The Paranormal Database

Ghostly airman on the road.

Silhouette

Location: Newton (Nottinghamshire) - RAF Newton (no longer operational) and roads in the area (including Fosse Way)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom airman walks around these roads, vanishing if a car slows down close to him.

Hanging Highlanders

Location: Newton le Willows (Merseyside) - Hermitage Green Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Caught by Cromwellian troops, these Highlanders were immediately hanged on the surrounding trees. The sound of running can be heard around the anniversary of the executions. A couple of people here in January 1990 heard loud drumming which moved down the lane, though nothing could be seen.

Witch

Location: Normanby (Gainsborough) (Lincolnshire) - Small bridge over stream, between village and Newton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a witch was blamed for pushing people off the small bridge that crossed the stream here. Three parsons gave the entity a live stag, which was torn apart by the witch, and while she was distracted, the holy men banished the phantom into an iron pot.

Bridge Ghost

Location: Normanby-by-Spital (Lincolnshire) - Pilfer Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: While it was not clear what made horses frightened while crossing this bridge, it was thought to have something to do with the gibbet that once stood close by.

Horses & Coach

Location: North Craven (North Yorkshire) - Road outside Brunton House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A team of four horses pulling a spectral coach reportedly passes the house.

Headless Man

Location: North Frodingham (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Road between village and Foston on the Wolds
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Possibly nineteenth century
Further Comments: A headless man who walks this area is said to have only been seen the once, many years ago.

Lisle's Soldiers

Location: North Nibley (Gloucestershire) - Michael Wood and M5 motorway
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: The site of the Battle of Nibley Green where the armies of Thomas Talbot (2nd Viscount Lisle) and William Berkeley (2nd Baron Berkeley) fought is said to be haunted. Lisle lost the battle, and local stories say his dead soldiers were buried in a mass grave in the woodland. It is also said that no birds sing in the woods. During the 1980s it was reported that a driver spotted ghostly soldiers fighting on the embankment.

Coffin

Location: North Petherton (Somerset) - Unknown road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century, early twenty-first century
Further Comments: A coffin laying in the middle of the road with a phantom man sitting upon it would cause horses to stop and not go on. One century on, cars are reported to occasionally have mechanical issues in the area, and the coffin has been blamed for one, non-fatal, car accident.

Monk following a Woman

Location: North Shields (Northumberland) - A1058 between town centre and Willington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said that the woman murdered someone and tried to confess her crime to the monk - he refused to hear her, so she committed suicide. The monk felt so guilt that he took his own life shortly afterwards. The female ghost is said to wear a grey cloak with grey shadows in place of eyes.

Man in Polo Shirt

Location: North Shoebury (Essex) - Poynters lane, near Crouchman's Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 29 July 2006, around 22:00h
Further Comments: A female driver forced to swerve to avoid hitting a man wearing a striped polo-style top and casual trousers as he stepped out of a hedge. Looking back at where the figure was, he could no longer be seen. The phantom man is a well known story in the area.

Scottie of Tidworth

Location: North Tidworth (Wiltshire) - Road opposite to the military barracks
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Misty, rainy conditions
Further Comments: This figure, thought to be either a Scotsman in a kilt or a Roman legionnaire, stands over six foot tall and only appears in low visibility.

Vanishing Figure

Location: Northampton (Northamptonshire) - Between Spinney Hill and Bailiff Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Summer 2010
Further Comments: Driving back in daylight from shopping, this witness and the driver of another car had to break hard after a tall figure stepped off the kerb and crossed the road. Once it reached the other side, the figure vanished.

Motorbike Accident

Location: Norton (Suffolk) - A1088
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1989?
Further Comments: Several people have witnessed a figure crashing his motorcycle along this road, though when they have run to help him, all sign of any accident has vanished.

AA Man

Location: Nottingham (Nottinghamshire) - A52 (or A42) road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s onwards?
Further Comments: A patrolman belonging to the Automobile Association is said to ride his motorbike along this road. It is not known whether he stops to help broken down motorists.

Bus Catcher

Location: Nottingham (Nottinghamshire) - Outside Redhill Cemetery, Mansfield Road, Arnold
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A slight retelling of the phantom hitchhiker myth, it is reported that a man waiting outside the cemetery caught a bus late one night. He walked past the conductor and climbed to the top deck. When the conductor followed him up, he was nowhere to be seen.

Young Girl

Location: Nottingham (Nottinghamshire) - St. Matthias Church and St. Matthias Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The churchyard is said to be haunted by a young girl and possibly the ghost of an unknown man. The man may also haunt the road - there are reports of both a young male ghost and the spirit of an older man who have been observed here.

Screaming Woman

Location: Nottingham (Nottinghamshire) - Stonebridge Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Phantom sounds appear to be quite at home along Stonebridge Road - the sound of a factory siren is still heard, even though the building no longer stands, and a woman can be heard screaming in the early hours of the morning. A phantom man, however, has been seen in the area, though there is no description of what he looks like.

Dick Turpin reputedly haunts several sites across the UK

Highwayman

Location: Nuneaton (Warwickshire) - A5 between town and Hinckley (Watling Street)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1926 (wearing jacket), February 1927 (riding horseback), 1979 (shimmering shape)
Further Comments: One version of this tale says that, wearing a jacket with sleeves of bright crimson, a phantom highwayman lurks along the roadside with a tricorn hat hiding the face. Another version names him as Dick Turpin and when last seen, the phantom rode his horse across common land. It may have been the same entity seen in 1979, reduced to a shimmering shape which swirled like water. The witness to this event had an accident close to the spot later in the day.

Vanishing Man

Location: Nuneham Courtenay (Oxfordshire) - A4074 / A423, about a mile northwest of village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid December, 1969 or 1970
Further Comments: A mother and daughter in their car braked hard to avoid hitting a man who walked out into the busy road from a fence on the right hand side. The man looked quite solid - tall, middle-aged with an early twentieth century hairstyle - but vanished without trace.

Vanishing Hitchhiker

Location: Nunney (Wiltshire) - Gibbet Hill, lane between village and Frome
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: Reports in the national press stated a motorist had stopped in the lane to pick up a hitchhiker, who vanished once in the car. The same hitcher is also reported around the area of Nunney castle.

Old Man in Brown

Location: NW3 (Greater London) - East Heath Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This smiling old man, dressed in a brown overcoat, follows witnesses along the road, quickly fading into the air if challenged.

Searching Woman

Location: Oakley (Hampshire) - Sheardown Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ghost, no longer seen as much as she once was, runs up to horse riders and carefully stares at them before turning and vanishing.

Headless Driver

Location: Oare (Wiltshire) - A345 heading towards Marlborough
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A coach and four driven by a headless figure is said to travel along this road.

Woman in White

Location: Oare (Wiltshire) - Road through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A bus driver passing through the village was left unnerved after watching a woman dressed in white cross the road ahead of him. She disappeared suddenly.

Soldiers

Location: Oborne (Dorset) - Road heading towards Poyntington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The road between these two villages was avoided at night, as Royalists and Roundheads were thought still to fight.