The Paranormal Database

Pregnant Girl in Dark Dress

Location: Rayleigh - Rayleigh Lodge public house and nearby pond
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: A local girl had an affair with the Lord of the Manor. After falling pregnant, the girl drowned herself in a pond opposite the pub. Her ghost, wearing a dark dress, may have last been seen in the 1970s. Other reports from the pub include a pink mist, a phantom dog, and a former customer,

Lady in White

Location: Rayleigh - Unknown toy shop
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: This ghostly woman in white could be heard moving things around the shop and was said to have touched the back of the neck of one witness. It is thought that the woman died in a house fire.

Woman with Long Hair

Location: Rayne - Shalford Road, near The Swan Public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 September 2014
Further Comments: Three people in a car spotted a woman with long black hair and a pale face standing by the roadside. She wore purple trousers and a ragged yellow shirt. One of the witnesses speculated that the figure was that of the ghost said to haunt the nearby public house.

Weaving Woman

Location: Rayne - The Swan public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A suicide victim, this woman hanged herself in the back of this pub.

Bell Ringing

Location: Redbridge - Woodford Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Midnight marks the start of the ghostly bell ringer's duties in the area, though the building in which he worked has not stood for many years.

Horse with Trap

Location: Rettendon - Road leading to East Hannington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost haunting this road is said to be that of a farmer riding his horse and cart.

Empty huts at the former Ridgewell airfield, Essex.

Crashing Aircraft

Location: Ridgewell - Second World War Airfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: Now little more than a collection of old huts, the area is haunted by the sounds of crashing Second World War aircraft, shouting airmen, and other wartime noises.

Big Cat

Location: Rochford - General area of Rochford and Hawkwell
Type: ABC
Date / Time: April 1978
Further Comments: A large out of place cat was observed several times in this area.

Relocation

Location: Rochford - New houses along Rectory Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Activity more intense during winter (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: A group of residential buildings erected on the site of a demolished mansion are reputed to be paranormally active, mainly by poltergeist disruption, though manifestations occasionally happen.

Headless Anne Boleyn

Location: Rochford - Rochford Hall, and roads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twelve days following Christmas (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: At the family home of Anne Boleyn, the former queen's decapitated ghost walks briefly around the building after Christmas.

Orange Jellyfish

Location: Romford - Area over Acacia Avenue
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 30 August 2005
Further Comments: A family of four observed a set of three orange lights, 'undulating like a jellyfish', drifting over the town and heading upwards before they disappeared amongst the stars. The UFOs were also witnessed by two people on the outskirts of Romford.

Moving Chair

Location: Romford - Brookside Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2014
Further Comments: CCTV recorded what appears to be a chair moving unaided in the theatre, although some claim that the movement is an optical illusion caused by a water droplet on the lens of the camera.

Sunk Church

Location: Romford - Old Church Road
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 30 November (St Andrew's Day (reoccurring))
Further Comments: After the church sank into the ground, the only 'evidence' of its existence is the phantom ringing of the bells.

Sepia Girl

Location: Romford - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A young girl spotted by a woman in this home was briefly mistaken for her niece before the witness remembered the niece was not at home. The girl had a sepia tint and had a long white nightgown on with frilly cuffs at the wrist, long blonde hair in pigtails, and a white nightcap.

Man in Black

Location: Romford - Retail unit at Romford Brewery Site
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 08 January 2011
Further Comments: While using a large trolley to move stock, a woman spotted a man dressed in black wearing a flat cap sitting on the trolley. She ran to find a colleague, but the figure quickly vanished. The witness says other people have seen shadows on the site, and a rumour is circulating that when the site was an operating brewery, a man lost his life in an accident.

Rattling

Location: Romford - Safestore, Bryant Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first Century
Further Comments: Staff and customers have heard rattling padlocks and noises throughout the building when no one else is around. A manager watched a padlock move and rattle unaided - he ran from the area to reception and watched the on CCTV, only to see a shadowy figure appear on the screen that did not trip any alarms.

White Woman & Coach

Location: Romford - The Manor, Harold Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said that a phantom white woman haunts this area, sometimes seen climbing into a ghostly horse-drawn coach which then drives off.

Rainaldus the Chaplain

Location: Runwell - Our Lady of the Running Well parish church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January - April (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Rainaldus is said to have practiced black magic, and that the Devil came for him (with the north door of the church still showing the scorch marks created by the Devil's hands). Now the ghost of a monk with a scarred face, dressed in black, haunts the area; and the old Chaplain is blamed.

Sister Lucy

Location: Runwell - Our Lady's Well
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sister Lucy ran away from her chapel, but realising she had made a mistake, tried to return. She slipped as she passed the well and drowned in its waters. Her ghost is now said to haunt the area. The same location is also said to be home to a phantom horse.

USAAF Pilot in Car

Location: Saffron Walden - B1052, between Saffron Walden and Hadstock
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1993
Further Comments: Exactly fifty years after dying in a flying accident (1943), the ghost of an USAAF pilot appeared in the back seat of a woman's car, as she drove past the old crash site of the plane in which he flew.

Reducing Woman

Location: Saffron Walden - Bridge in South Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: September 2002, 00:00h
Further Comments: This witness wrote: 'When I was walking with my friend that night, we saw a lady at the top of the bridge. She was about 3 metres tall. While she was walking down the bridge towards us, she decreased in size until becoming about 1.6 metres tall. We ran quickly after seeing that. We both were sober when we saw that.'

Heavy Trampling

Location: Saffron Walden - Cross Keys public house, corner of King Street and High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring), 23:00h-Midnight
Further Comments: Any listener here is said to hear footsteps marching up and down a passageway. They are rumoured to belong to a soldier of Cromwell. A ghostly woman is said to haunt one of the bedrooms, and it is alleged she was Cromwell's mistress.

Cockatrice

Location: Saffron Walden - Exact location unknown
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This medieval creature which killed people with its eyes took up residence near the town, only to be defeated by a man wearing mirrored armour.

Door Slammer

Location: Saffron Walden - Farm of Big Bill Campbell
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1948
Further Comments: The home of Canadian entertainer Big Bill Campbell had an entity that would walk the site and slam doors, although Campbell's seven year old daughter declared the phantom to be friendly.

Nelly

Location: Saffron Walden - Hill House in the High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After freezing to death in the mid-1800's, a teenage maid known as Nelly is said to have returned to Hill House. Her ghost has been reported walking around the corridors in the house, her presence accompanied by sharp drops in temperature.