The Paranormal Database

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.

Victorian Lady

Location: Rochester - Gordon Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hotel was reportedly home to the sounds of mild poltergeist activity, although one person reported seeing a Victorian woman.

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.

Pale Woman in Blouse

Location: Rochester - Hotel (exact one unknown, but next to former airstrip / current airport)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This young female form, sometimes accompanied by a clicking sound, appears on the second floor of a modern extension of the hotel. Some staff members believe her to be connected to a murder that once took place on the piece of wasteland just outside the original building.

Older Lady

Location: Rochester - Kings Head Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom old lady once held shut a fire door on the landing.

Woman

Location: Rochester - Love Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post-Second World War
Further Comments: A ghostly woman is said to haunt this lane, one report stating that she is only visible from the waste up.

Footsteps

Location: Rochester - Minor Canon Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied footsteps have been heard following people along this street.

Aggie

Location: Rochester - Nags Head public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former sex worker, Aggie's ghost haunts the site where she took her own life. Her presence is normally denoted by mild poltergeist activity, although her ghost has been reported in the cellar.

Tutor Music

Location: Rochester - Old Hall and vicarage, Boley Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Music unknown, perfume circa 1953
Further Comments: One room in the hall was once home to phantom Tudor music, while a ghostly woman would be seen elsewhere. A former owner of the old vicarage said his family would occasionally smell perfume; when they first moved in, the potency was overwhelming, although over time it became less intense. One of the family's children had also spotted a woman in a hood and cloak smiling from a window in an empty room.

Relative

Location: Rochester - Private residence, Lower Rochester Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1950s - 1980s
Further Comments: Over four decades, cupboard doors would open and close unaided and objects would be moved. The family believed the site to be haunted by a relative.

Gould

Location: Rochester - Queen Charlotte public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A German spy, Frederick Adolphus Gould, reputedly haunts the building, while a phantom older lady with grey hair has made the cellar her home. Speaking on LST TV, one landlord said the cellar had negative energy and dogs would become upset, while describing an upstairs spirit as 'fairly calm'.

Jacobean Woman

Location: Rochester - Restoration House (aka Satis House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This phantom woman wearing Jacobean garb reputedly haunts the photogenic mansion, although a 1953 ghost hunt referred to the site as 'completely without atmosphere'.

Outlaws

Location: Rochester - Robin Hood Lane (area since redeveloped)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1800
Further Comments: When just a dirt lane running through woodland, one man claimed to have encountered a phantom group of outlaws sitting around a ghostly campfire.

Barman

Location: Rochester - Ship Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The two ghosts which haunt the site both took their own lives, one a barman who split with his partner, the other a woman.

Man in Top Hat

Location: Rochester - Six Poor Travellers House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom man at home here is recognisable by his top hat. Another story says that he is Elizabethan (if so, perhaps his hat is a capotain).

Black Oval

Location: Rochester - Sky above Carnation Road
Type: UFO
Date / Time: Mid 1990s
Further Comments: One witness watched as a black oval shape unnervingly blocked out the night sky as it passed by.

Young Boy

Location: Rochester - St Bartholomew's Hospital (no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 2021
Further Comments: After being abandoned, the hospital attracted several spooky stories, including the tale of a woman who would walk through walls, and the appearance of a young boy which would herald a death on a ward.

Monk

Location: Rochester - The Vines (park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom monk is said to walk the area where the Priory of St Andrew had their vineyard.

Vicar

Location: Rochester - Unidentified building along Star Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950
Further Comments: A former vicar wearing silk knee breeches haunted this site.

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.

The infamous Blue Bell Hill, Kent.

Vanishing Hitchhiker

Location: Rochester - Blue Bell Hill
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1950s 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. Before the vanishing hitchhiker became the area's phantom of choice, stories were told of a phantom murderer who rode around on horseback.

Strange Animals

Location: Rochester - Blue Bell Hill and surrounding area
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. During the same decade, a UFO was reportedly observed above Blue Bell Hill; on a summer evening, a descending light swerved and vanished above some trees.

Roman Soldier

Location: Rochester - Carpark at the base of the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June 1988
Further Comments: Local folklore says that the sighting of a phantom Roman soldier on a grass verge by two teenage girls led to an archaeological dig on the site. A traditional story says an older man with a beard haunted the moat of the castle.

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.