Berkshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Murderous Landlord
Location: Bracknell - Hind's Head Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: The landlord would kill wealthy travellers in their sleep, until one man escaped and summoned help. The landlord was executed for his crimes, and his angry ghost haunted the inn until it was pulled down.
Footsteps
Location: Bracknell - Caesar's Camp (hillfort)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War (marching), 2010s (footsteps)
Further Comments: Two women who lived near the camp (in a house no longer standing) heard disembodied marching and voices, though nothing could be seen. A phantom man with red hair was also seen by one of these witnesses, though this was a separate experience to the first. More recently, a witness recalled being followed by things falling from trees, always slightly behind but never ahead, and hearing something moving up and down the path, although nothing could be seen.
Old Fred and Bert
Location: Bracknell - Old Manor public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Fred unknown, Bert late twentieth century
Further Comments: Old Fred is said to be a hooded priest, who once hid within the building. Bert is thought to be an old regular of the pub and can be recognised by his red face and handlebar moustache.
Monks
Location: Bradfield - St Andrew's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century / 2000s
Further Comments: It has been reported that a previous vicar spotted a ghostly monk in the church, while a local woman heard monks' singing while sitting at home.
Horse and Rider
Location: Bradfield Southend - Cock Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A father and daughter driving home from school watched as an image of a horse and rider emerged from a hedge and crossed the road before disappearing.
Hooded Figures
Location: Bray - Oakley Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The court has a very bad reputation for being 'evil', and several accidental drownings both in the building and outside of it (in the passing Thames) have occurred over the past thirty years. Ghostly hooded figures have been seen in the neighbourhood.
White Lady
Location: Bray - Braywick House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Said to occur every seven years, but exact date unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly, upset white lady is said to enter the house from the front door, drift up the stairs to the east window in the attic and throw herself out. The building is also reputedly haunted by an Elizabethan gentleman.
Victorian Lady
Location: Brightwalton - Marquis of Granby public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The woman in Victorian dress walks through a bricked up doorway within the pub. A hovering face of a man is also reported to haunt the site.
Headless Figure
Location: Brightwalton - Field near the Marquis of Granby pub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity is reputed to just stand motionless in the field. Just like a scarecrow.
Coach
Location: Brimpton - Lane running through village, leading to Able Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January (exact date not known)
Further Comments: Carrying its occupants to a ball, the coach was caught up in a storm that washed away Able Bridge - the coach plunged into the water, killing all the passengers. The event is heard once a year after sunset, marking the anniversary of the tragedy.
Chaser
Location: Bucklebury - Devil's Steps (meadow)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Travellers in the area were once believed to risk coming across an evil entity which would chase them across this meadow.
Repellent Figure
Location: Bucklebury - Bushnell's Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, but said to appear in broad daylight
Further Comments: Not much is known about this phantom, other than its love of sunlight and gruesome appearance.
Woman in White
Location: Bucklebury - Avenue at Beenham junction
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A lady in white is said to drift along this stretch of road.
Monks
Location: Bucklebury - Fishponds on the common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Bucklebury was once used as a monks' retreat, perhaps explaining the reports that two phantom figures in habits haunt the edge of the fishponds.
Lady Bolingbroke
Location: Bucklebury - Manor House, and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After her husband escaped to France with another woman, Lady Bolingbroke (nee Frances Winchcombe) died of a broken heart. Her ghost has been reported at the manor house, while the streets of the village are home to her coach.
Distort Girl
Location: Chieveley - Village well
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This girl killed herself in the well after she discovered both her lover and her father had been killed in a Civil War battle. The shade can still be heard crying.
Nun
Location: Clewer - Church of England's Childrens Society (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly nun was said to haunt this building, having hanged herself in the dim and distant past. Since demolition of the building, there have been no reports of her in the area.
Horse in Chains
Location: Cockpole Green - Area around Putters Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old work horse still draped in the chains it used to drag a plough around the fields still manifests and scares the unwary.
The Landlord Jarman
Location: Colnbrook - The Ostrich Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This fourteenth century Landlord murdered fifteen (or sixty, depending on the source) of his rich guests by cooking them in a vat of boiling fat. Hanged for his crimes, his ghost is now held accountable for the creaks, bumps, and whisperings around the inn.
Golden Calf
Location: Compton - Perborough Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Buried under this Iron Age hillfort is reputed to be a golden calf.
Nun
Location: Cookham - Whiteladyes Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lane is said to have taken its name from a local legend of a phantom nun who haunts the area.
White Stag
Location: Cookham - Maidenhead Rd, off Whyteladyes Lane
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: March, Mid 1990s
Further Comments: While driving under the railway bridge, a couple braked hard as a white stag ran in front of their car. Believing they had hit the animal, the two people jumped out of the car but saw the stag running away along the road. A woman, a short distance away past whom the stag would have run, did not see anything.
Rocking Clock
Location: Cookham - Eldon Hall, a part of Moor Hall
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1945
Further Comments: Bob Monkhouse, the UK entertainer, worked here during the Second World War as an animator. He shared a house with several people. Monkhouse said that one morning, at a few minutes to two, the entire household woke to deathly silence. Just after a grandfather clock struck two, the large timepiece began violently rocking and was pushed over by an unseen force.
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.
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.
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