reputed to haunt a pool of water around the village - local children were warned against approaching him.

Lock Out

Location: Chipping Campden - General area
Type: Other
Date / Time: November 1998
Further Comments: Many motorists with remote control keys found themselves unable to open their cars until the vehicle was towed to the outskirts of town.

Opening Doors

Location: Chipping Campden - Old Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Volunteers at the community radio station which moved into the building claimed the location was haunted. Doors opened unaided and strange noises were reported.

Relocation

Location: Churchdown - Church upon the hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was due to be built elsewhere, but night after night unseen hands moved the building materials to the top of the hill. The village once self-identified as 'Chosen', perhaps after the supernatural intervention.

Waiting Figure

Location: Cinderford - Bus stop outside Dilke Hospital (Dilke side of the road)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010, 00:30h, and again 12 February 2012, 19:00h
Further Comments: A driver spotted a figure standing at the bus stop - knowing that there was no bus due, the driver stopped to offer the figure a lift, but on doing so, no one was in sight. Eighteen months later, the driver once again drove by the bus stop and the same figure stood there. The driver stopped, but the figure was nowhere to be seen.

Betty

Location: Cirencester - Betty's Grave, crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Betty was executed and buried at a crossroads for the crime of witchcraft. Her ghost has failed to find those who killed her, and now wanders lost around the area near her grave.

Black Horse Inn, Castle Street, Cirencester.

Old Woman

Location: Cirencester - Black Horse Inn, Castle Street
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1933, signature existed until 1992 (until window was smashed)
Further Comments: A guest awoke in her bedroom only to see an 'evil looking' older woman bathed in green light. The guest screamed and the older woman vanished into a wall, just prior to other people entering the room to investigate the commotion. The following morning the word 'W John' was found scratched into a windowpane, albeit upside down. As the writing was not there the night before, it was assumed the name was scratched into the glass by the ghost.

Faceless Figure

Location: Cirencester - King's Head Hotel
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly monk has reportedly scared one member of staff into quitting her job and has upset several members of the public with inopportune manifestation and subsequent disappearing. Another ghost, a cavalier, has also been seen by staff members.

The Parish Church of St John Baptist, Cirencester.

Grey Lady

Location: Cirencester - Parish Church of St John Baptist
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A piece of local folklore says that the church is haunted by a grey lady. The ghost, carrying a small posey of newly cut flowers, looks for the grave of her child who fell victim of smallpox.

Old Woman

Location: Cirencester - Private residence, Chesterton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: An older woman was spotted looking out from a window by one resident, while another had a dream of the same figure walking around the property holding a mug in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

USAF Pilot

Location: Cirencester - Queen Anne's Column, in the park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June 1999
Further Comments: Standing against the monument, this young man has been known to talk to members of the public, only to vanish after his first sentence.

Armoured Soldier

Location: Cirencester - Torbarrow (or Tar Barrow) Hill
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A couple of local men exploring the hill discovered a secret entrance. It led to an armoured fighter inside a concealed room. The fighter held a flame within a glass lamp which, for an unknown reason, the men shattered. They escaped as the room collapsed around them, the entrance vanishing.

Cloaked Figure

Location: Clearwell - Clearwell Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: While recording 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' at the castle, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and another member of the band spotted a cloaked figure walk into a room. Iommi followed the figure to see who it was, but the room was empty. It had been claimed that the ghost of Elizabeth Raleigh, wife of Sir Walter, haunted the site, although one version of the ghost story incorrectly claimed Elizabeth had killed herself after the arrest of Sir Walter.

Floating Lady

Location: Coalpit Heath - Private cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s-2000s
Further Comments: While washing up, a witness turned to see the apparition of a lady float up the stairs and turn into one of the bedrooms (a recent addition). Occupants also reported the sound of footsteps, doors opening and closing unaided, and a blast of chilled air when no doors or windows were open.

Butler & House

Location: Cold Ashton - Manor House
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: A lost woman driver stopped at this building and asked the butler for directions, which he gave. However, she soon found out that the house had been empty for many years. She returned and found the building in a disused state, completely different from when she first called in.