The Paranormal Database

Treasure Guardian

Location: Cockermouth (Cumbria) - Tallentire
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A decapitated female ghost was reported to stand guard over a hidden hoard of gold near the tower of this building.

Headless Nun

Location: Colchester (Essex) - Area close to Birch Brook, no longer accessible
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Estimated mid-to-late-twentieth century
Further Comments: A witness reported that, while taking a short cut across the area at night, he spotted a figure dressed as a nun, but with the head missing. The figure stopped and vanished in front of the witness. The witness later told a friend who said that his brother has also encountered the entity.

Colchester Castle.

James Parnell, Quaker Martyr

Location: Colchester (Essex) - Colchester Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1653 onwards
Further Comments: James Parnell, Quaker was arrested in 1652 for the heinous crime of being 'idle and disorderly' after upsetting a local priest. Parnell was imprisoned in Colchester Castle, where folklore says he was placed in a small room and forced to climb a rope each time he wished to eat. After a few months of this punishing routine, Parnell eventually slipped during his daily climb and suffered injuries which killed him. Parnell's ghost was said to haunt the dungeon (although it is worth noting that he was imprisoned in a crevice in the castle wall). There is a story that a foolhardy man once stayed the night in the dungeon as a wager, only to emerge the following morning a gibbering wreck. Another tale states that the castle is haunted by a headless nun, although her story is not known.

Phantom Coach

Location: Coltishall (Norfolk) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring) (coach)
Further Comments: A ghostly coach and four passes over this bridge once a year. It is said to be driven by a headless Sir Thomas Boleyn and is one of eleven bridges that he passes over on the night of his daughter Anne's execution. A headless Black Shuck is also reputed to cross this bridge once per night.

Headless Hound

Location: Coltishall (Norfolk) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The black shuck which walks this area is instantly recognisable as the creature is missing a head.

Sir George Sydenham

Location: Combe Sydenham (Somerset) - Hills around village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Daily, midnight to dawn (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Sir George is reported to ride his headless horse up and down the hills near the village. Combe Sydenham is also a place where the Wild Hunt has been reported, always heard as locals were too afraid to look (and rightly so!).

Corfe Castle, Dorset.

Headless Woman

Location: Corfe Castle (Dorset) - Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Woman and horse unknown, male figure seen 15 May 2009, around 01:30h
Further Comments: The terrifying shade of the headless woman walks the hill near the gateway of where this castle stands. The same ghost may also be responsible for the lights that flit across the ruins at night, or they could be caused by phantasmal Royalists that used the castle in 1643. The sound of a galloping phantom horse has been heard at the bottom of the castle hill. A cloaked figure with a brown floppy hat was observed by a local man in 2009 while he was picking worms for fishing. The figure was in the middle of a field but vanished after the witness took his eyes off the man for a few seconds.

Headless Piper

Location: Corsock (Dumfries and Galloway) - Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: How this phantom headless piper can pipe without a head has yet to be answered.

Lady Snagge

Location: Cranfield (Bedfordshire) - Wood End Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: While riding her horse, Lady Snagge was decapitated by a thin piece of rope pulled across the road by robbers who plundered her body before leaving it. Snagge's ghost is still reported as it repeats her final journey, sometimes with head intact, and sometimes without.

Horse

Location: Crockerton (Wiltshire) - Church Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless horse is reputed to gallop along in this area.

Possibly Mary

Location: Crossford (Lanarkshire) - Craignethan Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mary unknown, other activity circa 1990s
Further Comments: The headless woman reported in the castle grounds could be Mary Queen of Scots, though her relationship with the building appears to be minimal. Workmen on the site claimed to have seen a figure in the ruins and heard voices. A visitor alone in the caponier during the 1990s could hear a woman singing, although another visitor nearby failed to hear anything. Another story says that a Historic Scotland work crew could hear the sounds of a banquet emerging from the hall but could see no one there.

Green Lady

Location: Curdworth (West Midlands) - St Nicholas Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghostly tall woman, wearing a green dress, is said to search the graveyard for the remains of her Royalist husband. The second myth from this church concerns a great treasure that is said to have been buried here along with human remains from a Civil War battle. Unfortunately, the hoard is protected by a headless phantom that intervenes if anyone comes too close to discovering it.

Hearse

Location: Cutcombe (Somerset) - A396, between village and Timberscombe
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Some accidents occurring along this road have been blamed on the phantom black coach pulled by headless horses that runs wild and driverless.

White cat (public domain).

Changing Entity

Location: Darlington (Durham) - Glassensikes (stream or river) and Harewood Hill area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The large black dog once said to haunt this area could also take the form of a flaming headless man, a headless woman, a white cat, or a rabbit.

Old Pinkney

Location: Darlington (Durham) - Old manor house (no longer standing?), Blackwell
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: The manor was haunted by an entity which wore a red cap and went under the nickname Old Pinkney. A well under the house was known as Pinkney's Well and was never used after dusk. The surrounding area was also said to be haunted by a headless man.

Clibbon

Location: Datchworth (Hertfordshire) - Area around the station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Found guilty of highway robbery, Clibbon was tied to the back of a horse and dragged around the town until he was dead. His screams are sometimes heard. The same area is also home to a headless horse, though it may not be the same creature associated with the highwayman.

Lady in Blue

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - The Haus, once known as the Jacobean House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Around 400 years old, the Jacobean House is home to a headless coachman who drives his carriage through a former archway of the building. Also seen is a lady in blue, who descends the main staircase, while another man (believed to have committed suicide) has also been spotted on the upper floors of the building.

Decapitated Man

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Ascot Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A headless gentleman walks around this road.

Black Monk

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Friary Hotel, currently the Friar Gate Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: One of the corridors in this building, built on the site of a friary, is haunted by a monk dressed in black robes. Other witnesses claim to have seen more than one monk here, sometimes headless. Another shade is that of a Victorian gentleman, who may have killed himself on site.

Sketch by Franz Marc.

Runaway Horses

Location: Devizes (Wiltshire) - Oliver's Castle, aka Roundway Castle, aka Rundaway Castle - Bloody Ditch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said eight hundred men died at the Battle of Roundway Hill in 1643, after a battlefield manoeuvre which trapped cavalry in a slopped area. The men and horses were slaughtered, and since the battle ghostly horses have been seen galloping around the area. A headless ghost was once also said to walk the area, possibly linked to a barrow on the site, as is the phantom hound which drags a chain from its neck.

A dirt path on the Downs between Ditchling and Westmeston.

Wish Hounds

Location: Ditchling (Sussex) - Road between town & Westmeston, and nearby downs
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The local shucks, known as wish hounds, reportedly stalk these roads. One of them is said to be headless.

Mr Cobbe

Location: Donabate (County Dublin) - Newbridge House and park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly Mr Cobbe drives his coach drawn by six headless horses close to the park. One version of the story says he is no longer seen, but the phantom's presence is marked by the sound of a gate opening and shutting.

Black Coach

Location: Doneraile (County Cork) - Area outside Doneraile Court
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1887
Further Comments: A farmer returning home encountered a coach pulled by four headless horses, which pulled away from the Court's driveway at breakneck speed. The man later learned that Viscount Doneraile died just before his encounter. The ghost of Lady Casteltown has been reported within the building, as has her husband.

Headless Woman

Location: Dorchester (Dorset) - Dorset County Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2010
Further Comments: The PIT (Paranormal Investigation Team) group claimed to have photographed two entities within the museum, Judge George Jeffreys and Mary Anning. The latter was headless in her picture.

Coach in the House

Location: Dorchester (Dorset) - Wolfeton (aka Wolveton) House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One owner of the property won a large amount of money when he drove a horse and coach up the stairs inside the house - his victorious ghost reportedly re-enacts the antic. A separate entity is that of a headless grey woman, a member of the Trenchard family who slit her own throat, while a priest is said to haunt the gatehouse (where he was held prisoner).