The Paranormal Database

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.

Danny Grimshaw

Location: Sutton Courtenay - Hobbyhorse Road and near the local power plant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly figure, charging around the roads on the back of a white horse whilst waving a bloody, straight edged razor, has survived at least one exorcism attempt.

Footfalls

Location: Thame - Birdcage Inn
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The source of the loud nocturnal footsteps has never been traced, though a misty figure was once seen prior to them beginning. One story says the entity is a leper who was stoned to death on the property, while another says it is the ghost of a French soldier held prisoner in the cellar.

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.

Earl of Leicester

Location: Thame - Rycote Chapel, near Thame
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of several ghosts here, the Earl of Leicester is doomed to haunt the chapel after murdering his wife. It is unknown if his wife is the grey lady who has been seen in and around the chapel. The ever familiar presence of a phantom monk has also been reported here.

Dragon Hill, Uffington.

Spilt Blood

Location: Uffington - Dragon Hill
Type: Dragon
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Parts of this hill are bare and chalky - some legends say that a dragon was slain on top of the hill, and where the beast's blood fell, the grass died.

The Uffington White Horse.

White Horse

Location: Uffington - Hills of town
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1920s, reoccurring every 100 years
Further Comments: The famous white horse seen on the hill from the village is reported to leave once a year (or every 100 years, depending on the storyteller) to have its feet shod at the nearby Wayland's Smithy. Another local legend states that the horse is not really a horse, but the dragon slain by St George on that very hill.

Badon

Location: Uffington - Uffington Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This location has been named as another possible site where the Battle of Badon occurred.

Wayland's Smithy, Uffington.

Flibbertigibbet

Location: Uffington - Wayland's Smithy (Neolithic long barrow)
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Barrow still present
Further Comments: An apprentice to Wayland the Smith, Flibbertigibbet frustrated his master to such an extent that Wayland picked up the lad and hurled him through the air. Flibbertigibbet turned into stone as he hit the ground. Another legend says that a silver coin and an unshod horse could be left here overnight, and by morning the coin will have gone, and the horse would have its shoes.

Sheep Rustler

Location: Upper Lambourn - Hangman's Stone
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A sheep stealer received his comeuppance as he rested on this stone - the cord that he used to lead this stolen sheep wrapped around his neck as he slept, strangling him. The man's phantom is said to walk the area.

Bomber Crewman

Location: Wantage - Former site of RAF Grove (currently an industrial unit)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s
Further Comments: Staff at the private company which took over this industrial unit frequently reported a ghostly figure dressed in flying kit or feeling his presence. It was speculated that he was a local man killed when his bomber crash landed nearby - the payload exploded, killing everyone on board.

Old Vicar

Location: West Hendred - Path on private land
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1991
Further Comments: While installing an electrical item for a local resident, a witness spoke to a vicar wearing a tri-corn hat approaching the property. The vicar claimed he was on holiday and was over a hundred years old. The witness was only struck on how strange the situation was when he arrived home. Not long after the encounter, the resident the witness was working for died.

Dark Form

Location: Weston on the Green - RAF Weston on the Green, south-western side of the airfield on the perimeter track
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: An officer taking part in a night exercise on the airfield with a group of ATC cadets encountered several dark shapes. The warm night air quickly turned icy cold, and the officer watched as one of the dark shapes ran towards him. He sidestepped the figure, and it vanished as it passed him. The man later mentioned his experience to a colleague and was overheard by a nearby airman who previously had a similar encounter.

Mad Maude

Location: Weston on the Green - Weston Manor Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Burnt at the stake for having an affair with a monk, Maude wanders the hotel, which was once a convent. The eerie sounds of an invisible horse and coach moving around the courtyard have been reported by more than one visitor.

Lord and Lady

Location: Wilcote - General area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir William Wilcote and his wife Lady Elizabeth Blacket were once believed to travel around the village in a phantom coach. Their ghosts are believed to have been laid by a team of priests.

Woman in Blue

Location: Woodcroft - Wooded area at Boars Hill
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 20 May 1990
Further Comments: A ghostly figure appeared in a photograph taken at Boars Hill. Partially obscured behind a woman, the apparition is dressed in blue and has a bare foot.

Elizabeth Downing

Location: Woodstock - Bear Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghost's footsteps can be pacing across the floor in Room 16, and lights turn themselves on when the ghost is close enough to a switch. Elizabeth's son is also said to haunt the building, and Room 12 is said to be haunted by a workman who fell (or was pushed) from the roof around the seventeenth century.

Only Men

Location: Woodstock - Oxfordshire Museum (was Fletcher's House)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: A phantom woman has been spotted near the original staircase and in upper rooms of the building, but only by men.

The Royalist Devil

Location: Woodstock - Woodstock Manor
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 17 October - 02 November 1649
Further Comments: Several Parliamentary Commissioners who stayed in this building were set upon by unseen hands - they were thrown out of bed at night, glass was thrown at them, candles blown out... When the Commissioners left the building in early November, the noisy spirit disappeared.

Six Thousand Horsemen

Location: Yarnton - Road through village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 July
Further Comments: King Charles I and six thousand horsemen passed through Yarnton to avoid the siege of Oxford. Amazingly, they managed to reach Worcester undetected and now, on the anniversary of their escape, make the journey through Yarnton again in ghostly form.