The Paranormal Database

Stretched Plectrum

Location: Snettisham - Skies over the Wash
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 22 August 2016
Further Comments: While watching some F15s over the Wash, a witness spotted a dark grey craft, the shape of a stretched plectrum, emerge from a cloud behind them. The ufo shimmered before entering a small cloud from which it did not reappear.

Snettisham Beech and The Wash, Norfolk.

Dark Haired Mermaid

Location: Snettisham - Snettisham Beech & The Wash
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about the sighting of a mermaid with long dark hair once spotted here.

St Mary's Church, Snettisham, Norfolk.

Communication from Henry Barnard

Location: Snettisham - St Mary's Church, grave of Robert Cobb
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: October 1893
Further Comments: Mrs Goodeve, while visiting friends in the West Country, was visited at night by ghostly apparition calling itself Henry Barnard. Barnard asked Mrs Goodeve to travel to Snettisham church and wait by the grave of Robert Cobb. This she did, and at one o'clock in the morning, Mrs Goodeve was given a message by a tall dark figure who manifested by the tombstone. The message was taken to Barnard's surviving descendant at Cobb Hall, though what was said has never been told to anyone else.

Human Heartbeat

Location: Snettisham - Vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two brothers sharing a bedroom awoke one night to hear the loud beatings of a heart in the same room. There have also been reports of phantom footsteps coming from varying parts of the building.

Magical Cow

Location: South Lopham - Currently Oxfootstone House, Brickkiln Lane
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A magical cow once appeared in the village and provided all poor people with free milk. The cow finally tired of this and kicked a nearby rock, whereupon she vanished. The rock retained her hoof mark, and is still in the village, albeit as part of the floor in Oxfootstone House.

The road between South Raynham and East Raynham, Norfolk.

Eyeless Lady

Location: South Raynham - Road between South Raynham & East Raynham
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1950s (?)
Further Comments: The eyeless lady dressed in brown reputed to lurk along the road between the two Raynham villages is thought to be Lady Dorothy Walpole, the same entity which was photographed at Raynham Hall in 1936 (although the authenticity of the image is questioned). Eric Maple wrote that the ghostly Walpole stands in the shadows along the road, as if waiting for a lift. If this is the case, one could speculate she would be trying to escape her violent husband Charles Townshend, who would keep her locked up at the hall.

Viking Funeral

Location: South Walsham - South Walsham Broad
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 May (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: Reports here claim that a spectral Viking long boat appears, burning in the middle of the water.

Devil's Treasure

Location: Southwood - Old church and Callow Pit
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend states that the door handle of the church is all that remains of a treasure chest discovered by three (or two) men at the bottom of Callow Pit. As the men tried to take the chest away with them, Old Nick appeared and pulled at the other end - the men managed to escape with only one handle from the chest.

Large Cat

Location: Spixworth - Field, exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: A witness who spotted a large black cat on the edge of a field estimated the sitting creature to be around one metre in height.

Judge Peck

Location: Spixworth - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Perhaps connected to the Spixworth Manor ghost, a local tale warns of the phantom Judge Peck who travels the area in a coach.

Lady Clad in Blue Gown

Location: Spixworth - Longe Arms public house and surrounding area
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom lady in a blue gown was said to have escorted a man named 'Old John' back from the Longe Arms every night. After he died, she was never seen again, though it is said you can hear her crying on stormy nights.

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.