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Church Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana

White Figure

Location: W4 (Greater London) - Hammersmith Churchyard and Black Lion Lane area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1804
Further Comments: This ghost was blamed for the death of a local woman, who collapsed and died a few hours after witnessing the entity. A hunt for the spook resulted in another local man being shot by mistake (he was wearing white clothing), and the ghost sightings trailed off soon after.


ID #2266, last updated 2002-08-24

Monk

Location: W6 (Greater London) - Holy Trinity church, Brook Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1896
Further Comments: Father White claimed to have seen a ghostly monk enter the church on more than one occasion. The Father's servant and curates had also spotted the entity.


ID #14493, last updated 2022-05-12

White Rabbit

Location: Wadebridge (Cornwall) - Egloshayle church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nights of the full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: When the moon is brightest, the ghostly rabbit bolts across the churchyard and vanishes into the boundary wall. Another entity that haunts the churchyard is that of a man who tried to shoot the rabbit with a shotgun but managed to kill himself with the weapon instead!


ID #3697, last updated 2003-01-23


Walberswick Church, Suffolk.

Victorian Church Warden

Location: Walberswick (Suffolk) - Walberswick Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1930s, 1970s
Further Comments: Witnessed by George Orwell, a small and stooping figure dressed like a workman was seen silently crossing the churchyard, before disappearing from view. Orwell investigated further and realised that the figure had vanished. Others who have seen the figure have described him as dressed like a gentleman.


ID #49, last updated 2000-08-17

Jane Wenham

Location: Walkern (Hertfordshire) - Area around church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Driven from the village by a mob that believed her to be a witch, Jane never returned during her lifetime. Post-mortem appears to be a different story. As a sidenote, the church was supposed to have been built in Box, Stevenage, but was moved by supernatural means.


ID #3027, last updated 2026-03-28

Moved

Location: Walsall (Staffordshire) - St Matthew's Church
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Church still present
Further Comments: The fairies took a dislike to where the church was going to be built, so moved the foundation stones to the top of the hill where the church was finally built.


ID #8810, last updated 2008-08-25

Chimes

Location: Walsingham (Norfolk) - Egmere church ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Heading towards a shrine, the invisible procession of pilgrims can be heard ringing small hand bells as they move.


ID #3820, last updated 2003-02-13

Monk

Location: Waltham Abbey (Essex) - Abbey Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: First seen over twenty years ago, a monk is said to walk the graveyard.


ID #7, last updated 2004-10-01

Overwhelming Evil

Location: Waltham Abbey (Essex) - Waltham Abbey Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: A couple walking past the church noticed yellow lights shining through the window. The woman was overcome by a sense of evil, so great that she refused to talk about it for several years after the event.


ID #623, last updated 2001-09-08


John Dee and Edward Kelly summon the dead in St Leonard's Churchyard, Walton le Dale.

Summoning the Dead

Location: Walton le Dale (Lancashire) - St Leonard's Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 August 1560 (possible date)
Further Comments: John Dee, together with Edward Kelly, attempted to raise a dead man to discover the location of his hidden treasure. The dead man is supposed to have made several predictions about his former neighbours before returning to his grave. The 1825 publication 'The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century' contains the most famous image of the event.


ID #3085, last updated 2002-11-10

Countess of Salisbury

Location: Warblington (Hampshire) - Castle and Churchyard ruins
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury, walks around this area without her head. The shade of a smuggler is also reported to frequent the castle.


ID #5555, last updated 2004-11-13

Reverend F W Densham

Location: Warleggan (Cornwall) - St Bartholomew's Church, pathway leading to the vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onward
Further Comments: The Reverend Densham was not a popular man within the local community, and after dying in 1953, it could be that his ghost is seeking redemption with the villagers.


ID #941, last updated 2002-05-06

Singing

Location: Warmington (Warwickshire) - Parish church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre mid-twentieth century
Further Comments: A phantom voice was heard to sing in the church.


ID #15518, last updated 2024-07-16

Stone Throwing

Location: Warrington (Cheshire) - Houses close to the churchyard, Stockton Heath
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1885
Further Comments: Several greenhouses had glass broken after paving stones were dropped upon them. Despite sentries being posted, the source of the stones could not be found.


ID #12694, last updated 2017-12-21

Waking the Dead

Location: Watchet (Somerset) - St Decuman's Church
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A schoolmaster walking past the church was approached by robbers who forced him to take them to the grave of a wealthy woman who had recently died. Opening the crypt, the schoolmaster was made to remove the gold rings from the corpse's fingers. Halfway through this ghastly task, the dead woman sat up and cried for her brothers and sisters to help her - nearby coffins opened and the dead sat up. The robbers and schoolmaster escaped, but the schoolmaster died soon after sharing his story.


ID #7931, last updated 2007-09-04

Mr Cooke

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravished the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).


ID #4582, last updated 2003-09-13

Grey Lady

Location: Watton-at-Stone (Hertfordshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local story says the church tower is haunted by a grey lady who leapt from the top after being spurned.


ID #15787, last updated 2025-01-18

Sounds of Coach Crash

Location: Weeley (Essex) - Pond near Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend tells of the phantom sounds of a coach crash near the pond.


ID #173, last updated 2001-09-06

Unbottled Ghost

Location: Welton (Northamptonshire) - Field next to the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, likely to be pre twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost in a field by the church was said to have been tricked into a bottle by members of the local clergy who cast it into a well. The ghost managed to escape and continued to haunt the area.


ID #11898, last updated 2015-08-10


An old postcard of Wendover Church.

Moved by Fairies

Location: Wendover (Buckinghamshire) - Church
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The church was planned to be built elsewhere, however the local fairy population had other plans, and moved the building materials to the place the structure now stands.


ID #5088, last updated 2004-03-14

Devil Summoning

Location: Weobley (Herefordshire) - Churchyard
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown - traditional
Further Comments: Anyone reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards whilst walking around the large cross in the churchyard will call upon the Devil.


ID #4799, last updated 2003-12-24


A phantom child dressed in white.

Child

Location: West Auckland (Durham) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 March 1873
Further Comments: A local postman named Barker passed the church and spotted a phantom child dressed in white clothing. The postman fled home, with the ghost in following close behind. Entering his home, the man ran upstairs, but still the ghost followed, the panicked postman then running back downstairs and grabbing his wife from the parlour, fled the house. This time the ghost did not follow, but remained inside the property, along with the couple's young child. Such was their fear, they found an old woman and sent her in to recover their offspring.


ID #10279, last updated 2011-04-25

Dragon Slayer

Location: West Clandon (Surrey) - Exact location unknown, but woodcarving in local church
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dragon which was given the locals a hard time was killed by an ex-soldier and his dog - the dog leapt onto the creature's face, while the man decapitated the wyrm.


ID #5037, last updated 2004-02-29

Crying Lady

Location: West Deeping (Lincolnshire) - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 14 January, 01:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The date of this woman's death is marked by her phantom sobs heard emanating from the church. Her husband was so distressed by the death that he took his own life the following day (see Tallington, Lincolnshire).


ID #5208, last updated 2004-06-20

Turquoise Light

Location: West Harling (Norfolk) - Woodland near the church
Type: Other
Date / Time: July 2014, 23:00h-00:00h
Further Comments: Five people metal detecting at night near Mickle Moor Hill watched an illuminous turquoise green light which moved rapidly out of the wood. One of the witnesses said that it moved like no other light, at great speeds and turning at irregular angles. It made no noise, did not flicker, and they all experienced a strange negative feeling. After watching the light for a few minutes, the five witnesses ran away.


ID #11762, last updated 2015-03-02

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