The Paranormal Database

Headless Rider

Location: Tunstead (Derbyshire) - Manifold Valley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nights of the full moon (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A beautiful white horse carrying a headless rider gallops across the valley when the night sky is right. The phantom is either a peddler or a soldier, depending on the legend.

Young Male Rider

Location: Tynron (Dumfries and Galloway) - Tynron castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area around the castle is haunted by a decapitated horseman. The ghost is thought to be a man who tried to marry a girl residing at the castle, but her brothers chased him away. During the pursuit, the young man fell from his horse and lost his head.

Dunraven Street, North Row, London.

Lily Langtry

Location: W1 (Greater London) - 19 Dunraven Street, North Row (formally 17 Norfolk Street, original house demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lily (aka Lillie) is not alone in this haunting - victims of hangings, Cavalier soldiers and a couple of headless men are also reported to have also been seen here.

Lady Diana Rich

Location: W11 (Greater London) - Holland House, Holland Park
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1658 (Fetch), 1965 (Holland)
Further Comments: While walking the grounds of the estate (as it once was), Lady Diana Rich met her 'fetch', a double which appears as a warning of impending death. She died within a month. Two more woman who lived in the building recalled similar experiences prior to dying. The house is also reportedly haunted by the shade of the Earl of Holland (sometimes holding his decapitated head in his hands), who died in 1614 - he may have been spotted in 1965 by students.

James

Location: W3 (Greater London) - Derwentwater House (demolished 1909)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1909
Further Comments: After raising an army to support the Jacobite rising of 1715, James, third Earl of Derwentwater, found himself arrested and beheaded. One story says friends of James took his head and body to Derwentwater House, where they were sewn back together and hidden on the site. Even though the remains were later taken for proper burial, James' headless ghost supposedly haunted the area.

Molesworth Arms Hotel, Wadebridge.

Coach and Four

Location: Wadebridge (Cornwall) - Molesworth Arms Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Materialising in the courtyard, this phantom coach driven by a decapitated coachman leaves via the hallway. While some people are said to have seen the apparition, others can only hear it pass by.

Phantom Coach

Location: Wangford - SW of Thetford (Suffolk) - Raydon Hall, Quay Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A coach pulled by a headless horse runs down Quay Lane on dark nights, believed to be driven by a former owner of Raydon Hall.

Brown Gardener

Location: Watton (Yorkshire) - Watton Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Elfreda in 1956
Further Comments: The short, brown coloured figure seen in the abbey grounds is thought to be a former gardener. A few ghostly women (some of whom are nuns) in different colours and forms also haunt the abbey, including a headless woman known as Elfreda. During the mid-twentieth century a team of workmen camping on the grounds heard the bell pealing, even though it had been removed several years previously.

Waterloo Bridge, London.

Headless Man

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Waterloo Bridge, Embankment
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The discovery of human remains near the bridge in the mid-twentieth century resulted in a ghostly apparition appearing for a few weeks after the incident. Earlier in the twentieth century, a criminal spotted a well-dressed young man on the bridge. As the criminal tried to grab the man, the young potential victim vanished.

Rising Woman

Location: Wellington (Somerset) - Barracks, and St James Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1804
Further Comments: Several guards stationed at the barracks reported the ghost of a headless woman, which rose from the ground in front of them wearing a striped dress. The figure then set off towards the park.

Headless Horse

Location: Welwyn (Hertfordshire) - White Horse Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless horse which runs along this road was said to have been a casualty during the civil war.

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.

Headless Driver

Location: West Lulworth (Dorset) - Lane along Coach Lane Gates (gates may no longer stand)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly coach pulled by horses and driven by a headless coachman reportedly travels along this lane. The coachman was said to have been decapitated during a highway robbery.

Headless Horseman

Location: Westcott (Surrey) - Road between Westcott and Dorking
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007, approximately 02:30h
Further Comments: A headless horseman is reported to haunt Westcott. In 2007, one man walking between Westcott and Dorking was followed by something unseen which pushed its way through thick bushes and made a trotting sound.

Woman in the Bedroom

Location: Westwood (Wiltshire) - Westwood Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost of a woman in one of the bedrooms is said to guarantee a sleepless night. There are also stories of a headless person who silently walks the manor house at night.

Headless Woman

Location: Westwoodside (Lincolnshire) - Blethergate area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity wanders the village roads, less her head.

Coach and Four

Location: Weybourne (Norfolk) - Road through village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was once said that a ghostly coach pulled by four horses and driven by a headless figure would pass through the village and vanish into the church wall.

Headless Man

Location: Whitby (Yorkshire) - Prospect Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This male entity has the removed item securely grasped under his arm.

An old postcard of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire.

Petrified Snakes

Location: Whitby (Yorkshire) - Whitby Abbey
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Snakes unknown, St Hilda's ghost during summer months 10:00h - 12:00h
Further Comments: The abbey was besieged by snakes, until St Hilda turned up and drove them all off the edge of the cliff, where they turned to stone on the beach below. Her ghost is also reported to still gaze from the windows of the abbey. A few people have heard a choir singing in the empty building and one local legend says a team of headless horses pulling a hearse was once spotted by a man and boy walking in the area. Finally, treasure hidden in the abbey's grounds is protected by a headless figure in white.

Headless Woman

Location: Wicklow (County Wicklow) - Wicklow Head Lighthouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A local legend says that, during the mid-nineteenth century, this woman was decapitated with a scythe after a jealous former boyfriend became overly upset when he discovered her engagement to another. The entity is said to haunt the staircase and, according to one story, once seen by a party of six people staying at the building.

Many Headless

Location: Wimborne (Dorset) - Rowlands Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Some midnights (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A story which was told in the late nineteenth century says that a large hole once existed here. Occasionally at midnight headless horses driven by headless men would emerge.

Headless Bride

Location: Winster (Derbyshire) - The Angel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century, particularly active around Christmas
Further Comments: The decapitated ghost caused one witness to faint as it ascended the staircase and headed towards the viewer. A local legend states that the ghostly woman and her lover both committed suicide the day before she was due to be married to another man. The building has a history of phantom footsteps and doors that open themselves.

Monk

Location: Witchampton (Dorset) - Old Manor House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless ghost which was said to haunt the ruins was thought to be a monk. There was a local myth that a tunnel connected the manor to the church, and that the headless spirit would vanish into the concealed entrance.

Headless Horseman

Location: Woodhead (Derbyshire) - Area where Crowden Hall once stood (demolished 1937)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This decapitated figure on the back of a stallion still rides around the area where Crowden Hall once stood.

Headless Horses

Location: Woodmanton (Wiltshire) - Location known as Patty's Bottom
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Rumoured to be a battleground between Britons and Romans, the sounds of battle, accompanied by the site of headless horses, have been reported. The battle was said to be so intense, the valley filled with blood.