The Paranormal Database

Lady Winter

Location: Haddington (Lincolnshire) - Lady Winter's Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This headless figure walks under the trees, awaiting her husband's return.

Headless Airman wanting Lift

Location: Hadstock (Essex) - The B1052 leading into Hadstock
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After losing his head in a flying accident, the apparition of an American pilot has been seen thumbing a lift on the roadside.

Murdered Nun

Location: Halifax (West Yorkshire) - Exact area not known
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Before the foundation of Halifax, a nun was murdered by a deluded priest convinced the woman was Satan. The priest decapitated the nun and hung her head from a tree. Local villagers tried to take the head down, but the hair had become rooted to the trunk; this was considered a miracle and attracted many pilgrims to the area, some of which stayed and formed the town of Halifax. Another similar story says the head of John the Baptist was buried here.

Headless Man

Location: Halifax (West Yorkshire) - Parish Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This church is said to be haunted by a decapitated figure, most likely a priest.

John Lacy

Location: Halifax (West Yorkshire) - Running Man public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The pub is named after the man who managed to escape the town's guillotine, though he was later caught and beheaded anyway. The decapitated criminal is sometimes reported at the inn.

Anne Lister

Location: Halifax (West Yorkshire) - Shibden Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mostly unknown, Scout Leader sighting circa 1970
Further Comments: Anne tried to take her life in the building, covering at least one room in blood after slitting her wrists. She may have died in an asylum, but her shade in the form of a grey lady walks the hall after dark. Another story says the entity is Ann Walker who tried to starve herself to death after barricading herself in a room. There are also stories of a headless coachman driving a yellow coach around the grounds, and a little girl who materialises during the summer months (she drowned in a nearby pond). A local newspaper reported that a Scout Patrol Leader encountered a hooded figure which drifted several centimetres above the grass path close to the lake. The Leader claimed the entity had no eyes, only dark holes.

Saint Juthware

Location: Halstock (Dorset) - Judith Hill (aka Abbots Hill), and area near the Quiet Woman Inn (now a guest house)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 November, 01:00h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The headless phantom of Saint Juthware is reported to walk towards the church with her head in her hands. She was beheaded by her step-brother, tricked into doing so by his mother. The inn was also haunted by a female shadow which vanished as soon as it was seen.

Smuggler Carrying Headless, Limbless Torso

Location: Happisburgh (Norfolk) - Happisburgh coastline
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: For hundreds of years, smugglers were renowned for inventing ghost stories to deter people from intruding on their operations. The stories have stuck, and it is still rumoured that a smuggler's ghost crosses the area, carrying remains of a body (although according to one newspaper published in 1974. the haunting ceased after the discovery of a body buried on the beach).

Headless Woman

Location: Hardraw (referred to as Hardshaw) (North Yorkshire) - Rigg House & Rigg Cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless woman caused so much upset in the large old Rigg House that all the haunted rooms between the current house and cottage were knocked down - creating the buildings as they stand today.

Two Headless Women

Location: Hartland (Devon) - Bow Bridge area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in silken dresses, these headless shades slowly move around. Ghost lights have also been reported.

Sir Thomas

Location: Hautbois (Norfolk) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring)
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.

Headless Woman

Location: Haxey (Lincolnshire) - Unknown road in the area (leading to an inn)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (but said to occur on very dark nights)
Further Comments: A ghostly woman sans head reputedly walks towards an unnamed inn.

Headless Jenny

Location: Hibaldstow (Lincolnshire) - Jenny Stanny Well (current condition not known)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Jenny Stannywell drowned in the waters of this well and now wanders the area holding her head under her arm.

Headless Highwayman

Location: Hickleton (South Yorkshire) - Area near the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly figure still rides his horse, still seeking his head that was taken from him as punishment for his crimes.

Headless Men

Location: Hill Deverill (Wiltshire) - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Headless figures are said to appear around the churchyard, their motives unknown.

Mag

Location: Hockliffe (Bedfordshire) - Mag Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity has been nicknamed Headless Mag - she is thought to have been a local witch, and her misty form now drifts along the road looking for people to scare.

Healing Waters

Location: Holywell (Clwyd) - St Winefride's Well (aka well of St Winifred)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This well sprung up where St Winefride's severed head hit the ground after she was decapitated by an angry local. Luckily, St Beuno was passing by; he picked the head up off the ground and stuck it back on Winefride's shoulders. She soon recovered.

The cover of an old booklet showing the Horsham Dragon.

Poisonous Dragon

Location: Horsham (Sussex) - St Leonard's Forest
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: 1614 (dragon), eighteenth century (headless figure)
Further Comments: This wooded area was home to a nine foot long dragon in the seventeenth century - it killed men with its poison, but did not eat them, preferring rabbits and smaller creatures. It was coloured black, with a red belly. Even today, there are reports of another unknown creature that travels in the branches of the trees, rarely descending to the forest floor. A nineteenth century story has a headless phantom, named as Squire Paulett by some, which would leap on to the back of any horses being ridden through the forest. The entity would hold on tight and ride pillion, vanishing when its victim reached the edge of the forest.

Coach

Location: Horsley (Gloucestershire) - Chavenage Manor, near the town
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: During a death in family
Further Comments: The coach, driven by a headless man, arrives just after the death of the manor's owner, where his soul is said to embark. A shadowy figure has also been spotted in parts of the house, vanishing if approached.

Coach

Location: Horstead (Norfolk) - Meyton bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring)
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 (or twelve) bridges that he passes over on the night of his daughter Anne's execution.

Robert the Wizard

Location: Hothfield (Kent) - Estate near Hothfield Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1974
Further Comments: A highwayman of local fame and folklore, the headless ghost of Robert appeared to a local woman who had recently moved to her new home.

Lady Wintour

Location: Huddington (Hereford & Worcester) - Huddington Court, and road outside
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 January (reoccurring), road encounter in November (year unknown)
Further Comments: One story says that this decapitated shade that appears once a year still mourns the passing of her husband Robert Wintour, executed on 31 January 1606 for playing a part in the Gunpowder Plot. One November evening, a couple driving past the court spotted what they believed to be a person riding a bike, but as they passed, realised the figure to be a woman in a cloak who vanished. The couple stopped at a nearby pub, and being visibly shaken, the landlord guessed that they had encountered Lady Wintour, who would glide down the lane.

Wet Couple

Location: Hull (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Brazil Nut Company, east bank of the river Hull (now Thompson's Plastics?)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s and 1970s
Further Comments: Several workers at the plant reported seeing a woman and a decapitated man, both dripping wet. The phantom figures vanished within seconds of being spotted. They were said to be the parents of two children who fell into the river - the whole family were drowned in the accident, though the bodies of the parents were never recovered.

Hob Headless

Location: Hurworth-on-Teas (Durham) - Road between village and Neasham
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Circa Nineteenth century
Further Comments: This brownie-related entity lived along the road until exorcised. He was cast under a stone where he had to remain for ninety-nine years and a day. It was said if anyone sat on the stone, they would never be able to stand again. Needless to say, the ninety-nine years has now expired but the entity appears still to be quiet.

Headless Bird Man

Location: Hythe (Kent) - Sandling Park
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: November 1963
Further Comments: A group of teenagers ran from a creature that emerged from behind a tree and approached them. It was described as man shaped but headless, completely black, had webbed feet, and a pair of large bat wings. Prior to this, they had watched a mysterious light flickering about the sky.