The Paranormal Database

Examining folkloric, paranormal & cryptozoological locations in the UK and beyond

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Cambridgeshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

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.

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.

B-17 Crew?

Location: Bassingbourne - Former RAF Bassingbourne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s, 1994, and 2004
Further Comments: There were a handful of reports of a phantom aircrew made during the 1960s, at this base once used by the USAAF. The B-17 may have been seen in 1994, moving silently overhead. More recently, a man who lived on the site of the former airfield reported seeing a pair of legs in dress uniform which manifested in his home, and the sounds of aircraft starting up.

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 dying words can sometimes be heard on the wind.


Abbey Road, Abbey House, Cambridge.

A Nun and Brown Dog-Thing

Location: Cambridge - Abbey Road, Abbey House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Further Comments: It is claimed that Abbey House is, or at least was, the most haunted house in Cambridge. While I'm not a fan of 'most haunted' titles, when you look at the number and type of the ghosts supposed to haunt the site (a poltergeist, ghostly echoes of chains, a butler, a woman in white, a grey lady, a squirrel, a dog, and a hare all amongst the entities which have popped up), one can understand why the title has been applied here. An exorcism was performed in the 1980s, which may have laid the entities.

Drug Induced Ghost

Location: Cambridge - Addenbrookes Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The story is that a ghost appears to those who are being administrated morphine; the psychological effects of the drug would appear to be ignored in this tale...


Arbury Road, Cambridge.

Unlucky Shuck

Location: Cambridge - Arbury Road
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This road, and area, are said to be frequented by a shuck that brings ill luck to all that see it.


Haunted studios of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Womaniser

Location: Cambridge - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, studio 1a
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003
Further Comments: The studio is reportedly haunted by an old man renowned for his womanising ways - he was never seen, though his presence felt. In the early 2000s the BBC invited local ghost hunters and psychic mediums to investigate. Armed with crystals, dowsing rods, a piece of paper on a string, and an EMF meter, the attempt to reach the other side resulted in both male and female presences being detected.

Second World War Pilot

Location: Cambridge - Cambridge Airport
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A few buildings on this site have reports of phantom pilots in their flying gear or RAF uniforms. Sounds of footsteps in empty areas are not uncommon, and there is also a story of ghostly singing.

Police Officer

Location: Cambridge - Chesterton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 21 August 2012, 14:30h
Further Comments: Taking a shortcut through a car park and past an office block, this witness looked up to see a police officer in 1940s uniform with a gasmask case slung over his arm. The officer was floating. The witness froze briefly in terror before taking haste.


Christ's College, Cambridge.

Mr Round

Location: Cambridge - Christ's College, Mulberry Tree in Garden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight on nights of the full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A tall, elderly gentleman wearing a beaver hat, Round is said to have murdered the only doctor who had the skill to save his dying girlfriend - thus his ghost walks the grounds in the area around the mulberry tree in regret.

Records 1 - 25 of 189

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