The Paranormal Database

Glowing Ball

Location: Drumbeg (County Down) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 16 March 2008, 22:00h
Further Comments: A glowing ball of light has been seen dancing around the headstones in the newer part of the graveyard.

Merlin's Grave

Location: Drumelzier (Borders) - Thorn tree in a meadow close to the church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: According to one legend, the mighty magician Merlin was killed by shepherds close to this spot and was promptly buried.

Lepers

Location: Dublin (County Dublin) - St Audoen's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s?
Further Comments: The church is said to be the haunt of lepers. The area outside the church is home to a green lady, reputed to be Darkey Kelly, executed for killing her unborn child (or five men).

Whispers

Location: Dublin (County Dublin) - St Michan's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The vault under this church contains thirty mummified bodies - people who have listened carefully in the room claim to have heard loud whispering.

Airman

Location: Dublin (County Dublin) - Temple Theatre Nightclub (no longer operating) (formally St George's church)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996 - 2003
Further Comments: A spokesperson for the nightclub claimed that P Diddy had encountered a ghostly airman in the nightclub, which had been a church. Another report said the nightclub, when not open to the public, was also home to the sounds of a church organ being played, the notes punctuated by bouts of coughing.

Relocation

Location: Duffield (Derbyshire) - St Alkmund's Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Church still standing
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that St Alkmund's was going to be constructed next to Duffield castle, but every night for a week the building materials were moved by the Devil to the current site where it was eventually erected.

Little Girl

Location: Dundee (Angus) - St Mary's Church, Nethergate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1918
Further Comments: On separate occasions, a police officer and an ex soldier spotted a young girl carrying a wax doll leave the church and skip along a few streets before vanishing into a house. There was a rumour that the house from which she disappeared was once her home, and that her stepmother had been responsible for her death.

The remaining buttress of All Saint's Church, Dunwich.

End of War

Location: Dunwich (Suffolk) - All Saint's Church (only a buttress remains)
Type: Other
Date / Time: Pre-1918
Further Comments: A villager was told an old book contained a story that a ruined tower on the cliffs would fall at the end of the 'greatest war in history'. The tower of All Saint's Church fell four years after the First World War ended (the buttress was saved and is now in St James' Church, pictured).

Grey Lady

Location: Dyrham (Gloucestershire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman is said to haunt this churchyard.

An old woodcut of a skeleton carrying a fiddle, grabbing a woman.

Seeking Skeleton

Location: E11 (Greater London) - St Mary's Church and graveyard, Overton Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This skeletal ghost has been seen pushing a cart designed for corpses, looking for the body of his dead wife that was stolen by grave robbers. The grey female form seen around the graveyard is a poor widow who lost her husband only hours after they were married - she still searches for him today.

Man in Red

Location: E8 (Greater London) - St Barnabas church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: At least twice in the twentieth century, thirty years separating the two sightings, a figure wearing a red cassock has been spotted walking down the church passageway. The second time he was spotted, the phantom walked through a wall.

Relocation

Location: Easingwold (North Yorkshire) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was due to be built in the middle of this small market town, but the construction materials and tools were moved overnight to the place the church now stands.

The bell house at East Bergholt church, Suffolk.

Missing Steeple

Location: East Bergholt (Suffolk) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Bell house still stands
Further Comments: Night after night, during the construction of the church, the Devil appeared and pulled down the steeple. The builders finally gave up building the tower, and the bells now stand in a little bell house.

Monk

Location: East Dean (Sussex) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly monk-like figure has been reported wandering around the headstones.

St Withburga's Well

Location: East Dereham (Norfolk) - St Nicholas's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This holy well formed after the saint's body was stolen by monks acting on the orders of the Abbot of Ely.

Great Worm

Location: East Horndon (Essex) - East Horndon churchyard
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This dragon was discovered hiding amongst the tombs of the churchyard; it was finally slain by Sir James Tyrell. Some reports say the dragon lived in the nearby woods.

Photograph of Sarah Wrench's grave, taken by Garry Christmas, published with permission.

Caged Witch?

Location: East Mersea (Essex) - Churchyard, grave of Sarah Wrench, covered by cage, on the north side
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1848 onwards
Further Comments: Folklore says that the grave of Sarah Wrench, an alleged witch, was covered with a metal cage by the locals to keep her from returning from the dead. The truth is that the cage was put in place to protect Sarah's body from grave robbers. The grave and cage remain at the rear of the church. (Photograph by Garry Christmas)

Flower Throwing

Location: East Rudham (Norfolk) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: A worker at the church reported that their dog would become hysterical near the door, although nothing could be seen, and cut flowers would be thrown to the floor.

Witch's Leg

Location: East Somerton (Norfolk) - Church of St Mary (ruins) and tree known as the Witch's Finger
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Perhaps a recently created piece of folklore, one story says that a witch with a wooden leg was buried alive in the church; from the leg grew a tree and the church fell to ruins soon after.

Weeping Angel

Location: East Stoke (Nottinghamshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The angel that stands in the churchyard is said to weep real tears.

Coach & Four

Location: East Wellow (Hampshire) - Area from Embley Park to St Margaret's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring) (another story says 24 December)
Further Comments: Moving at breakneck speed, this phantom coach leaves the park, passing through the walls, just before midnight on the last day of the year. A newspaper story from 1940 claimed villagers were disappointed after they stayed up until after midnight and the entity failed to manifest.

Florence Nightingale

Location: East Wellow (Hampshire) - St Margaret's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Florence visited the church many times during her life and continues to do so in death. Colonel William Morton, one of several men who signed Charles I's death warrant, has been reported walking towards the churchyard.

Fighting Monks

Location: Easthope (Shropshire) - St Peter's churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The sounds of two monks fighting can be heard in the churchyard, even though both men died as they fell down the stone staircase to the cellar.

Vicar

Location: Eastry (Kent) - Eastry church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1956
Further Comments: Photographed in 1956 (see Janet & Colin Bord's Modern Mysteries of Britain, p40, for a good copy of the image), this ghost appears to be that of a former clergyman.

Mother

Location: Ebbw Vale (Gwent) - Churchyard, mill stream and bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman with her baby is said to haunt this area, with some believing the woman to have committed suicide by leaping from the bridge after falling in love with a Norman soldier. A few versions of the tale do not mention the baby.