The Paranormal Database

Lean Hound

Location: Tring (Hertfordshire) - Area where gibbet once stood
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Pre-1863
Further Comments: A black, lean dog with fiery red eyes would stand in the middle of the road in his village, sinking into the ground if approached. It was thought to be the spirit of a chimneysweep executed for murder.

Old postcard of Bouley Bay in Jersey.

Le Tchan de Bouole

Location: Trinity (Jersey) - Bouley Bay
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Prior to a storm (last seen 2008)
Further Comments: This dog, sometimes dragging a large chain, is said to appear before the area is hit by bad weather. Writer Linda Corby claimed that three of her friends had seen this large black hound a few hours before the Great Storm of 1987 (although there may be a more mundane explanation), while in 2008 a car full of people were chased by a black shadow accompanied by the sound of dragging chains.

Huge Dog

Location: Trottiscliffe (Kent) - Pilgrim's Way
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1745?
Further Comments: A very large black hound is said to stalk the village, and may have attacked two locals in 1745, killing one and severely injuring the other.

Large Dog

Location: Turnditch (Derbyshire) - Unnamed lane, and Carsington Water
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 02 September 2008
Further Comments: During a thunderstorm, a driver spotted a large black dog cross the road ahead and move down a residential lane. The driver stopped to look for the hound, but it had vanished. A phantom black dog is said to haunt the nearby Carsington Water.

Witch with pet dog, from a chapbook.

Black Dog

Location: Twyford (Hampshire) - Exact area not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A demonic black dog once haunted this area.

Hound

Location: Tyneham (Dorset) - Boatswain's Coppice, between village and Lulworth
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This small piece of woodland was the home of a phantom dog that would physically prevent anyone from walking between the two villages.

Growing Hound

Location: Uplyme (Devon) - Lane near Black Dog public house
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The black dog here increases in size until it matches the height of the local trees, after which it turns into vapour and vanishes. A local tale reports it haunted a farmhouse that once stood nearby - the farmer once chased the dog away, and it vanished into the ceiling of one of the rooms; on examination, he found much gold hidden in the roof where it disappeared.

Intangible Hound

Location: Upper Booth (Derbyshire) - Exact area not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: Out walking during the evening, a girl watched a phantom black dog pass through a wire fence.

Devil Hound

Location: Upper Hergest (Herefordshire) - Hergust Court, now a farmhouse
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Prior to death in family
Further Comments: This hound would appear to members of the Vaughan family before one of their number died. It is said that when Black Vaughan was beheaded in 1483, his faithful hound seized and ran off with the head. The creature is said to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Hound

Location: Upware (Cambridgeshire) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The creature known as the Upware Hound would walk the lanes at night.

Black Dog

Location: Urchfont (Wiltshire) - Unspecified footpath that crosses fields and allotment
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This hound is thought to be a harbinger of misfortune.

Road running through Walberswick.

Phantom Dog, Calf Size

Location: Walberswick (Suffolk) - Road between the Bell Hotel and the Vicarage, and the beach leading to Dunwich
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1500s onwards
Further Comments: For four hundred years, a black shuck has been reported in the area, local legend stating that it is the Devil incarnate. The creature has most recently been witnessed by two women during the 1980s; they reported seeing a large phantom dog, black in colour and the size of a calf.

Vanishing Hound

Location: Walberswick (Suffolk) - Unknown hut (may no longer exist), marshes
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: An American airman and his wife staying in a property by the marsh found the site under attack from a large black dog. As a storm raged, the hound continued to throw itself against the building for several hours. As the day broke and the storm ceased, the occupants ventured out but found no evidence of the dog, not even a paw print in the mud.

Guardian Dog

Location: Wambarrows (Somerset) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This large black hound was said to protect the nearby hill from treasure hunters.

Cursed Castle

Location: Warwick (Warwickshire) - Warwick Castle
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After being caught stealing from her customers, an old servant at the castle lost her job. In revenge, she bewitched the place - a large black dog appeared and created havoc. The creature was defeated by quotes from the bible read aloud by a local holy man.

Hunting Pack

Location: Watchet (Somerset) - Cleeve Hill
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These Yeth hounds stalk as a pack after dark on the hill side.

Gurt Dog

Location: Weacombe (Somerset) - Area of Quantocks
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shuck has proved quite helpful when encountered, appearing to lost walkers and leading them to safety. However, another entity in the same area known as the Wild Rider is considered fatal if met.

A pack of Gabriel Hounds.

Gabriel Hounds

Location: Wednesbury (West Midlands) - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Gabriel Hounds, demonic dogs that could fly, would often be heard in this region. Other witnesses thought they were geese.

Fire Breathing Hounds

Location: Wellington (Somerset) - General Area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This pack of albino dogs run while breathing flame from their mouths.

Marshes around Wells and Stiffkey, Norfolk.

Shuck Attack

Location: Wells-next-the-Sea (Norfolk) - Lane leading to marshes between Wells & Stiffkey
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local legend says a man was attacked by a shuck down a lane between Wells and Stiffkey. Author Christopher Marlowe was allegedly chased by the same creature a little short time later, while out looking for the beast.

West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire.

White Dog

Location: West Kennet (Wiltshire) - Long Barrow
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 23 June (or Midsummer Eve), sunrise (reoccurring). Encounters in 1995 and 1996
Further Comments: Appearing to mark the start of the longest day of the year, this pale hound has been observed at sunrise. Some reports say the dog is accompanied by a ghostly druid. In 1995 a witness heard an almost unbearable high-pitched sound before observing a Neolithic man emerge from the barrow and walk away. The witness was terrified and fled. An experience in 1996 resulted in a witness feeling as if they had hit an invisible wall and something was trying to push them out, and they later read of someone four years earlier who had been grabbed by invisible hands.

Nottinghamshire's phantom hound.

Dog with Large Eyes

Location: West Stockwith (Nottinghamshire) - Intake Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This canine entity with eyes as large as saucers is said to roam the fields around the lane.

Pitch Forked Dog

Location: West Woodyates (Dorset) - Manor
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A farmhand discovered a dog laying in the hay - he poked it with his pitchfork, causing the entity to vanish. The sound of a coach has also been heard as it stops by the front of the house, though nothing is seen.

Cerberus

Location: Weston (West Yorkshire) - Dobb Park Castle
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This three-headed hound stands guard over a hoard of hidden treasure somewhere on this site.

Barghest

Location: Wharfedale (West Yorkshire) - Trowler's Gill
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: This demonic dog is the size of a small bear, with yellow eyes as large as saucers. To stare the beast in one of these eyes will result in the death of the onlooker within days.