The Paranormal Database

Maud Toogood

Location: Ramsbury (Wiltshire) - Elm tree in village (now replaced with an oak)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Oak still present
Further Comments: A hollow elm tree which was killed off by Dutch elm disease was replaced with an oak. One of the reasons for the replacement was that the shade of a local witch had taken up residence in the tree, and locals were worried that she may curse the area if the elm was fell.

The face of a ghostly white lady, a sketch by Wayne Lowden.

White Lady

Location: Randalstown (County Antrim) - Shane's Castle (aka Shanes Castle)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1966 (lady), but banshee unknown
Further Comments: This pallid female wraith cursed the family with everlasting sorrow and misfortune. She is said to be quite tall and slender, with blue eyes and blonde hair. The figure was last seen in 1966, where the entity was said to be on her knees, crying, bathed in bluish-white light. A banshee has also been heard wailing at the castle; one man who heard the entity as he left the site died before his journey ended.

Lychgate

Location: Rostherne (Cheshire) - St Mary's Church
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Newly married couples avoided passing through the Lychgate as it was believed the marriage would fail, either by discontent or death.

Seath Mor's Stones

Location: Rothiemurcus (Highland) - Churchyard (aka Old Doune Church Burial Ground)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The stones resting on Seath Mor Sgorfhiaclach's grave are said to be cursed, with misfortune befalling anyone who touched them. An iron cage now covers the grave and stones; while some say it is to protect against people accidently invoking the wrath of the curse, the cage's placement may be due to the stones being stolen (and later recovered) in the 1980s.

Tom

Location: Sand Hutton (North Yorkshire) - Busby Stoop Inn, road outside
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Tom Busby murdered his father with a hammer - an event which resulted in the public house in which the crime was committed being named after him. Hanged for the crime, his shade now comes back complete with noose, and any who see it are doomed. The shade was once thought to be centred on Tom's favourite chair, though when the chair was removed to Thirsk Museum, Tom stayed pub-bound. The chair itself was thought to be cursed, anyone sitting on it would die soon after.

Lewes Dowrich

Location: Sandford (Devon) - Dowrich manor house
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Lewes died drunk, after falling from his horse on the nearby bridge. He was cursed to return home from the bridge, but only to move ten centimetres every four weeks. The ghost was seen in 1973, only a few metres short of its goal.

Billy Callender

Location: SE19 (Greater London) - Crystal Palace Football Ground (Selhurst Park)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Callender, a goalkeeper, hanged himself in the Old Stand in 1932, after his fiance died of a disease. His form is said to linger on. The ground was also subject to a curse in the 1970s from a psychic originally called in to lay the ghost of Callender.

Molly

Location: Semley (Wiltshire) - Pythouse
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After murdering her daughter by pouring boiling water over her, Molly the maid was herself hanged for the crime, and her skeleton placed inside this house. Her ghost appears in the 'Pink Room', where she committed her heinous crime. The skeleton itself is reputedly cursed and removing the bones would bring misfortune to the occupiers.

Peasant Girl

Location: Silverstone (Northamptonshire) - Whittlebury Forest (and site of the former woodland)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A knight took his own life after having his love rejected by a peasant girl. Lying in his own blood, the knight cursed her, and she died soon after. The peasant's ghost remains in the forest. Another entity reported to haunt the area is the wild hunt, complete with headless horseman (thought by some to be the aforementioned knight).

Egyptian Curse

Location: Sligo (County Sligo) - Seaforth House
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: Poltergeist activity broke out in the house shortly after the arrival of Egyptian and Syrian artefacts brought back from the Middle East by Owen Phibbs. Servants were driven away, while the house sometimes shook to the very foundations. Eventually the family moved away and left the house to rot.

Pagan Help Required

Location: Southampton (Hampshire) - St Mary's Stadium
Type: Curse
Date / Time: November 2001
Further Comments: Cerridwen Dragonoak Connelly was called in to cleanse this stadium after it was believed the location was cursed or jinxed. After the blessing, the football team went on to their first win at their new home.

Chair of Despair

Location: Southport (Merseyside) - Oast House public house
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: A chair in this public house has reported as being cursed after eight people who sat there died.

No Mine

Location: St Keverne (Cornwall) - General area
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: When St Keverne lived here, he was shown little respect by the locals. The saint cursed the area with 'No metal will run within the sound of St. Keverne's bells'. Hence, no mines were ever discovered within the area.

Four Poster Bed

Location: St Michael's Mount (Cornwall) - Castle
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: A four poster bed in the castle is reported to be cursed - any child who sleeps in it never wakes up.

Do Not Move

Location: Stockton (Norfolk) - Stockton Stone
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Stone still present
Further Comments: This stone is said to be cursed; when it was last moved to straighten the nearby road, one of the workmen is said to have dropped dead.

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare's Grave

Location: Stratford-upon-Avon (Warwickshire) - Holy Trinity Church
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The tomb of Shakespeare has the following curse written upon it: Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare, To digg the dust encloased heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.

Kentish Longtails

Location: Strood (Kent) - General area
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 24 December 1190 onwards
Further Comments: One legend says that Thomas Becket was riding through the land when a member of the de Broc family cut off his horse's tail. This must have mightily upset the archbishop, as Becket cursed the population of Strood to be born with tails.

Mummified Feline

Location: Sudbury (Suffolk) - Mill Hotel
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: If removed, this cat is said to bring ill fortune to the building and the occupiers. When the cat was first discovered (before the mill became a hotel), it was sold to a nearby shop. The shop burned down, so the cat came back has stayed ever since.

Cursed Widow

Location: Sundridge (Kent) - Combe Bank - Parkland
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Cursed by her husband prior to his execution (the woman's testimony placed him there, enabling her to run off with another man), Lord Ferrer's widow died in a fire so intense only part of her thumb was recovered. Her spirit is said to be looking for the rest of the body.

Seat of Defeat

Location: Thirsk (North Yorkshire) - Thirsk museum
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The museum houses a cursed wooden chair which brings death to any who sit upon it, and is even said to bring misfortune if touched.

Hob of the Hurst

Location: Todmorden (West Yorkshire) - Barcroft Hall, Walk Mill
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity helped the family with their chores, until given a gift - this freed the spirit, and it became hostile and antagonistic. As if this was not bad enough, the Barcroft family was once cursed by one of their sons who was imprisoned in the basement, who declared that the family name should die out.

Homely Skull

Location: Tunstead Milton (Derbyshire) - Flagg Hall
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The home of another screaming skull, the building would echo with the sounds of cries and moans if the morbid item were removed.

Cursed Motorway

Location: Twyford (Hampshire) - Twyford Down (now area of the M3)
Type: Curse
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: A week after a motorway construction team disturbed the graves of eighteen men, some two metres tall, two of the men suffered fatal heart attacks and a night watchman dropped dead at his post. People protesting the construction of the motorway pronounced the incidents 'the curse of the giants'.

Field of the Dead

Location: Unst (Shetland) - Burra Fiord
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Anyone who plants a spade in the earth at this location in Burra Fiord shall be struck by tragedy (according to folklore). One woman who dug there lost her best cow. When she dug there a second time, her husband died.

Soothsayer Curse

Location: Urray (Highland) - Brahan Castle, former site of
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Before being boiled alive in a cauldron of tar, a local soothsayer predicted the downfall of the family that owned the castle. His every word came true...