The Paranormal Database

Returning Maid

Location: Abbots Langley (Hertfordshire) - Churchyard and Vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This young girl, who died suddenly, rises from the grave once a year and returns to the vicarage. Opinions differ on whether she is a former vicar's daughter, or a maid mistreated by a vicar's wife.

An overdramatic imagining of an Earth Hound.

Earth Hound

Location: Aberdeen (Aberdeenshire) - Churchyard, Mastrick
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1915
Further Comments: Earth hounds are said to be the size of a rat, but with a dog-like head and feet of a mole. They live in churchyards and eat the recently buried. A dead earth hound may have been ploughed up in the Mastrick churchyard.

Fairy Funeral

Location: Aberystruth (Gwent) - Church Lane
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A small procession of fairies was reported travelling along the lane towards the church to bury one of their own. Another version of the story says the funeral was ghostly in nature, and when a living man reached out to help carry the coffin, everything vanished, with the man only left holding a horse's skull.

Roger de Clifford

Location: Aconbury (Hereford & Worcester) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Roger became so troublesome that it was trapped within a bottle and buried under his monument. Despite this, he still returns, and to be touched by the hooded shade is an indication the witness shall die within the year.

The Devil Helps Thrice

Location: Adderbury (Oxfordshire) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Fourteenth century
Further Comments: This church is one of three in the area (Bloxham and King's Sutton being the other two) that were paid for by three brothers. One of their workers who helped construct this tower never took any pay, never slept and never ate - he vanished as soon as the tower was built. The brothers were convinced that they were helped by Old Nick.

The Force

Location: Adisham (Kent) - 3 Church Lane
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1976
Further Comments: Nicknamed 'The Force' by one of the residents of this home, tables would lift themselves up, boiling water would come out of the floor, and the electric meter would operate even when power to the building was cut off.

Summoned Entity

Location: Akenham (Suffolk) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local myth states that walking around the church thirteen times anticlockwise will summon the Devil.

Entrances to Hell take many forms.

Bottomless Pit

Location: Albury (Hertfordshire) - Halls Garden Pond near the church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This small body of water is said to be a one way ticket to Hell for anyone foolish enough to try to swim to the bottom.

John Euerafriad

Location: Aldworth (Berkshire) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: John Euerafriad sold his soul to the Devil (for what we do not know), whether he was buried within the church or not. As normal, with this type of deal, he was buried under the church wall (neither in nor out of the church) which denied the Devil his due.

Oxen

Location: Alfriston (Sussex) - St Andrew's church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Fourteenth century
Further Comments: The layout and shape of this church was determined by the strange appearance of four white oxen on the village green. Their tails all touched, forming a 'x' shape that the church was built in the shape of.

Long Necked Dog

Location: Algarkirk (Lincolnshire) - Area around the village church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: This black dog was described by a witness as being tall and lean, with a long neck and a protruding muzzle. The hound is not regarded here as an ill omen.

Dog in Trees

Location: Algarkirk (Lincolnshire) - Church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This large black hound was seen between three trees that grow close to the religious house.

Civil War Skirmish

Location: Alton (Hampshire) - St Lawrence's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Royalist Colonel was trapped in the church by a detachment of Roundheads - he and several of his enemy were killed during the short fight. The small battle can still be heard.

Hood & John

Location: Alwalton (Cambridgeshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Two stones in this churchyard are named Robin Hood and Little John, both thought to be markers where arrows fired by the famous bandits fell.

Greyhound

Location: Amlwch (Gwynedd) - Stone circle between village & St Ellian Church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom hound was said to haunt this prehistoric site - it beat up a local preacher a couple of times before moving on to a further plane of existence.

An old woodcut showing a rather fat pig with an oversized ring through the end of his nose.

Pig

Location: Andover (Hampshire) - Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1171
Further Comments: The priest here was hit by lightning - the congregation watched as a small pig appeared and ran about his legs and feet.

A phantom, grey woman.

Grey Lady

Location: Annesley (Nottinghamshire) - Parish church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The misty grey form of a woman was spotted in the early hours of the morning by a worker returning home.

Dragon Stone

Location: Anwick (Lincolnshire) - Drake Stone, currently in the churchyard
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: 1651, stone still present
Further Comments: A farmer watched in horror as his horses and plough were sucked underground in the middle of a field - a few seconds later a large dragon emerged and flew off. The stone that remains today is said to cover the dragon's treasure. Some believe the dragon was in fact Satan.

Water Kelpie

Location: Arbroath (Angus) - St Vigeans' church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This water spirit was caught by a holy man and forced to build a church over its former home, a very deep loch. For a good many years, locals refused to enter the building, fearing it would collapse into the hidden waters under the foundations.

Relocation

Location: Arlecdon (Cumbria) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church should have been constructed in a different location, but every night the previous day's building work would be found deconstructed. The workmen eventually gave up and built the church where it now stands.

Mrs Budge

Location: Arlingham (Gloucestershire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 June 1902
Further Comments: The ghost of Mrs Budge, wearing traditional Victorian housekeeping garb, was seen sitting in the church. When spoken to, she vanished.

Little Old Lady

Location: Arlingham (Gloucestershire) - Parish church and vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wearing black clothing and a white lace cap, the phantom old woman who has been seen in these buildings is said to give off an icy aura.

Parishioner

Location: Arreton (Isle of Wight) - St George's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former parishioner is said to have remained, his presence felt by visitors and members of the congregation.

Priest

Location: Arundel (Sussex) - St Nicholas Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940
Further Comments: Appearing on a photograph taken in the church, this phantom priest could be seen standing by the altar. Two women also haunt the church; a nun has been seen (and heard walking) in the bell tower, while a woman in blue has been observed praying at the altar.

Moaning

Location: Ashingdon (Essex) - Hill on which Saint Andrews Church stands
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hill is said to be the home of ghostly moans which belong to dying soldiers.