Famous Hauntings
Here you will find details of Britain's most famous hauntings. You can read about them in any ghost anthology. However, as you will discover, the facts are often somewhat different from the stories told!
Borley Rectory
There is a rather romantic legend that near where Borley Rectory was built was once a monastery. One of the monks had a relationship with a nun from a nearby convent. When it was discovered, the monk was executed and the nun was walled up alive in the walls of the convent. It is just a story. The truth about Borley Rectory is much stranger than any fiction.
Edgehill Battle ghosts
I believe that certain events create a sort of 'psychic scar' in a nation's psyche. That definitely seems to have happened when the first battle of the English Civil War pitted brother against brother and father against son.
Although the Edgehill Battle phantoms are not the only ghosts to be seen on a British battlefield, they certainly are, or at least were, the most famous hauntings of this type.
Anne Bolyn
Here is one of Britain's world famous hauntings. This has become the architypal image of the headless specter, even inspiring the music-hall song, 'With her head tucked underneath her arm'.
The tragic ghost of Anne Boleyn can be found haunting several locations around the country.
Ghost of Threadneedle Street
Although the Threadneedle Street ghost is, or was, a woman, she is not the same as the 'Old Lady of Threadneedle Street', despite what you may read. The Threadneedle Street ghost is a spectre that is seen in and around the area of the Bank of England. She has even been spotted at Bank Tube Station. The 'Old Lady', on the other hand originates from a satirical cartoon that was published some years before the ghost made her first appearance.
York's Roman ghosts
There are not many phantoms from more than 400 years ago. We do not have any ghostly cavemen wandering around, or if we have, I have never heard of them.
Although there are tales of 'things' associated with Barrows and burial mounds, the 1,600 year old Roman soldiers of York ghosts are probably Britain's most ancient recognisably human spectres.
Raynham Hall Ghost
The Raynham Hall ghost was seen several times and someone even took a pot-shot at her. But it is the photograph of her that was taken in September 1936 that is the reason why the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is so famous.
Cleopatra's Needle, Embankment, London
During the day, there is nothing apparently sinister about the column. Tourists stop and take their pictures and marvel that a 3,500 year old monolith should be standing on the Thames Embankment.
However, late at night, it does not appear quite so innocent. For, it has a gained a reputation for being, late at night, a magnet for would-be suicides. One of the Cleopatra's Needle ghosts would even appear to be a man who ended his own life in the River here.
Man in Grey
No-one has any idea of who he was in life, although it appears that he was a nobleman. However, the Man in Grey must be one of London's most famous hauntings. Perhaps, when he was alive, he just liked to watch a good play. Or maybe he had a professional reason for doing so. He certainly seems to be a good critic and only appears at the rehearsals of plays that will be a box-office success.
And there is something fitting in the fact that the best known theatrical ghost should appear in London's oldest and most haunted theatre.
