The Paranormal Database

Floating Head

Location: Maidenhead - Ockwell Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The floating head has been seen in the garden, though most people report extreme cold spots. The sounds of phantom hooves pounding the earth have also been heard.

Grey Lady

Location: Moneyrow Green - White Hart public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom woman is sometimes seen along with her young child. The road outside the pub is haunted by a racehorse which occasionally gallops by, more often heard than seen.

Army

Location: Mortimer - Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1778
Further Comments: A phantom army is said to have appeared on the common land here, vanishing when approached.

Roundheads

Location: Newbury - A34
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1996
Further Comments: The construction of the Newbury bypass disturbed a mass grave containing the remains of both Roundhead and Cavalier soldiers. The ghosts of these Civil War troops were reported soon after, manifesting as shadowy figures that vanished when approached.

Soldier

Location: Newbury - Biggs Cottage, Endbourne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: One guest spotted a phantom soldier walk across his bedroom. He was told that the figure was 'often' spotted.

Monk

Location: Newbury - Boarding School
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1978
Further Comments: A boy at the school awoke to see a monk standing at the foot of the bed. The boy briefly looked away, and when he looked back, the monk had vanished. Thirty years later the witness came across another person who had encountered the monk in the 1960s, while in the same dormitory.

Harmonious Singing

Location: Newbury - Coombe Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Locals say that the singing comes from nuns, long since dead.

Bullet Proof Witch

Location: Newbury - Cottington's Hill - general area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story tells of a witch shot at by Cromwellian troops - she caught the bullets in her hands. The woman was defeated after a soldier managed to slice open her forehead with his sword, robbing her of her power, before shooting her in the back of the head.

A phantom white hound.

Soldier

Location: Newbury - Donnington Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This incorporeal trooper stands by the remaining gatehouse, quickly vanishing after being seen. A white dog haunts the hill on which the castle stands, often bounding towards the nearby woods where it disappears.

Chained Man

Location: Newbury - Enborne House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1936
Further Comments: Florence Loury purchased the building and converted it into a guest house, but soon lost all her customers after word was spread that the place was haunted. During a court appearance over non-payment of rates, she described encountering the ghost - an old man with shackled arms and legs. Another witness she he had seen a slim figure wearing a skirt. The court displayed no sympathy and forced Florence to repay the rates.

Falling Pictures

Location: Newbury - Highclere Castle
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2012
Further Comments: Newspapers reported that Shirley MacLaine claimed to have had paranormal experiences while filming Downton Abbey at Highclere, although the experiences appear to be 'pictures falling from walls'.

Horace

Location: Newbury - Huntsgreen Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Horace is said to be more playful than anything and will softly tug at sleeves or other pieces of loose clothing.

Hair Puller

Location: Newbury - Jack O'Newbury public house (was known as The Catherine Wheel)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: The phantom at work in this pub is said to pull hair, unlock doors and move items around. CCTV footage from February 2011 shows two glasses falling from a shelf without human aid.

Airman

Location: Newbury - Roads around the White Swan Pub
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1955
Further Comments: A First World War airman was spotted by a driver and his passenger walking by the roadside one night. They stopped to offer the uniformed figure a ride, but he had disappeared. Both stopped at the nearby White Swan Pub and told their story, and received the distinct impression that locals knew of the airman but were unwilling to say anything more on the subject.

White Haired Lady

Location: Reading - Castle Hill House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: The owner of this building appeared in the local paper, talking about the non-threatening ghostly woman with white hair with whom she shared her home. The entity may have moved a heavy wardrobe to the top of the stairs.

Miss Effie

Location: Reading - Elm Park football ground
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: The (former) owner of Miss Ellie, a dead hamster which was buried on the goal line of this football ground, claimed that the animal's spirit had prevented Reading FC being relegated.

Victorian Woman

Location: Reading - Mansion House, Prospect Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: A visitor to the manor house encountered a woman in Victorian clothing who stood leaning against a bathroom sink.

Body in the Basement

Location: Reading - Private house along Baker Street
Type: SHC
Date / Time: 12 November 1978
Further Comments: A young daughter found her mother burnt to death in the basement - some witnesses described the body as charred, while the room itself was barely touched.

Glass Breaker

Location: Reading - Private residence, Kiln Road, Emmer Green
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 18 April 1969
Further Comments: Over a four hour period on Good Friday evening, glass items exploded throughout the house, including Christmas ornaments wrapped up in the loft. Two of the family had gone to see the Yarker family, who experienced a poltergeist outbreak in two months previous which also smashed glass. A spiritualist group claimed to contact a poltergeist which had attached itself to the family's sixteen-year-old son.

Jill

Location: Reading - Prospect Street, house not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost of a six year old girl was due to be exorcised, but the owners had a change of heart and called the event off.

Pacing Footsteps

Location: Reading - Roebuck Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost can also be heard knocking on doors, and opening locked windows, much to the annoyance of the owners.

Red Ball

Location: Reading - Skies above Basingstoke Road, Whitley
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 14 April 2006
Further Comments: Three teenagers spotted a strange red glowing orb flying overhead as they were out walking.

Moving Items

Location: Reading - Telamite (company, no longer present), Great Knollys Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa January 1968
Further Comments: A minister was called to this company's premise to bless the site after a poltergeist outbreak which, according to the local newspaper, may have injured one worker. The company denied that seven people had left because of the supernatural outbreak.

Death Gasp

Location: Reading - Unknown house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1858
Further Comments: The occupants of this unnamed property were awoken by various sounds at night, including the gasp of a dying person, groaning, and a shill shriek. Floorboards were pulled up to find a trapped animal, but nothing could be discovered. Visitors to the site also heard the noises.

Grey Haired Woman

Location: Reading - Unknown house along Oxford Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: Returning to her former home shortly after death, this ghost of an old lady took to haunting the kitchen of a house along this road.