The Paranormal Database

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.

Headless Nun

Location: Bristol - Black Castle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: This pub is reputedly haunted by one or more headless nuns. Mild poltergeist phenomenon has also been reported in the building, as has the sighting of a ghostly little girl.

Disappearing Islands

Location: Bristol - Bristol Channel
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The islands which appear and disappear without warning are reported to be home to a race of immortals. The area has also been home to sea serpent reports.

Name Caller

Location: Bristol - King William III public house, King Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: Several staff have claimed to hear their names being called out, even though no one else is in the pub with them. Phantom footsteps have also been heard climbing up the rear staircase.

Kettle Boiler

Location: Bristol - Kings Chase Shopping Centre, Regent Street, Kingswood
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1976
Further Comments: Several shops in this centre were affected by a brief poltergeist outbreak. Events included small items moving by themselves, the sounds of footsteps and rustling, and a kettle turning itself on.

Suicide

Location: Bristol - Kings Cinema (currently the base for the City Council's Housing Department)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of the rest rooms is said to be particularly cold - the area is haunted by the ghost of someone who took their life by leaping from the balcony.

Woman in Crinolines

Location: Bristol - La Taverna Dell' Artista restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is unclear whether it is a single woman or several which have been seen drifting around this arty restaurant.

A book written about the haunting was published in 1800.

Beaten Children

Location: Bristol - Lamb Inn, Lawford Street and West Street (demolished 1910)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 5 November 1761 - November 1762
Further Comments: This polt remained on the site for a year. It became infamous for throwing glasses, disturbing the occupants through constant tapping and rapping, and beating the children. The activity ceased after the family sought out the help of a cunning woman who said they had been cursed and provided them with a counter-ritual.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Location: Bristol - Leigh Woods
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Brunel Unknown, teenager's experience in 2014
Further Comments: Brunel's shade has been reported near the site of the suspension bridge - he designed the structure but died before it became operational. In 2014 it was reported that two teenagers who spent the night in the woods had heard a child's voice and had photographed a ghostly figure (although the photographic image could have been pareidolia).

Monk

Location: Bristol - Library adjoining the cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 16:30h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom monk dressed in grey has always been seen around the same time.

Injured Sailor

Location: Bristol - Llandoger Trow public house (closed as of April 2019)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This old inn is the home to a ghostly sailor with a severely injured leg. Another version of the story says that the ghostly presence was a young boy (also with a permanent injury). More recently, a visiting TV production team and their psychics claimed more than fourteen entities haunted the pub.

Victorian Figure

Location: Bristol - Market Bar, St Nicholas Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Victorian woman has been reported in the area, along with an unknown man whose clothing dates from the twentieth century.

Young Girl on Horseback

Location: Bristol - Monument on a grassy hill next to the M32
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This female jockey broke her neck in a fall while attempting to ride down the hill - her shade, still on horseback, has been seen since her death.

Shadowy Figures

Location: Bristol - Odeon cinema, Broadmead
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Several members of staff have reported seeing people milling about the auditorium, disappearing if approached. A seat in the third row of screen three is said to be home to a shadowy apparition.

Ape

Location: Bristol - Old mansion, Hotwells (since demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1831 - 1869
Further Comments: After moving into the house, the owner found it impossible to keep his servants - they left after claiming to have encountered a ghostly ape or, at other times, a large black hound. The owner himself heard loud bangs and crashes but was unable to find a source. The site would later be converted into three cottages, but the haunting continued in the area and the new buildings left to go to ruin. Reports of the ghostly dog would continue in fields in the area for many years.

Sarah Siddons

Location: Bristol - Old Vic theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: Sarah's boyfriend hanged himself at this theatre, and her ghost is thought to continue to mourn the loss here. Architect Andrzej Blonski reported seeing Sarah's ghost, wearing a long, white crinoline dress, in 2010. Another member of staff reported hearing a female voice telling him to 'get out'. The other spook at home here is that of a scenic painter called Richard who died in an accident while working. Richard continues to move the props around.

Priest

Location: Bristol - Oldbury Court Stately Home, Whiteladies Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1941, 1970s, and circa 1990
Further Comments: This figure hid away from his enemies in a priest hole but became trapped and slowly starved to death. A small group of teenagers in the 1970s watched the monk walking through a wall, and he may have been spotted by several friends around 1990. A handful of female spooks are also said to frequent the house - they and the phantom priest disturbed nine women working for the BBC who stayed at the site in 1941.

Housekeeper

Location: Bristol - Oldbury House, St Michael's Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940-1941
Further Comments: A ghostly housekeeper was not the only phantom to haunt this former BBC building, which was used as a hostel for staff during the first part of the Second World War. A thin man who resembled a monk was spotted, as was a group of five girls. A child's sobs were reported, and frequent banging heard. The BBC eventually moved the residents out.

White Lady

Location: Bristol - Over Court (located near Cribbs Causeway)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around Christmas (reoccurring), last seen 1937
Further Comments: This area has the reputation for being haunted by the phantom of a woman who took her own life, though one variation of the story states that her husband shot her. Though injured, she ran away, only to stumble into a fishpond where she drowned. Her hovering ghost was last seen by a band of eighteen carol singers.