The Paranormal Database

White Figure

Location: Oxford - All Souls College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This robed figure drifts from the rear of the chapel to the library, where it vanishes without trace.

Napier

Location: Oxford - Banbury Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Found guilty of heinous crimes, Napier was executed, and his body cut into segments that were scattered around the city boundaries. Napier's ghost has found all his body but not his head, and now travels along Banbury Road searching for the missing piece.

Sounds of a Pig

Location: Oxford - Black Drummer Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A room here was haunted by 'piggy' sounds, and a leather bag was found partly eaten by something with large teeth. The spirit was destroyed when the corpse belonging to the presence was dug up from a nearby churchyard, hacked to pieces and burnt by a wise man.

Pyre

Location: Oxford - Broad Street memorial
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996?
Further Comments: The site where several Bishops were burnt to death for their beliefs is now said to occasionally bust into phantom fire with shadowy figures within.

An old postcard showing Christ Church College in Oxford.

Charles I

Location: Oxford - Christ Church College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former king has been observed around the college grounds both with and without his head. A shade belonging to a former royalist commander also lurks here - he was shot for treason on the site.

John Crocker

Location: Oxford - Exeter College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Standing in a yellow jacket and brown breeches, the ghost of John haunts the area of the chapel where his tomb is located.

Spooky Areas

Location: Oxford - Gala Bingo (was Regal cinema), no longer operating
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: This site was said to be haunted, although details are fleeting.

Man with No Face

Location: Oxford - Gardens near Magdalen Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1947
Further Comments: A man walking through the gardens saw a misty figure that had no facial features. He ran when the entity approached him.

Singing Nuns

Location: Oxford - Godstow Nunnery, Wolvercote
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: As dawn breaks on the first of May, phantom singing can be heard coming from the empty chapel. The phantom of Rosamund Clifford has also been reported here, though she is not so fussy as when she should appear.

A Cyclist Vanishes

Location: Oxford - Hinksey Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 05 January 2017
Further Comments: Two witnesses watched a shadowy cyclist travelling at speed. The figure passed behind a tree but did not materialise the other side.

Mr Jenner

Location: Oxford - Jesus College
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1910
Further Comments: Two students claimed to have seen one of their teachers walking around at one night, between the chapel and dining hall, before vanishing through a brick wall - it later turned out he was visiting friends many miles away at the time.

An old postcard showing Magdalen College in Oxford.

Figure in Black

Location: Oxford - Magdalen College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1987
Further Comments: This dark, stealthy figure was observed several times, but never heard, as it ran about the college. When cornered by staff, the figure would suddenly vanish.

Prudence Burcote

Location: Oxford - Magpie Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former bank that stands on the corner of the lane is reputedly haunted by Prudence. She died of a broken heart after her Cavalier lover ran away.

An old postcard showing Merton College in Oxford.

Bedroom

Location: Oxford - Merton College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s?
Further Comments: Now part of the library, a bedroom that once stood on campus was reportedly so haunted that no one could sleep soundly while staying in it. The library here is also thought to be haunted by Colonel Francis Winderbank, shot after surrendering to Cromwell in 1645.

Father Dominique

Location: Pishill - The Crown public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Dying while defending the name of the girl he loved, Father Dominique can be heard moving around the upper parts of the building. Some say his shadowy form with wide brimmed hat can be seen in the corner of the bar.

Sandyman

Location: Sandford on Thames - Catherine Wheel public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed all in black other than a white shirt, this short phantom is thought to be a former landlord and has gained the nickname 'Sandyman'. He sometimes leans against the bar.

Coach & Four

Location: Sandford on Thames - Fields around the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Driven by a headless horseman, a coach moving at breakneck speed pulled by four horses tear around fields near the village on the night before Christmas.

An old illustration showing the Shipton-on-Cherwell train accident of 1874.

Smoking Train

Location: Shipton-on-Cherwell - Body of water near a railway bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 22 December 2009, 21:30h
Further Comments: While fishing next to a railway bridge, a witness watched a steam train pass by which came from 'out of nowhere'. The train did not make a sound and disappeared further down the track. The witness said that the carriages looked as if they were on fire with black smoke pouring out of the windows. The witness later discovered there was an accident on 24 December 1874; a train derailed on the bridge killing 34 and injuring 69.

Mr Naylor

Location: Souldern - Rector's Cottage library
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1706
Further Comments: Mr Naylor, dead for five years, appeared to the rector here; they sat and chattered for ninety minutes. The ghost finally announced that the rector would soon pass away himself, and a few days later the man of the cloth died mid-sermon.

Woman in Beige

Location: Stadhampton - Private cottage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1960s - early 1970s
Further Comments: Two sisters growing up in the cottage would encounter a dark haired woman in a long beige dress. One sister spotted her crying, while the other once awoke to find the figure holding her hand. The fiance of one of the sisters also spotted the ghost, who had kept quiet about the entity in fear of no one believing them.

The Devil's Game

Location: Stanton Harcourt - Devil's Quoits
Type: Legend - Old Nick
Date / Time: Stones still present
Further Comments: Playing Quoits on Beacon Hill, some two and a half miles away, the Devil was informed he was not playing the game correctly. In a rage, he threw the stones to where they now stand.

Mrs Hall

Location: Stanton Harcourt - Gardens of the Harcourt Arms public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman took her own life when she discovered her husband was having an affair with the landlady. The ghost has been successfully exorcised.

The ghosts return as the pond dries out.

Lady Alice Harcourt

Location: Stanton Harcourt - Pope's Tower and nearby pond
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Murdered in the tower, Lady Alice's protesting ghost returned only to be laid in the nearby pond. At least she has company - another female shade was laid to rest in the same place. However, when the pond dries out, they can briefly return and haunt the area.

Murdered Landlord

Location: Steeple Aston - Hopcroft's Holt Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The shade seen here is thought to be a former landlord murdered on the site, along with his wife. Another story has the highwayman Claude Duval as haunting the site.

Returning Stone

Location: Steeple Barton - Hoar Stone
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present (though in fragments)
Further Comments: Pieces of this stone were removed after being broken up by a farmer, though the fragments soon rolled back into position on their own accord.