Road Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Horse and Carriage
Location: Rougham (Suffolk) - Road between village and Bradfield St George
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 2016
Further Comments: A taxi driver reported seeing a large black shadow that completely blocked out the headlights of the cab. The driver was convinced that the shadow was a carriage.
Sally Leeson
Location: Roughgrove (County Cork) - Road between Roughgrove and Coppeen
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1800s onwards?
Further Comments: Murdered at Roughgrove, Leeson took to haunting this stretch of road, although it was said she could not cross the bridge.
Doctor Stirling
Location: Rowlands Gill (Durham) - Clump of trees and undergrowth along Smailes Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely to be pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: Doctor Stirling was murdered along the road, his body dumped in a spinney, his killers never brought to justice. Around fifteen years after his murder, the doctor could once again be heard moaning and calling for help from the spinney. Two figures were also seen in the area, with pale faces and bright eyes, named by some to be the doctor's killers.
Shag Foal
Location: Roxby (Lincolnshire) - Road formally known as Goosey Lane (and/or Boggart Lane)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1830
Further Comments: A ghostly donkey covered in long shaggy hair was said to haunt this lane.
White Limo
Location: Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent) - B2169 to Bayham Abbey
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Always seen parked on the side of the road, the white limousine (or black, according to other reports) shimmers and vanishes when witnesses move in too close.
Misty Man
Location: Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent) - Broomhill Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: At least one couple driving along this road have had to stop because they believed they hit this ghostly figure which stands on the side of the road.
Bright White Dog
Location: Rufford (Lancashire) - A59 near Solom
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: August 1999, 22:00h
Further Comments: The witness to this entity crashed his car after swerving to avoid the partially transparent dog which ran out into the road.
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.
Disturbing Figure
Location: Rugeley (Staffordshire) - A460 between Rugeley and Hednesford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s-2001
Further Comments: This phantom man with a disturbing face is said to manifest on the rear seat of a vehicle and is only visible to the driver if they turn around. The entity is said to have caused several accidents along the road.
Ford Capri
Location: Rugeley (Staffordshire) - Hednesford Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: While travelling along this road at dusk, one driver spotted a Ford Capri type car following them out of Rugeley in their rear view mirror. The Capri appeared to only have parking lights on. Checking their mirror again after taking a corner, the driver noticed the other car had vanished - there were no other turnings it could have taken and travelled at too great a speed to stop.
Monk
Location: Rushton (Northamptonshire) - Between the 'Mount' burial hill and Barford Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A ghostly monk has been seen drifting along carrying an unknown item in the area, sometimes crossing the road and disrupting traffic. Some drivers have reported looking into their rear view mirror and seeing a man's face looking at them from the back seat.
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 (North 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 (North 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.
Trotting Dog
Location: Sandwick (Orkney) - Road between Sandwick and Birsay
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Only appearing at night, a strange hound would trot alongside anyone walking between the two areas.
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