The Paranormal Database

No Running from Fate

Location: Great Ayton (North Yorkshire) - Roseberry Topping (hill)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Northumbrian princess was told on a certain day her son would drown. To prevent the death, the princess took her son and climbed to the top of this hill, which stands over three hundred metres tall, and is far away from rivers and the sea. Tired after the ascent, the princess fell asleep. Her son wandered away and discovered a small spring on the side of the hill. By the time the princess awoke and found her son, he had drowned in the spring's water.

Life or Death

Location: Great Ayton (North Yorkshire) - Well dedicated to Saint Oswalde (or Chapel Well - there appears to be some confusion)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was said that the well was aware whether the sick would live or die. An article of clothing belonging to the ill person could be thrown in; if it floated, the person would recover, and if it sank, then all bets were off.

Wooden carving of a knight fighting a griffin.

Guardian Griffin

Location: Griffydam (Leicestershire) - Old well
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This mystical beast once set up home at the well and attacked anyone who tried to draw water. A wandering knight fought the creature, killing the part lion, part eagle beast with arrows from afar.

Friend Finder

Location: Gulval (Cornwall) - Well at 'Fosses Moor'
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This well could be used to check the condition of missing people. If the water remained calm when asked about the person, it implied they were dead. If the water bubbled, the person was ill. If the water gushed, then the missing person was fit and healthy.

Sir James Stanfield

Location: Haddington (Lothian) - Amisfield House (now ruins within Amisfield Park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir James is said to have been murdered by his son, and the body thrown into the well. The area around the well is said to be haunted by the white spectral figure of Stanfield.

Mad Monk

Location: Haldon (aka Haldon Hills) (Devon) - Lidwell Chapel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The monk would kill and rob passing travellers, throwing their bodies down a nearby well. A sailor who had stopped to rest for the night discovered what the monk was up to. He threw the evil cleric down the same well to hold him until the authorities turned up. The monk is still heard trying to escape.

Drumming

Location: Harpham (North Yorkshire) - Area of the church
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a death in the St Quinton family
Further Comments: Tom Hewson was killed by a member of the St Quinton's in the 1300s - ever since then he can be heard beating his drum prior to a death in the family. Some report that the drumming emanates from a well.

Pedlar in the Well

Location: Hayfield (Derbyshire) - Highgate Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A peddler who was murdered and whose body was hidden in a well at the hall was not impressed - his ghost came back and haunted the location to such an extent many refused to go near the hall after dark. The haunting ceased after the well was sealed.

Headless Jenny

Location: Hibaldstow (Lincolnshire) - Jenny Stanny Well (current condition not known)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Jenny Stannywell drowned in the waters of this well and now wanders the area holding her head under her arm.

Table

Location: Hillcombe (Dorset) - Well in the village
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This well is said to contain a table made either of silver or gold that no one has yet managed to recover.

Pins

Location: Holystone (Northumberland) - Well of St Ninian
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Pins would be left here, although it is not clear whether they were for wishes or healing purposes.

Healing Waters

Location: Holywell (Clwyd) - St Winefride's Well (aka well of St Winifred)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: This well sprung up where St Winefride's severed head hit the ground after she was decapitated by an angry local. Luckily, St Beuno was passing by; he picked the head up off the ground and stuck it back on Winefride's shoulders. She soon recovered.

Money collecting in the bottom of a well.

The Holy Well

Location: Holywell (Cambridgeshire) - Churchyard
Type: Other
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: The waters of the well were said to cure sore eyes, and teenage girls would throw money into the pool in the hope the face of the man they would marry would appear to them.

Agile Green Folk

Location: Ilkley (West Yorkshire) - Area near the well
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1815
Further Comments: Described as fast moving little folk in green, the fairies that lived in this area were once found in the single village bath - they scarpered when discovered.

Storm Calmer

Location: Inishmurray (County Sligo) - Tobernacoragh (well)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth century practice, unknown if still well present
Further Comments: If a storm raged, the water of this well could be drained into the sea. As the contents reduced, so would the force of the storm.

Storm Forecaster

Location: Inveresk (Lothian) - Routing Well (current status not known)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It was said that the well would wail before a storm, although even in the nineteenth century, it was acknowledged that the sound was caused by the wind during a storm, rather than prior to one.

Farm Dog

Location: Ipstones (Staffordshire) - Area around Hermitage Farm, and Indefont Well
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lane outside of the farm was once the haunt of a phantom black hound. The same dog (or maybe another) also haunted the area around Indefont Well.

Red Witch

Location: Kenidzhek (Cornwall) - Local well
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This figure has been reported standing by the well. She is believed to have terrorised the village many years previous, though it is unknown why she now only loiters by the pool.

Clothes Washing

Location: Kettleness (North Yorkshire) - Claymore Well
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Circa 1650
Further Comments: Reports of fairies frequenting this area date from the seventeenth century, with three men and one woman claiming to have stumbled upon the fairies making merry at midnight. One twentieth century author wrote that the little folk washed their clothes at the site, their wooden rollers making so much noise that they could be heard a mile away.

Just Another Wishing Well

Location: Key Heugh (aka Sandy Crag) (Northumberland) - Well (not known if still in existence)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A well on this site was littered with pins left by visitors who hoped their wishes would be heard.

Waiting for Wil

Location: Kidwelly (Dyfed) - Pistyll Teilo
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A female spirit haunts this area. According to Antony D Hippisley Coxe's Haunted Britain, she cries out 'It is long and cold and tiresome to wait for the descendants of Wil Watter'. The water of the well is also said to have healing powers.

Wine

Location: Kinsale (County Cork) - Two Found Out Well (no longer accessible)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 31 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The water in a well close to Kinsale was said to turn into wine on New Year's Eve, but anyone who gazed into the water at this time would die. A couple went to see if the legend was true, and the following morning their bodies were found next to the well.

Immortal Fly

Location: Kirkmichael (Moray) - St Michael's Well (no longer present)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The well was said to have magical healing powers and was watched over by St Michael, who took the form of a fly which could never die.

Foretelling War

Location: Langley (Kent) - Well in a unnamed park (may no longer be present)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This well would be full of water during times of peace, but as soon as war broke out, it would dry up until hostilities ceased.

Queen Anne's Well, Lincoln Cathedral.

Finger Lickin' Good

Location: Lincoln (Lincolnshire) - Queen Anne's Well, cathedral area
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Well still present
Further Comments: There are six holes in the door to the well. Legend says if you walk around the well seven times and place your finger in one, good people are rewarded with feeling the breath of the Devil on their digit, while bad people have their finger bitten off.