Local tellings link the apparition to a bereaved woman whose husband left for war (variants name the Wars of the Roses or the Barons' Wars). In the common version enemy horsemen assaulted her and abducted her baby; heartbroken, she wandered the woods searching for husband and child. After her death she was seen continuing that never-ending search, becoming the Black Lady who haunts Bradley Woods.
Reported eyewitness descriptions depict a young, attractive woman about 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) tall wearing a flowing black cloak and a black hood that obscures her hair but reveals a pale, mournful, tear-soaked face. The figure is described as mournful and pitiful rather than overtly terrifying.
Accounts attribute no overt supernatural powers beyond being an apparition and haunting presence; she wanders and is repeatedly sighted but has not been reported to cause physical harm. Her functional behaviour in folklore is to search the woods and to provoke fear or pity in observers; parents historically invoked her to frighten children into bed.
Weaknesses
None recorded.
Wards
- conditionbeing safely indoors/by bedtime
Black Canary
Black Canary is a legacy costumed heroine identity appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, borne most notably by Dinah Drake (Golden Age) and her daughter/successor Dinah Laurel Lance. The persona functions as a crime-fighter and team member in serialized superhero narratives rather than as a folkloric spirit; sources emphasize the legacy nature of the mantle and its cultural role as a strong, sexually-styled female protagonist in mid‑20th‑century and later popular culture.
Black Condor
Black Condor is a legacy superhero identity used by three different fictional characters originating in Quality Comics and later appearing in the DC Comics universe. The persona is avian-themed and consistently associated with unaided flight and aerial motifs; individual incarnations have differing additional powers and origins.
Black Darna
Black Darna is attested in the provided sources only as a named character entry within the Darna comics/television franchise of the Philippines. Available materials identify it as a comics/media character label (Wikidata) and place it in the broader context of the modern Philippine fictional character Darna (Mars Ravelo) and a 2005 television adaptation; no folkloric, mythological, or ritual information about Black Darna is present in the cited sources.
Black Dog (folklore)
A class of supernatural canine apparition in British vernacular folklore, often associated with liminal places and regarded as an omen-bearing or guardian hound. Local named forms (Black Shuck, Barghest, Gurt Dog, Gallytrot) show a range from malign, death-portending hellhounds to benevolent guide-figures.
Black Flash
A fictional, anthropomorphic manifestation of the Speed Force’s corrective/dark aspect in DC Comics. It functions as a reclaiming or deathlike agent specifically for characters who possess a connection to the Speed Force, appearing when such connections are severed or when the Speed Force requires reclamation.
Black Knight (Dane Whitman) (tradition)
A literary and cultural stock character archetype — the 'Black Knight' — defined by armored anonymity (absence of heraldry) and often coded as morally ambiguous or villainous; the term has been adapted across literature, film, comics, and other media rather than existing as a single supernatural being. The dossier treats the trope as a recurring narrative role rather than a mythic entity with a fixed cosmology.
Black Lantern Corps
An organized force of reanimated corpses in DC Comics' 'Blackest Night' storyline, driven by a primordial darkness represented as the color black (the absence of light). The Corps uses black power rings and a Black Central Power Battery to revive deceased individuals as corporeal revenants that seek to extinguish life and restore darkness.
Black Lightning
Black Lightning is a fictional American comic-book superhero (Jefferson Pierce) created for DC Comics in 1977. He is a community-focused, costumed protector whose powers involve the generation and manipulation of electricity and who exists within DC's shared metahuman urban setting rather than a folkloric spirit cosmology.
Black Manta
Black Manta is a recurring human supervillain in DC Comics who serves as Aquaman's archenemy. Portrayed as a technologically equipped, ruthlessly vengeful maritime criminal, he appears across decades of comics, animation, film, and games.
Black Mariah
Black Mariah is a fictional human antagonist in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, primarily an enemy of Luke Cage who appears as a Harlem-based crime boss. The name is also used for a television adaptation (Mariah Dillard/Stokes) portrayed by Alfre Woodard in the Luke Cage series and derives from a historical nickname for a 19th-century Boston police 'black wagon.'
Black Marvel
The Black Marvel is a Marvel Comics superhero identity first published in 1941. Primarily associated with the civilian Daniel Lyons, the Black Marvel is a Golden Age costumed adventurer whose origin involves tests administered by a dying Blackfeet chief (Man-to) and his medicine man (Running Elk); the character later appears in modern Marvel continuity in storylines involving wartime team-ups, murder and resurrection plots, and a Faustian bargain with the demonic Mephisto.
Black Númenóreans
A human political and cultural faction originating in Númenor in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are a villainous offshoot of Númenóreans who abandoned worship of Eru Ilúvatar, rebelled against the Valar, and whose actions led to the Downfall of Númenor; remnants or ideological heirs later acted as tyrants in Middle-earth.
Community Record
- [1]Black Lady of Bradley Woods. Wikipedia: 'Black Lady of Bradley Woods' article (summary and quoted descriptions)wiki
- [2]Black Lady of Bradley Woods | Public Domain Super Heroes | Fandom. Fandom mirror of public-domain/folklore summary (mirrors Wikipedia content and local descriptions)other
- [3]FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - The Black Lady of Bradley Woods. Hypnogoria blog post discussing local legend and variantsfolk
- [4]FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - The Black Lady of Bradley Woods Part IV. Hypnogoria follow-up post placing the Black Lady among regional spectresfolk
- [5]The Black Lady of Bradley Woods who puts in a ghostly appearance on Christmas Eve. Grimsby Live regional reporting noting local sightings and occasional Christmas Eve associationother
- [6]The Black Lady of Bradley Woods. Urban Legends Online recounting (mentions abandoned cottage and pond in variants)folk
- [7]23 paranormal sightings in northern Lincolnshire – including a 'woman abducted by aliens at Tetney Lock'. Grimsby Live list placing the Black Lady among regional hauntingsother
- [8]Grimsby: 5 Haunted Places To Visit | Spooky Isles. Spooky Isles listing providing contextual placement within local haunted-site tourismother