Road Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Rabbit-sized Demon
Location: Willoughton (Lincolnshire) - Country lane
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This sober witness stated that, while cycling, a small bipedal creature with horns ran out in front of him, travelling just as fast as the bicycle. It disappeared as it hopped on a grass verge.
Annie
Location: Wimborne (Dorset) - Mill Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A former mill worker, Annie drowned in the River Allen while running away from the mill. Employees at the Riverside Cafe reported seeing the ghostly figure of a woman wearing a long dress in the area.
Coffin
Location: Wimborne (Dorset) - B3078, close to Clapgate Junction
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A coffin has been spotted on the roadside here, though it disappears if looked at closely. Some believe it belongs to someone who committed suicide, denying them the right to be buried in a churchyard, being buried close to this spot instead. A phantom black horse is also said to haunt this area.
Monk with No Legs
Location: Winchcombe (Gloucestershire) - Cowl Lane, Pike Bank area, and Old Corner Cupboard Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: Reports of a ghostly black monk coming from these areas are not uncommon, some saying that the figure looked as if he sunk slightly into the ground, others saying he floats two foot above the path.
Man in Overcoat
Location: Winsford (Cheshire) - Bostock Road, Wharton Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 November 2010, 00:20h
Further Comments: While cycling home, this witness spotted a man drifting along the road. The phantom wore a heavy long coat with a hat not too dissimilar to that which a cowboy would wear. The figure's legs were not visible. The witness watched the figure for around ten seconds and when eye contact was made, the apparition vanished.
Coach
Location: Winterborne Monkton (Dorset) - Pool of water off the A354 near Winterborne Monkton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An accident resulted in a coach, passengers and a team of horses all drowning in this pool. The accident is said to periodically reoccur.
Strange Woman
Location: Wissett (Suffolk) - Rumburgh Road, Cole's Arch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This spooky figure was seen sitting on the bridge before disappearing.
Cavalier
Location: Woodborough (Wiltshire) - Road between village and Allington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971
Further Comments: Returning home one night, a driver encountered a man wearing Cavalier-style clothing. The figure was accompanied by a large black dog. The driver sped away, rather than investigate further.
Young Airman
Location: Woodford (Essex) - M11 Southbound
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly German airman has not been seen since the road layout changed and the M11 now joins the A406. Prior to this, a witness reported seeing the figure a half dozen times standing on the hard shoulder.
Talking Shuck
Location: Woolpit (Suffolk) - Road approaching the village
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: The shuck in this yarn caught a man and spoke, informing the unfortunate gentleman that he would be dead within a week. Not surprisingly, he died the following night.
Suicide
Location: Wootton Rivers (Wiltshire) - Crossroad in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown - early to mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: Horses were said to be startled at the location where a suicide was buried. The phantom was said to be heard on a nightly basis; on the hour of his death, ghostly swinging could be heard.
Motorcyclist
Location: Worlingworth (Suffolk) - Roads in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s, November, early hours of the morning
Further Comments: While driving to work, one witness reported seeing in his rear view mirror a motorcycle which disappeared. Others have also seen the phantom motorbike.
Turpin
Location: Woughton (Buckinghamshire) - Bury Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghost of a highwayman, thought to be Dick Turpin, haunts the Bury Lane approach towards the Old Swan Inn that once acted as one of his many hideouts.
Tall Figure
Location: Wrexham (Clwyd) - Oak Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1999, early evening
Further Comments: A driver and passenger driving along this road watched a tall dark figure cross the road ahead of them. The figure appeared to be hovering.
Turpin
Location: Wroughton on the Green (Buckinghamshire) - Road through the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure wearing a tricorn hat appears to be pacing along the roadside, as if waiting for someone to join him.
Phantom Coach
Location: Wroxham (Norfolk) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A ghostly coach and four passes over this bridge once a year. It is said to be driven by a headless Sir Thomas Boleyn and is one of eleven bridges that he passes over on the night of his daughter Anne's execution.
Hitchhiker in Leather
Location: Wybunbury (Cheshire) - A51 near to the town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 20 October 1996
Further Comments: A driver picked up a male hitchhiker wearing old style motorbike leathers - a short while into the journey, driver realised that the hitcher had vanished, though the seatbelt was still in place and the door was locked.
Blonde Woman
Location: Wye (Kent) - White Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 7 January 2000
Further Comments: A driver hit a blonde woman who stood in the middle of the road. The lady smiled at the motorist as she bounced over the bonnet, and promptly vanished. The police were contacted, but no evidence of an accident could be detected.
Short Lady
Location: Yatesbury (Wiltshire) - Crossroads
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: September or October 2012
Further Comments: Approaching the crossroads, a driver watched a white hazy woman wearing 'nun like' clothing step out of bushes and cross the road. As the car approached her, the woman stopped in the middle of the road, and turned and looked at the driver before vanishing. The driver said she stood around four foot seven inches tall and wearing pre-twentieth century clothing.
Bear in Ball
Location: Yeovil (Somerset) - Road between town and South Petherton
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Seventeenth century?
Further Comments: Travelling between the two towns, a lone man reported a huge bear with flaming eyes along the road, rotating within what sounds to be a large plastic ball (like the hamster 'toy'). The witness's horse then bolted and ran back home.
Executed Alice
Location: York (Yorkshire) - Mad Alice Lane (now Lund's Court)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hanged here in 1825, her crime apparently only guilty of being 'mad', Alice drifts along the lane that once held her name. Another version of the story says she killed her abusive husband along the lane and was executed at the castle.
Woman with Child
Location: York (Yorkshire) - A64 Malton Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Misty evenings
Further Comments: This tragic figure, possibly murdered by her highwayman boyfriend, now appears on misty or foggy evenings.
Highwayman
Location: York (Yorkshire) - Four All's public house, A64
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 06 November 2006, 23:45h
Further Comments: A driver returning home from work reported passing a figure on horseback, dressed in highwayman's clothing, stood by the wall of the pub. When the witness looked in his rear view mirror, the figure had vanished. There is a local belief that the highwayman is Dick Turpin, and sightings of the highwayman are said to go back to the mid-twentieth century. A sandstone cave in the area is said to have been one of Turpin's hideouts.
Coach & Eight
Location: Youlgreave (Derbyshire) - Road between Youlgreave and Middleton, area known as Roughwood Hollow?
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A gamekeeper was forced to flatten himself against a wall as a phantom coach pulled by a team of eight horses thundered past. Other reports of the coach along the same stretch of road state that the team is accompanied by several hounds.
Bloody Cyclist
Location: Zennor (Cornwall) - Road leading to Foage Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Covered in blood, this man pedals quickly down the thin road, as if desperate to find someone to help him.
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