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

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Norfolk Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

Horse Drawn Hearse

Location: Spixworth - Spixworth Manor (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1940s
Further Comments: Several spooky manifestations were claimed by the manor house, included a spectral hearse driven up the driveway, a piano which played itself, a man bearing a lantern who resembled a night watchman, and a ghostly woman holding a candle.

Hearse

Location: Spixworth - Unidentified house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: One of the residents in this old country house claimed to have looked out the window and watched a horse-drawn hearse swerving down the driveway. The resident and her husband were later told about the ghost by a local. It was said they moved away soon after, driven out by phantom knocking which plagued their house at night.

White Figures

Location: Sprowston - House along Lambert Road, and general area of White Woman Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000
Further Comments: A local legend says that a woman from Catton Hall was murdered in the area on her wedding night, her ghost appearing in the white wedding dress. In 2000, two skeletons turned up in a house along Lambert Road, and one was speculated as being that of the murdered woman. The house had long been known as haunted.

Jay Walker

Location: Stalham - Road leading to Wroxham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 03 November 2017
Further Comments: A passenger in a car watched as a woman standing on the side of the road ran into the path of traffic. The woman vanished just before being hit by the car just ahead of the witness.

Female Cockle-Gatherer

Location: Stiffkey - Blacknock (sandbank?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: With foggy nights comes the panicked screaming of a woman, believed drowned while picking cockles on the sandbank.

Jack

Location: Stiffkey - Marshes, near old sewer pipe
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: While walking across the marches, Peter Yaxley spotted a figure a short distance ahead who waved at him. The figure vanished, leaving no marks in the soft sand where he was standing. Peter discussed and described his sighting with locals, who said the description matched that of a man named Jack, who had died several weeks previous.


An old woodcut of a frog or toad.

Frog Shower

Location: Stockton - Haystack on field
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1912
Further Comments: After a brief period of rain, farm workers found dozens of tiny frogs leaping around on top of a haystack.

Do Not Move

Location: Stockton - Stockton Stone
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: This stone is said to be cursed; when it was last moved to straighten the nearby road, one of the workmen is said to have dropped dead.

Just Willum

Location: Stokesby - Various location in the area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Described as a helpful spirit, Willum is said to help others and talk quite happily to strangers - no one realising that the figure is a ghost until it disappears.

Pie Eating Madman

Location: Stow Bardolph - The Hares Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Capon is believed to be one of the first landlords to run the pub, and he killed himself after eating a pie that his wife made for him - some think she spiked her baking with a heavy metal, which drove him mad.

Highwayman

Location: Stratton Strawless - Shortthorn Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A ghostly highwayman was observed by one person at a site along this road.

Poltergeist

Location: Strumpshaw - The Goat Inn
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1960s?
Further Comments: Supposed haunting caused by the spirit of a drowned sailor from the Second World War, at least one previous landlord has reported seeing ghostly figures and hearing the piano playing by itself.

One Man and his Dog

Location: Surlingham - Ferry House inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly man and his dog were said to empty any half-finished glasses of beer if left out overnight.

Squelching

Location: Swaffham - Area around Wood Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied footsteps have been heard in fields in the area, sounding as if crossing marshy land.

Grey Monk

Location: Swaffham - Captain's Close footpath
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom monk is rumoured to walk along this footpath, travelling towards Castle Acre.

John Chapman

Location: Swaffham - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Fifteenth century
Further Comments: John Chapman was a pedlar living in the town who dreamt that if he stood on London Bridge, he would hear good news. He travelled to London where he waited on the bridge for three days before telling a shopkeeper about the dream, but not about where he was from. The shopkeeper laughed at Chapman and said that he himself had a dream of digging up treasure under a tree belonging to a pedlar in Swaffham but was too wise to pursue 'silly dreams'. The pedlar returned home, dug under his tree, and found great wealth that he used to rebuild the church.


Swaffham Churchyard.

Seeker

Location: Swaffham - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One local man recalled how, as a boy, he was told about a ghostly woman who walked up and down the graves, as if looking for a particular headstone.

Grey Figure

Location: Swaffham - Cottage near Northwell Poll
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Almost completely transparent, a phantom grey figure is reported to appear in the back garden of a cottage before moving away.

Screaming Shade

Location: Swaffham - Five bedroom house in the area
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Early 2004
Further Comments: UK lottery winner Michael Carroll was reportedly driven from his house by the wailing ghost of a woman whose grave had been disturbed after a swimming pool was constructed there. Some believe that his court appearance for drug possession may have some influence on the sighting.

Green Lady

Location: Swaffham - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Little is known about the history of the phantom woman in green spotted at the hotel over the years. She is sometimes seen holding a pan, though her manifestations are normally limited to tapping people on their shoulders or backs or appearing as a fleeting shadow from the corner of an eye.


Market Cross pub, Swaffham.

Cat

Location: Swaffham - Market Cross public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early July 2007
Further Comments: A cat has been seen in the building running across the bar area. A member of staff who spotted the animal in July 2007 mistook it for a real creature, only to be told otherwise when she mentioned her encounter to others. There are also stories of a phantom man who sits by the fireplace with a beer.

Old Bicycle

Location: Swainsthorpe - Outskirts of Swainsthorpe, along the road from Brooke
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Heard on one occasion, and seen on another, the bicycle was reported to look and sound as if it had hard iron tyres, and upon observation, was riderless.

Cat Dog

Location: Swannington - Woodland
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Circa 1975, after dark
Further Comments: A large black dog was seen by two witnesses as it ran across the road ahead of them. It moved more like a cat than dog but did not look feline. One of the witnesses, a vet, was not able to identify it.

Whistle

Location: Swanton Morley - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old belief from this area of Norfolk was by running around the church at midnight and whistling through the keyhole, the Devil would be seen.

Raining Liquids

Location: Swanton Novers - Rectory
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 08 August - 08 September 1919
Further Comments: Over a thirty day period, paraffin, sandalwood oil, and water (among others) ran from the walls and ceilings of the building - up to fifty gallons in one day.

Records 326 - 350 of 387

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