The Paranormal Database

Crying Lollipop Lady

Location: Laindon - Riverview Estate
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 04 July 1997
Further Comments: A pair of young girls watched a woman in a school crossing uniform holding a 'stop' sign as she cried by their home. A few minutes later she turned into a mist and disappeared.

Glowing Horseman

Location: Lamarsh - Road between Lamarsh Hills and Bures St Mary
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1800s
Further Comments: Terrorising all who travelled the road between dusk and dawn, it took the combined efforts of all the local priests and their staff to exorcise this ghost.

Young Woman & Man in Tweed

Location: Langenhoe - Langenhoe Church (no longer standing - area is denoted by the overgrown graveyard)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s, 1950s
Further Comments: The woman was first seen in the 1940's, appearing quite normal before she disappeared into a corner of the church. A rector also felt the phantom's naked form push hard against him. She is believed to have been murdered by a former rector. A phantom man dressed in a tweed suit was seen once in 1950, walking along the nave.

French Cavalryman

Location: Langenhoe - Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely circa 1930s
Further Comments: While checking on the property as it stood empty, Mr Merryweather claimed to have spotted a French cavalryman standing on the lawn. A policeman who had accompanied Merryweather performed a search but was unable to find anyone.

Domed Craft with Flashing Lights

Location: Langenhoe - Skies over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 14 September 1965
Further Comments: During this sighting, the witness claims that the flashing lights became painful to look at, and he felt his body tingle, as if hit by a bolt of electricity.

Headless Calf

Location: Latchingdon - Road between Latchingdon & Southminster
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: There are no recent reports of this decapitated young cow, though it has been said the sightings only stopped prior to the Second World War.

Sheldrake

Location: Latchingdon - Sheldrakes Farm
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After his death, Sheldrake's ghost was seen in one of his rooms. When the room was examined closer, Sheldrake's hidden savings were found hidden away. The ghost was never seen again.

Lawford Church, Essex.

Bride on Other's Photographs

Location: Lawford - Church on the hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: Appearing on three wedding photographs (though none have been published to the author's knowledge), this ghostly bride is said to have died of a broken heart after discovering her husband had been killed when his horse bolted on route to their wedding. In addition, chanting has sometimes been heard coming from the church as it stands empty.

Voice of Lord Marney

Location: Layer Marney - Layer Marney Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Easter (or May) (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Legend says that the voice of Lord Marney can be heard echoing around the church.

Headless Chicken Runs Blindly

Location: Layer Marney - Layer Marney Churchyard
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Christmas (reoccurring)
Further Comments: With an unknown origin, a headless chicken appears and runs blindly around the gravestones.

Lord Marney, Riding Down Staircase

Location: Layer Marney - Layer Marney Hall - tower staircase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1523 onwards
Further Comments: Lord Marney started to build the house in the early sixteenth century but died before completion. Out of spite, he now haunts the tower, scaring anyone who interrupts his descent down the staircase banister.

Lynx?

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - Area around the railway station
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 2005-2010 (and ongoing)
Further Comments: Appearing only at night, a lynx or similar cat is reported to traverse this area.

Anne Boleyn

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - Bellhouse public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former hunting lodge, local legend says Boleyn occasionally returns as she favoured the site.

The Sea Witch

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - Coastline
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1850s-1870s
Further Comments: Sarah Moore, locally known as the Sea-Witch, was blamed for cursing unborn children with a hare lip, causing storms at sea, and spontaneously combusting a couple of children as they tried to break into her abode. Legend says she met her end after cursing a skipper; as he hacked away at his boat's rigging with an axe, his psychic energy (combined with the telepathic axe blows) killed her.

Footsteps

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - Old Camping & General Store, A127
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 21 March 2012
Further Comments: A witness reported hearing footsteps and other sounds in this building after it had closed, before seeing items moved unaided.

Wobbly Man

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - Prospect House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: A fishy smell is said to accompany the appearance of this short spirit, which wears a long coat.

Suicide

Location: Leigh-on-Sea - The Bakery, Broadway West
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a man who killed himself before the site was converted into a bakery. Instances of objects being moved are common, footsteps have been heard and inexplicable breezes have swept through parts of the bakery. One worker saw something and fled from the bakery - they have never spoken of what was seen.

Golden Warrior

Location: Lexden - Belgic (or Bronze Age) barrow
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Dismissed 1924
Further Comments: While a local legend said that a warrior clad in gold was buried here; when excavated in 1924, gold and silver objects were found (but no golden warrior).

Nobby Barker

Location: Linford - A Water Company House in Lower Crescent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: An old pumping station worker, Nobby haunted the building for ten years, disappearing for good once his wife died.

Grace

Location: Little Baddow - Grace's Lane, and canal area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2001
Further Comments: Locals say that Grace was a young woman who drowned in the canal around the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth century. Two people who moored at the canal reported phantom footsteps and tapping in 2001, to such a degree that they moved on during the night.

Alice

Location: Little Baddow - Grace's Walk, pond near Little Baddow church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lady Alice took her own life in the 1610's, after her horrid uncle pushed her too far... She is now seen near the pond in which she drowned.

Footsteps

Location: Little Baddow - Near Jay's Green. Cottage on a hill.
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 21:00h, regularly
Further Comments: Bodiless footsteps were once often heard by the occupants, always at the same time in the evening, walking around the building.

Thrashed Jack

Location: Little Clacton - General Area
Type: Other
Date / Time: 23 March 1906
Further Comments: According to newspaper reports, a figure described as a 'Spring Heeled Jack' who had acted in a ghost-like manner, scaring the locals, was caught in a trap and given a 'sound thrashing'.

Floating Figure

Location: Little Hallingbury - Junction at the bottom of Church Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s?
Further Comments: A motorist had to break to avoid hitting a floating black figure which quickly vanished.

Murdering Publican

Location: Little Hallingbury - Sutton Arms (no longer operating)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A past landowner named Sutton murdered a maid here, and his ghost now seeks forgiveness.