The Paranormal Database

Drop Dead

Location: Devizes - Market place
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1753
Further Comments: Ruth Pierce swore in the name of God that she had not just cheated her business partner, and that she would be struck dead if it were so. She immediately dropped dead, and so a monolith was erected as a warning to other corrupt businesspeople.

Isabella of Valois

Location: Devizes - Moat Cottage, Devizes Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Surveyor Mike Crawshaw photographed a strange shape while working and believed it to be the ghost of Isabella of Valois, once imprisoned within the castle. Dennis Clements, owner of the cottage, reported that Lady Isabella's ghost had not been seen for 'many years'.

Mrs Cunningham

Location: Devizes - Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Cunningham family donated their family home to the local council for adaptation into a museum, and since then an elder Cunningham matriarch has manifested in the building. It is unclear whether this is in protest or approval of their charitable act.

Weighty Footsteps

Location: Devizes - Old Cinema
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These eerie footsteps have been heard pacing in empty rooms on the first floor.

Sketch by Franz Marc.

Runaway Horses

Location: Devizes - Oliver's Castle, aka Roundway Castle, aka Rundaway Castle - Bloody Ditch
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is said eight hundred men died at the Battle of Roundway Hill in 1643, after a battlefield manoeuvre which trapped cavalry in a slopped area. The men and horses were slaughtered, and since the battle ghostly horses have been seen galloping around the area. A headless ghost was once also said to walk the area, possibly linked to a barrow on the site, as is the phantom hound which drags a chain from its neck.

Figures

Location: Devizes - Riverside (or Canal) Forge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: This building is reputedly haunted by various figures who are responsible for the strange banging and voices also reported here.

Older Woman

Location: Devizes - Royal Oak public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A former landlady at this pub reported disembodied footsteps, strange shadows and voices coming from the kitchen. A photograph taken during a DJ session was said to show the phantom woman.

Maria Heathcote

Location: Devizes - Southbroom House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Some believe the ghost of Maria Heathcote once haunted this building, now a school.

Bride Dressed in White

Location: Devizes - Three Crowns Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The bride committed suicide in the building after being jilted at the altar, and her pallid form has existed since.

Smoker

Location: Devizes - Upstairs Downstairs Antiques, Market Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006
Further Comments: The Paranormal Site Investigating team were called to this shop after reports of phantom footsteps after hours and the inexplicable smell of smoke.

The ghost with a wide brimmed hat.

Man in Black

Location: Dilton Marsh - High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October / November (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Wearing long black leather boots and coat with a wide brimmed hat, this phantom man is said to swagger towards the Prince of Wales pub but vanishes just prior to arriving.

Queen Henrietta?

Location: Ditteridge - Cheney Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: No one can say for sure whether the ghost reported is that of Queen Henrietta, who once resided here.

Black Dog

Location: Donhead St Mary - Watery Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: The hound that haunted this road was not thought to be harmful, though the locals were said to be afraid of travelling here at night.

Coach & Four

Location: Driffield - Between Driffield and Harnhill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early or mid twentieth century
Further Comments: A phantom coach drawn by a team of four horses travel around this area. They are said to look quite solid, though is illuminated by an unknown source.

Phantom Horse

Location: Durnford - Salisbury Road between Durnford & Amesbury, near Chalk Pit Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This creature, only heard and not seen, would gallop on the road and in the fields in this area.

Dropped

Location: East Knoyle - Large stone (exact location unknown)
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A large stone in the village was once believed unmovable and was said to have been dropped by the Devil as he constructed Stonehenge.

Blue Light

Location: Eastcourt - All over the hamlet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Dusk
Further Comments: A mysterious blue ball of light drifts down the main street of the village, illuminating houses as it passes by.

Seymour Wroughton

Location: Easterton - Area where Folly House once stood (aka Castle House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1789 onwards
Further Comments: After Seymour died in a coach accident along his driveway, his manor house was left empty and fell into decay. Now only his ghost, still travelling in his coach, reminds people where his house once stood.

Female Form

Location: Easterton - Road near Fiddington House, leading to Lavington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1869
Further Comments: The road that skirted the farm was once haunted by a phantom woman. When workmen building a wall alongside the house discovered two skeletons and gave them a proper burial, the woman vanished forever.

Monk

Location: Edington - Between Monk's Well and the church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century?
Further Comments: An elderly monk has been spotted in this area. One witness noticed something was amiss when his dog did not bark at the figure, as the creature insisted on barking at anyone else.

Chair

Location: Enford - Round barrow
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A golden chair is reputed to sit at the bottom of this barrow.

Lady Charlotte Watson-Taylor

Location: Erlestoke - Erlestoke Prison and village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Both prison workers and villagers have reported seeing this phantom lady inspecting the prison grounds, and even driving her horse and carriage over a road close by where a bridge once stood.

Sir Robert Pye

Location: Faringdon - Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Headless, the spirit of Pye moves around the north side of the churchyard.

Tunnel

Location: Fifield Bavant - Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The tunnel under this church is reputedly haunted, but by whom or what is unknown.

Explosion

Location: Ford - All over the village
Type: Other
Date / Time: 23 February 1977, 03:45h
Further Comments: Every resident of the village was left a little shaken and confused after a huge explosion rocked the area. One villager said he heard a rushing that washed over his house, before being followed by the explosion and a blue-green flash.