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

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Leicestershire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana


An old postcard of Leicester's Rail Station.

Post Man

Location: Leicester - Rail Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: More often felt than seen, the phantom which haunts the station is reputedly a postman. The ghost is said to be non-threatening and has been nicknamed Henry.

Balls of Fire

Location: Leicester - Skies over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: November & December 1388
Further Comments: These balls of flame where seen many times during the winter months, spinning like wheels.


An old postcard of Leicester.

Spit Fire

Location: Leicester - Skies over town
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: April 1389
Further Comments: Seen flying and spitting fire, the dragon passed over the town many times during the month.

Woman

Location: Leicester - St Margaret's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1964
Further Comments: One 1960s psychical researcher claimed the church tower to be haunted by a woman who had fallen from the structure.

Tall Cloaked Man

Location: Leicester - St Margaret's Vicarage (demolished April 1964)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: Spotted at various times by the verger, a curate and the maid, this ghostly figure would also be heard walking around an empty room. Small items such as teaspoons and gloves vanished, and closed and barred doors would be found open.

Seated Child

Location: Leicester - The Talbot public house, Thurcaston Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Several shades have taken up residence here. A young child sits on a bar stool, a phantom woman vanishes into the wall, an old man in a large raincoat walks towards the bar before disappearing, and shadowy figures lurk in the car park.

Mrs Smalley

Location: Leicester - Unidentified house near East Gates (likely to be no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After Mrs Smalley died in 1727, her ghost took up residence in her former home. The entity was banished by the vicar of St Martin's.

Footfalls

Location: Leicester - Unidentified house, Friar Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1820
Further Comments: An invisible person with heavy boots was said to have taken up residence in a home along this road.

Not Known

Location: Leicester - Unidentified house, Sanvy Gate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1860
Further Comments: It was reported that a house here became haunted, although the finer points are not known.

Veiled Lady

Location: Leicester - West Chapel at Crematorium, Groby Cemetery
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: June 2008
Further Comments: Wearing Edwardian or Victorian mourning dress, a shadowy veiled woman was spotted by two witnesses. The figure disappeared into a hearse, and when the witnesses check the vehicle, it was empty.

Headless Person

Location: Leicester - West Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1965
Further Comments: This headless shade was watched by witnesses as it drifted down the middle of the road.

Red Globe

Location: Leicester - Wigston district
Type: Other
Date / Time: 29 July 2002, around 18:30h
Further Comments: An eleven year old girl, Jade Greenwood, was struck on the head by a red glowing ball, most likely ball lightning. A red mark was left on her forehead, and the girl experienced an electrical shock and a burning sensation in her leg.

Cavalier

Location: Leicester - Wygston House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A ghost would appear at the window of this building once a month; one writer suggested the phantom to be an optical illusion created by the moon. Another story from the site placed a headless Cavalier here, although the figure never returned after being shot at by a visitor.

Headless Horseman

Location: Loddington - Road on a steep hill in the area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The horseman, holding his head under one arm, gallops at breakneck speed down the hill, with anyone who witnesses him doomed to suffer a family bereavement.

Lough Ness Monster

Location: Loughborough - Charnwood Water
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 23 October 2017
Further Comments: A duck was seen being pulled underwater by an unidentified creature. The attacker was christened the 'Lough Ness Monster', though is most likely a pike.

Rail Worker

Location: Loughborough - Loughborough Central Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Holding an oil lamp, this semi-transparent figure in an old railway uniform is said to lurk on platform 1.


Papillon Hall (public domain).

Brocade Shoes

Location: Lubenham - Papillon Hall (demolished 1950)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The remains of a woman found within the walls of this house were speculated to belong to the Spanish mistress of David Papillon. The woman died around 1715, but declared if anyone touched her brocade shoes, misfortune would descend. In 1903, Sir Frank Bellville removed the shoes; shortly after he fell and broke his skull. The shoes were returned to the hall, although after the building's destruction, were moved to Harborough Museum.

Hooded Man in Black

Location: Lutterworth - Lane between village and Leicester (route may have changed)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely nineteenth century
Further Comments: Something unseen caused the horse pulling a carriage containing a father and daughter to freeze. The daughter climbed down from the carriage to investigate, only to see a hooded figure in black emerge from a hedge. The figure removed its hood to reveal a blank face. The ghostly figure vanished when the father called out his daughter's name - she jumped back into the carriage as the horse recovered and galloped away.

John Cook

Location: Lutterworth - The Springs House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1906
Further Comments: A young maid who had just started at the house awoke to see a young man in old fashioned clothing at the foot of the bed. He vanished into thin air, and the maid was so frightened by her experience that she never stayed overnight at the house again. The phantom was named as John Cook, a former resident of the house who had been murdered fifty years previous.

Headless Soldier

Location: Market Bosworth - Lanes of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having been decapitated in the Battle of Bosworth Field, this fighter wanders the roads and lanes looking for his missing head.

Murdered Woman

Location: Market Harborough - Angel Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bar in the area that once housed the stables is reputedly haunted by a woman once murdered here.

Light

Location: Market Harborough - Brown's Salon
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: February 2009
Further Comments: Caught on camera by the Ghost UK team, this 'orb' was caught appeared in the building at 20:21h. Staff have reported small items vanishing without trace, while one customer spotted two people dressed in old fashioned clothing standing by a fireplace. Although it was reported that the building was once a courthouse where criminals were hanged, a local historian provided ample evidence that this was not the case.

Captain

Location: Market Harborough - Harborough Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: The theatre is haunted by the spirit of a sea captain. The ghost is also said to have haunted the hotel which once stood on the site before the theatre was construction. Though the spectre itself was not seen, a team of ghost hunters detected cold spots when they investigated the site in 2004.

Typewriter

Location: Market Harborough - Market Harborough Building Society
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-late twentieth century
Further Comments: This building was haunted by the sound of a typewriter clacking away. One member of staff seeing a typewriter by her side start to type by itself.


An old postcard of Market Harborough.

Dark Torpedo

Location: Market Harborough - Skies over town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: May 1909?
Further Comments: Reported as being over thirty metres long, this long, thin scareship of unknown origin passed over the town late at night.

Records 101 - 125 of 164

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