The Paranormal Database

Monk

Location: Bury St Edmunds - 38 Buttermarket, currently a bookshop (was the Suffolk Hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid to late twentieth century
Further Comments: Reportedly connected via underground tunnel to a long gone priory, monks have been reported creeping around the site.

Bury St Edmunds Abbey and Cathedral, Suffolk.

Monks

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Abbey, Norman Tower, and Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1980s (monks), Cardinal in summer 1975 or 1976
Further Comments: Spectral monks have been seen gliding around the ruins of the abbey and the tower, also in the shops along Abbeygate Street. One witness encountered a Cardinal while walking around the ruins with her husband - he gave her a warning before vanishing. Despite the reported sightings, it was claimed the story was first created by a police sergeant during the 1960s and planted in the local press. As a side note, one piece of folklore says St Edmund is buried at a hidden location on the site together with a gold statue of the angel Michael.

Monk

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Anabel's Togs shop (no longer operating) along Abbeygate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1975
Further Comments: A member of staff in this shop watched as an average sized monk with a pointed hood walked through the wall. Footsteps were also reported within the building.

Footsteps

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Angel Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied footsteps are reportedly heard in the underground bar after dark.

Pharmacist

Location: Bury St Edmunds - British Gas Showroom (was next door to Cupola House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Phantom music could be heard coming from the basement where a pharmacist had taken his own life in 1913. A broom had also been spotted moving unaided. The showroom briefly opened the basement to the public in 1993 to raise money for Comic Relief.

Grey Woman

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Buildings on the Angel Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While it is unclear whether the Grey Lady reported all over Bury is of the same entity, more sightings are said to have occurred of a grey female form in buildings on this hill.

Cathedral Cottages, Bury St Edmunds.

Figure on Bed

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Cathedral Cottages
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1960s
Further Comments: The spinster Enid Crossley told her friends at work that the figure of a monk had crossed her bedroom and sat on the end of her bed. This occurred several times while she lived there. Witnesses from other cottages have also reported the figure.

Faceless Man

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Coppice running alongside Horringer Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: Two children playing in the coppice spotted a man approaching them. The figure wore a black suit with a bowler hat and carried a walking stick. He could have been mistaken for a regular man, other than his face was completely devoid of features. The children hid up a tree until the figure passed.

Cupola House, Bury St Edmunds.

Grey Lady Waiting

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Cupola House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This lonely figure has been seen sitting in the front bar, shying away in a corner.

John Reeve

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Dog and Partridge public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Reeve, the thirty-second and final Abbot of Bury St Edmunds, died in a house which once stood where the pub now stands. Reeve's phantom, dressed in his vestments, appears in the pub.

Former fire station, Bury St Edmunds.

Footsteps

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Fire station (no longer operational, currently a bank)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied footsteps were reported coming from empty parts of this fire station.

Mayor

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Guildhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local stories say this site is haunted by a former mayor.

Four Spheres

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Howard estate, heading towards Fornham St Martin
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 21 April 2007, 09:27h
Further Comments: The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Suffolk Police had handed over a report of four black spheres which one person had seen moving across the sky in formation.

Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmunds.

A Normal Family

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Manor House Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Reportedly resembling a 'normal' family visiting the building, this gang of ghosts disappear without trace... Other figures from the building's past also frequent the corridors and halls, including a couple of servants and a young child.

The Nutshell, Bury St Edmunds.

Young Child

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Nutshell public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Child and monk unknown, cloaked figure 1990s
Further Comments: A small ghost for one of the smallest pubs in the UK - this young child was murdered in a bedroom on the site, and sometimes comes back. A phantom monk is also said to haunt the building, and sometimes the smell of perfume can be detected in the air, even if no one present is wearing it. Finally, a cloaked figure wearing a tricorn hat was spotted by a customer on the first floor, standing by a window.

Old Bury Gaol, Bury St Edmunds.

Screaming Skull

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Old Bury Gaol (possibly)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The skull of William Corder, infamous for the Red Barn Murder, was stored in the prison - it was thought to be possessed by evil, and strange sounds and spectral figures were seen around it. The skull was finally removed and buried in an unknown local country graveyard.

Grey Figure

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Private residence along Bishops Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: A former occupant of this building reported seeing a grey, misty small or young woman. The entity appeared to have a scarf around her head. The witness eventually moved from the property after hearing a voice screaming 'help me'; other people present were unable to hear these cries.

Chanting

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Private residence, Abbeygate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972-1976
Further Comments: While living at this site, a family reported encountering chanting monks at night, as well as witnessing taps turning on and off unaided, chairs being thrown, and balls of light which passed through walls.

Clock

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Private residence, Oakes Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1974 - 1975
Further Comments: Over a two-year period, a clock in the sitting room would be found wrapped around and hanging from the curtain. Initially the occupants blamed their six-year-old son, although they changed their minds after the clock moved when he was not at home.

Old Man

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Private residence, St John's Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Objects would move around this flat, the married couple living here blaming each other. One night as they sat and spoke, the woman watched as the man's voice turned into that of someone much older, and for a split second, she saw someone else sitting with her. After a double take, the man's appearance returned to normal, and he had no idea what had just happened.

Nurse with Wounded Soldier

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Railway Arch, near Mustow Street, Eastgate Street, Great Barton Rd (now the site of the A14 bridge)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1870s onwards
Further Comments: This reoccurring scene dates from the Crimean War. A wounded soldier based at a nearby hospital fell in love with a local nurse, and both tried to elope. The nurse's father found out and tried to stop them, killing the soldier in the process.

White Lady

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Rushbrooke Hall (3.5 miles from Bury)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1579 onwards
Further Comments: Different stories exist for the same ghost. The first states that the White Lady was the wife of a former owner, murdered by her husband. She floats around the moat, the place where she drowned. The second tale places the murder in the hall, this time by persons unknown. The body was then thrown into the moat from the battlements.

Revolving Lights

Location: Bury St Edmunds - Sky over the Cathedral
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 29 November 2008, 22:30h
Further Comments: Several people, including a member of staff at the Cathedral, reported observing a luminous grey UFO over the area. One witness contacted the police.

St Mary's Churchyard, Bury St Edmunds.

Maude Carew

Location: Bury St Edmunds - St Mary's Churchyard
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 24 February, 23:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Cursed by a monk after Maude murdered the Duke of Gloucester in 1447, her shade is now said to appear once a year. The alleged ghost often brings dozens of people to the area in the hope of seeing her.

The ruins of St Saviour's Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.

Grey Lady

Location: Bury St Edmunds - St Saviour's Hospital (ruins), and Tesco store, Fornham Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1954 (hospital), and early to mid 2000s (Tesco)
Further Comments: This grey lady was seen within the ruined hospital several times during the mid-twentieth century. More recently, poltergeist-like activity has been reported at the adjoining Tesco store's canteen, with some people speculating that the Grey Lady may have returned.