The Paranormal Database

Lightning Dog

Location: Roborough - Roborough Down
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: December evening, possibly nineteenth century (if not, earlier)
Further Comments: Walking home one night, a man encountered a large black dog. He tried to pat the creature, but his hand passed straight through the dog's head. The dog then yawned, and after smelling the sulphur-like breath, the witness fled, pursued by the dog. After a while, the man was thrown to the ground by a blinding flash, where he was found unconscious the next day. A legend says the phantom hound belonged to a murder victim, and now it tries to kill every man it encounters.

Heavy Breathing

Location: Salcombe - B3181 Salcombe to Malborough road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 July 2004, around 23:30h
Further Comments: A witness travelling this road reported hearing the heavy breathing of galloping horses along this road, but not accompanied by hoof falls. The hedge from which the sound could be heard moving past glowed briefly as the eerie sound climaxed.

Pilot

Location: Salcombe - Hope Cove Bunker
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This former Second World War radar station, and later nuclear war bunker, is reputedly home to a pilot who walks around the staircase after dark. Disembodied footsteps have also been heard.

Barking Beast

Location: Salcombe - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: August 1970
Further Comments: A serpent like creature which was reported in the area was claimed to be a large conger eel, though this would not explain the strange barking sounds that were also accredited to the sea monster.

Woman

Location: Sampford Peverell - Unidentified house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1810
Further Comments: A house owned by Mr Chave became known as haunted. An apprentice spotted a ghostly woman, while the occupants experienced loud banging from every room. Strange lights could be seen through the windows at night. An investigation suggested the household maids had created the phenomena.

Lewes Dowrich

Location: Sandford - Dowrich manor house
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Lewes died drunk, after falling from his horse on the nearby bridge. He was cursed to return home from the bridge, but only to move ten centimetres every four weeks. The ghost was seen in 1973, only a few metres short of its goal.

Turn it Over

Location: Shebbear - Devil's Boulder
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 05 November (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Once a year the villagers turn a large stone over that stands by an oak. It is said that if they fail to do so, disaster and ill-fortune will strike the region - one legend says the last time the village forgot to rotate the stone was just before the Second World War began. Some believe the Devil himself is trapped under the stone.

Little Girl

Location: Shebbear - Devil's Stone Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1982
Further Comments: Sometimes seen on site with a man thought to be her father, this youngster is also blamed when pictures fall from the walls. The pub is named after a local stone that is turned over once a year (5 November) to protect the village from the Devil.

Coachman

Location: Shute - Roads in the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This coachman was so bad at his job he was killed as punishment, and even in death, his coach has not been returned.

Fast Moving Earth

Location: Sidbury - Money Heap (barrow)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ground here is said to quickly replace itself if anyone tries to dig into the barrow.

Charlotte

Location: Sidmouth - Kennaway House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 2012
Further Comments: A young female ghost in a long dress was named Charlotte and would sit in the corner of a room in this building. The entity was said to be non-threatening.

Mutters

Location: Sidmouth - Ladram Bay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather dependent: Misty nights
Further Comments: The Mutters family were smugglers in the area, and one member is still said to walk the coastline at night when the conditions are right, watching out for approaching boats.

Gladys

Location: Sidmouth - New Look shop
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June 2014
Further Comments: An older Victorian lady was blamed for crashes and bangs, disembodied footsteps and whisperings which were heard around this shop. The ghost, manifesting as a woman in black, was named as Gladys. After flowers were offered to her, the ghost quietened down.

An Octopus Devours a Ship, by Orra White Hitchcock.

Killer Octopus

Location: Sidmouth - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1890s
Further Comments: An octopus was said to have killed several people along the coast here during a year in this decade, although the story is likely fake.

House

Location: Slapton - Battle Ford
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1939
Further Comments: A phantom manor house with large arched doors appeared here to a witness who described it as 'perfect but without substance'.

Appearing House

Location: Slapton - Countryside near the village
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: November 1939
Further Comments: Two local women observed a house as it appeared out of thin air on a field. It maintained an air of insubstantiality for around five minutes before vanishing.

Running Man

Location: South Molton - A361, Aller Cross
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 29 November 2013
Further Comments: A witness spotted a figure running on the top of the hill in the road, although when they reached the spot no one could be seen in any direction.

The phantom cow returns.

Cow

Location: South Tawton - Hamlet just outside the village, exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth century, said to appear at midnight
Further Comments: A Guernsey Cow said to haunt this location was once a woman who committed a 'terrible deed' and was transformed into this animal for 4,900 years as punishment.

Woman in Silk

Location: Spreyton - Bush House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: A phantom woman dressed in black silk was said to haunt this building, and anyone brave enough to follow her would be led to a vast amount of money. The loud rustling of her dress would normally alert anyone nearby to her presence.

A demon flies overhead.

Passing Daemon

Location: Spreyton - Exact location unknown
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1682
Further Comments: A flying devil picked up a man from the ground and dropped him in a faraway marsh - his torn hairpiece was discovered high in the branches of a tree.

Leaping Cat

Location: Spreyton - Private garden
Type: ABC
Date / Time: Spring 2006
Further Comments: Witness Martin Heath reported seeing a large cat, dark brindle in colour, and around the size of an Alsatian with a thirty centimetre long bushy tail. The cat ran across the garden and disappeared by leaping into a tree.

Monk

Location: Spreyton - Vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1932
Further Comments: A vicar and his friend inadvertently photographed a cowled monk kneeling in front of the vicarage. Phantom footsteps had been heard within the building, though nothing ever seen.

Black Dog

Location: St Giles In the Wood - Lanes in the area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: A large black dog was said to haunt the lanes and the farms in this area, as far down as Copplestone.

Headless Nectan

Location: Stoke - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church is built on the location where St Nectan had his head chopped off - he bent down and stuck it back on his neck before walking off!

Monk

Location: Stoke - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: A phantom monk which haunts the churchyard was last seen by a vicar. Several monks walking in a line are said to walk from the church towards Hartland Abbey, though no witnesses exist for this event.