The Paranormal Database

Large Black Dog

Location: Old Costessey - Area around The Heart of Costessy Pub
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: A strange black dog was reported in this area in 2005.

Gamekeeper

Location: Old Costessey - Wooded area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A dog walker encountered a middle-aged man dressed in green and brown, wearing a cap and knee length boots, and carrying a rifle, on a folk along a wooded path. The dog walker said 'hello' and the man smiled back. The dog walker turned away for a moment, and when they looked back, the man had vanished. Sharing the encounter with neighbours, the dog walker was told that it was a gamekeeper from the 1920s, and that many people had seen him.

Shower

Location: Old Hunstanton - Guesthouse - name withheld
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 08 August 2024, around midnight.
Further Comments: Around midnight, a witness in bed heard the shower activate itself. The witness climbed out of bed but the shower stopped as they reached the door. Checking the shower, the witness realised the shower head and floor were dry. A few minutes past before the event played out again, and then ten minutes later the door handle to the shower room moved rapidly up and down. The witness left their bedroom and slept elsewhere. When the witness returned to work, they discovered one of their colleagues had received four phone calls from their phone on the night of the incident, even though the phone had been turned off.

Hunstanton Hall, Norfolk.

Dame Armine le Strange

Location: Old Hunstanton - Hunstanton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-1800s
Further Comments: Swearing on her deathbed that if her carpet were removed from the house she would return, Dame Armine held true her promise eighty years later when it was cut up and given away. After several days of haunting the pieces were collected and rejoined. Though it is said that the haunting activity stopped after this, a grey figure has still been reported in the building. Another version of the story says one piece of carpet could not be located; hence Dame Armine still haunts the site.

Lodge Hotel, Old Hunstanton.

Grey Old Lady

Location: Old Hunstanton - Lodge Hotel, and bridge down the road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure has been observed passing through solid objects around the hotel and ambling around the area.

King Edmund

Location: Old Hunstanton - St Edmund's Chapel (ruins)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend claims that King Edmund founded this chapel and learned all the psalms. Upon completing this task, he was crowned King of East Anglia.

The Devil Takes His Due

Location: Ormesby - Exact location unknown
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: 15 May (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: The Devil is said to appear and burn down an old mill, containing a miller, his daughter, and a visitor.

Former Master with Hounds

Location: Oulton - High House (now Manor House), Oulton Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Even though this place has been exorcised at least twice, the building still appears to possess several ghosts. One former owner has been seen dressed in traditional hunting gear, with his hounds around his feet. A white lady reportedly climbs the staircase located in the older part of the house, while the sounds associated with an old carriage have been heard coming from outside. Finally, poltergeist like activity, such as unusual electrical interference, has been reported.

Mayfly with Figures Running about Deck

Location: Oulton - Oulton Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 or 25 June, around 00.30h (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: The ghostly barge Mayfly relives its final voyage. With the captain of the boat on deck, chasing and murdering a young woman, the boat has been seen with its sails bellowing on calm nights. The captain of the boat was escorting a large sum of money and a woman down the river when he decided to steal the cargo and murder the witness. The woman and Captain killed each other in the fight, and now the boat haunts the waters.

Photographer

Location: Oulton Broad - Boathouse Lane
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1989, around 18:00h
Further Comments: While walking to tend her horse, a witness stopped for half an hour to chat to a photographer she knew. The following day she mentioned the photographer to a neighbour, who went white and told her the photographer had died the previous day.

Writer in Long Cloak

Location: Oulton Broad - Exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The author George Borrow, dressed in a long cloak and wearing a wide brimmed hat, haunts the area near his summer house.

Monk

Location: Oulton Broad - Old paint factory off Victoria Road and Dell Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: The shade of a hooded figure has been reported around the neighbourhood of this former factory.

Steam Engine

Location: Overstrand - Location of the old railway line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom train is said to travel the route where the track once lay.

Shrieking Dog

Location: Overstrand - Shuck's Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Shuck sightings were so abundant here that the parish named a lane after the beast - local legend also states when the creature disappears, it leaves the area charred and smelling of brimstone. The path leading to Cromer lighthouse is also rumoured to be popular with the creature.

Phantom Coach

Location: Oxnead - Oxnead Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A ghostly coach and four passes over this bridge once a year. It is said to be driven by a headless Sir Thomas Boleyn and is one of eleven bridges that he passes over on the night of his daughter Anne's execution.

Lady Carew in a Coach Pulled by Four Black Horses

Location: Potter Heigham - Arched Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 May, Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Occurring on the stroke of midnight, the phantom coach driven by a skeleton is seen to crash into the side of the bridge and fall into the river below. After selling her soul to the Devil, Lady Carew was taken away by two skeletons driving a coach pulled by four black horses on her wedding day. The coach disappeared on the bridge over the River Thurne, and the scene is repeated every 31 May. Another version of the story says the phantom is Lady Evelyn, who died when her coach crashed in 1741.

Skater of Hickling Broad

Location: Potter Heigham - River Thurne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: February (reoccurring)
Further Comments: In love with a rich man's daughter, a drummer boy would skate across the frozen river to secretly rendezvous with his forbidden girlfriend. On one winter's night the ice cracked and the boy drowned - leaving his ghost to continue the drumming. A phantom female rower has also been seen on the river.

White Woman

Location: Pudding Norton - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: BSIG investigated a property in the village after a resident encountered a woman in a white dress who sat on the end of her bed. The resident later discovered that a neighbour had a similar experience. A male figure was also seen by a third witness.

Former Regular

Location: Pulham Market - Crown public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a former regular is said to still sit in his favourite corner, the occasional whiff of tobacco indicating his presence.

Headless Horseman

Location: Pulham Market - Mill Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom coach and horses is driven down this lane by a headless horseman. The horseman's whip sparks at each crack.

Hearse

Location: Quidenham - Bridge close to a church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless coachman drives his coffin laden carriage and horses across this bridge.

Twelve Drunken Pall Bearers

Location: Quidenham - Bridge, route from church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One Lord Albemarle of Quidenham requested that his coffin was carried by twelve men in the state that he had favoured in life - drunkenness. The pall bearers, too drunk for their own good, fell over the side of the village bridge near the church and drowned in the waters below. On certain nights, this incident can be reheard.

Boadicea

Location: Quidenham - Low mound, around 300 metres from the church, known as Viking's Mound
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: This site has been named as another contender for the final resting place of Queen Boudicca.

Rusty Cat

Location: Rackheath - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: July 1996
Further Comments: Rusty brown in colour, this cat made a fleeting visit to Rackheath.

Monk

Location: Ranworth - Church and Ranworth Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Heard praying at the church, the ghostly monk can also be heard rowing a small boat as he crosses the broad.