The Paranormal Database

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

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Norfolk Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

No Ghosts Here

Location: Great Yarmouth - Sweet Dreams sweet shop, Regent Road
Type: Other
Date / Time: 2017
Further Comments: This shop was on the local ghost walk route and had a reputation for being haunted. The current owner denied his shop had any paranormal activity and placed a poster in the window announcing that Jesus was the only spirit in the building.

Key Hiding Spirit

Location: Great Yarmouth - The Duke's Head Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 Century onwards?
Further Comments: Possibly the spirit of the old local baddie Baron Scarfe, this shade hides various items and plays around with electrical equipment.

Little Boy

Location: Great Yarmouth - White Horse Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 2003
Further Comments: The pub featured in local press in 2003 after it was claimed that the ghosts which haunted the site was a 'stumbling block' for the sale of the building. Visiting ghost hunters said the pub was haunted by a small child and a woman named Mary. In addition, a poltergeist would switch lights on and off, and causing electrical items to fail.

Flying Food

Location: Great Yarmouth - White Horse public house (no longer open), Northgate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The chef came close to quitting this pub after a beef stake was thrown at him in the kitchen by an invisible entity. A few customers have reported seeing shadowy figures lurking around, and one ghost hunter claimed to have filmed contorted faces behind the bar.

Bear Sized Hound

Location: Great Yarmouth - Yarmouth South Station (no longer standing)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1860
Further Comments: This creature was described as white and the size of a polar bear by two witnesses as they watched it leap over engines.

Golden Calf

Location: Gresham - Between Gresham Castle (no longer standing) and Beeson Abbey
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A secret passage was said to run between these two structures, and within was hidden a calf sculptured from gold.

Wailing Cries of Two Lost Children

Location: Griston - Wayland Woods, near Griston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having 'inherited' two of his brother's children, an uncaring uncle lured the youngsters into the forest and left them there to die. The children can still be heard on moonless nights, crying for help. This is possibly the source of the classic 'Babes in the Woods' story.

White Lady

Location: Gunton - Gunton Park and House (partly destroyed by fire in 1882)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to death in Suffield family
Further Comments: This ghostly pale woman heard screaming when a death is imminent in the family. She has also been spotted running across the grounds.

Blue Victorian

Location: Gunton - Hubbards Loke
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1994
Further Comments: While taking a shortcut through Hubbards Loke, a witness spotted a pale blue figure in a Victorian dress. The figure was carrying a basket in its right hand and walked about a foot off the ground. When the figure reached the spot where the old Yarmouth/Lowestoft railway line crosses the area the figure vanished.

Smuggler Carrying Headless, Limbless Torso

Location: Happisburgh - Happisburgh coastline
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: For hundreds of years, smugglers were renowned for inventing ghost stories to deter people from intruding on their operations. The stories have stuck, and it is still rumoured that a smuggler's ghost crosses the area, carrying remains of a body (although according to one newspaper published in 1974. the haunting ceased after the discovery of a body buried on the beach).

Red Woman

Location: Hardley - Small block of stone at the crossing of three roads and a dirt path
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Certain nights of the year at midnight, though exact dates uncertain
Further Comments: On a few select nights of the year, a ghostly woman in red materialises and sits on this small stone.

Muffled Organ Music

Location: Hassingham - St Mary's Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A family out for an early morning drive stopped by the church and listened to the music coming from it for several minutes before deciding to enter. As they pushed open the front door, the music stopped, and they could find no one inside.

Sir Thomas

Location: Hautbois - 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.

Dissolving Figure

Location: Heacham - Private residence, Lynn Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June - October 1971
Further Comments: One of the occupants documented their experiences in a diary and recorded several months of rapping, moving furniture, sudden temperature changes, the sounds of footsteps, and a sighting of a shadowy figure that dissolved away.

Flashing Lights

Location: Hemblington - Field in the area
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: Five people out metal detecting all watched the sky light up with flashing red, blue, purple and green lights which illuminated the field which they stood on. The lights stopped suddenly.

Snarling unlike any Dog

Location: Hemby - Lane leading to a Caravan Park, behind a fence in the garden of a house
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Summer 1996, around midnight
Further Comments: When walking back from the arcades, a couple and their nineteen year old daughter witnessed a large dog with glowing red eyes, growling 'unlike any dog... ever heard before'. The family reported a run of bad luck ever since.

Hyter Sprite

Location: Hempnall - Area around Hempnall and Topcroft
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to resemble little people, this area was another home to the fairies known as Hyter Sprites.

Vanishing Dog

Location: Hempnall - Market Hole (road)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: The dog in question ran in front of a cyclist - the man braced for impact, only to see it vanish. A quick search revealed no sign of the creature.

Faines

Location: Hethersett - Mill Road and Gravel Pit Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Faines were creatures that stood as tall as a calf, with large eyes. One account has the entity possess the ability to blow anyone nearby away which a large gust of wind.

Woman's Singing

Location: Hickling - Hickling Broad, south of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 June (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Once a year a gentle female voice can be heard singing. This could be the Woman in White, seen punting from one side for the Broad to another, heading towards a mill. Another ghost is associated with the broad; a drummer is said to be a Napoleonic soldier who drowned while skating across the ice, en route for a secret rendezvous with his girlfriend, can sometimes be heard.

Mad Canon

Location: Hickling - Hickling Priory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a monk is said to walk the ruined priory and the marshes situated to the northeast. One story says that he was a canon who was driven insane whilst trying to balance the priory books.


Ffolkes Arms, Hillington.

Nanny

Location: Hillington - Ffolkes Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pub is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a young nanny who leapt to her death from one of the attic bedrooms during the late nineteenth century.

White Lady

Location: Hockwold cum Wilton - Hockwold Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The gates to this hall are reportedly haunted by a white lady who has unnerved several drivers through the village.

Lady Mary

Location: Holkham - Holkham Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: Lady Anne Glenconner told a local newspaper that Lady Mary haunted the site and would make Glenconner's sister cry. The phantom lady would also open locked doors and be heard moving around in the cellar and the attic.

Priest with his Throat Cut

Location: Holme Hale - Bury's Hall, Green Room & grounds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered by Cromwell's soldiers, a priest is said to walk the grounds, his throat slit. A girl has also been reported in the area.

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