The Paranormal Database

Headless Page Boy

Location: Stowford (Devon) - Hayne Manor
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to death of owner
Further Comments: The boy was murdered by a butler on the site after he caught the older man stealing some plates - the young shade now appears with his head under the arm, warning of impending death. A wish hound has also been reported around the area.

Outline of Coach

Location: Stroud (Gloucestershire) - Road running alongside Rodborough Common, and apartments built near Rodborough Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s, September 2013
Further Comments: A couple out walking in the 1970s watched in amazement as the ghostly outline of a horseless coach passed them. In 2013, a group of friends watched as an old fashioned car silently moved by. No driver could be seen and as they tried to follow, it vanished. Other witnesses have seen the phantom, and others have reported headless horsemen or of hearing galloping.

Steam Engine

Location: Stroud (Gloucestershire) - Woodchester Mansion, near the town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2001, and 14 December 2019
Further Comments: A film crew spending a night in the building in 2001 reported loud disembodied banging, which climaxed as the sounds of a stream train charged through the house. The house is also reported to be haunted by a white lady, and the park surrounding the building is home to a Roman soldier, a figure resembling a monk, two American servicemen in Second World War uniforms, a headless horse and a dwarf which somersaults along the driveway. In 2019, a witness watched a horse and carriage driven by a man wearing a tall Victorian hat pass through a locked gate.

Lancaster Pilot

Location: Strubby (Lincolnshire) - Second World War RAF base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This decapitated shade nicknamed 'Strubby' is the result of a Lancaster bomber crash near the hangar area during the Second World War.

Headless Man

Location: Sutton Coldfield (West Midlands) - New Hall Hotel and Wylde Green Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1820s onwards
Further Comments: This headless figure is thought to have been a local man mistakenly found guilty for being a Jacobite spy. The man was executed, and his head left in an oak tree where it remained until the 1820s - the tree was cut down and the skull rediscovered. Since then, the headless phantom is said to walk around the area (or the head rolls around looking for its body, depending on the source).

Headless Woman

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Cockspur Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1975
Further Comments: A taxi driver watched a decapitated woman cross the road in front of him, vanishing once reaching the pavement. The figure is thought to be the same entity that haunts St James's Park.

Nellie Melba

Location: SW4 (Greater London) - Bingo hall along Clapham High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Nellie fell from the roof of this former theatre, after climbing to the roof in a drunken haze. Her shade, headless, was reportedly seen by some staff members near the area of the former stage.

Headless Dog

Location: Swaledale (Yorkshire) - Humpbacked bridge leading to Ivelet
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The appearance of this headless hound denoted a forthcoming tragedy.

Black Coach

Location: Talland (Cornwall) - Bocaddon Moor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1731
Further Comments: This area of moorland was haunted by a black carriage pulled by two black, headless mares. The entity was never seen again after the Reverend Doidge exorcised the entity.

William Doggett

Location: Tarrant Gunville (Dorset) - Eastbury (house ruins)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having borrowed large amounts of money to build the house, William Doggett committed suicide when he realised he could never pay off the loan. Doggett's ghost was heard walking around the house and blamed for opening and closing doors. It was also seen, headless, driving a coach in the grounds.

A headless ghost.

Cromwellian Victim

Location: Tarvin (Cheshire) - Bridle path near The Headless Woman inn, running from Hockenhull Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An old servant woman was decapitated by agents of Cromwell, after she refused to hand over the location of her master's fortune. The woman's ghost made so many appearances that they named the nearby public house after the entity.

Lady Howard

Location: Tavistock (Devon) - Fitzford House driveway, heading towards Okehampton
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lady Howard is said to have poisoned two of her four husbands, and now takes the form of a large black dog with a single eye which departs the driveway of Fitzford House, followed by a carriage pulled by headless horses, heading towards Okehampton Castle. Once they reach their destination, Lady Howard plucks a single blade of grass and then returns home, doomed to repeat the action until there is no grass left and she is released.

Judge John Glanville

Location: Tavistock (Devon) - Kilworthy House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ruthless man, Judge Glanville condemned his own daughter to death for murdering her husband. Her ghost is also reported to appear in the building and its grounds, headless.

Drake

Location: Tavistock (Devon) - Road between town and Plymouth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Pulled by black headless horses, Sir Frances Drake drives a dark hearse down these roads whenever his drum is heard to beat (see Yelverton (Devon) entry).

Headless Group

Location: Tenby (Dyfed) - Between Tenby and Sampson Cross
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Every night (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A headless team of horses driven by a headless coachman carries a headless lady in a coach along this road every night. As they reach the crossroads known as Sampson Cross, some ten miles from their starting point, they all disappear in a large explosion. Some people believe the entities have been laid, and now rest in a nearby lake.

Headless Horseman

Location: Thaxted (Essex) - Gibbets Cross, crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A local farmer told his friends that he watched a headless horseman sitting upon a white steed pass by this crossroads.

Headless Monk

Location: Thaxted (Essex) - Tilty Abbey (between Thaxted & Dunmow) Cherry/Chawneth Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1215 onwards
Further Comments: Though no reports have been made for many years, the headless monk story is said to date back to 1215, when a monk was beheaded by men of King John. A decapitated skeleton was discovered in the grounds the 1940's.

Little George

Location: Thetford (Norfolk) - St George's Nunnery - Nun's bridges
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sixteenth century?
Further Comments: The seven year old George fell from a wooden horse in May 1559, cracking his skull on the wall of the bridge and dying from his injury. The young ghost haunted the area for many years (riding around on a headless wooded horse) before being exorcised.

Headless Man

Location: Thorne (Yorkshire) - 1920's cinema
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The story of the ghost of a headless cinema commissionaire reputed to wander the lower floor was said to be nothing but a rumour by the people renovating the building.

Horse

Location: Tillington (Sussex) - Lanes in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: One unnamed lane in the village is the haunt of a headless horse. The village must attract decapitated entities, as a headless pig is also said to haunt the general area.

Headless Dog

Location: Tingewick (Buckinghamshire) - General area?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1916 (photographed)
Further Comments: A ghost of a little headless dog wagging its tail was taken at a tea party in the village early in the twentieth century. The photographer, an ex-Scotland Yard Inspector, claimed he saw nothing when taking the image.

White Lady

Location: Totnes (Devon) - Dartington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, but cloaked figure circa March 1995
Further Comments: This pale figure is said to be one of several ghosts reported here over the years, normally seen in the garden. A woman who starved to death in a bedroom and an old nurse also continue to reside here, while a headless horseman has been reported just outside the grounds of the building. In 1995 a member of staff spotted a glowing man wearing a cloak who faded away.

Millicent Agnes Yielding

Location: Tralee (County Kerry) - Blennerville Windmill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009
Further Comments: The Ghost Eire team investigated this site reputedly haunted by Millicent Yielding, killed by a sail and who now stands looking from a window (or possibly not, as sometimes folklore says she is headless). The press reported the team may have made contact with a young woman.

Colann gun Cheann

Location: Trottenish (Highland) - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This sinister, decapitated ghost roamed the area looking for the living - when it encountered a person, it would throw its head at them before trying to kill the unfortunate soul.

MacLeods' Heads

Location: Trotternish (Highland) - Loch of Heads
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A skirmish between the MacLeods and the MacDonalds led to the MacLeods defeat - the victors decapitated all the bodies and rolled the heads down a hill to the loch below. As the heads rolled, they could be heard chanting 'We almost won today!', hence the name of the area.