The Paranormal Database

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.

An old postcard showing New College in Oxford.

Pale Faced Man

Location: Oxford - New College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1962
Further Comments: The chapel is haunted by a figure, possibly a priest, with an unnaturally pallid white face.

White Nun

Location: Oxford - Oxford Playhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The psychical remains of the nunnery that once stood here manifest in the form of this white figure that floats around the building with a thin veil covering her face.

Mr Bonnell

Location: Oxford - Queen's College
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 November 1750
Further Comments: Bonnell's ghost appeared in the college a couple of hours prior to his death, his face bloated and red. He had been bed ridden for several days, and it was impossible for him to move. The upper library is said to be haunted by a clergyman known as Cuthbert Shields - he believed himself to be the reincarnation of Saint Cuthbert.

Old Lady

Location: Oxford - Radcliffe Infirmary (closed 2007)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1999 / January 2000
Further Comments: After several nights of experiencing something bump against his bed and feeling as if 'someone' was there, a patient mentioned it to nurses. They told him that the room was haunted by an old lady who would sit by the side of the bed as if giving her support. The heating would always be broken in the room - even after repairs, the system would break within the day.

Night Fisherman

Location: Oxford - River along Angel and Greyhound Meadow
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: An old man dressed in white was spotted by two friends fishing at dusk. As the man moved towards the pair, they realised his facial features were indistinct. He stopped a short distance behind the witnesses, and as one turned to say hello (still believing the figure to be 'real'), the old man vanished.

Woman in Black

Location: Oxford - Road at bottom of Willow Walk, opposite St Lawrence's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1994
Further Comments: The ghostly figure of woman in black cloak emerged from Willow Walk and floated across the road and up the path at the side of St Lawrence's Church. It was believed to be the ghost of woman who travelled to meet her secret lover in Yarnton;, but the woman's husband discovered the affair and followed and murdered her.

Hanging Boy

Location: Oxford - St Edmund Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The staircase at St Edmund Hall is believed to be haunted by a former student who hanged himself.

Grey Lady

Location: Oxford - St Giles' Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This unnamed woman willed her money to charity, but her greedy family accessed her wealth first and hid it away.

An old postcard showing St John's College in Oxford.

Bowling Archbishop

Location: Oxford - St John's College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Beheaded in London in 1645 and his body returned to St John's in 1663, Archbishop William Laud now haunts the building - his ghost is renowned for pulling his head from his neck and rolling it at any witnesses. He is also said to drift 20mm from the ground, where the pavement has worn down since his death.

Twins

Location: Oxford - St Peter's College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This college was founded by the Bishop of Liverpool, and the ghostly male twin undergraduates who haunted the building are thought to be his sons.

Blonde Woman

Location: Oxford - Teddy Hall, unstated room
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A ghostly young blonde woman spotted in one of the rooms of the hall was identified by a local ghost hunter as from the seventeenth century.

An old postcard of Trinity College in Oxford.

Mother in Black

Location: Oxford - Trinity College
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1959
Further Comments: Appearing to her son only once, this shade made an appearance to the verger as he was patrolling the grounds at night. There is another report of the New Court being haunted by a ghost dressed in hunting kit.

Rosamund the Fair

Location: Oxford - Trout public house, Wolvercote
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Now manifesting as nothing more than a shadowy figure, Rosamund was a nun murdered in the twelfth century by queen Eleanor jealous of her husband's special relationship with the woman.

Obadiah Walker

Location: Oxford - University college
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Walker was a master at University three hundred years ago, and is said to continue to haunt the room he resided in. His footsteps can also be heard walking the eighth staircase.

White Monk

Location: Oxford - Wadham College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 28 December 1968
Further Comments: Often heard moving around, this ghostly monk has been seen a couple of times, most recently by a night porter at the chapel doors.

Mary Blandy

Location: Oxford - Westgate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Executed 06 April 1752, last sighting unknown
Further Comments: Mary was hanged for poisoning her father and now walks the area where she was hanged (though some believe she was executed at Castle Yard). A local legend says that a blackbird perched on a beam of the scaffold during the hanging, and since then no blackbird has sung in the area.

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.