The Paranormal Database

Hymns

Location: Bridgwater - Road from Bridgwater to Weston Zoyland
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 06 July (reoccurring)
Further Comments: As the Duke of Monmouth retreated after their defeat, his troops sang hymns to try to boost their morale. Their songs can still be heard.

Footfalls

Location: Bridgwater - Rose and Crown public house (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: Unexplained footsteps are often heard all over the pub, even after closing hours when all occupiers are accounted for.

Funeral Attired Couple

Location: Bridgwater - St Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1992, between 22:30-23:00h
Further Comments: One witness watched an old man and woman dressed in black, possibly in eighteenth or nineteenth century funeral attire. The pair walked out of church gates, turned right, and disappeared.

Murdered Girl

Location: Bristol - 14 Bellevue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: A family living here reported the strange sounds of scratching at the window. The kitchen table would also creak and groan without reason.

Old Lady

Location: Bristol - 9 St James Parade
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: The great ghost hunter Elliott O'Donnell was called on to investigate this case. The Brittons family living here reported hearing strange taps and footsteps, while Mrs Britton fainted after seeing the face of an old lady moving towards the cot of her child. The haunting is said to have stopped when the family were re-housed.

Woman in White

Location: Bristol - 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.

Jogger?

Location: Bristol - A38, Bedminster Down
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: December 2012, 06:50h
Further Comments: Whilst driving to work this witness spotted a smiling woman in a red top and black jogging bottoms running towards them in the middle of the road. After they passed each other the woman could not be seen in the rear view mirrors.

Black Monk

Location: Bristol - All Saint's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Last seen 1948?
Further Comments: Many believe that this ghostly monk in black has returned to watch over a pile of treasure which was hidden during his lifetime. The figure has been spotted several times over the last two hundred years, most recently around Christmas 1948 when he was seen walking down the church aisle.

Duchess

Location: Bristol - Area around Duchess Lake (now filled in) and Dower House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December (reoccurring) - exact date not known
Further Comments: Duchess Elizabeth Somerset fell from her horse and broke her neck - her ghost is said to ride around the area. A local legend says that if you wait near her monument, three knocks will signify her presence.

Crying Girl

Location: Bristol - Arnos Court - graveyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A woman in black has been seen here, crying over the death of her husband taken during the First World War. Another woman has been observed staggering around screaming; it is believed she was accidentally buried alive, and the mistake not realised until the body was exhumed many years later.

Pregnant Nun

Location: Bristol - Arno's Manor Hotel, Room 160 and other areas
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: This nun took her own life, and for varying reasons, her sisters bricked her body up in an alcove. The haunting is said to have started during the Second World War, when workmen came across her skeleton and to avoid any delay to their work, just hid the bones elsewhere. Since then, a figure in brown has periodically been reported, and some people have heard a soft female voice calling them by name.

Ashton Court, Bristol.

Decapitated Horseman

Location: Bristol - Ashton Court Estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Clear moonlit nights (horseman)
Further Comments: Ashton Court is best known for its ghostly headless horseman, though there are also reports of grey ladies and a phantom hound.

Goram and Vincent

Location: Bristol - Avon Gorge
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: To prove themselves worthy of the Lady Avona's love, the giant brothers Goram and Vincent raced to dig a ditch to drain a lake. Goram started work but fell asleep after digging the Hazel Brook Gorge, while Vincent dug the Avon Gorge that drained the unwanted lake, thus winning Avona's heart.

Victorian Woman

Location: Bristol - Badocks Field, Westbury on Trym
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 2015, 19:00h
Further Comments: One witness watched a woman dressed in Victorian clothing picking blackberries. She walked into the bramble bush and just disappeared. The witness was later told that the site was haunted.

Radio Breakdown

Location: Bristol - BBC Bristol, Whiteladies Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: A poltergeist located here is said to be responsible for the high number of electrical breakdowns which occur.

Singer

Location: Bristol - Private residence, York Place, Hotwells
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s
Further Comments: Two people heard a woman's voice singing a melody while in the basement listening to records, like something that a mother would sing to a baby. One of the witnesses also heard someone in hobnail boots walk to the front door and the sound of a key being inserted into the lock, although no one entered the house and there was no sound of the person walking away again.

Young Girl

Location: Bristol - Property owned by actor Anthony Head, exact location not known
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A ghostly, young Victorian lass has reportedly been heard by the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' actor and his family, with at least two guests also reporting sightings.

Watcher

Location: Bristol - Pur Down, Stapleton, passing under the M32
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007 / 2008
Further Comments: One witness felt like he was being watched when passing through this area, but never felt threatened. The same witness also spotted a figure standing on the edge of a hill which disappeared when approached.

Shocked Lady

Location: Bristol - Purdown area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Killed by a sudden bolt of lightning while out horse riding, this phantom can still be seen galloping by.

Modern Man

Location: Bristol - 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.

Bells

Location: Bristol - Safestore, Ashton Gate
Type: Other
Date / Time: Twenty-first Century
Further Comments: A customer and his parents at the facility heard bells ringing and echoing around the corridors - they spent some time trying to find the source of the discordant sounds but failed.

Radiogram

Location: Bristol - Sea Mills Farmhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2001
Further Comments: An estate agent with a client were looking around this old, vacant property, still with many of its original fittings, when a 1950s radiogram burst into life playing classical music. Both men checked for a self-timer or other explanation for the machine to start working but nothing could be found. A local story reports that the farmhouse is haunted by a young woman. She died of a broken heart after her father paid the girl's lover to leave, never to return.

Victorian Couple

Location: Bristol - Southmead Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: A phantom man and woman in Victorian clothing have been reported walking down this road.

Union Ghost

Location: Bristol - Spillers Animal Feed Mill, Avonmouth
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This shade was said only to appear to Transport and General Workers Union members - possibly propaganda by anti-unionists?

Captain John Gray

Location: Bristol - SS Great Britain
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993 onwards
Further Comments: While on a work placement in 1993, Sonny Graffo encountered a ghostly, middle-aged figure who matched the description of Captain John Gray who vanished in 1872. Other people on the ship have heard disembodied footsteps close to them, though nothing is seen. During a paranormal investigation in January 2021, a piano situated on the Promenade Deck was heard playing a few notes, even though the fallboard had been locked.