The Paranormal Database

Old Car

Location: Ware - Ware High Street at the roundabout in front of 'The Waterfront' public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: A very old fashioned car driven by a determined looking man materialised along the road here, causing a female motorist to perform an emergency stop. The vehicle then vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving one very puzzled witness.

Burnt Out Car

Location: Watford - A41 (was A5088), near a fork in the road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1932
Further Comments: Turning the corner of this road would reveal a skeletal car resting on the verge, the remains vanishing as headlights fell upon it.

Lord Capel by Henry Paert the Elder

Jumping Jack

Location: Watford - Cassiobury Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 09 March (reoccurring) (Capel), others unknown
Further Comments: Ironbridge Lock is haunted by a man paid to create havoc and prevent canal shipments from reaching their destination. Jack was finally caught, knocked unconscious, and left to drown. The ghost of Lord Capel also walks the park on the anniversary of his 1649 execution for his royalist beliefs, while another story says a mill which once stood in the park was haunted by either a murderer or his female victim. Finally, the pathway on the north side is haunted by a couple pushing a 1940s style pram who vanish if anyone is too close; it is speculated they were killed in a Second World War air raid.

White Lady

Location: Watford - Church Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom white woman is said to occasionally cross the road here.

Tudor Man

Location: Watford - Copperfields restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s-1980
Further Comments: A local newspaper carried this story after the restaurant owner reported encountering a grey misty old man in Tudor clothing over a period of four years. The ghost would only be encountered in the older part of the building.

Fred

Location: Watford - Former Watford Observer building, Rickmansworth Road (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied wailing and sneezing were said to have been heard late at night in the print room. Lights were also said to be turned on and off unaided.

Victorian Girl

Location: Watford - Gade Bank footbridge
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 19 August 2012
Further Comments: An Infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera was said to have caught a young girl dressed in Victorian clothing. Police officers could not see anyone when they looked for the girl.

Little Old Lady

Location: Watford - Green End Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The phantom petite old lady who would be seen wandering around the grounds of the farm was also blamed for pulling the sheets off the bed at night. During the 1940s both the owners and local villagers reported hearing footsteps crossing cobblestones, even though the cobbles had all been removed during the 1920s.

Elizabethan Figure

Location: Watford - Jackson's Jewellers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly Elizabethan which haunts this shop is said to be grey and misty.

Whistling

Location: Watford - Oxhey Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: Reputedly built on the site of a gallows, the empty corridors are said to be home to disembodied whistling after dark.

Mr Cooke

Location: Watford - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravaged the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).

Lord Doneraile

Location: Watford - The Grove
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: One piece of nineteenth century folklore, dismissed as fiction by a contemporary newspaper, says Lord Doneraile rides a horse pursuing a fox as punishment for converting a chapel into his kitchen.

Backblast

Location: Watford - Tunnel near Watford Junction railway station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: At a certain point in the tunnel, the firemen of steam driven engines reported their boilers would spit coal back at them. It was later said a pile of bodies were disturbed during the tunnel's construction, and the spirits were restless.

Grey Lady

Location: Watton-at-Stone - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says the church tower is haunted by a grey lady who leapt from the top after being spurned.

Roman Coins

Location: Watton-at-Stone - Close to the River Beane
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: One story says misfortunes befell the family of a man who found a cache of Roman coins near the river and kept them for himself.

Sheppard

Location: Watton-at-Stone - George & Dragon public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footsteps and moving objects have been reported in this pub, where James Sheppard died on the stairs in 1833 after being shot nearby by a police officer.

Alsatian-Sized Cat

Location: Welham Green - Station Road, woodland near
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Andrew Hollings, out walking his dog in the evening, encountered a cat 'the size of a Labrador or Alsatian with a long tail'. The creature slowly emerged from woodland.

Beast of Brookmans Park

Location: Welwyn - General area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Named the 'Beast of Brookmans Park' by the local press, this panther was spotted by several people during 2005.

Girl in Red

Location: Welwyn - Non pedestrianised bank between the two Welwyn tunnels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s and late 1990s
Further Comments: In the mid-2000s, a train guard reported looking out the window of a slow moving train and spotting a young girl in an old fashioned red dress. The guard looked away for a second, during which the girl vanished. When the story was shared, it emerged a driver had seen the figure several years previous.

Young Boy

Location: Welwyn - Tewin Bury Farm
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: A photograph taken by designer Neil Sandbach of the farm appears to show a pale, blurred figure peering around a corner. A couple who were marrying at the site also reported seeing a phantom young boy dressed in white, who manifested near the barn.

Headless Horse

Location: Welwyn - White Horse Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless horse which runs along this road was said to have been a casualty during the civil war.

Quick Jab

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Cottage public house (now known as Doctors Tonic)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: A former worker said that as he was leaving one night, he felt someone jab him in the ribs. He swung round to see if it was another member of staff, but there was no one there.

Tall Man in Black

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Private building, Panshanger area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 2023
Further Comments: One witness spotted a phantom tall man dressed entirely in black. The witness later discovered that another person had felt their bedcovers being pulled and something had touched their fingers.

Hovering Triangle

Location: Welwyn Garden City - Sky over city
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: Two friends spotted a triangular shaped ufo hovering over a lake. The craft tilted upwards before simply vanishing, resulting in the friends running home without looking back.

A cave filled with wealth.

Jack o'Legs

Location: Weston - Churchyard, and nearby cave
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Jack o'Legs was said to be a very tall man (one account says fourteen feet in height) who, armed with a bow and arrow, robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Legend says he is buried in the churchyard, and a cave somewhere near here may still contain some of his ill-gotten gains.