The Paranormal Database

Balls of Light

Location: Mawnan (Cornwall) - Wooded area close to church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 03 March 2007
Further Comments: On a clear and calm night, a camper in this woodland could see two balls of light through the material of the tent. The camper's dog was also in the tent; normally quite boisterous, the hound quaked in the sleeping bag. The camper also said they experienced a strong sense of fear.

Strange Carving

Location: Melbury Osmund (Dorset) - Church of St Osmund
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: A carving in the church shows a strange creature entangled in a thicket.

Headless Woman

Location: Melsonby (North Yorkshire) - Lanes and church near Lady Well (likely no longer present)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A local myth said the well close to the churchyard was haunted by a headless white lady.

A beach near the church on Mersea Island.

Wrecked Yacht

Location: Mersea Island (Essex) - Beach near church
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local man spotted a wrecked yacht just off the coast, the crew in dire need of assistance. The man spent several hours trying to save the badly injured sailors, only to eventually lose consciousness during the rescue attempt. He later awoke on the beach, only to discover there was no evidence the boat or the crew ever existed.

Music and Chanting

Location: Messing (Essex) - Messing Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Heard coming from the empty church, the source of the music and chant can never be discovered.

Young Girl

Location: Middleton (Essex) - Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: While visiting the village to investigate the angel reports, one ghost hunter claimed to have encountered a young girl kneeling in the chancel of the church.

Ghosts of the Future

Location: Middleton (Greater Manchester) - St Leonard's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 01 November (All Souls' Day) (Reoccurring)
Further Comments: The souls of all those who will die by the following All Souls' Day walk through the church at midnight. A former member of the clergy is also reported to haunt the church, though his appearance is not date related.

Funeral Procession

Location: Milford Haven (Dyfed) - Church
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A family living nearby watched a funeral occurring in the church opposite their house, though when they went to talk to the vicar whom they knew, the scene vanished. A few days later, a neighbour died, and the funeral occurred in the same manner that the family had observed.

William and Mary Huett

Location: Millbrook (Bedfordshire) - Church of St Michael and All Angels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1857-1888
Further Comments: During repair work on the church in 1857, the tomb of William and Mary Huett, upon which lay their sculptures, was dismantled and not replaced. Soon after, the church was haunted by groaning. Attempting to pacify the spirits, the rector had the carved figures buried in the churchyard, though it took many years for the groaning to finally stop.

Lady Arabella

Location: Milton Common (Oxfordshire) - Church of St Michael and All Angels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1968
Further Comments: Dressed in Tudor clothing, this grey lady has been observed moving across the churchyard.

Horse and Rider

Location: Minchinhampton (Gloucestershire) - Devil's Churchyard (private land), east of parish
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom horse and rider are said to travel along the lane which runs alongside the Devil's Churchyard. When man and beast reach the stones, they vanish. The Churchyard was once covered in large stones, around which Christians decided to build a new church. Each night their work would be destroyed, so in the end they built the church somewhere else and pulled down the stones down out of spite.

Top of the Hill

Location: Minchinhampton (Gloucestershire) - St Bartholomew's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Try as they might, the villagers could not build their church at the base of this hill - every night something pulled it down. The church was eventually constructed on top of the hill (an Iron Age settlement) without further problems.

Bloody Footprint

Location: Misterton (Leicestershire) - St Leon's church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Cornered in the churchyard by a band of robbers and faced with certain death, a peddler declared that whoever struck him down would be forced to haunt the site of his murder. This failed to prevent the peddler being murdered, but after the killer was caught and executed, a bloody footprint appeared at the scene of the crime and is still said to appear once a year.

John Davies' Grave

Location: Montgomery (Powys) - Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Just before his execution for a crime he probably did not commit, Davies stated that no grass would ever grow on his grave. This is still the case, and the bare spot forms the image of a cross. An early version of the story says that if anyone tries to sow grass seeds on the spot, they shall die.

Robert Lomas

Location: Monyash (Derbyshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1960s - early 1970s
Further Comments: The Reverend Lomas died after falling from his horse, although his shade was seen in his former church several times. The presence was said to be comforting.

Royalist

Location: Moreton on Lugg (Herefordshire) - St Mary the Virgin church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Royalist was captured, tortured and killed by Parliamentary soldiers in this churchyard. His ghost is said to remain.

An old photograph of people standing outside Morwenstow church.

Robert Hawker

Location: Morwenstow (Cornwall) - Church and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 July 2024, late afternoon / early evening
Further Comments: Folklore says that Parson Hawker, proudly proclaimed a legend in his own lifetime by locals, has been heard walking about in his former church and other various areas of his old neighbourhood. In 2024, one witness looked up from their bible and spotted a figure in dark red robes, wearing wither a hood or a strange hat, standing in the centre aisle. The figure promptly evaporated. Many years ago, the church was due to be constructed in a different place, but the building materials were relocated by a supernatural agency to the place it now stands.

Spanish Princess

Location: Movern (Argyll and Bute) - Kiel Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre twentieth century
Further Comments: A man with the ability to see both the living and the dead claimed he would watch as ghosts left the church at dusk and return at dawn. One of the ghosts, a woman, always lagged behind the others, and when questioned, the entity claimed to have been a Spanish princess whose body had been returned home, but one of her fingers had been left behind.

Intervention

Location: Much Cowarne (Herefordshire) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This church was due to be built on top of a nearby hill, but an unknown agency relocated the construction materials.

Figure in White

Location: N1 (Greater London) - St Mary's Parish Church, Islington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December 1898 (ghost), January 1899 (large crowd gathers)
Further Comments: After a local paper printed a story concerning the appearance and disappearance of a white figure outside the church on Christmas night, a large crowd of people gathered looking for the entity. A large police presence eventually moved the crowd on.

Cowled Figure

Location: N1 (Greater London) - St Peter's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A grey-white figure with its face covered by a cowl was said to haunt this church.

White Hound

Location: N9 (Greater London) - Edmonton church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The white phantom dog which lurked in this area was harmless unless provoked.

Fire Protection

Location: Nantwich (Cheshire) - Churche's Mansion
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still standing
Further Comments: This house has a salamander carved into the wall to protect it from fire. It appears to have worked; a large blaze in the community in 1583 levelled most of the town but failed to touch the protected home.

Grey Ladies

Location: Napton on the Hill (Warwickshire) - Church
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: While two ghostly Elizabethan ladies traditionally haunt the area, the 1960s sighting of an older lady relates to a woman thought to have died locally about twenty years previous.

Priest

Location: Neston (Cheshire) - Church
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1800s
Further Comments: An unknown priest once arrived here and gave mass before mysteriously vanishing. It was later discovered that his description matched that of a former priest buried in the churchyard.