Phantom Bells and Ringing Forteana
Bell Ringing
Location: Aberdeen (Aberdeenshire) - Aberdeen Central Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: The East of Scotland Paranormal Society investigated this building and claimed to have heard footsteps, whispering, and the sound of a bell.
Lost Town
Location: Aberdovey (Gwynedd) - Off coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Summer (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Swallowed by the sea, church bells belonging to a town lost off the coast here can still be heard on quiet evenings. They say that at low tides one can see sunken tree trunks.
Swallowed Sounds
Location: Aberdyfi (Gwynedd) - Off coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Calm nights
Further Comments: The bells of a church which was swallowed by the sea can sometimes be heard when the weather is right.
Bells
Location: Aldeburgh (Suffolk) - Coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Circa nineteenth century
Further Comments: Much of Aldeburgh has been taken by the sea, leading to the belief that the bells from sunken churches could sometimes be heard under the waves.
Singing
Location: Alderwasley (Derbyshire) - St Margaret's Chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Though disused, locals have reported singing and bell ringing from this aging chapel.
Ringing
Location: Armboth Fell (Cumbria) - Thirlmere Lake
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The echoes of phantom bells have been heard coming from beneath the waters here.
Stubborn Bell
Location: Barlinch (Somerset) - Barlinch priory (now ruins)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: When the priory bells were removed from the site, the Great Bell did not want to leave its location. Eventually the bell was dragged away (after a single unhappy peal) by man and ox to its new home in Exeter Cathedral, where it promptly cracked once mounted.
Chime
Location: Bedford (Bedfordshire) - Willington Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The sounds of footsteps and the soft ringing of a bell haunt this old building.
Kilmigrol
Location: Blackpool (Lancashire) - Off the coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: stormy nights. Last heard 21 May 2013?
Further Comments: A town lost off the coast of Blackpool many years ago, the bells can be heard ringing on stormy nights. The bells may have last been heard by a mother and daughter walking near Sandcastle Water Park.
Bell for the Dead
Location: Blaenporth (Dyfed) - General area
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Before a death in the village
Further Comments: If the phantom bell is heard to ring three times at midday or midnight, someone of importance is due to die.
Murdered Monks
Location: Blanchland (Northumberland) - Abbey grounds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Killed by a group of bandits, the monks of this abbey can occasionally be seen drifting across their land. The phantom pealing of the abbey bell accompanies them.
Moving Coffins
Location: Borley (Essex) - Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Ninetieth century
Further Comments: Music, crashes, thumps, bell ringing and footsteps have all been reported emerging from the church after it has been locked up for the night. A local tale involves the coffins in the Waldegrave family crypt mysteriously moving on their own accord between the times the tomb was opened.
Cantre'r Gwaelod
Location: Borth (Dyfed) - Off coast
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1770
Further Comments: To the west of Borth, off the coast, lays the lost land of Cantre'r Gwaelod, a walled country which sunk after a prince forgot to close the flood gates. The bells are said to ring in times of danger, and the lost land was reputedly spotted under the sea in 1770 by William Owen Pughe.
Bells
Location: Boscastle (Cornwall) - Off coast, close to Forrabury Church?
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy weather
Further Comments: Bells made for this church were cast and blessed, but as the ship carrying them approached the church, the captain claimed that he, not God, had transported the bells safely. A storm suddenly blew in, sinking the ship and taking the bells to the bottom of the sea.
Tolling Bell
Location: Boscastle (Cornwall) - Smugglers Cottage
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Last heard late twentieth century?
Further Comments: The tolling of a phantom bell said to either foretell a shipwreck in the area, or the sound itself comes from an old sunken ship.
Underwater Bells
Location: Bosham (Sussex) - Bosham Creak
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: When Danish raiders took the bells from the church, they pushed the Lord too far - he sunk their boat, and now the bells can be heard ringing in celebration.
Monks
Location: Braidwood (Lanarkshire) - Wooded area between Braidwood and Crossford, near St Oswald's Chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A monastery once stood near these woods, and even though it has long since vanished, the bells can be occasionally heard ringing out and a ghostly monk walks between the trees.
Woman in Black
Location: Bridgnorth (Shropshire) - Croft Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A mystery woman in black is said to haunt the dining room. Bells have been heard ringing in other parts of the hotel after dark.
Ringing
Location: Brighton (Sussex) - Parochial Offices, Princes Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s, evenings
Further Comments: The sound of a ringing bell would be heard on the top floor of this building, normally by a caretaker who was alone on site. Another witness claimed to have seen a woman on the staircase waving a handbell.
Bells
Location: Bristol (Somerset) - Safestore, Ashton Gate
Type: Other
Date / Time: Twenty-first Century
Further Comments: A customer and his parents at the facility heard bells ringing and echoing around the corridors - they spent some time trying to find the source of the discordant sounds but failed.
Tolling Bells
Location: Broadway (Hereford & Worcester) - Middle Hill wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: A set of church bells were hidden in the forest during the Reformation and forgotten about. They are said to ring at night, and were heard during the Second World War, a time when bell ringing was illegal.
Vanishing Figure
Location: Bude (Cornwall) - The Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A gardener spotted a shadowy figure in the locked building, which vanished after he gained access. The bell of the HMS Bude which hangs on site supposedly rings unaided.
Monk's Chanting
Location: Bungay (Suffolk) - Greyfriars Priory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sound of plainchant has been heard coming from the ruins of the old priory, accompanied by the ringing of bells that have now been long gone.
Monk in Brown
Location: Burford (Oxfordshire) - Burford Priory & Old Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Bell at 02:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The phantom monk is only one of several spooky occurrences at this site; another is an unearthly bell that makes itself heard at two every morning, and the dead gamekeeper who patrols the area with his rifle.
Lost Village
Location: Burrator Reservoir (Devon) - Under water
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old village was submerged when the reservoir was constructed in 1898. The church bells are supposed to occasionally still ring.
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