The ghostly hare of Bolingbroke.
Location: Bolingbroke (Lincolnshire) - Bolingbroke Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1660s onwards
Further Comments: The castle was haunted by a phantom hare. Locals believed the creature to be a ghostly witch once held prisoner in the castle. The entity was said to leap over people or run between their legs, and any dog sent after it would return crying out.
Location: Bolton (Greater Manchester) - Smithills Hall (aka Smithells Hall)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 April (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Tried and executed for heresy, Marsh is remembered as his footprint (created when he stamped his foot) in the stone floor turns bloody each April 24. His shade is also reported to haunt the Green Room, where he was interrogated, though that is not date dependent. A priest is also reported to haunt the vicinity, as is a photogenic grey lady and a cat.
Bournemouth Town Hall, Dorset.
Location: Bournemouth (Dorset) - Bournemouth Town Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This incorporeal soldier of Indian heritage appears here once a year to help himself to a drink of water. There are also a few reports of phantom horses and carriages being seen outside the building, while a ghostly cat is also said to haunt several of the town hall rooms.
Location: Bradenstoke (Wiltshire) - Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom black monk is accompanied by a dog of similar colour.
Location: Braintree (Essex) - Crouch Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: A local reported that an alleyway along the court is haunted by a man wearing a top hat, who slowly fades from sight. The same witness has also heard pigs in the area - before the land was built on, it was a pig farm.
Location: Brentwood (Essex) - Kelvedon Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1949 onwards
Further Comments: A favoured pet, this ghost started to appear several weeks after its death.
Location: Bridgend (Mid Glamorgan) - Crossroads between Bridgend and Laleston
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Said to manifest every night at midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The phantom hound haunting this crossroads would appear nightly and trot off along a road before vanishing. It was said several people had tried to follow the creature but would always lose sight of it.
Location: Brigg (Lincolnshire) - Between Brigg and Wrawby, near a stream
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom white calf (also known as the Lackey Causey calf), sometimes headless, was said to emerge from a tunnel and attempt to lure people into the water, though the creature's entrance may no longer exist.
Location: Brighstone (Isle of Wight) - Moortown Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is now thought that the phantom flying hare which reputedly haunted this lane was the creation of a local smuggler determined to keep meddling locals out of the way.
Location: Brighstone (Isle of Wight) - Waytes Court Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Criminals were said to have been hanged from an oak tree on the site, and now one of the men haunts the site.
Location: Brimpton (Berkshire) - Lane running through village, leading to Able Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January (exact date not known)
Further Comments: Carrying its occupants to a ball, the coach was caught up in a storm that washed away Able Bridge - the coach plunged into the water, killing all the passengers. The event is heard once a year after sunset, marking the anniversary of the tragedy.
Location: Bristol (Somerset) - Old mansion, Hotwells (since demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1831 - 1869
Further Comments: After moving into the house, the owner found it impossible to keep his servants - they left after claiming to have encountered a ghostly ape or, at other times, a large black hound. The owner himself heard loud bangs and crashes but was unable to find a source. The site would later be converted into three cottages, but the haunting continued in the area and the new buildings left to go to ruin. Reports of the ghostly dog would continue in fields in the area for many years.
Ashton Court, Bristol.
Location: Bristol (Somerset) - Ashton Court Estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Clear moonlit nights (horseman)
Further Comments: Ashton Court is best known for its ghostly headless horseman, though there are also reports of grey ladies and a phantom hound.
Location: Brodsworth (Yorkshire) - Brodsworth Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hall is reputed to be haunted by a ginger cat and the ghosts of former owners.
Location: Buckholt (Clwyd) - Farm off the old Abergavenny road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: One witness claimed to have tried to slap a cow to waken it - her hand passed straight through the creature before it vanished. The farmhouse itself was said to be the home of a poltergeist which would open and close doors and flick light switches.
Location: Burton upon Trent (Staffordshire) - Bass museum (no longer open)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Seen by members of staff and visitors, a ghostly cat lurked around the ground floor and the recreation of an Edwardian bar.
Location: Calcutt (Wiltshire) - A419?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Several small white swine with red ears cross the road once a year on Christmas Eve.
Abbey Road, Abbey House, Cambridge.
Location: Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) - Abbey Road, Abbey House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Further Comments: It is claimed that Abbey House is, or at least was, the most haunted house in Cambridge. While I'm not a fan of 'most haunted' titles, when you look at the number and type of the ghosts supposed to haunt the site (a poltergeist, ghostly echoes of chains, a butler, a woman in white, a grey lady, a squirrel, a dog, and a hare all amongst the entities which have popped up), one can understand why the title has been applied here. An exorcism was performed in the 1980s, which may have laid the entities.
Location: Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) - Gog Magog Hills
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom monkey which haunted this region was reported in the dim and distant past.
Location: Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) - Unnamed site, Storey's Way
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s?
Further Comments: A black bird would be seen flying through glass without smashing it. The site was also haunted by a man wearing a white coat.
Location: Challacombe (Devon) - Broken Barrow (exact location not known)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man who tried to break into this barrow was driven mad by the sound of horses - each time the robber reached into the hole he had made, the sound of horses could be heard, though the creatures could not be seen. The man eventually lost his sight and hearing, dying three months later.
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith (Derbyshire) - Horderns Road area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A phantom dog was once a common sight here, as it sat on the corner of the road near a railway bridge waiting for an owner which never came.
Location: Checkley (Staffordshire) - Checkley Rectory (New building), and the Hutchinson school
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1966 onwards
Further Comments: Mrs Hutchinson, former wife of a Vicar who she outlived by twenty years, has been seen walking the building where she once lived accompanied by her dog. Dressed in an old black dress, the ghost has also been heard to call people's names and knock on the front door. The school that was named after her husband also reportedly harbours the entity.
Ghostly horses in Bedfordshire.
Location: Chellington (Bedfordshire) - Carlton Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A pair of galloping horses are said to charge down the hill, vanishing as they approach the bottom.
Location: Chetwynd Aston (Shropshire) - A41, and Chetwynd Hall & surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: Having died in childbirth, Madam Pigott was seen dozens of times carrying her baby and combing its hair. Some also reported the lady also having a cat with her. She was eventually exorcised by twelve parsons, though in 1969 two motorists separately reported a white figure on the road near the church.