The Paranormal Database

Misty Lady

Location: Abberley - Rectory
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1947 (woman), 1950 (footsteps)
Further Comments: Local folklore claimed that a misty lady would manifest over a coffin-shaped box containing her child. Two clergymen opened the box and found nothing but dust inside. The Rector reported hearing footsteps in empty parts of the building.

Dreadful Eyes

Location: Alfrick - Sandy Lane
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Nineteenth century?
Further Comments: A few entities were said to have made their homes here, including a black dog with dreadful eyes, a ghostly horseman, and a wagon containing a coffin pulled by four phantom horses.

Return from the Red Sea

Location: Beoley - Exact location unknown
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A ghost that haunted this building was exorcised to the Red Sea for fifty years. When this time expired, the ghost came back, extremely upset about its forced vacation.

Nun

Location: Besford - Besford Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This location is haunted by either a nun or a lady dressed in grey. Or maybe both? An upstairs bedroom is said to be the most popular place for the ghost to materialise.

Boots Made for Walking

Location: Besford - Church Farm, local field named Dog Kennel Piece
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: Dark, moonless nights
Further Comments: A kennelman was sent by his master to discover what was upsetting a pack of hounds once kept here. The kennelman never returned and in the morning his body was found torn apart by the dogs with only his boots untouched. A ghostly form of the footwear now stomps around the field at night, while the sound of howling hounds drift in the wind.

Moving Shadows

Location: Besford - Dower House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Intensely bright phantom lights were seen outside the building, and a few months later, two witnesses watched a jet black shadow cross a wall, though there was no light source present that could have cast it. A strange face would sometimes look through the window at those inside, before slowly fading away, while a misty woman was once seen inside the building.

Steam

Location: Bewdley - Severn Valley Railway, Northwood Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: This phantom locomotive is said to be invisible, though it leaves a trail of hazy steam as it passes. The Parasearch team investigated the site in 2008 but did not reach any conclusions.

Man in Black

Location: Bewdley - Talbot Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1989
Further Comments: A photograph taken in the bar after closing hours revealed a blurred unknown man in black in the background. It was also reported that furniture had moved itself and the jukebox would switch itself on.

Garden Tosser

Location: Bewdley - Two adjoining properties, Dry Mill Lane
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1960
Further Comments: Mr and Mrs Edwards appeared in court, accused of assaulting their neighbour. The conflict began after manure was thrown over the fence before being thrown back, and over the course of a week, tree branches were broken and red shale tossed into the gardens. Both neighbours denied that they had thrown anything, leading a solicitor to speculate a poltergeist had been responsible and each neighbour had automatically blamed the other.

Bedroom Shuck

Location: Bredon - Cottage, exact location not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: During Second World War
Further Comments: Appearing in a bedroom, this dog had glowing red eyes and warm breath - it disappeared as it approached the bedroom door to leave.

Headless Lady

Location: Bretforton - Church, and surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom funeral procession arrives at the church, though for whom it represents is a mystery. Fields on either side of the church are said to be haunted by a decapitated woman, carrying her head under arm.

Lola Taplin

Location: Bretforton - The Fleece Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977 onwards
Further Comments: Once the landlady here, the short tempered spirit of Lola now haunts the bar, occasionally throwing food and other objects around the room. One witness reported a feeling of sadness and felt herself being poked in the side. One local legend says that Lola Taplin has taken the form of an owl and watches over the pub.

Spot Loggins

Location: Bretforton - Well on Bretforton House Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Loggins was a cattle drover who drowned in a well located on this farm and is now said to haunt the area around the well. One myth says that if you are blindfolded and run around the well three times, you will lose anything you are carrying. A brand of locally produced ice cream is named after the ghost.

Tolling Bells

Location: Broadway - Middle Hill wood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: A set of church bells were hidden in the forest during the Reformation and forgotten about. They are said to ring at night, and were heard during the Second World War, a time when bell ringing was illegal.

Ephraim Rolfe

Location: Broadway - Road towards Evesham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A village simpleton, Rolfe was popular with the locals; he was mistakenly killed by a landlord who mistook him for a poacher. His thin and bony form can now be seen in the fields surrounding the road.

Vanishing Boy

Location: Bromsgrove - Avoncroft Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 March 2013
Further Comments: While at a re-enactment event, one participant spotted a boy standing by a fireplace in the Merchant's House. The boy was no older than thirteen, with shoulder length wavy hair, a red tunic and a brown leather belt around the waist. As the participant approached the boy, the young lad vanished.

An old woodcut of a boar.

Abhorrent Boar

Location: Bromsgrove - Exact location unknown
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The hero Sir Ryalas battled long and hard before killing a monstrous boar in this region. Upon death the creature transformed into a human, recognised as the son of a local woman. Sir Ryalas tracked down the woman and also killed her.

Mary Yates

Location: Bromsgrove - Harvington Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: A former owner of the building in the seventeenth century, Mary has been named as the ghostly elderly woman seen by several people on the site. She is also said to appear at a crossroads outside the park, the site where legend says she was hanged for witchcraft. Back in the hall, other people have reported a phantom old man with a pipe and an Edwardian woman.

Mistress Hicks

Location: Bromsgrove - Road and fields surrounding Harvington Hall (particularly the A448/A450 area)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman was executed for being a witch - she was blamed for raising storms and making local women and children vomit pins. Some say she still walks the area.

Sheltering Lady

Location: Callow End - Prior's Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This location is reputed to have four ghosts: a woman murdered whilst sheltering from a storm, a Cavalier whose skeleton was discovered hidden up the chimney, a girl who walks from the courtyard to the orchard, and a strangely shaped entity which manifests in a bedroom.

Bert

Location: Claines - The Mug House public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A typical pub ghost, Bert is thought to be a former drinker at the establishment who died in the 1940s. He can be heard walking around the upper parts of the building.

Booted Person

Location: Cropthorne - Unknown private house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Always heard, never seen, this entity would walk through the house, climb the stairs, and end the trip once reaching the attic.

Black Rain

Location: Crowle - General area
Type: Other
Date / Time: 3 May 1884
Further Comments: This downpour of blackened water was so intense that local streams were still dark 24 hours after it had resided.

Terrified Woman

Location: Drakes Broughton - Residence along Walcott Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown, but said to be a monthly occurrence
Further Comments: Entering the house from the rear, this phantom is said to vanish after passing the door to the living room. She appears to be running from someone (or something) and looks terrified.

Slams

Location: Droitwich Spa - Friar Tuck Cafe (no longer open)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Although most of this haunting was poltergeist in nature (slamming doors, falling pans and violent bumps), on one occasion a ghostly blonde haired woman was spotted on site.