The Paranormal Database

Greencoat

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Greencoat Boy public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The pub is a former hospital which housed seventeenth century children who had lost their fathers during wartime. The ghost is thought to date from this period, and now haunts the bar area.

Prisoners

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Morpeth Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The basement of this pub was used to prevent high risk prisoners escaping from the nearby Millbank Prison over two hundred years ago - the ghosts of those held are said to prod anyone in the cellar who they take a disliking to.

Lady in Black

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Shakespeare Tavern
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pub is said to be haunted by a woman wearing a black Victorian dress and has been encountered by both staff and visitors.

Grenadier Climbing Stairs

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - The Grenadier public house, Wilton Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This young trooper was killed after it was discovered he cheated in a card game in the public house - the grenadier only appears in the month of September, as he walks around the building, looking into rooms and pacing along corridors.

Former Patron

Location: SW10 (Greater London) - Fox & Pheasant public house, Billing Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2021
Further Comments: James Blunt's pub featured in the press after CCTV caught a glass falling from a shelf. It was claimed that the invisible entity was a former drinker and the glass knocked over was always the same one.

Lord Buckhurst

Location: SW11 (Greater London) - Old Swan public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of Lord Buckhurst has not really been seen since the site was rebuilt in the 1960s.

James Gully

Location: SW12 (Greater London) - Bedford public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This building is reputed to be haunted by one Doctor James Gully, convicted when the Bedford was a courthouse in Victorian England.

Flustered by Women

Location: SW3 (Greater London) - King's Head & Eight Bells public house, Cheyne Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: The agent at work here is antagonised whenever a new female member of staff begins work - for a few days afterwards, it pushes past patrons on the stairs and plays with the gas taps and the heating in the basement. Cheyne Walk itself is reportedly haunted by a bear - it once was a popular place for bearbaiting.

Sarah

Location: SW4 (Greater London) - Plough public house, Clapham Common
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Dressed in white, Sarah has been seen standing in the pub's bedrooms, her raven hair running over her shoulders. The ghost may be linked to the discovery of a secret, bricked up room in 1970.

Market Cross pub, Swaffham.

Cat

Location: Swaffham (Norfolk) - Market Cross public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early July 2007
Further Comments: A cat has been seen in the building running across the bar area. A member of staff who spotted the animal in July 2007 mistook it for a real creature, only to be told otherwise when she mentioned her encounter to others. There are also stories of a phantom man who sits by the fireplace with a beer.

Swanage's Red Lion public house.

Fred

Location: Swanage (Dorset) - Red Lion public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: The poltergeist nicknamed Fred, thought to be a former landlord, would move items around the building.

Jack Stevens

Location: Swanage (Dorset) - Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s onwards
Further Comments: After Rachael Aplin took over this pub, haunting manifestations began, with ghost hunters naming Jack Stevens as one of the phantoms. The site featured in the TV series Paranormal Lockdown.

Waiting Wife

Location: Swanbridge (South Glamorgan) - Captain's Wife public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This public house is named after a local tale which says a phantom fisherman's wife haunts the area, awaiting the return of her husband lost at sea during a storm. Another legend says when the captain's wife died, her body was kept in a box - the box was stolen, mistaken for treasure.

Sky Ship

Location: Swanscombe (Kent) - Church and nearby Blue Anchor public house
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1211
Further Comments: A group here for Sunday service watched a strange ship drop anchor from the heavens, which became entangled around a gravestone. One of the crew jumped overboard and headed towards the anchor, moving as if swimming. Witnesses grabbed the stranger as he reached the ground; he struggled briefly before drowning, even though on dry land. The remaining crew in the ship severed the rope of the anchor and sailed away; the strange artefact was melted down and used to make the hinges on the local church doors.

Elizabeth

Location: Sweattenham (Cheshire) - Sweattenham Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2013
Further Comments: A visitor sitting with their back to an alcove spotted something black behind them. Expecting to see someone standing there, the visitor turned around, but there was nothing there. A member of staff told the visitor that the site was once a nunnery and that the pub was haunted by a nun by the name of Elizabeth.

Returning Items

Location: Swindon (Wiltshire) - Boundary House public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: Manager Dave Howells called in a paranormal investigation team after he noticed items which had vanished turn up again years later. The team claimed to have found five ghosts in total; Catherine and James in the bar, Amy and Tilly in the upper part of the building, and Alf in the basement.

Attack in the Cellar

Location: Swinton (Greater Manchester) - Bull's Head public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Two men were attacked in the cellar by an unknown presence, one requiring several stitches to a head wound. Phantom voices have also been heard on the telephone, and footsteps have been heard echoing around.

Maggie Stobbart

Location: Talkin (Cumbria) - Blacksmith's Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: Stobbart was the landlady at the pub at around the Victorian era - her form has been reported since her death.

Judge Jefferys

Location: Taunton (Somerset) - Tudor Tavern
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Spotted in the inn, Jefferys' shade still haunts the town where he held the Bloody Assizes.

Footsteps

Location: Tewkesbury (Gloucestershire) - Berkeley Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The sounds of a person walking on the staircase are often heard, though the figure is never seen.

Woman

Location: Thorney (Cambridgeshire) - Dog in a Doublet public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom woman is said to walk past just outside the pub. The building is also home to the traditional poltergeist which moves small items around.

Hooded Figure

Location: Thurgoland (South Yorkshire) - Wortley Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 2011
Further Comments: Photographer Paul Cocker claimed to have caught a phantom hooded figure in a doorway of this public house, although the image published online by a local newspaper looks slightly suspect.

Lady May

Location: Tipton (Staffordshire) - The Park public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Lady May was the young daughter of a squire who suffered a major haemorrhage and died in the attic. Since then, the loft has been home to bangs, crashes, and a light switch which insists on turning itself on.

The Captain

Location: Toddington (Bedfordshire) - Bedford Arms public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: More often heard walking in the upper parts of the building than seen, the few witnesses who have spotted 'The Captain' say he is a large man with a beard who wears a seafaring uniform.

The Landlord's Daughter

Location: Toddington (Bedfordshire) - The Bell public house
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Poltergeist activity in the kitchen is blamed on a former landlord's daughter who died in the room after a fit. It is reported that one landlord left in 1995 after being repeatedly woken at night by an unseen presence, and his replacement actually spotted the girl's apparition.