The Paranormal Database

Red Headed Girl.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Boughton Green (Northamptonshire) - St John the Baptist church ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure, also heard moaning around the same time of year, is thought to be a criminal hanged in 1826. Others speak of a darker tale - that the ghost takes the form of a beautiful man or woman, depending on the gender of the witness, and asks them for a kiss. If it is given, the kisser is doomed to die within a month. This is said to have last happened to a man called William Parker on Christmas Eve 1875; after meeting a red headed girl at the church who faded away shortly after engaging with her, William died exactly one month later.

Moaning

Location: Broughton (Northamptonshire) - Church of St John
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A criminal once held here has returned as an indistinct shadow, softly moaning in pain and regret, always around the Christmas period.

Raleigh

Location: Southwell (Nottinghamshire) - Road between Southwell and Oxton
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Beneath a small valley located between these two places is the lost town of Raleigh, swallowed up by an earthquake in 1185. A local legend says the church bells can sometimes still be heard on Christmas Day.

Jolly Monk

Location: Wonersh (Surrey) - Grantley Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure once appeared every Christmastime, though has kept his head down over recent years (perhaps the exorcised performed by a Roman Catholic barmaid succeeded).

An old woodcut of a large bear, appearing to exhale smoke.

Final Bear

Location: Fernhurst (Sussex) - Ruins of Verdley Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This is said to be the location where the last wild bear in England was pointlessly killed; the creature's ghost now returns in protest.

Monk with No Legs

Location: Outer London: Havering (Greater London) - St Mary's Lane, Cranham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (Reoccurring) - last reported 1970s
Further Comments: This phantom monk is said to float silently across the road.

An old photograph of Sandringham Country House.

Breathing & Hollow Footsteps

Location: Sandringham (Norfolk) - Country House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (Reoccurring) although another story says 24 December
Further Comments: Becoming active during Yuletide, the ghostly presence creates echoing footfalls in empty corridors and heavy breathing in a room on the second floor. Christmas cards are also moved by the spirit, and lights are turned on and off. The entity is thought to be a nun who seduced a monk on the site; those who have seen her say she has hollow eye sockets. Others blame a young lamplighter who died many years ago while on his rounds.

An old picture of a ghostly child standing by a bed.

Radiant Boy

Location: Corby (Cumbria) - Corby Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring), 1800s onwards
Further Comments: Appearing early in the morning, and/or Christmas night (although not every year) this ghostly child has golden hair and glows like an angel. Some believe that those who see him are blessed with wealth and power but also cursed with a violent death. Drumming is also said to be occasionally heard; it is speculated that the radiant boy creates the sounds.

Petrified Thief

Location: Llandyfrydog (Gwynedd) - Just outside the village - Carreg Lleidr (Robber's Stone)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 25 December, midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Legend has it that an oddly shaped stone here was a thief who stole a bible, and while carrying it over his shoulder, was turned to rock. Every Christmas the stone runs three times around the field in which it stands.

Game of Shinty

Location: Dalarossie, Inverness (Highland) - Land near the local church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December, when it falls on a Sunday (reoccurring)
Further Comments: These people, during life, made the mistake of playing sports when Christmas day fell on a Sabbath. Now they all return from the grave for a quick game once a year.

Glowing Train with Red Lights

Location: Wormit (Fife) - Tay Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The badly designed Tay Bridge collapsed in 1873, a passenger train crashing down with the faulty structure into the cold waters of the Firth of Tay below. The scene is re-enacted on the anniversary of the crash.

St Thomas of Canterbury

Location: Lapford (Devon) - Road through village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 29 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The ghost of Thomas Beckett appears on the anniversary of his death, passing through the village on horseback.

An old woodcut of a knight in armour riding a horse.

Knight in Shining Armour

Location: Kemsing (Kent) - Kemsing Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 29 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This gallant looking figure rides up to the church, enters the building and briefly prays at the altar before vanishing again until another year goes by.

Molesworth Arms Hotel, Wadebridge.

Coach and Four

Location: Wadebridge (Cornwall) - Molesworth Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Materialising in the courtyard, this phantom coach driven by a decapitated coachman leaves via the hallway. While some people are said to have seen the apparition, others can only hear it pass by.

Wine

Location: Kinsale (County Cork) - Two Found Out Well (no longer accessible)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The water in a well close to Kinsale was said to turn into wine on New Year's Eve, but anyone who gazed into the water at this time would die. A couple went to see if the legend was true, and the following morning their bodies were found next to the well.

Drinking Cross

Location: Langton Herring (Dorset) - Ancient cross
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This stone hewn cross moves to the nearby Fleet lagoon to drink.

Jumper

Location: Hockley (Essex) - Railway Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A former worker at the station is said to have witnessed a young girl in a skirt with a cardigan over her shoulders run to the top of the bridge crying. As he shouted out to her, she jumped off the bridge and vanished before she hit the ground. When the worker told his colleagues what had happened, they said the tragedy occurs every year - the girl committed suicide on a New Year's Eve in the 1960s after finding her boyfriend with another girl.

Coach and Horses

Location: Wickford (Essex) - Runwell Hall (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: After a spectral horse and carriage stops at the top of the driveway, a woman climbs out and walks to the hall's door to be met by a long dead butler. A similar story says that Anne Boleyn travels in a coach along the roads surrounding the Hall around the same time of year.

Scarlet Rider

Location: Stockport (Greater Manchester) - Bramall (also known as Bramhall) Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure on horseback, dressed in an unmistakable red, appears once a year - in 1630 he is said to have taken the life of the owner of the hall.

John Bibby

Location: Bootle (Merseyside) - Peel Road / Bibby's Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Seen once a year, Bibby rides his coach with his decapitated head in his lap.

Man on Black Horse

Location: Ranworth (Norfolk) - Neighbourhood of Ranworth Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Locals tell of an unknown man on a black horse that is believed to haunt the area. The devil is seen riding across the broad every 31 December; under his arm is the soul of a Colonel who had dared hunt on the Sabbath.

Green Hunter

Location: Fawsley (Northamptonshire) - Dower House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This woodland figure dressed in green, manifesting minutes before midnight, is thought to be an ill omen if observed.

Walking Stone

Location: Birsay (Orkney) - Standing Stone in the area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: At the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay, this stone would walk down to Birsay loch and would briefly dip its head into the water before moving back to its original location. Anyone foolish enough to try to observe the stone at this time would be found dead the following morning, laying by the base of the stone.

Horse & Dog

Location: Penselwood (Wiltshire) - Sloane Track - between Penselwood and Stourton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A man who wagered that he could cross the track in record time fell from his horse and snapped his neck. The man on horseback, now minus a head, with a hound in tow, tries again and again to make the journey once a year.

Coach & Four

Location: East Wellow (Hampshire) - Area from Embley Park to St Margaret's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring) (another story says 24 December)
Further Comments: Moving at breakneck speed, this phantom coach leaves the park, passing through the walls, just before midnight on the last day of the year. A newspaper story from 1940 claimed villagers were disappointed after they stayed up until after midnight and the entity failed to manifest.