The Paranormal Database

An old postcard of Tynemouth in Durham.

Captured Sea Serpent

Location: Tynemouth (Durham) - Coastline off Cullercoats, and 57 Grey Street
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1849
Further Comments: Though a good description of the creature is lacking, fishermen from this area chased and killed a sea monster, the body of which they brought back to land. The carcass was taken into a shop along Grey Street, and entry was charged at several shillings per view.

Nelson.

Lord Nelson

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Brewer Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Prior to his final battle, Nelson reportedly visited an undertaker along this road and ordered his coffin. Nelson's shade has been seen looking into a window that once belonged to the business.

Tobacco Tosser

Location: W1 (Greater London) - Fribourg & Treyer Tobacconist (no longer trading), Burlington Arcade
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1955
Further Comments: Press carried the story that the shop had acquired a poltergeist after stock was found disturbed, damaged, and thrown to the floor.

Little Girl

Location: Wakefield (West Yorkshire) - Old Vicarage Bookshop, Zetland Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: This bookshop is reputedly home to a phantom that died from the plague - his ghostly form is riddled with symptoms. As a side note, this area is also said to riddled with secret passageways.

Mirrored Shadows

Location: Wakefield (West Yorkshire) - Sunspec opticians
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa May 1997
Further Comments: Racks would be knocked off surfaces by an unseen hand and shadows spotted in mirrors. It was claimed in the press at the time that the shop was built upon an old graveyard.

Elizabethan Figure

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - Jackson's Jewellers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The ghostly Elizabethan which haunts this shop is said to be grey and misty.

Mr Cooke

Location: Watford (Hertfordshire) - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravished the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).

Legless Woman

Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Covent Garden Piazza
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 31 December 1989
Further Comments: A photograph taken by Mr Webb of his young daughter shows a woman dressed in black floating legless in the background. While it is possible that the woman's legs are concealed behind a post, the angle at which she leans does create doubt that the lady is corporeal.

Victoria

Location: Wendover (Buckinghamshire) - Antiques At . . Wendover (shop)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two phantoms reputedly haunt this site. The first, a young girl named Victoria, walks around in bare feet and wears a white gown. The second, a grumpy older man, may be a farmer.

Cleaner

Location: Whitburn (Tyne and Wear) - Grey Horse public house (ceased trading, now a Co-Op shop)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 2021
Further Comments: A former cleaner was named as the phantom which haunted the Grey Horse, although the haunting appears to have been limited to creaks and knocks.

Woman Wearing Sackcloth

Location: Wickham Market (Suffolk) - The White Hart (currently a collection of shops and flats)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost is said to be that of one Betty Price, executed for being a witch. The old room 14 of the Inn was also reportedly haunted, by a cat. Only one person has reported spooky occurrences since the pub has been converted, and that relates to an answer machine that switches itself on.

Bakery

Location: Widnes (Cheshire) - Asda store, Hale Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s?
Further Comments: Fortean TV reported this superstore as possessing ghosts in its EPOS room and bakery.

Footsteps

Location: Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) - Shoe shop along the High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Phantom footsteps could be heard moving around on the staircase and in the upper part of the building during one Christmas season.

Victorian

Location: Woburn (Bedfordshire) - Antiques centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghost dressed in Victorian attire is reputed to haunt this antiques shop.

The Thorntons shop in Worthing.

Two Children

Location: Worthing (Sussex) - Thorntons and Ernest Jones shops
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Two child-like figures were caught on security cameras in these shops, while staff report strange sounds and phantom activity. One staff member observed a ghostly entity in a storeroom, which spoke the word 'quiet'.

Young Girl

Location: York (North Yorkshire) - 18-20 Stonegate (currently Jack Wills)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local report says that a teenage girl using the changing room looked in the mirror and spotted another young girl. Believing that the girl had accidently walked into the changing room, the teenager turned and asked the girl to leave. The girl turned and walked through the wall. Staff later found out that a doorway once existed in the wall where the girl disappeared.

A building along Stonegate, York.

Young Girl

Location: York (North Yorkshire) - 41 Stonegate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A six-year-old Victorian girl who fell to her death on the staircase was said to have haunted this building during the twentieth century. The girl could be heard ascending the staircase and was reputedly seen sitting upon a shop counter when a tearoom operated on the site. One story says the ghost is a doctor's daughter and dates to when the building was a private residence. During one of the doctor's dinner parties, the curious girl emerged from her top floor bedroom and tried to peer over the banister to see who was in attendance. She lost her balance.

Coppergate, York.

Fire Alarm Starter

Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Coppergate shops, those built on site of old Craven's Sweet factory (includes the Bodyshop)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This entity was known to cause trouble when the factory stood. In more recent years, it has been blamed for setting off the fire alarms in these buildings.

Footsteps

Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Shop along High Ousegate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 30 November 2015
Further Comments: While in the stockroom, a worker heard faint knocking and footsteps coming up the staircase. The door handle turned but the door did not open, as if someone behind the door was going to enter but had changed their mind. The worker immediately opened the door, ready to make the person on the other side jump, but no one was there.

Small Old Man

Location: York (North Yorkshire) - Unnamed shop along Colliergate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The female owners of this shop reported being glared at by a strange old man who told them to get out - instead of doing so, one of the proprietors told him to go away, which he promptly did - the man vanished and was never seen again.