The Paranormal Database

Benjamin Jones

Location: Alconbury - Road between Alconbury and Alconbury Weston, near the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered by a soldier (Gervase Matcham), the ghost of the little drummer boy, Benjamin Jones, was said to be heard walking and drumming behind anyone travelling this stretch of road after sunset.

Nun

Location: Alconbury - Road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This stretch of road is reportedly the haunt of a nun who steps out in front of incoming cars and causes them to swerve. There is also another report of three ghostly crashed cars that silently burn at night.

Footsteps

Location: Alconbury - The Megatron (restaurant, demolished 2008)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early 1990s
Further Comments: A flying saucer-shaped restaurant (sadly no longer standing) became home to a poltergeist that knocked on walls and threw items around. The owner of the restaurant remained sceptical until he heard footsteps that followed him around late at night. The spooky activity ceased after the performance of an exorcism.

Robin Hood.

Hood & John

Location: Alwalton - 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.

Lady in Red

Location: Arringron - Hardwick Arms hotel, Ermine Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: A lady in red is reputed to haunt a guest room, while a monk is said to manifest by the fireplace next to the bar. Poltergeist-like activities have also been reported in the dining room.

Grey Mist

Location: Arrington - 2 Croydon Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Grey mist being the only physical manifestation of the haunting, a family living here were also terrified by objects moving on their own accord, footsteps and bangs coming from every corner of the house, and an invisible force prodding their beds at night.

Chatty Fellows

Location: Balsham - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend tells of talking skulls found in this graveyard, though what became of them is not known.

Shug Monkey

Location: Balsham - Wratting Road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: For reasons unknown, the shuck which has been observed in this area is believed to have a bald head and wide eyes, like that of a monkey, while the body is that of a large black shaggy dog. It leaps out in front of cars travelling along this road, only to dart out of the way at the last possible second, either on all four legs or standing upright.

Nun

Location: Barnwell - Old Abbey House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nun unknown, poltergeist outbreak in 1959
Further Comments: This grey misty ghost drifts slowly around the house; the nun is said to have come here during her life to secretly meet her lover. There was a brief poltergeist outbreak in 1959, with bedcovers being violently removed.

Cromwell's Wealth

Location: Bartlow - Bartlow Hills, aka Three Hills
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Hills still present
Further Comments: A chest full of treasure is said to have been hidden by Oliver Cromwell in this area. It has also been said that people have reported feeling something brush against them while on one of the hills.

Observing

Location: Bluntisham - Former public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007 onwards
Further Comments: An occupier of this property has reported the feeling of being watched and of doors closing themselves, although the presence is non-threatening.

Farmer

Location: Bourn - Area around Wysing Arts Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom farmer reputedly wanders the fields around the area looking lost and frustrated. He is said to be occasionally joined by the smell of burning.

Gervase Matchem

Location: Brampton - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Matchem was executed at Huntingdon and gibbeted in Brampton after murdering a young drummer boy in the village. Matchem's spectre was (or maybe still is) reputed to walk around the area.

Dancing Statues

Location: Burrough Green - School and village green
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 30 April (evening) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Once a year the two statues standing above the door of the school come alive and dance on the village green - sometimes their footsteps are visible in the grass.

Shove

Location: Burwell - Burwell House
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Circa 2001
Further Comments: Visiting the house for a party, one guest was shoved from behind by an unseen force. The guest had been standing with their back to a table, which in turn was against a wall; only one other person was in the same room at the time, who stood in front of the guest.

Ghostly Black Dog

Location: Burwell - Burwell to Snailwell - path southeast, by a belt of trees leading to the A11
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Another shuck legend, though details are sketchy.

Geoffrey de Mandeville

Location: Burwell - Ruins of Burwell Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Windy nights
Further Comments: Killed while trying to storm the castle with a gang of thieves and robbers, de Mandeville's dying words can sometimes be heard in the wind.

Pink Light

Location: Cambridge - Guest house in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: A guest here reported their room was filled with an intense pink light after they switched off the bedside lamp. When the lamp was turned on again, the pink light vanished.

Wallaby

Location: Cambridge - Howgate Road area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 14 November 2019
Further Comments: Seen from a distance of one metre, the wallaby left the witness and was last seen heading towards the allotments.

Girl in Blue

Location: Cambridge - Huntington Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 July 2014, around 22:00h
Further Comments: A fast moving, slightly out of focus, young girl with light brown hair and in a blue raincoat looked at this witness and disappeared into a bush, creating no noise. The witness looked for the girl, but she had gone.

Barrett

Location: Cambridge - King's College, The Gibbs Building
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One story says that Barrett was a strange fellow who stored a coffin in his room. After a night filled with screaming, Barrett's friends found him dead the following day, his body laid out in the coffin. On the anniversary of Barrett's death, his screams are said to echo around this building. Peter Haining claimed the cries likely belonged to a Mr Pote, who cursed the building after being forced to move away.

Man in Top Hat

Location: Cambridge - New Court, Trinity
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1922
Further Comments: Author T C Lethbridge reported seeing a ghost during his time at university. He mistook the figure as a porter, though upon reflection realised that the man was wearing a top hat (which porters only did on a Sunday, and it was not Sunday!). Lethbridge's friend, present in the same room during the sighting, failed to perceive the figure.

Newmarket Road, Cambridge.

Large Furry Penguin-Like Creature

Location: Cambridge - Newmarket Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once seen in Merton Hall, this strange creature has been more recently reported waddling along the Newmarket Road. A local paranormal group examining the case came to the plausible conclusion that the ghost may be that of a doctor in a cloak, wearing a beak-like mask which they believed would protect them from the plague.

Peterhouse. Cambridge.

Francis Dawes

Location: Cambridge - Peterhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: Dawes was a former Peterhouse bursar who hanged himself in September 1789 after an election scandal resulted in an unpopular fellow becoming Master of Peterhouse. In April 1997, a butler and a waiter spotted a white figure as it moved between the spiral staircase and the centre of the Combination Room, the location where Dawes is thought to have committed suicide. In November of the same year, unexplained knocking was heard and once again a strange figure was spotted by butlers. Around the same time, Andrew Murison, the college treasurer, also heard knocking prior to seeing a benign figure in the dining room. At the time an exorcism was considered if the entity appeared again, but Dawes appears to have fallen silent once again.

Newmarket Road, Cambridge.

Man Moaning

Location: Cambridge - Private building along Newmarket Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: A former student who stayed in this residence reported that one room (her bedroom) was always freezing cold. The witness also reported hearing a moaning sound close to her head as she lay in bed, unsettling her so much she could not stay in the room any longer, and moved out of the building soon after.