Road Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Man with Pitted Face
Location: Ruskington (Lincolnshire) - A15, just before the turning to the town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: February 1998
Further Comments: A driver tried to escape a ghostly olive skinned man with a pitted face, only for the entity to hold on to the bonnet. It disappeared a short distance down the road. After this event hit the media, dozens of other witnesses came forwards, reporting a similar figure which appeared to them, dating back in some cases more than twenty years.
Man in Grey
Location: Rusthall (Kent) - Broomhill Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1960s
Further Comments: A phantom man in a grey suit is said to stand by the roadside, his presence denoting the location where a cottage once stood. One driver stopped their car after believing they had hit the figure.
Goosey
Location: Ruswarp (Yorkshire) - Sleights Road
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered by an unknown person, the man once known as Goosey now returns to the village whenever an accident is eminent.
Gobbling Monk
Location: Rye (Sussex) - Turkey Cock Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This lane is apparently named after the sounds a monk made when he went mad; this was after he was bricked up alive for trying to elope. He is still seen on the odd occasion, though no longer heard.
Lorry
Location: Ryton on Dunsmore (Warwickshire) - A45 near Ryton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: An RTA black spot, several accidents and near misses are said to have been caused by a lorry driving down the wrong side of the road - the HGV vanishes just before impact.
USAAF Pilot in Car
Location: Saffron Walden (Essex) - B1052, between Saffron Walden and Hadstock
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1993
Further Comments: Exactly fifty years after dying in a flying accident (1943), the ghost of an USAAF pilot appeared in the back seat of a woman's car, as she drove past the old crash site of the plane in which he flew.
Heavy Breathing
Location: Salcombe (Devon) - B3181 Salcombe to Malborough road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 23 July 2004, around 23:30h
Further Comments: A witness travelling this road reported hearing the heavy breathing of galloping horses along this road, but not accompanied by hoof falls. The hedge from which the sound could be heard moving past glowed briefly as the eerie sound climaxed.
Peddling Nurse
Location: Salehurst (Sussex) - Area of Northbridge Street and St Mary church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The nurse died during the 1930's, falling off her bicycle and breaking her neck. She is now seen on her bike, rushing towards observers, quickly fading from view moments from impact.
Legless Man
Location: Salford (Bedfordshire) - Road between Marston Moretaine and Milton Keynes
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: July 2009, around 23:00h
Further Comments: A driver retuning his girlfriend home had to brake sharply after turning a corner and finding a figure standing in the road. The figure had a featureless face and no legs. It wore a scarlet jacket and a white/cream bloodstained tunic and black Cavalier-like hair. The entity moved across the road and vanished into bushes.
William Boulter
Location: Salisbury (Wiltshire) - A30
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A highwayman by trade, Boulter was hanged for his troubles. His phantom is said to run along various parts of the A30.
Lantern Man
Location: Saltwood (Kent) - Road to Sanding, near Slaybrook Farm.
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A fireball that morphs into a man carrying a lantern is supposed to haunt this stretch of road, disappearing near the railway bridge. There is also at least one sighting of a grey woman being seen, though only the upper part of her body had materialised.
John Thomas
Location: Sancreed (Cornwall) - Road between Sancreed and St Just
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: December 1783
Further Comments: Thomas vanished while travelling to St Just, and was presumed robbed and killed. Eight days later, his friend saw a figure that resembled the missing man and approached it. The figure vanished, but John's friend could hear cries of help, and soon found Thomas at the bottom of a nearby pit, where he had fallen over a week previously.
Tom
Location: Sand Hutton (Yorkshire) - Busby Stoop Inn, road outside
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Tom Busby murdered his father with a hammer - an event which resulted in the public house in which the crime was committed being named after him. Hanged for the crime, his shade now comes back complete with noose, and any who see it are doomed. The shade was once thought to be centred on Tom's favourite chair, though when the chair was removed to Thirsk Museum, Tom stayed pub-bound. The chair itself was thought to be cursed, anyone sitting on it would die soon after.
Madeline Smith
Location: Scaldwell (Northamptonshire) - Roads around the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Smith stood trial for the murder of her boyfriend but was found not guilty. The stress generated by the proceedings proved too much for her, and she died shortly after. Her grey form now haunts the lands.
Older Lady
Location: Scarborough (Yorkshire) - A171
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 05 November 2019
Further Comments: While travelling as a passenger on a Whitby bound bus, a witness noted an older lady on the bottom deck sitting a few seats behind. The lady cast a dim reflection in the window, and the witness could see her from the corner of the eye. The lady had no way of exiting the bus, but disappeared before the bus reached its destination, with no possible means of leaving. There are stories of the lady joining people in their cars on this stretch of road.
Strange Man
Location: Scarisbrick (Lancashire) - A570, between Morris Dancers pub and Blue Elephant (now Nellie Indian) Restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 02 February 2023, approx 20:00h, and Autumn 2004
Further Comments: While walking towards the marina, a witness spotted a man wearing a long woollen coat with a hat, longish hair, and a strange looking face. The witness turned away for a few seconds, during which time the man vanished. The figure may have been seen by another witness, who reported seeing a very similar figure along the same road in 2004.
Coach and Horses
Location: Scawby (Lincolnshire) - Road north of village, just before the crossroads (geography may have changed since story first published)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A phantom horseman can be heard laughing as he drives his team of horses around this area. He was blamed when a local man drowned in a lake that no longer exists. Another phantom male was said to haunt this lake, but what has become of him is not known.
Shadow-like Man
Location: Scopwick (Lincolnshire) - Road parallel to RAF Digby
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 17:25h, 29 January 2007
Further Comments: Two men travelling back to Waddington spotted a figure wearing a long cloak or tailcoat disappearing into a hedge row towards the airbase. One witness said the figure was transparent or shadowlike and did not appear to have any legs.
Spencer
Location: Scrooby (Nottinghamshire) - Great North Road
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1952
Further Comments: A man walking home witnessed a figure entering a small cottage. A few seconds, a couple of screams followed, and two figures ran from the cottage, one with a head injury. The witness panicked, convinced he had watched a robbery and ran off. Lost in the dark, he ran in a circle, returning to the scene of the crime, only there was no cottage... It is speculated he witnessed the murder of a gatekeeper and his wife, killed by John Spencer in 1779. The ghost of Spencer, or maybe the gatekeeper, has also been seen standing on the roadside.
Vanishing Girl
Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Lay-by near Keadby Bridge
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2001
Further Comments: A taxi driver reported picking up a fare from this location; a young girl, who sent a shiver down his spine, asked to be dropped near the football ground. As he reached the destination, he realised she had vanished.
Protective Shuck
Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Road between Scunthorpe and Crosby
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1900s
Further Comments: This guardian dog appeared by the side of a woman, preventing a gang of labourers from attacking her. It vanished as she reached home.
Nun
Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Rowland Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1994
Further Comments: Two children out trick-or-treating watched a nun float through a gate and disappear along a path. One of the children's neighbours, a few years later, also claimed to have seen a phantom nun in the area.
Lord John Angerstein
Location: SE10 (Greater London) - Trafalgar Road to Vanbrugh Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lord John's coach, pulled by four headless horses and driven by the lord himself, is said to leave Trafalgar Road and return to his former home on Vanbrugh Road.
White Lady
Location: SE18 (Greater London) - Shooter's Hill, Blackheath
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost is believed to be that of a woman who died of head trauma - a skull found in the 1830s near the site possessed a large hole caused by a blunt object. Shooter's Hill also made the news in 1963, as it was combed by police and soldiers looking for a puma-like creature that had been seen by members of the public.
RAF Pilot
Location: SE28 (Greater London) - Abbey Road and Tavy Bridge (former Erith Marshes), Thamesmead
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This pilot died when his spitfire crashed into the marshes during the Second World War. This tall, dark uniformed man has been reported in several buildings along the road. Some also report that the sound of a German aircraft crashing into the marshes here can still be heard.
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