The Paranormal Database

Religious Disturbance

Location: NW7 (Greater London) - Lawrence Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Strange incidents around this street have been blamed on a nun, whose body was discovered buried beneath the street in 1963. A cloaked figure has been seen walking around the road, vanishing when approached, and phantom music reported. Another, older, story states the area was once haunted by a shadowy man in a wide brimmed hat.

Robert Leigh

Location: Old Cleeve (Somerset) - Bardon House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1700s onwards
Further Comments: One of many ghosts belonging to this building, Leigh was reported to walk around the grounds carrying an unknown person's head under one arm. A woman in white rustling silk glides along the corridors of the building, the sad sounds of a harpsichord can be heard, and on occasion a black dog lurks outside.

Coach

Location: Ower (Hampshire) - Paulton's Estate (now an amusement park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1935
Further Comments: The sound of trotting horses pulling a coach could be either heard in this area or spotted headless. Strange and beautiful music would emerge from woodland in the area, the source of which could never be found.

Lady of Glen Coats

Location: Paisley (Renfrewshire) - Coats Hospital, Ferguslie Park (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This shade could be heard playing the piano in the upper part of the building, when not standing over sleeping patients. She may be the same ghost as the 'White Witch', another entity from the same locale.

Fiddler

Location: Pendine (Dyfed) - Green Bridge Cave
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Said to have entered the cave but never to have left, the ghostly fiddler's music can still be heard.

Piper in Kilt

Location: Perth (Perth and Kinross) - Donaldgowerie House (no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth or early twentieth century?
Further Comments: The phantom piper once found in this building drifted through one witness and floated out an open window in the upper part of the building, several metres from the ground. Each time he appeared, a tragedy soon befell the family living in the house.

Monk

Location: Pontrhydfendigaid (Dyfed) - Strata Florida - former site of abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 25 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom devotee of God returns to his old home once a year and tries to rebuild the altar. At other times of the year, legends say that one may observe candles and hear music from the ruins.

Crown Hotel, Market Street, Poole.

Screaming Children

Location: Poole (Dorset) - Crown Hotel, Market Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Piano and young woman circa 1989, other sightings unknown
Further Comments: Two children were once locked up in this building by a parent too embarrassed to let them run around and play in front of other people. The ghostly children now let their protests be heard in the form of crying and yelling. The tinkling of a piano has also been heard in the hotel, as has the sound of a body being dragged around in the upper part of the structure. The daughter of the landlord spotted a young woman, wearing a shawl and skirt with hair tied in a bun, sitting in a chair; although the room was dark, a very bright light surrounded the figure.

Actor

Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A brown coloured figure was once seen sitting in the empty theatre. A piano was recorded playing a single note in the building after closing time when all the doors had been closed and locked. Another story says an actor who cut his own throat here in the 1880's is said to remain earthbound.

Priest

Location: Princetown (Devon) - Prince of Wales public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This forlorn entity is said to quietly drift through the pub, and soft playing music has been reported.

An old postcard of Llyn Cwellyn in Wales.

Entrance to Fairyland

Location: Rhyd-ddu (Gwynedd) - Llyn Cwellyn
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: There was once a way into fairyland here - one man who took it disappeared for seven years! Another story says one man waited by the hill and grabbed the first fairy who emerged, forcing the entity to marry him. A nearby lake contains a floating island, from which fairy music can be heard.

Music in the Air

Location: Risca (Gwent) - Twm Barlwm hill fort
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The music is said to be a trap for children - any who investigate the sounds disappears within the hill.

Music in the Air

Location: Risca (Gwent) - Twm Barlwm mountain
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Fairies are said to produce the sweet music which occasionally drifts down from the mountain at night.

Tutor Music

Location: Rochester (Kent) - Old Hall, Boley Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One room was once home to phantom Tudor music, while a ghostly woman would be seen elsewhere.

Elizabeth Hesketh

Location: Rufford (Lancashire) - Rufford Old Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The lady now manifests herself as a grey shade, waiting for her husband to return from a war with Scotland. She may have last been seen by a curator as he sat playing the piano. A shade resembling Queen Elizabeth has also been reported, though her link with the hall is unknown. Ghostly music is also reputed to occasionally be heard.

Fiddler

Location: Rushton (Northamptonshire) - Rushton Triangular Lodge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Still heard fiddling beneath the structure, this man was once sent down to investigate a secret passage. The fiddler had only travelled a dozen metres when the tunnel collapsed and trapped him for the rest of eternity.

Woman with Child

Location: Seaton Delaval (Northumberland) - Seaton Delaval Castle, chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Her husband failing to return from battle, this woman forever keeps watch from a window in the hope he one day comes home. There are additional reports of phantom music and the pacing sound of women's heels.

Musician

Location: Shorwell (Isle of Wight) - Wolverton Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: At one time this building was said to be haunted by a musician who could be heard performing. The entity was said to dislike workmen and other strangers.

Isabella of Valois

Location: Sonning (Berkshire) - Site of Bishop's Palace (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer evenings (last seen late eighteenth/early nineteen century?)
Further Comments: Wife of Richard II, Queen Isabella' drifts around the field where the palace once stood. As the phantom grey woman moves, ghostly music emerges from the ground. George III's organist lived nearby and may have been the last person to witness the phantom.

Horse Drawn Hearse

Location: Spixworth (Norfolk) - Spixworth Manor (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1940s
Further Comments: Several spooky manifestations were claimed by the manor house, included a spectral hearse driven up the driveway, a piano which played itself, a man bearing a lantern who resembled a night watchman, and a ghostly woman holding a candle.

Procession of Monks

Location: St Albans (Hertfordshire) - Abbey grounds
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A witness working on the site watched a short line of monks walk through a stone wall. It is also said that music can sometimes be heard in the early hours of the morning.

Jock the Piper

Location: St Andrews (Fife) - Cliffs bear golf course
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely nineteenth century
Further Comments: Jock vanished into a cave along the cliffs never to be seen again. He is said to be heard or seen along the cliffs, a gust of cold wind denoting his presence. Encountering the entity is said to bring ill fortune. Some credence was given to the story in 1946, when workmen accidently discovered a secret passage that headed towards the coast. A blockage prevented the men from venturing too far along the route.

Gwrach-y-rhibyn

Location: St Donats (South Glamorgan) - St Donats Castle
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: When death occurs in the family
Further Comments: This ghost heralds a death in the family very much like a banshee - wailing pierces the night air, and scratching is heard at windows. The entity was named as Lady Stradling, murdered by another member of her family. The apparition is also seen, some writing at it resembles an old, haggled woman, while others claim the figure wears high heels and a gown made of fine silk. If this was not enough, the castle is also reported to be home to a large floating eye that glows, a semi-transparent large black cat, and a piano that has a habit of playing itself.

Music

Location: Stockton-on-Tees (Durham) - Castlegate Shopping Centre, Stephenson House (demolished 2022)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s, 2019
Further Comments: Strange music and sounds are said to occasionally be heard at night in this shopping centre. In 2019 a ghost hunting team claimed to have recorded a phantom figure with a thermal imaging camera.

Vanishing Boy

Location: Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire) - King's Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Music/boy unknown, 'Abigail' 2023
Further Comments: Musical performances from many years ago are occasionally heard in the empty hall, while another story says a young boy approaches witnesses and requests help before vanishing. A ghost hunt was attended by journalist Flora Hyatt, who described an unsettling feeling and, when asking 'Is there anybody here', a spirit box replied 'Abigail'.