The Paranormal Database

White Horse Upright

Location: Oxwich (West Glamorgan) - Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: Early nineteenth century
Further Comments: This ghostly creature walks around on hind legs, ending the jaunt as it vanishes down an ancient well.

Animated Statues

Location: Padstow (Cornwall) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Stone statues of a lion, unicorn, and knight became animated and chased a young girl after she chanted the rhyme, 'Reefy, reefy rum, without teeth or tongue; if you'll have me, now I am a-come'.

Ninety Nine Yews

Location: Painswick (Gloucestershire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Ninety nine yew trees stand in this churchyard. It is said that it is impossible to grow another yew tree in the churchyard, as the devil always comes and removes it. . .

Banging

Location: Pakenham (Suffolk) - St Mary's Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 September 2025
Further Comments: After walking around the churchyard recording with an old Dictaphone, a witness reported hearing voices and banging when playing back the tape.

Haunted Margaret

Location: Panteg (Gwent) - Church (plus a footbridge and other locations in the area)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Marget yr Yspryd gained her nickname 'Haunted Margaret' after being jilted at the alter - she fell to her knees in the church and prayed that the man who betrayed her would never find rest. The man died shortly after, and his ghost took to following Margaret. One of Margaret's friends suggested talking to the ghost and forgiving him. Soon after, Margaret met the ghost at a footbridge - she absolved him, and the ghost disappeared forever.

Alan A' Dale's Marriage

Location: Papplewick (Nottinghamshire) - St James' Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Alan A' Dale, one of Hood's loyal men, is said to have been married in this church.

Bobby Bannister the Bastard Landlord

Location: Passenham (Northamptonshire) - Churchyard, & Millstream
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Being dragged by a ghostly horse, this tragic figure bounces around the roads, his neck broken whilst hunting. One report says that the ghost was laid by a team of holy men who banished it to the bottom of the millstream. Screaming sometimes comes from the millstream, the sounds belonging to a girl who fell and was crushed by the wheel.

A wild man of the woods.

Woodwose

Location: Peasenhall (Suffolk) - Peasenhall church
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While the woodwose, or wild hairy man, carved into the church porch has not been seen for centuries, the creatures were once said to be 'plentiful' in the region.

Anne West

Location: Pembury (Kent) - Great Bayhall Manor house, and churchyard (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1803
Further Comments: Anne feared being buried alive, so she requested a bell be placed in her crypt when her time came. When she was buried, the bell rang for several nights, and her corpse was seen walking down the road towards her former home. She continued to haunt the area for many years afterwards.

Corpse Candles

Location: Penistone (South Yorkshire) - St John's Church
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: July 1793
Further Comments: A local curate watched two lights dance around a particular grave in the village, before disappearing. The following day, the grave was opened to allow the burial of a young boy who had died at the time the glowing balls had been seen.

Woman in White

Location: Penn (Buckinghamshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A female phantom is said to have left the church via the east gate and walk down the hill. Author Eddie Brazil speculated that the phantom was Ruth Ellis, the last woman to have been executed in England.

Giant's Grave

Location: Penrith (Cumbria) - St Andrew's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Large stones mark the place where a giant is buried - he is thought to be Sir Ewen (or Sir Ewain), a great boar hunter.

Captain Martin

Location: Penryn (Cornwall) - Church of St Gluvias
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Drowned at sea, the former bell ringer of St Gluvias who became a captain returned from his watery grave and now silently stands in the church. On occasion, he has been heard ringing the bells in the early hours of the morning.

A fairy funeral, from James Bowker's Goblin Tales of Lancashire.

Fairy Funerals

Location: Penwortham (Lancashire) - Church Avenue
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Fairy funeral processions were said to once have occurred here, always by the soft light of the moon. It is reportedly unlucky for mortals to gaze upon them.

Missing Teeth

Location: Perranzabuloe (Cornwall) - Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old woman who found a set of false teeth in this churchyard took them home. She was awoken while sleeping the following night by a phantom voice which demanded 'give me back my teeth!' - she threw the dentures out of her bedroom window, and never heard from the ghost again.

Watch the Timing

Location: Peterborough (Cambridgeshire) - St John's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Concerning the bells of the church and the cathedral, an old rhyme says, 'when the church and the abbey they strike together, they'll either be a death or change in the weather'.

Businessman

Location: Pevensey (Sussex) - Church of St Mary the Virgin
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1995
Further Comments: This ghost is said to look identical to an executive or a businessman, though he vanishes if spoken to.

Grey Lady

Location: Pillerton Priors (aka Over Pillerton) (Warwickshire) - Site of former church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly grey woman wearing religious robes was once said to haunt the ruined churchyard.

Blandford's Hand

Location: Pimperne (Dorset) - Pimperne churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Blandford was a trumpeter with the Dragoons who engaged with poaching on the side. One night he was stumbled upon by a posse of gamekeepers; during the ensuring fight he lost a hand and was captured. While the hand was buried at Pimperne churchyard, Blandford recovered from his injury, and died in London a few years later. The hand is said to crawl around the graveyard and will not rest until reunited with the rest of Blandford.

Fairy Fair

Location: Pitminster (Somerset) - Blackdown Hill, between Pitminster and Churchinford (once known as Chestonford)
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A villager riding home spotted a large fair taking place on the hill, with many people dressed in colourful clothing. He decided to investigate further, but as he rode up to the site, the fair vanished. After riding through the area, the villager turned, and was once again able to see the event behind him.

Flickering Light

Location: Pluckley (Kent) - Church of St Nicholas
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sounds of knocking can be heard coming from beneath the church at night, often accompanied by a flickering and fluttering light inside the empty building. Some say the light belongs to Lady Dering, buried within three lead coffins to prevent her decay. The churchyard is reputed to be haunted by a red lady, wandering the area in search of her missing baby. Finally, the inside of the church is also said to be haunted by a woman in mid-twentieth century clothing.

Carts

Location: Plush (Dorset) - Church Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly sound of creaking carts, carrying coffins, can be heard on the hill.

Relocation

Location: Plympton (Devon) - Church of St Mary's
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Church still present
Further Comments: The villagers were going to build their church at Crownhill Castle, but the Devil created so much havoc during the laying of the foundations the building was relocated to where it now stands.

Cursed Bell

Location: Pontypool (Gwent) - St Cadoc's Church, Trevethin
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown (story from nineteenth century)
Further Comments: A child who had climbed to the top of the belfry was struck and killed by a church bell. This resulted in the bell becoming home to demons which took the item into Annwn, the otherworld. When a child in the neighbourhood is accidently killed, the bell can be heard ringing.

A phantom in a box at the bottom of the sea.

Lucott

Location: Porlock (Somerset) - Church area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local pirate Lucott returned as a ghost soon after his burial. Twelve priests failed to banish him, but the priest from Watchet was made of sterner stuff - the holy man engaged the pirate in a game of wit, and after winning, forced the ghost into an iron box which was cast out to sea.