The Paranormal Database

Foggy Column

Location: Radcliffe (Greater Manchester) - Commercial Hotel (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: Several workers in the building reported a strange pillar of white mist that would grow from the floor, disappearing after a couple of minutes. The apparition would be accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature.

Mary

Location: Ramsey (Cambridgeshire) - George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Mary is thought to be a former landlady who died in a fire on the site. The ghost is said to hate naked flames and will blow out candles and matches.

Pacing Footsteps

Location: Reading (Berkshire) - Roebuck Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost can also be heard knocking on doors, and opening locked windows, much to the annoyance of the owners.

Chained Child

Location: Redworth (Durham) - Redworth Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lord Surtees had his mentally ill child chained to the fireplace - the youngster can be heard crying and wailing.

Elderly Lady

Location: Retford (Nottinghamshire) - The Elms (currently a hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s (onwards?)
Further Comments: A soldier on guard duty at the building, which had been taken over as a hospital) spotted an elderly woman in a Victorian-type dress as she glided across the land before vanishing. The ghost may have been seen since this encounter.

An Unfaithful Wife

Location: Retford (Nottinghamshire) - West Retford Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1910s onwards
Further Comments: The ghost here is thought to be a woman who had an affair with the stable boy (who later committed suicide because of the scandal). What became of the woman is unknown, but her shade now walks the corridors, heading out across the courtyard towards where the stables once stood.

Young Girl

Location: Retford (Nottinghamshire) - White Hart Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to have been killed in a coach accident at the rear of the building, some believe that the ghost of the girl lingers on at the hotel. She may have been heard walking down the corridors by visitors to the building. A bust of the girl is contained within a display case, and bad luck is said to befall anyone who touches it.

Hunt

Location: Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) - Lord Clarendon's Grove Park (now hotel) grounds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Former owner Lord Doneraile converted a chapel into a kitchen. He was condemned to ride a phantom horse and, together with ghostly hounds, pursue a phantom fox around the park.

Anne Armstrong

Location: Riding Mill (Northumberland) - Wellington Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Anne was a witch hunter who caught five pagans practicing 'black magic' in the hotel. It is not known whether the witches escaped execution, but Anne was found hanged in the hotel shortly after and foul play was suspected. Anne's ghost haunts her favourite bedroom.

Young Boy

Location: Ripley (Derbyshire) - Cock Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Strange sounds have been heard coming from empty parts of the hotel, and several staff have reported seeing a young lad with cigarette burns who quickly vanishes in the blink of an eye.

Old Boots

Location: Ripon (North Yorkshire) - Unicorn Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Known to his friends as Old Boots, Tom Crudd was a well-liked boot boy, and his nonfrightening ghost now haunts the hotel.

Pale Woman in Blouse

Location: Rochester (Kent) - Hotel (exact one unknown, but next to former airstrip / current airport)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This young female form, sometimes accompanied by a clicking sound, appears on the second floor of a modern extension of the hotel. Some staff members believe her to be connected to a murder that once took place on the piece of wasteland just outside the original building.

Grey Woman

Location: Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent) - Swan Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 October 1997, and mid nineteenth century
Further Comments: A phantom woman in grey was spotted at this hotel during the 1990s. An older story says that the site is haunted by a girl would calls out the name 'John'. It is not clear whether they are the same entity.

Thin Man

Location: Royston (Hertfordshire) - Banyers House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A ghost by the name of Henry haunts this site, and may have been the tall thin man wearing a brown suit seen briefly by both the manager and the owner standing by the bar. Room 4 is visited by strange sounds and a soldier in a peaked cap. Other ghosts reportedly frequenting the area are a monk, a caped man, and a woman in a bonnet.

Bottled Squire

Location: Rugby (Warwickshire) - Brownsover Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghost of a squire driving his coach and horses raised hell in the neighbourhood until exorcised; trapped in a bottle now hidden within the walls of the hotel, he now waits until released again. A recent email received suggests that late night drivers in the area still encounter the phantom coach along Leicester Road.

Whispers

Location: Runcorn (Cheshire) - Tricorn Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: Customers at this site would hear whispering close to their ear and footsteps walking across the ceiling. One story claimed that a farm once stood on the site; a mother locked her daughter in a barn for punishment. The barn burnt down, killing the daughter and driving her father mad with grief - he locked his wife in the farm's attic for a decade.

Grey Lady

Location: Ruthin (Clwyd) - Ruthin Castle (hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Clear nights
Further Comments: This lady was married to a fifteenth century steward at the castle - she decapitated her husband when she discovered him with a younger woman. In turn, she was beheaded for the act of revenge, and now the spook makes fleeting appearances at the former fortress. A man in armour is also occasionally reported.

Joker

Location: Ryde (Isle of Wight) - Ryde Castle Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The poltergeist here is said to have a good sense of humour.

Kitchen Ghost

Location: Rye (Sussex) - White Vine Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: November 1995 onwards
Further Comments: The kitchen has had its contents rearranged several times, and various food stuffs mixed up and hidden. Sometimes the activities migrate towards the bedrooms, though they always come back.

Blurred Figure

Location: Salford (Greater Manchester) - Irwell Castle Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This dark figure has been seen at the back of the hotel, seemingly slightly out of focus with the rest of his surroundings.

Sir John Radcliffe

Location: Sandbach (Cheshire) - Old Hall Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: A sixteenth century owner of the building, Sir John is said to be only one of fourteen entities which have been reported on site, including a lady dressed in a beekeeper's outfit.

An old postcard showing Scarborough's Grand Hotel.

Lady in Red

Location: Scarborough (North Yorkshire) - Grand Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Along with the phantom woman in a red dress, other reports from this old hotel include laughing, singing, and poltergeist-like activities.

Grey Figure

Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Britannia Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dark grey shape was said to haunt this hotel, as well as the more traditional poltergeist which would turn beer pumps off and on.

Dylan Thomas

Location: SE13 (Greater London) - Bush Theatre (Shepherd's Bush Hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A former BBC worker, Thomas enjoyed drinking and socialising at this site.

Sarah Hughes

Location: Sedgley (West Midlands) - Beacon Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: Former landlady Sarah may still keep an eye on her former pub; one witness observed a female form walking through a wall, while sounds of movement can be detected emerging from empty rooms. A man in old fashioned clothing has also been observed on the site.