The Paranormal Database

Man in Black Cloak

Location: Southwick - A361 Frome Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: This strange figure, described as tall and well built, has been seen along this road. The entity may have been responsible for a mysterious car accident in 1992, which killed the driver. The area has also been the scene of several ABC reports.

Woman with Severed Fingers

Location: Stanton St Bernard - Manor house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Once a year, but date unknown
Further Comments: The lady of the manor died and was placed in a coffin at the church, her fingers flaunting her precious ring collection. A corrupt sexton heard about the value of the jewellery now about to be buried, so opened the coffin and cut off the woman's fingers to take the rings. At this point the lady, who was only in a coma, awoke - the sexton screamed and ran away, leaving the woman to make her own way home. Her ghost, blood spurting from stumpy fingers, has been seen around her house.

Cloaked Figure

Location: Steeple Ashton - Former village courthouse, converted into a village store
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1944
Further Comments: The old village courthouse was being used as a grocery store in 1944, and the owners reported a ghostly figure wearing a black cloak who would enter the bedroom and search a cupboard. A local tradition said that the ghost of Judge Jeffreys haunted the building, and in life he had stored his paperwork in the haunted cupboard.

Book Thrower

Location: Steeple Ashton - Vicarage
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A guest of the vicar and his wife reported hearing a great deal of banging in the room above her bedroom. The following morning, they were told that when the room she had stayed in was used, the books in the library above would be thrown around.

Monk

Location: Stert - Land between church and Manor Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century?
Further Comments: A teenage girl walking home encountered a monk-like figure in this area. She described him as having a pale, cruel face concealed under his cowl.

Phantom Pooch

Location: Stonehenge - Doghill Barrow
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This ancient burial mound is reportedly haunted by a dog, which conceals itself beneath the hill.

Crashing Aircraft

Location: Stonehenge - Small monument to two pilots
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: Several people driving together during the Second World War witnessed a plane crash here - when they investigated, all they could find was the monument to the first two members of the Royal Flying Corps to die in a plane crash.

Stonehenge.

Mysterious Stones

Location: Stonehenge - Stone Circle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: Many strange properties and stories have been assigned to the most famous stone circle in the world, including rumours that it was built by Merlin the Wizard (or by the Devil), and that it is impossible to count the true number of stones. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Uther Pendragon is buried here.

Old Woman

Location: Stourton - Brook House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early to mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: This house is reputedly haunted by the ghost of an elderly lady and her black dog.

Headless Horseman

Location: Stourton - Road in the area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 January (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This headless horseman travels with a large black hound. The man is said to have broken his neck after being thrown from his horse, trying to travel from Wincanton Market to Stourton in less than seven minutes.

Men Fighting

Location: Stourton - Stourhead house and garden
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The original house, long since gone, was reportedly very haunted; the site where the building stood is now home to a couple of shades that silently fight. Some visitors to the building have reported seeing people in old fashioned clothing who disappear quickly from view.

Nun

Location: Stratton St Margaret - Church and general area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in white, the ghostly nun is said to haunt not only the church, but the entire village.

Nurse

Location: Stratton St Margaret - Diamond Farm (no longer present)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1930s
Further Comments: A witness, together with her two cousins were disturbed one night by a nurse in uniform, carrying a candle, who entered through one door and out the other. On another occasion, the witness's uncle followed the apparition and watched it disappear into a rosary which hung on the hall wall, which had been brought from a First World War battlefield.

Returning Items

Location: Swindon - Boundary House public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: Manager Dave Howells called in a paranormal investigation team after he noticed items which had vanished turn up again years later. The team claimed to have found five ghosts in total; Catherine and James in the bar, Amy and Tilly in the upper part of the building, and Alf in the basement.

Flying Glasses

Location: Swindon - Clifton Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 25 December 1972
Further Comments: For two concurrent nights, a sherry glass was seen to rise from the shelf and fall to the floor without breaking.

Puller

Location: Swindon - Council house, Melksham Close
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: August 1985
Further Comments: Tenant Beverley Walsh claimed she felt unseen hands pull at clothing and that an entity moved her bed across the room. It was said that a few years previous, a couple were driven out of the property by the same presence.

Thatched Cottage

Location: Swindon - Ermine Street
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: A female cyclist caught in a storm took cover in a thatched cottage along this road, warming herself by an open fire with an old grey haired man for company. She later discovered that the cottage had been overgrown and dilapidated since the previous century.

Woman

Location: Swindon - Fire Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s, 1970s
Further Comments: Footsteps were heard in the upper parts of the building when no one should have been there, and strange footprints appeared on freshly polished floors, stopping abruptly halfway across. One firefighter awoke in the dorm to see a grey shadowy figure standing over him, while another followed a figure into the toilets, only to find them empty. One fire officer suggested it was the ghost of a woman who drowned in the canal, over which the fire station was built.

Black Dog

Location: Swindon - Hill in Toothill area (was known as The Toot)
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This demonic hound once haunted the area before the area became a suburb of Swindon.

Cross Shape

Location: Swindon - Ladder Lane
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The place where a rider died after being thrown from a horse is said to be marked by a cross-shaped spot where grass cannot grow.

Mount Badon

Location: Swindon - Liddington Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This defensive hillfort may be the mythical Mount Baton, where King Arthur defeated the Saxons.

John St John

Location: Swindon - Lydiard House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s?
Further Comments: Baronet John St John resided in this property during the seventeenth century; his presence is now thought to be marked by a drop in temperature and a sickly sweet fragrance.

Arthur

Location: Swindon - Milton Road Health Hydro & Swimming Baths
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Formerly a public bath house and medical centre for the railway workers of Swindon, this Victorian building was used as a hospital for soldiers returning from the First World War. Several ghosts reportedly wander the tiled corridors, the most notable called 'Arthur' who moves papers around and is heard walking around at night.

Young Girl

Location: Swindon - Nine Elms Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 03 August 2013, 15:30h
Further Comments: During a thunderstorm, a young lad and his friends took cover amongst the trees. He spotted a dark haired girl aged around eleven, wearing a blue old fashioned dress. When he called out to his friends, the girl vanished. The witness later saw the same girl from a window at a friend's house. He described her as pale and floating.

Large Dog

Location: Swindon - Old canal bridge between Shrivenham Road and Drakes Way
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1988
Further Comments: It was reported that a large dog with red eyes was seen by three people over a two day period. The hound appeared unable to cross an old metal bridge.