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

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Hampshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Gentle Pete

Location: Gosport - Lane running past The Hermitage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s, around 22:00h
Further Comments: A woman walking her dog along this lane encountered a dark figure wearing Elizabethan clothing. The man tipped his hat at the woman before walking though the wall and a closed door. A few years later, the story of Gentle Pete featured in a magazine; a Dutchman who fled to England to escape persecution in the Elizabethan age.

Electrical Dead Zone

Location: Gosport - Percy Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: Summer 2006
Further Comments: Car immobilisers and electric starters on vehicles persistently failed to work for many residents along this street, with no one able to offer any explanation why.

Footsteps

Location: Gosport - Private residence (no longer standing, replaced with masonic hall), King Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Occupants would be awoken by heavy footsteps walking up and down the staircase and would occasionally feel a presence brush past. One Christmas, gifts were found crushed, as if someone in boots had repeatedly stamped on the presents.

White Lady

Location: Gosport - Royal Hospital Haslar
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004, and 1998
Further Comments: A phantom white lady is said to haunt the building. In 2004, an employee sitting in an office spotted a head pass the window in the door. Knowing he was alone in that part of the hospital, the man tried to follow the person - all possible exits were locked, but no one could be found. Six years previous, two people working on reception heard an internal door squeak open and footsteps walk towards the front desk, although no one could be seen and a walkaround found no one.

Charlie Pearce

Location: Havant - Havant Forest, Gypsies' Clump
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Charlie died whilst drinking gin on horseback - he hit an overhanging branch while his mare galloped along a darkened path, crushing his windpipe and killing him almost instantly. Those wounds are immediately apparent on his phantom.

Alice

Location: Havant - Private residence, North Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: Alice froze to death while in front of her empty fireplace at the start of the twentieth century. Eighty years later, a hypnotherapist working on the site reported Alice's ghost walked the house and would make herself known to his patients by chilling them during their sessions.

Exorcism

Location: Havant - Private residence, Purbrook Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1978
Further Comments: The events that drove a family to move from this property are not clear; the occupants were convinced the house was haunted and tried to have the site exorcised, although neighbours were a little more cynical.

Pooling Water

Location: Hawley - Old Malt House, Chapel Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A ghostly form here is blamed for the puddles of water that once formed on the staircase every night - no natural source of the liquid could be found.

Sailor

Location: Hayling Island - Church, Northney
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom sailor is said to walk this area.

Man in a Fading Uniform

Location: Hayling Island - Disused railway station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1960s onwards
Further Comments: Believed to have been a guard at the station, this figure has been seen several times since the station closed in the early sixties.

Roadkill

Location: Hayling Island - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: July 1988
Further Comments: A jungle cat was knocked over and killed along a road on the island, though sightings of other large cats continued for a while afterwards.

Submerged Bells

Location: Hayling Island - Off the south coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of sunken church bells is said still to be heard coming from the sea.

Man in Black

Location: Hayling Island - Old Fleet Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1960s
Further Comments: The appearance of the phantom man in black was so frequent that domesticated animals learned to stand to one side and let him pass. One witness speculated the figure to be a priest.


The lesser-known tree Grampus.

Grampus

Location: Highclere - Church
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A tree in the churchyard was home to a Grampus, a kind of water loving animal like a dolphin. After upsetting the locals (by harassing their teenage daughters), a priest was called in and banished the creature for a thousand years.

Tall Lady in Black

Location: Hinton Ampner - Old Manor House (no longer standing) and new Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: From 1765 until 1960
Further Comments: The old Manor House was haunted to such an extent that it was finally demolished and rebuilt a few meters down the road. Reports of apparitions, footsteps, untraceable music and finally screaming all drove out the occupiers of the original building. The replacement building suffered briefly from elements of the haunting, though nothing since it was gutted by fire and re-rebuilt...

Monk

Location: Holbury - Old Mill Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom monk reported here has an intense red beard.

Man in Boiler Suit

Location: Hollywater - Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pub's cellar was claimed to be home to a ghostly man wearing a blue boiler suit.


Plain Heath.

Hunting Horse

Location: Holmsley - Plain Heath
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: Hunters returning home in the evening had reportedly seen a ghostly black hunting horse running through the mist.

Anne

Location: Holybourne - Anne's Cottage
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This cottage was named after Anne, the grey lady still said to remain here.

Armed Cavalier

Location: Hook - A30, south side
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Wearing a long cape and wide brimmed hat, this Civil War soldier holds what appears to be a broken sword in his hands. One theory is that the man was a messenger caught and killed by Royalists.

Little Girl with Ringlets

Location: Hook - Nately Towers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: A young lad managed to gain entrance into a room which was always kept locked. Inside stood a young girl wearing a dress with black shoes, her hair forming little ringlets. The boy assumed that the girl was just another child and did not mention her to his mother for a while. When the subject was later raised his mother was shocked, and much later he realised that the girl had in fact been a ghost.

Chains

Location: Hook - Old White Hart public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of someone walking along the upstairs corridor dragging chains was once reported. Some believe this to be a former landlady murdered on site.

Caped Man

Location: Hook - Road between Crooked Billet pub and Hook House, and other roads in the area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Wearing a long cape or overcoat with a tricorn hat, this phantom gentleman is believed to appear only to those who will die within two years.

Panther

Location: Hordle - Track along Silver Street
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 17 November 1997, 22:00h
Further Comments: A woman who spotted a large, slinky cat with green / blue eyes while driving along a lane reported the encounter to the local press.

'I am dead'

Location: Horndean - Merchistoun Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2023
Further Comments: This hall has become popular with ghost hunting groups, with entities such as a grey lady and a ghostly admiral being reported. In 2023 the local press reported that one team had recorded strange banging and EVP saying, 'I am dead'.

Records 101 - 125 of 181

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