The Paranormal Database

A phantom lady in old fashioned clothing.

Female Figure

Location: Bletchington (Surrey) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman in seventeenth century clothing is said to haunt this churchyard.

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Will Scarlet

Location: Blidworth (Nottinghamshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Will is said to be buried in the churchyard in a grave the shape of an arrow.

Duelling Knights with Fiery Swords

Location: Blofield (Norfolk) - Path leading from Blofield church to St Michael's at Braydeston
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Returning to this realm once a year, the knights are said to be Sir Thomas Boleyn (father of Anne) and Sir Thomas Paston. Their shades battle with burning swords, and Lady Anne watches from a nearby carriage, pulled by headless horses.

The Devil Helps Thrice

Location: Bloxham (Oxfordshire) - Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Fourteenth century
Further Comments: This church is one of three in the area (King's Sutton and Adderbury being the other two) that were paid for by three brothers. One of their workers who helped construct this tower never took any pay, never slept and never ate - he vanished as soon as the tower was built. The brothers were convinced that they were helped by Old Nick.

Edwardian Man

Location: Blyth (Northumberland) - St Cuthbert's Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa Winter 1996
Further Comments: At least two witnesses have observed a man in Edwardian dress walking through this churchyard, vanishing into thin air when reaching the edge of the church itself. It is said the road outside the church is haunted by a man on a penny farthing bicycle.

Blythburgh Church, Suffolk.

Shuck

Location: Blythburgh (Suffolk) - Church
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 04 August 1577, and 1973
Further Comments: During a church service in 1577, a large black dog burst in and created havoc. Blackened scorch marks said to be caused by the creature still exist today on the church door. Many years later, in 1973, a man working in the marshes near the church reporting hearing a panting dog standing beside him, though nothing could be seen.

Former Vicar

Location: Boldon Colliery (Tyne and Wear) - Hedworth Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa March 1896
Further Comments: Churchgoers reported being able to see a figure standing at the windows of this building. The ghost was said to resemble a former vicar and had regularly returned for over a month.

Ghost of a murderer walking through slums.

Murder Suicide

Location: Bolton (Greater Manchester) - Former Tax Office and ABC Capitol Cinema, Churchgate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1800s onwards
Further Comments: The Tax office and Cinema were built upon former slums Antelope Court. In one of the slums a murder suicide occurred in the 1800s. Ever since, workers of both building reported equipment activating by unseen hands, lights flickering on and off and the spectre of an old man, thought to be the murderer, and his wife, the victim, have been seen.

Sheet

Location: Borden (Kent) - St Peter and St Paul Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: February 2014
Further Comments: A photograph which made it into the local press which was said to show a 'faceless monk in a habit' was unconvincing and resembled a sheet behind a window at the church.

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.

Tall Man in Old Fashioned Clothes

Location: Borley (Essex) - Churchyard
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A group of ghost hunters from London reported seeing a man smoking an old fashioned pipe standing under a tree in the churchyard - one of them later discovering that the figure resembled Harry Bull - one time owner of the rectory. A phantom nun also walks the area, likely to be the same entity seen along Nun's Walk. A particularly nasty smell is said to emerge from a bush, although the reason for the stench cannot be ascertained.

An old postcard of Boscastle.

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.

Sarah Preston

Location: Boston (Lincolnshire) - Boston Stump (tower of St Botolph's parish church)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Autumn (reoccurring)
Further Comments: In one version of the ghost story, Sarah is seen to leap from the tower of the church holding a young child, vanishing just before hitting the ground. Another variation has Sarah dying of the plague - she was blamed for bringing the black death in the town by her adulterous ways, and her cries of 'pestilence!' can still be heard as she runs towards the church.

An old postcard of Boston Stump, St Botolph's parish church.

Devil's Breath

Location: Boston (Lincolnshire) - Boston Stump (tower of St Botolph's parish church)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Still present!
Further Comments: The winds which whip and whistle around the Stump are said to be caused by the Devil. He was once cornered by St Botolph; the saint preached so intensely, the only thing the Devil could do was huff and puff, and the gasps have not yet subsided.

Death by Witchcraft

Location: Bottesford (Leicestershire) - Church
Type: Other
Date / Time: Tomb still present
Further Comments: Likely to be the only inscription on a tomb that blames death by 'wicked practice and sorcerye', the two children's graves marked as such were sons of the local Lord of Rutland. As a side note, a late nineteenth century piece of folklore says that if a ghost has not left a grave within 25 years after their remains have been buried, it may never do so.

Red Headed Girl.

Shadowy Figure

Location: Boughton Green (Northamptonshire) - St John the Baptist church ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This figure, also heard moaning around the same time of year, is thought to be a criminal hanged in 1826. Others speak of a darker tale - that the ghost takes the form of a beautiful man or woman, depending on the gender of the witness, and asks them for a kiss. If it is given, the kisser is doomed to die within a month. This is said to have last happened to a man called William Parker on Christmas Eve 1875; after meeting a red headed girl at the church who faded away shortly after engaging with her, William died exactly one month later.

Widow Shawe

Location: Boulge (Suffolk) - Churchyards in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Stormy nights
Further Comments: Having cut her own throat, this phantom woman was said to have taken up haunting churchyards in the area.

St Andrews Church, Bournemouth.

Smugglers in the Tunnels

Location: Bournemouth (Dorset) - St Andrews Church, Millhams Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The graveyard here is said to contain blocked off tunnels once used by the smuggling community to move their contraband away from the coast. The ghosts of these men are still reported to flit around the area.

Footsteps

Location: Bourton-On-The-Water (Gloucestershire) - St Lawrence's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 March 2014, 22:20h
Further Comments: Two brothers photographing the church by night heard footsteps approaching them on the gravel. They moved aside to let the person pass, but it quickly became apparent no one was there. The brothers could then make out the faint outline of a hooded figure coming closer to where they stood, vanishing when six feet away. The footsteps also ceased, and the brothers were left in silence.

Evil Awaits

Location: Bovey Tracey (Devon) - St John's Church
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was said that the churchyard here was unused for a while due to the belief that the first body interred would belong to the Devil. The body of a servant under the employ of a visitor to the area was buried here, after which others believed the site was ready to be used for their loved ones.

Needless Bloodshed

Location: Bovingdon (Hertfordshire) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Some say that part of the churchyard has been desecrated by a great deal of blood, and the dead are now restless.

Monks

Location: Bowerchalke (Wiltshire) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - most likely to be seen in the early hours
Further Comments: A phantom procession of monks reportedly haunt the churchyard.

Phantom Organ Music

Location: Bowers Gifford (Essex) - St Margaret's Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: A witness reported hearing the organ playing, though they were alone in the church at the time.

Crusader

Location: Bracebridge (Lincolnshire) - Bracebridge Hall & Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Buried at the nearby church, this knight materialises at the hall (by a portrait) and rides a spectral mare to the graveyard to ensure his body has not been disturbed. He also sometimes appears in the church itself.

Animated Figures

Location: Brackley (Northamptonshire) - St Peter's Church
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The stone figures standing over the west door climb down when the clock strikes twelve, crossing the churchyard to drink from a nearby well.