The Paranormal Database

Young Boy

Location: Cambridge - Private residence, Petersfield area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 2014
Further Comments: A residence who started seeing a young boy in mid-twentieth century clothing researched her neighbourhood and found ten people, including children, died in a bombing accident.

Goat Headed Monster

Location: Cambridge - River Cam close to Stourbridge Common (or not, as the case may be)
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1276
Further Comments: Lady Eveline Camilla (Newton) Gurdon claimed this monster encounter possibly happened in Suffolk, while the 'Every Day Book' placed it in Cambridge. They were both wrong - it comes from Poland; the story is from 'The Doome Warning All Men to the Judgemente' and reads: Fishers toke a disfigured divell, in a certain Stoure (which is a mighty gathering togither of waters from some narrow lake of the sea), a horrible monster with a goat's head, and eyes shyning lyke fyre, whereuppon they were all afrayde and ranne awaye; and that ghoste plunged himselfe under the ice, and running tippe and downe in the stoure made a terrible noyse and sound.

White Lady

Location: Cambridge - Sherratt & Hughes, Trinity Street (closed in 1991)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once said to be the oldest bookshop in the UK, the building claims to have a white lady who walks silently down the aisles. Her history is unknown. There are also reports of a man in Victorian evening dress.

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Pale Yellow Head without Ears

Location: Cambridge - Sidney Sussex College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. A spectral pale-yellow head without ears was apparently spotted floating around Chapel Court in 1967 by John Emslie. The head is said to be that of Cromwell; his skull was finally laid to rest under the college's antechapel in 1960, its exact location a secret. As far as I can tell, the head was only encountered once, although around the same time other students were said to have experienced cold spots and the smell of rotting meat. The other ghost reputed to haunt the site, somewhat lacklustre compared to Cromwell, is that of an elderly University Don dressed in grey who moves from this campus towards Christ's College.

St. Johns College, Cambridge.

College Cat

Location: Cambridge - St. Johns College
Type: ABC
Date / Time: November 1996
Further Comments: Both a caretaker and the groundsman saw a massive black cat on the grounds. It has been speculated the creature was the so called 'Fen Tiger', a large cat-like cryptid for which sightings around Cambridgeshire date back at least 30 years.

Sounds of Murder

Location: Cambridge - Sweet Shop, East Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: A sweet shop was supposed to be haunted by the sounds of screaming from someone being murdered with an axe. As a side note, around the same time two other shops along the road were also said to be haunted, although one had been demolished and the other was empty and run down.

Old Man

Location: Cambridge - The Haunted Bookshop
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A phantom old man is reputed to haunt the basement of this bookshop.

Flying Bird

Location: Cambridge - Unnamed site, Storey's Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s?
Further Comments: A black bird would be seen flying through glass without smashing it. The site was also haunted by a man wearing a white coat.