The Paranormal Database

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 (South 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 October 1976 and circa March 1995
Further Comments: This pale figure is said to be one of a handful of 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, remarkably like an event in 1976 where a young man watched a cloaked figure wearing a tricorn hat glide silently across the road outside the hall before passing effortlessly over the hedgerow.

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.

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 (East Riding of 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.