The Paranormal Database

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 accidentally 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.

Hooded Figure

Location: Port Seton (Lothian) - Seton Collegiate Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2005, summer
Further Comments: One witness spotted a hooded figure in a monk's habit watching from a doorway. No facial features were visible.

Charlotte

Location: Portchester (Hampshire) - Church by the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This black haired lass is said to attend to a grave; some believe it to be her own.

Church Ope Cove, Portland.

Mermaid

Location: Portland (Dorset) - Church Ope Cove
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One story says that a mermaid came ashore here but died soon after being discovered by local people heading to church.

Funeral Procession

Location: Portree, Isle of Skye (Highland) - Churchyard
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One folktale says a man encountered a phantom funeral procession and felt compelled to follow it. When the ghostly entourage reached Portree churchyard, the man asked whose funeral it was, only to be told 'your own'.

Figure

Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - St Agatha's church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1954-1970
Further Comments: While the church was used for storage, a rumour existed of a ghostly figure which haunted the site. More recently, a local legend speaks about ghostly nuns in the area, although there is nothing to suggest there was a nunnery here.

Dark Figure

Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - St Ann's Church, Dockyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2018
Further Comments: Having worked in the building before many times without incident, a member of the chaplaincy team had two fleeting glances of a dark figure standing on the balcony, looking over the edge as if watching the witness. The figure was described as curious and unthreatening.

Murdered Priest

Location: Poundstock (Cornwall) - St Neots Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 March 1971
Further Comments: Killed in the mid-1300s, this holy man has been seen drifting around the churchyard and standing by the altar. He was murdered after speaking out against the local smugglers. In 1971 a man reportedly spoke to the priest, mistaking him for a real person.

Grey Figure

Location: Powderham (Devon) - St Clement's church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1939
Further Comments: This entity, clad in a grey cloak, is seen entering the churchyard before vanishing. A white lady has also been reported more recently on the site.

The Black Abbot

Location: Prestbury (Gloucestershire) - Church and churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies: Christmas and Easter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Maintaining the same route every year, this ghost materialises in the church before crossing the churchyard and disappearing through a wall in the High Street. The Abbot was photographed in 1990 by a Mr Stafford.

Chaplin

Location: Preston (Lancashire) - Fulwood Barracks - garrison church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s-1980s
Further Comments: Killed during the First World War, the chaplain returned to his base, and stayed there ever since. He has been seen leaning against his sword, and heard clapping and breathing heavily.

Samuel Trying to Escape

Location: Prittlewell (Essex) - Churchyard
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1827/28
Further Comments: After being buried, witnesses reported hearing Samuel Brown trying to escape his coffin underground. Knowing how common being buried alive once was, this may not be a ghostly event...

Possible Nun

Location: Purton (Wiltshire) - Purton Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A bricked up woman's skeleton found contained within a hidden room is thought to be related to the ghostly form which haunts the church. Some believe the figure to be a murdered nun, though the truth may never be known.

Hearse

Location: Quidenham (Norfolk) - Bridge close to a church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless coachman drives his coffin laden carriage and horses across this bridge.

Twelve Drunken Pall Bearers

Location: Quidenham (Norfolk) - Bridge, route from church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One Lord Albemarle of Quidenham requested that his coffin be carried by twelve men in the state that he had favoured in life - drunkenness. The pall bearers, too drunk for their own good, fell over the side of the village bridge near the church and drowned in the waters below. On certain nights, this incident can be reheard.

Boadicea

Location: Quidenham (Norfolk) - Low mound, around 300 metres from the church, known as Viking's Mound
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: This site has been named as another contender for the final resting place of Queen Boudicca.

Christopher Bloor

Location: Rainham (Kent) - Lane leading to Bloor Place (no longer standing) and near church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Christopher Bloor had a reputation for being a seducer of women. This proved to be Christopher's undoing - he was decapitated by a posse of local men with wives with whom he had slept. The lane was haunted by the headless Bloor, who reputedly drove his coach pulled by headless horses, and ghostly hoofbeats heard around the church.

Wild William Darrell

Location: Ramsbury (Wiltshire) - Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Midnight
Further Comments: It is reported that if anyone counts one hundred studs on the north door at midnight, Wild William Darrell will emerge.

The Coronation of the Virgin with the Trinity,

Armless Woman

Location: Rathkeale (County Limerick) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Woman unknown, Virgin and Child 2009
Further Comments: A female spectre which haunted the churchyard was so terrifying that all who looked upon her died soon after. A local man banished the shade by slicing off her arm with his sword and praying for the rest of the night. In 2009 the Times newspaper carried the story that a tree stump contains the image of the Virgin Mary and Child, and that hundreds of visitors had come to the area to pray.

Pennies from Heaven

Location: Reddish (Greater Manchester) - St Elizabeth's Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: May 1981
Further Comments: Witnesses heard dozens of coins rain down in the churchyard, falling from an empty sky, though some were quite deeply embedded in the earth.

Sound of Horses

Location: Redditch (Worcestershire) - The Lane, Church Hill South
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend says that the phantom horses heard in this area belonged to Roman riders who fell into a large pit trap dug by their enemies.

Woman on Path

Location: Reigate (Surrey) - St Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1975
Further Comments: A ghostly girl has been seen on the pathway leading up to the church. Singing has also been reported when the church has been locked up.

Portrait of a rather cross cockatrice.

Cockatrice

Location: Renwick (Cumbria) - Church
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1733?
Further Comments: This mythical creature, made up of pieces of dragon, serpent, and cockerel, took up residence in the church when it fell into ruin. A local man named John Tallantire (or Tallantine) killed the creature using a branch from a rowan tree (or hawthorn), though some locals say it is still seen flying about at dusk.