The Paranormal Database

Wild Man

Location: Sproughton - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 16th Century
Further Comments: The wild man is thought to have been a hermit rather than a large hairy hominid. A local pub was named after the man.

Black panther

Location: Sproughton - Road between village and Chantry Park
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: The Big Cats of Suffolk website reported that one witness watched a large black cat cross the road.

Penelope

Location: Stanningfield - Coldham Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown (nun), October 1807 (older ladies)
Further Comments: When Claudia Schiffer moved into the hall, the Ghost Club contacted her with a warning concerning the phantom nun, Penelope, which came with the property. Two cursed paintings are also housed onsite, one purporting to show Penelope and the other a mother superior. It is unclear whether the two phantom older ladies seen in 1807 relate to the paintings.

Altered Interior

Location: Stanningfield - St Nicholas Church
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1933
Further Comments: A passing gentleman noticed the church doors open and went in to investigate - he said he found the altar adorned with flowers and set up for a Roman Catholic service, even though it was an Anglican church.

Large Cat

Location: Stansfield - Exact location not known
Type: ABC
Date / Time: July 1996
Further Comments: This feline stood about 25 metres from the witness.

Moving Coffins

Location: Stanton - Church
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Circa 1850s
Further Comments: Opened to inter a recently deceased family member, the French family vault was found in disarray. The vault was tidied and sealed; five years later the seal was broken and the heavy coffins once again found moved from their places. Tidied and sealed for a second time, a couple of years passed until another death in the family. This time one of the coffins that required eight men to lift had moved to the stone staircase leading to the vault. While flooding was suspected to have moved the coffins, some believed an otherworldly force had played a part. A similar story exists of the Chase Vault in Christ Church, Barbados.

Thorington Hall, Stoke-by-Nayland.

Little Girl in Plain Brown Dress

Location: Stoke-by-Nayland - Thorington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The young girl has been seen along one of the passages upstairs and on the stairs landing. Phantom footsteps have also been attributed to the ghost, heard in the upper part of the building.

Unknown Woman

Location: Stonham - Magpie Public House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Newly arrived owners Mark and Belinda Rudderham reported windows opening themselves and the television switching itself on and off. A figure was spotted by Belinda and a member of the bar staff, who at first thought it was Mark, though he was asleep upstairs at the time. A former landlord had previously encountered a phantom woman on site.

Shuck with a Monk's Body and Dog's Head

Location: Stowmarket - Clopton Hall
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This strange entry in the 'shuck' category stands guard over a hidden hoard of gold. A legend states that St Felix instructed a monk and a dog to guard the buried treasure, and over the years the entities merged into a single presence.

Dozen Dancing Fairies

Location: Stowmarket - Exact area unknown
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: 1842
Further Comments: Whilst walking one night, a gentleman watched a dozen doll-like figures dancing around in a ring. He reported them as being more like little ghosts than solid creatures, making no sound and wearing sparkling dresses, standing no more than three feet high. Fairies were once quite common (as common as fairy sightings are) in the meadows surrounding the town.

Young Girl

Location: Stowmarket - Old Churchyard, Bury Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: April 2004, between 09:00h - 09:30h, 2014
Further Comments: While taking a shortcut after dropping her daughter off at school in 2004, this witness noticed a young girl with plaited hair and wearing a red Victorian style dress standing by a grave. The entity may have been spotted again in 2014 by a concerned member of the public.

Whitish Figure Running over Brambles

Location: Stowmarket - Pauper's Graveyard (near Stowlodge Hospital?)
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s, and July 2018
Further Comments: The witness said this figure appeared quite normal but drew attention to itself by running a couple of inches over the foliage in this area. The witness speculated the ghost is one of the poor buried in the nearby graveyard. The entity may have been spotted again in 2018 by a woman leaving the graveyard, when a fast moving figure disappeared into brambles.

Long haired Man

Location: Stowmarket - Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century?
Further Comments: This figure, wearing a nightshirt, has always given a wave to witnesses before disappearing.

Tavern Street, Stowmarket.

Tiny Frolicsome People

Location: Stowmarket - Tavern Street
Type: Fairy
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Appearing only at night, tiny people were often seen dancing and singing along Tavern Street, disappearing only after becoming aware that they were being watched.

Four Figures Standing around Gallows

Location: Stratford St Mary - Four Sisters Crossroads, along A12
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: As well as the mysterious four figures, an evil presence has been felt here.

Floating Shadow

Location: Stratford St Mary - Tenterfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1984-1994
Further Comments: During her ten years of occupancy, this witness stated that shadows would float through consecutive rooms, unnerving those who witnessed them. The building is reputed to have once been a makeshift hospital for injured soldiers.

Blond Haired Alien

Location: Sudbury - A1092 between Long Melford and Haverhill
Type: UFO
Date / Time: September 1982
Further Comments: Rosalind Reynolds was abducted from her car by a tall alien with messy blond hair accompanied by several classic greys. She claims that after the event she developed a psychic talent for foreseeing disasters.

Woman in Satin

Location: Sudbury - Brundon Hall, near Sudbury
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late eighteenth / early nineteenth centuries
Further Comments: This ghost could often be seen knocking (or stamping) on a blue slab on the floor in the house before disappearing. Curious owners removed the stone - it led to a vault containing two skeletons laying side-by-side, the remains of several children, and gold artifacts, though no one could explain why the site existed.

Large Black Cat

Location: Sudbury - Henny Road
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 28 September 2010, 05:30h
Further Comments: While driving home this witness watched a large black cat, 'as large as a Boxer dog', run from out of a hedge into the car headlights. The creature continued to run along the road for a short distance before vanishing into another hedge.

Mummified Feline

Location: Sudbury - Mill Hotel
Type: Curse
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: If removed, this mummified cat is said to bring ill fortune to the building and the occupiers. When the cat was first discovered (before the mill became a hotel), it was sold to a nearby shop. The shop burned down, so the cat came back and has stayed ever since.

Water Dragon

Location: Sudbury - River Stour
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Early 1400s
Further Comments: This crested monster came from out of the local river and terrorised Sudbury and the neighbouring villages. Eventually, all the townsfolk gathered and chased the beast back into the river.

St. Gregory's Church, Sudbury.

Simon

Location: Sudbury - St. Gregory's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1381 onwards?
Further Comments: After Simon was murdered in 1381, the former archbishop of Canterbury's head was removed and buried here after being displayed in the Tower of London. He has reportedly been seen in the church. Simon's shade could also be to blame for the disembodied footsteps that also haunt the church.

Procession of Warriors

Location: Sutton - Sutton Hoo
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: Once making a frequent appearance, early Anglo-Saxon fighters had been seen on what later turned out to be a large burial mound. A Spiritualist, Mrs Pretty, attended a seance where a black phantom warrior on a black horse with a drawn sword appeared, telling her to dig at the mounds.

Syleham Lights

Location: Syleham - Marshes in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Eighteenth century
Further Comments: The area around this village was once home to ghostly lights (most likely combusting marsh gas) that danced around at night.

Priest

Location: Syleham - Monks House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1953
Further Comments: The family believed the phantom priest who appeared in the drawing room to be the last person who knew the location of King Edmund's body.