The Paranormal Database

Woman in White

Location: Bristol (Somerset) - A38 near Barrow Gurney Reservoir
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A certain part of the road is said to be covered in skid marks where various cars have had to brake to avoid hitting a phantom woman dressed in a white coat. The figure always vanishes immediately afterwards.

Modern Man

Location: Bristol (Somerset) - Rummer public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1973
Further Comments: The shade of a man dressed in contemporary clothing was seen in the cellar before quickly vanishing, while the ghost of a woman with long dark hair and dressed in white has been reported in the bar.

White Lady

Location: Broad Haven (Dyfed) - Haven Fort Hotel (aka Havens Hotel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1970
Further Comments: A local legend claimed a white lady haunted the hotel grounds.

An old postcard of the beach at Broadstairs in Kent.

White Nurse?

Location: Broadstairs (Kent) - Kingsgate Castle and beach below
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 2010 (nurse), October 2011 (nun)
Further Comments: A photograph taken by artist Malcolm Baker appears to show the upper body of a white figure moving through foliage just outside the castle. Baker believes the figure to be a nurse in 1950s uniform, carrying a tray in front of her. A few months later musician Dan Smith reported spotting a nun dressed in white on the beach just after dawn, the figure quickly vanishing.

Woman in White

Location: Bucklebury (Berkshire) - Avenue at Beenham junction
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A lady in white is said to drift along this stretch of road.

White Lady

Location: Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) - Rushbrooke Hall (3.5 miles from Bury)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1579 onwards
Further Comments: Differing stories for the same myth - the first states that the White Lady was the wife of a former owner, murdered by her husband. She floats around the moat, the place she was drowned. The second tale places the murder in the hall, this time by persons unknown. The body was then thrown into the moat from the battlements.

Black Monk

Location: Caldey Island (Dyfed) - Priory and all over Island
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s, though no sightings since 1929
Further Comments: Standing taller than six foot, the monk dressed in black was said to rise from the graveyard at the old priory before drifting off. Though reported on the land immediately around the priory, some islanders encountered him further away, in their homes or on the roads. The ghosts of a white lady and of a madman were also said to haunt the island at some point in the dim and distant past.

Lady in White

Location: Calstock (Cornwall) - Cotehele House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980
Further Comments: A young lady dressed completely in white is said to haunt this building. The ghost would descend the main staircase. Phantom music has also been reported in the house.

The ghost with a ginger beard.

Ginger Bearded Man

Location: Calverton (Nottinghamshire) - Main Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The main road leading through Calverton is said to be haunted by two ghosts - a man wearing a tweed suit and sporting a ginger beard walks along the path, while a phantom white lady waits patiently at a bus stop.

Abbey Road, Abbey House, Cambridge.

A Nun and Brown Dog-Thing

Location: Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) - Abbey Road, Abbey House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Further Comments: It is claimed that Abbey House is, or at least was, the most haunted house in Cambridge. While I'm not a fan of 'most haunted' titles, when you look at the number and type of the ghosts supposed to haunt the site (a poltergeist, ghostly echoes of chains, a butler, a woman in white, a grey lady, a squirrel, a dog, and a hare all amongst the entities which have popped up), one can understand why the title has been applied here. An exorcism was performed in the 1980s, which may have laid the entities.

White Lady

Location: Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) - Sherratt & Hughes, Trinity Street (closed in 1991)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once said to be the oldest bookshop in the UK, the building claims to have a white lady who walks silently down the aisles. Her history is unknown. There are also reports of a man in Victorian evening dress.

An old postcard of Hadleigh Castle on Canvey Island.

The White Lady & The Black Man

Location: Canvey Island (Essex) - Hadleigh Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1840s onwards
Further Comments: No recent sightings of these figures have been reported, and locals accept them as being little more than smuggler's stories told to inspire fear. The white lady is said to offer to dance with anyone she came upon during her walks, while the black man offered to buy souls in return for a song. The White Lady was seen around 1917 by a group of men out partying - one of them chased after the figure with a large stick, but the apparition disappeared before he reached it.

White Lady

Location: Cardiff (South Glamorgan) - Castell Coch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A 'new' building on the site of thirteenth century ruins, the White Lady once haunted the older area, and now has set up shop in the replacement castle. The woman is said to have died of a broken heart after her son drowned in a local pond. There is also reported to be a buried hoard of treasure here, zealously protected by either three eagles or an entity who confuses any potential gold thieves, while an ethereal cavalier walks the castle grounds.

An old postcard of Carlisle Castle.

White Woman

Location: Carlisle (Cumbria) - Carlisle Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1842
Further Comments: A soldier on guard duty challenged this fabled phantom woman; she faded in front of him and he died of shock several hours later. It is believed the ghost may have belonged to a body found in 1835, bricked up in a castle wall.

Stone of Dismissal

Location: Carlton (Nottinghamshire) - Devil's Stone (outside the church?)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: In a reversal of the normal tale associated with these stones, if a witness spotted the Devil nearby, she or he had to run around the stone to dismiss Old Nick. The stone was also said to be haunted by a woman in white who was sacrificed on it.

White Woman

Location: Castle Gresley (Derbyshire) - White Lady Springs, wooded area just outside the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This small pool of water is haunted by the pale ghost of a woman who is said to have drowned in it many years ago.

Glowing Woman

Location: Chapel St Leonards (Lincolnshire) - Seafront between Trunch Lane and Vickers Point Ingoldmells
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1990s
Further Comments: A glowing woman dressed in white was observed by four people here. The radiant figure walked towards them before turning towards the sea and vanishing. A local legend says the woman had been spurned by her lover and walked into the sea (which before then was further inland) to drown herself.

White Lady

Location: Charmouth (Dorset) - Charmouth Lodge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s?
Further Comments: The white lady who haunted this building was said to have been murdered and disposed of down a well that is now located under the dining room. The lodge is also haunted by a monk in a brown habit, who may be the cause of the disembodied footsteps occasionally heard travelling around the building.

Drifting Woman

Location: Charmouth (Dorset) - Road between Charmouth and Bridport
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 11 September 2004, between 2230h - 2330h
Further Comments: A driver and her passenger both watched a woman in white sweep across the road as they drove towards Bridport. They both reported that the car suddenly became cold at the time of the sighting.

A radiant woman in the lake.

Lady of the Lake

Location: Charnock Richard (Lancashire) - The Dam (lake near Park Hall)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A radiant white female form has been seen a couple of times in the lake within the Hall grounds - it is believed to be a woman who drowned herself after falling in love with a monk. His ghost in turn may haunt the hall.

Bess of Hardwick

Location: Chatsworth (Derbyshire) - Chatsworth House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century?
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that Bess, who finished constructing her home around 1560, is one of several shades to haunt this house. Mary Queen of Scots is rumoured to walk where she was once held captive, while a grey lady and a white woman haunt other parts of the building. The library is haunted by a transparent figure which drifts from shelf to shelf. The bridge on the grounds is haunted by a screaming woman who was forced to watch her baby drowned after it was thrown into the river by her partner.

Silky

Location: Chester (Cheshire) - Chirton Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A former mistress of a Duke of Argyll, this white woman has yet to leave the bedroom of this house.

Madam Pigott

Location: Chetwynd Aston (Shropshire) - A41, and Chetwynd Hall & surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: Having died in childbirth, Madam Pigott was seen dozens of times carrying her baby and combing its hair. Some also reported the lady also having a cat with her. She was eventually exorcised by twelve parsons, though in 1969 two motorists separately reported a white figure on the road near the church.

Edwardian Gentleman

Location: Chingford (Essex) - Friday Hill House, Simmons Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Said to resemble Stan Laurel, this ghost was seen in Friday Hill House by a former occupier. A crying woman in a white veil has also been seen on the site.

White Lady

Location: Chorley (Lancashire) - Heskin Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hanged during the Civil War by a traitorous priest, this female member of the Mundesley family still returns home. The beam of wood from which her body dangled is considered lucky if you touch it.