The Paranormal Database

Henry Bennett

Location: Wallstown (County Cork) - Road near Wallstown Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Several years following 1642
Further Comments: Henry Bennett was killed during the siege of the castle, which resulted in the structure being burnt down. For several years following his death, Bennett would be seen dressed in Cavalier uniform and holding a pole which he used to block travellers from using the road. If asked to move the pole, he would do so.

Hooded Figure

Location: Wannock (Sussex) - Filching Manor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September 1996
Further Comments: Thought to be a monk, this character nearly caused an accident as it crossed the nearby road. An unknown 'spooky' presence is said to have been felt dozens of times near a hangar containing motorbikes.

Strangulation

Location: Wardlow (Derbyshire) - Road near the Three Stags Head
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: A cyclist who paused for breath just down the road from the pub felt himself being strangled by a pair of unseen hands. After the sensation had left, he hurried to the Three Stags Head where he was told the story of how a toll keeper had been murdered near the spot.

Old Car

Location: Ware (Hertfordshire) - Ware High Street at the roundabout in front of 'The Waterfront' public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: A very old fashioned car driven by a determined looking man materialised along the road here, causing a female motorist to perform an emergency stop. The vehicle then vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving one very puzzled witness.

Two Adrian Browns

Location: Wareham (Dorset) - Undisclosed area of road
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: A security worker, Adrian Brown tells the story of driving his van down a road in the area, only to see himself driving the same van in the opposite direction. He was reportedly slightly freaked out at the time.

Man with Slick White Hair

Location: Warrington (Cheshire) - A50 leading to Warrington from Knutford
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: May 1995
Further Comments: A driver speeding down the A50 passed a man in the road who tried to flag him down. The figure, with slicked back white hair, wore black clothing. The driver decided to go back and help the man, stopping about a kilometre further along the road, but to his horror realised the man was now standing a couple of metres behind his car - it would have been impossible for the figure to catch up with the vehicle in such a short period of time. The driver drove off again, not wanting to engage with the man with the white hair.

A ghostly nun wandering the roads.

White Nun

Location: Waterford (County Waterford) - Back roads of Presentation Convent
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about this ghostly white nun who walks along the roads after dark.

Female Hitchhiker

Location: Waterlooville (Hampshire) - Hulbert Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1976
Further Comments: Apparently seen several times, this girl stands in front of incoming traffic, vanishing when hit. She is said to be the ghost of a hitchhiker hit by a car along the road.

Floating Woman

Location: Watnall (Nottinghamshire) - Nuthall to Moorgreen road, just before the Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964
Further Comments: A witness on a motorbike narrowly avoided hitting a woman who crossed the road on a bend. Turning around to shout at the woman, the witness then realised she was floating across the road.

Dickens

Location: WC1 (Greater London) - Doughty Street, road outside Dickens's museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971
Further Comments: Dickens' ghost, dressed in black with a top hat, has been seen pacing along the street where he once lived.

Hooded Monk

Location: Weeley (Essex) - Outside Hillside House, along lane
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: A couple passing the house reported seeing a ghostly monk near the building, crossing the road and walking down the lane leading to Great Bentley.

Accidents along the M4 - could ghosts be to blame?

Palmer's Post

Location: Welford (Berkshire) - M4 Motorway near the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970
Further Comments: Used by a local wise man as a place to banish evil spirits, the post was uprooted when the motorway was constructed; subsequent mishaps on the road have been attributed to the incident.

Man with Torch

Location: Wellington (Somerset) - A38, near the Heatherton Grange Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Appearing to be a man in a raincoat, this phantom uses his torch to try to flag passing cars down. One woman who refused to stop narrowly avoided hitting him. A truck driver reported once giving the ghostly man a lift to Holcombe Bridge, not realising the man was a ghost until a short time later; the driver almost hit the man as he stood in the same place where he was first picked up. Stopping to ensure that the hitcher was okay, the truck driver watched as the stranger vanished before his eyes. This may be the same entity which has been seen at Taunton.

Girl in Red

Location: Welwyn (Hertfordshire) - Non pedestrianised bank between the two Welwyn tunnels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s and late 1990s
Further Comments: In the mid-2000s, a train guard reported looking out the window of a slow moving train and spotting a young girl in an old fashioned red dress. The guard looked away for a second, during which the girl vanished. When the story was shared, it emerged a driver had seen the figure several years previous.

Horse and Half A Rider

Location: Wendover (Buckinghamshire) - Steep road off the M40, though Wendover Woods
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Recorded by the local press, a man reported that his wife had seen a horse pass in front of the car in which she was travelling, and upon the creature was the bottom half of a rider - the figure was not visible above legs. The driver of the car did not spot anything.

Crossroad Ghost

Location: Wendron (Cornwall) - Crossroads about 800 metres from village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Buried at this junction after he committed suicide, this shade (named Jan Tucker by some) came back. The ghost would compel one local farmer to visit every night and would leap upon the farmer's horse. The Rev Mr Jago soon laid the ghost to rest.

Young Couple

Location: Wendron (Cornwall) - Unnamed lane in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A young couple were seen by many walking along the road, but could never be reached - no matter how fast witnesses ran or drove their horses after them. Two parsons heard the story, took a pony and trap along the road and, when the ghostly couple appeared, managed to catch up and run the phantoms over.

Cyclist

Location: West Ashby (Lincolnshire) - A153
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: During the early part of the twentieth century, a man driving a horse and cart home reported his horse bolting after nearing a cyclist who travelled on the wrong side of the road. When the horse was brought under control, the cyclist had vanished. Another source stated that between 1988 and 1998 there were three accidents along the road caused by vehicles swerving to avoid a bike, although the bike could never be seen after the event.

The phantom horseman never reaches journey's end.

Speeding Horseman

Location: West Auckland (Durham) - Route between town and Hamsterley Forest
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen galloping at the speed of an arrow, this horseman vanishes once he enters the dense woodland.

Man in a Cap

Location: West Hendred (Berkshire) - Road through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1964, and summer 2010, circa 23:30h
Further Comments: This phantom man darts in front of incoming traffic - the drivers brake or swerve, always believing it to be too late to avoid an accident, but the figure is gone. He was seen by two sisters in their car in 1964, three years after the event which had killed him, and may have been seen again in 2010 by a woman who swerved slight to miss a figure which ran out in front of her car.

Coach

Location: West Kennett (Wiltshire) - Road, exact area unknown
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Pulled by a team of four horses, a spectral coach haunts the area.

Headless Driver

Location: West Lulworth (Dorset) - Lane along Coach Lane Gates (gates may no longer stand)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghostly coach pulled by horses and driven by a headless coachman reportedly travels along this lane. The coachman was said to have been decapitated during a highway robbery.

Cloaked Figure

Location: West Mersea (Essex) - Between the Fox and turning for Waldegraves
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1990 and 2004
Further Comments: Driven in a car by a friend, a passenger reported seeing a white, cloaked figure cross the road ahead of him. Halfway across the road, the figure looked backwards, but continued to move forwards until vanishing into a roadside hedge. Around fourteen years later, the original witness was once again a passenger in a car, this time driven by his wife. She braked hard on the same stretch of road, as she spotted something white cross ahead of her.

Cry

Location: West Vale (Yorkshire) - Crossroads
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 14 June 2012, 03:00h
Further Comments: While out for a night walk, a witness heard a child's cry near the crossroads. The sound became louder as they approached, by they were unable to find the source of the noise.

Glowing Ball

Location: West Witton (Yorkshire) - A684 between town and Swinithwaite
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This dazzling ball of light hovers on the road only to vanish when cars and other vehicles move too close.