Berkshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Hannah
Location: Warfield - Leathern Bottle inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hannah was murdered by her landlord husband after he discovered she was having an affair. He was executed for the crime, and now they both haunt the building.
Depressing Atmosphere
Location: Wargrave - Bull Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Haunted by a depressingly sad woman who is occasionally heard sobbing her heart out, her mood is supposed to rub off on people and make them cry.
White Woman
Location: Wargrave - Gaunt cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: An owner of the cottage claimed it was haunted by this lady in white.
Sentry
Location: Wash Common - Biggs Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This guard still protects the building where Parliamentarian generals once rested.
Lancaster Crew
Location: Welford - RAF Welford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The crew of a Lancaster bomber which crashed shortly after take-off have been observed crossing the old runway. The Glenn Miller hangar is one of the last places the big band member played before being killed; one account says the place is eerily quiet with local wildlife shunning the area, while another says band music has been heard coming from the hangar.
Palmer's Post
Location: Welford - M4 Motorway near the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: Used by a local wise man as a place to banish evil spirits to, the post was uprooted when the motorway was constructed; subsequent mishaps on the road have been attributed to the incident.
Man in a Cap
Location: West Hendred - Road through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964, and summer 2010, circa 23:30h
Further Comments: This phantom man darts in front of incoming traffic - the drivers brake or swerve, always believing it to be too late to avoid an accident, but the figure is gone. He was seen by two sisters in their car in 1964, three years after the event which had killed him, and may have been seen again in 2010 by a woman who swerved slight to miss a figure which ran out in front of her car.
Cursed Land
Location: Whitchurch - Unidentified barrows
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: Earthworks upon which a castle was once believed to have stood were said to be cursed and could never be levelled. The current state of the barrows is unknown.
Four Royals and a Hunt
Location: Windsor - Windsor Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 June (Charles) (reoccurring), other entities various
Further Comments: Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Charles I & George III have all reportedly been seen here after their natural lives ended. Elizabeth frequents the library, Charles the Canon's House (traditionally walking on the night of 26 June), while George haunts the rooms in which he was bound after being declared mad. Henry VIII can only be heard, moving slowly down the corridors, dragging his bad leg. The great park attached to the castle is home to Herne the Hunter, who together with his devil dogs, stalk the woodlands. In 1906 a guard was investigated after he fired five rounds at a white figure - he claimed the bullets passed straight through the figure. Finally (for the time being), the park is also haunted by the ghost of a Grenadier Guard who killed himself while on duty.
Bottom Pincher
Location: Windsor - Black Horse public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: This phantom, known only as George, is blamed for pinching barmaids' bottoms when there is no one else around.
Child in Yellow Dress
Location: Windsor Forest - Callins Bridge, near Shurlock Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: This young girl with raven hair is reported to lead anyone who follows her to a mass grave of soldiers killed in the Civil War.
Old Man
Location: Winkfield Row - Private Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s-1970s
Further Comments: A phantom old man would descend the staircase and through a door at the bottom. He was said to have become upset after the door was moved.
Light Brown Cat
Location: Wokingham - Forest Road and surrounding area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: June 2004
Further Comments: At least eight people in the space of a year have reported a large cat in the area. It was said by one person to have ears like a fox, though light brown in colour with a long straight tail. Another man near Woodcray Manor Golf Club stated that he watched a cat with a pair of large green eyes, fifteen centimetres apart, staring at him.
Lady Downshire
Location: Wokingham - Easthampstead Park
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This harmless, flitting female form moves along the landing and down the staircase.
Woman in Silk
Location: Yattendon - Old Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman who wore a black or grey silken dress would materialise during house parties until she was exorcised.
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