The Paranormal Database

Dog Walkers

Location: Pluckley - Station Road, area around Greystones House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Couple unknown, monk reported seen in 1971
Further Comments: Victims of the all-too-common love triangle that ends in suicide, this couple and their little dog can be heard walking and chatting down this area of the road. Greystones itself is reputedly home to a phantom monk.

Flaming Woman

Location: Pluckley - Surrenden House (original house no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1904
Further Comments: Contemporary newspapers reported that a visitor to the house spotted a burning woman holding a baby running along the driveway. The witness fainted, and by the time she had recovered, the figure had vanished. Another entity, possibly later the same day, was said to have tried to strangle another woman in her bed (although the newspaper speculated this event occurred because of the day's excitement).

Invisible Hand

Location: Pluckley - The Black Horse Public House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: This non-alcoholic spirit moves items across the bar, tidies, and sometimes hides coats and wallets. The site is also home to disembodied screaming.

Horses & Carriage

Location: Pluckley - The main village street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen trotting down the main street, the history of the carriage pulled by two horses (or four, depending on the source) is unknown.

Taxi Fare

Location: Pluckley - Unnamed road in village
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: A taxi driver reported seeing a man on the roadside who flagged the taxi down. The fare climbed into the back of the cab, but when the driver turned around to ask his passenger where he was heading, he found the car empty.

Spitfire

Location: Postling - Postling Wood
Type: Other
Date / Time: 21 June 2012
Further Comments: The story of a ghostly spitfire appearing here was carried in the local press; it was actually Spitfire BM597, owned by the Historic Aircraft Collection, and was operating from Pent Farm Aerodrome on the day in question.

Lord Rokeby

Location: Postling - Stone Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lord Rokeby races around the area, minus his head, being drawn by a team of four horses.

Drowned

Location: Queenborough - Mouth of the Themes
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An evil captain, discovered his passengers were carrying treasure, forced them off his ship on to the sandbanks here and left them to drown. The water on the spot was said to be more disturbed than normal, with moaning heard from beneath the sea, and the occasional blue/green light glowing.

Christopher Bloor

Location: Rainham - Lane leading to Bloor Place (no longer standing) and near church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Christopher Bloor had a reputation for being a seducer of women. This proved to be Christopher's undoing - he was decapitated by a posse of local men with wives with whom he had slept. The lane was haunted by the headless Bloor, who reputedly drove his coach pulled by headless horses, and ghostly hoofbeats heard around the church.

Space Man

Location: Rainham - Sky above Medway
Type: UFO
Date / Time: May 2017
Further Comments: Mark Taylor photographed a strange man floating high in the sky. After local press picked up the story it was revealed the sighting occurred on the same day a child had their life-sized stormtrooper balloon swept away by the wind.

Katherine Sprackling

Location: Ramsgate - Ellington Park (site of Sprackling family manor)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: In 1653, gambler and murderer Adam Sprackling was hanged for the murder of his wife Katherine at their home the previous year. Adam also killed his six dogs, and these creatures and his wife were reputed to haunt the manor until its demolition in the late nineteenth century. The Vicar of St Laurence performed an exorcism during the 1730s in an attempt to banish the terrible sounds which had been heard in the area, although one story claimed the ghostly sounds had actually come from a nearby stables. Regardless, local stories say that Katherine can still be heard crying for help.

Cross Entity

Location: Ramsgate - Private residence, South Eastern Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: March 1974 - January 1975
Further Comments: After Florence lost her late son's crucifix in the garden, poltergeist activity broke out around her home and was blamed for the collapse of a staircase. Florence's story reached an army mine detection team, who discovered the missing crucifix in mud close to the house.

Sarah?

Location: Ramsgate - Private residence, Vale Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: It was reported that violent poltergeist activity occurred here, perhaps relating to the death of a woman named Sarah that occurred a few decades previous.

Not Rats

Location: Ramsgate - Unnamed semi-detached house on Ramsgate / Broadstairs border
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February 1947
Further Comments: Scraping, rapping, and gnawing sounds could be heard in this house, turning into loud bangs and crashes while the occupants were away (neighbours believed someone had entered the house, but they searched and found no one). Initially thought to be evidence of rats, it soon transpired that the rapping followed the family's daughter after they moved.; floorboards were torn up, but no evidence of rodents could be found.

The Reculver Towers, Kent.

Crying

Location: Reculver - The Reculver Towers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Folklore says that the haunting cries of a baby have been heard many times in this area. During the 1960s, the skeletal remains of young children were recovered close to the site. Nearby Roman ruins and coins dated the human remains to around 270 - 300 AD, and it is thought the infants were sacrificed to appease an unknown deity. Other stories say a phantom cowled figure drifts through the ruins, and a duel takes place on the cliff edge.

Roman Soldiers

Location: Richborough - Richborough Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The fort overlooks the landing site of many a legion, and some of the soldiers have found it hard to leave their duties. Some stories consist of several hundred ghostly soldiers matching into the sea, where they vanish under the waves.

Woman

Location: Rochester - Backroom Bookshop (no longer open), High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The owner of this shop spotted a woman dressed in 1960s-era clothing walking between the shelves before she vanished.

Strange Animals

Location: Rochester - Blue Bell Hill, near Rochester
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: An ostrich was seen by a driver during the 1990s near the haunted hill, but when he stopped to investigate, the creature had changed into a large black cat which ran away. The cat (or a similar one) had been previously seen in the area, as has a large hairy beast, thought by the witness to be a gorilla.

The infamous Blue Bell Hill, Kent.

Vanishing Hitchhiker

Location: Rochester - Blue Bell Hill, near Rochester
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1960s onwards
Further Comments: The vanishing hitchhiker is a famous urban legend, though a score of witnesses swear they have encountered the figure. One witness went to the police after believing he had run over a girl - on investigation, nothing was found. Two families have reported, at separate times, a terrifying old hag-like figure standing in front of their cars, causing them to stop.

An old postcard of Rochester Castle.

Lady Blanche de Warenne

Location: Rochester - Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: Blanche on Good Friday or 04 April, Dickens on 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A bystander in a battle for the castle, the Lady Blanche was killed when an arrow entered her heart - her shade has been observed still staggering with the shaft protruding from her chest. It is also believed that Charles Dickens's ghost haunts the moat; he has been seen both here and at the Corn Exchange clock.

Grey Monk

Location: Rochester - Cooper's Arms public house, St Margaret's Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Once a year in November, late at night (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Bricked up alive for a long forgotten sin, this misty monk emerges from the wall behind the bar in this ancient building that once was a priory.

Flying Veg

Location: Rochester - Food Glorious Food (shop)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 2021
Further Comments: Local media reported the site to be haunted after owners witnessed vegetables flying across the shop, and experiencing power cuts and a radio which would start playing classical music. One piece of local folklore claimed the entity may relate to a man who had his figures cut off after sexually assaulting a woman.

Smoke

Location: Rochester - Former bank, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2003
Further Comments: The fresh smell of tobacco, possibly from a pipe, could be detected in the cellar of this building, even though smoking was banned from within it.

Smiling Old Man

Location: Rochester - George public house, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The cellar was once a church crypt and within a small man (sometimes identified as a monk) has been observed.

Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Location: Rochester - Guildhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir Cloudesley bought the decorated plaster ceilings at the guildhall with his own money - perhaps that is why this phantom wearing uniform has been seen walking the corridors.