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.

Henry VIII's second wife
There is one phantom that is known around the world. This has become the architypal image of the headless specter, even inspiring the music-hall song, 'With her head tucked underneath her arm'.
She is, of course, the ghost of Anne Boleyn who can be found haunting several locations around Britain.

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
This 3,500 year old, 68 foot tall monument, which has absolutely no connection to Cleopatra, was a gift to the British Government from the people of Egypt in 1819 to commemorate the victory of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of the Nile.
There were severe difficulties transporting the obelisk and several sailors were drowned during its journey. It was not until 1878 that the monument was finally erected on the Thames Embankment.
Mocking laughter can sometimes be heard from the area around the stone as well as unearthly screams. Whether these belong to the lost sailors is not known. A ghostly naked man has also been seen dashing from behind the pillar and jumping into the River Thames which accepts him without the faintest ripple. Strangely, Cleopatra's Needle does seem to be a magnet for those suicides intent on drowning themselves in the River Thames.
It is interesting to note that the two sphinxes at the base of the pillar actually face the wrong way as Queen Victoria thought this was more aesthetically pleasing. When the column was erected, a 'time capsule' was buried underneath. It contained a bizarre assortment of objects including a gentleman's razor, a box of cigars and pictures of female Victorian 'pin-ups'.

Man in Grey
One of the most popular and famous hauntings associated with a theatre anywhere. The Theatre Royal is home (if a ghost can be said to have a home) to the 'Man in Grey'. He has been observed many times, usually during the day and he often appears to be watching rehearsals. His appearance is cause for celebration as it invariably signifies that the play will be a huge success. He was seen during rehearsals for Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel and The King and I.
He is dressed as an 18th century nobleman with powdered hair, three-cornered hat, dress jacket and a grey cape from which he gets his name. A skeleton with a knife between the ribs was found in a walled up passage in 1848 so perhaps the spectre has a connection with him.
There are other less famous hauntings in the Theatre Royal which you can read about on the Theatre Royal's page entry.

To find other famous hauntings that are not listed here, you could try the Haunted Places Directory