Near Scarefax Tower...
Oxford has some spooky sights alright. The floor at Park End, for example. The first glance as you turn over your collection paper. The contents of your plate in Hall. As Halloween night draws in, though, perhaps some flightier phantoms and ghastlier ghouls will come out of the ancient walls. The city has had a long and bloody history so as you venture out this Friday night, beware... a garlic kebab is no protection against these sprightly spectres.
One of the most haunted places in Oxford is rumoured to be Brasenose Lane. Brasenose was once home to the infamous Hellfire Club, notorious for drinking, atheism and debauchery. Late one night while walking home, the Principal of the College witnessed what looked like a tall, thin man in black helping a student through one of the windows opening into the lane. Rushing to stop this illicit means of escape, he realized that no human could squeeze through the iron bars on the windows. Later the student in the room was found dead of an apoplexy - the president of the Hellfire Club, his soul reputedly carried off by the devil.
The Swindlestock Tavern on the corner of Carfax (Abbey National now) was once the site of many a drunken carouse. In 1354 a dispute over the quality of the wine led to the shooting of some students by townspeople armed with arrows, who lay in wait for them in Beaumont St. Two days of bloody town-and-gown riots ensued, in which the entire student population either fled or were killed by angry citizens, their bodies flung into cesspits. Could you imagine it happening now? Perhaps around exam time, if one party-popper too many pushed things over the edge. A plaque now marks the spot where this infamous tavern stood.
St. John's has in its time been the subject of ghostly visitation. Geoffrey Sharp, a fellow of the college, was visited in his rooms by an old friend who had died several years before, to warn him of his forthcoming death and advise him to mend his ways. Sure enough, Mr. Sharp later collapsed while reading a sermon in church.
The quad of the Bodleian was once home to the old Anatomy School, and as such has witnessed many gruesome events. Perhaps the most bizarre story was that of Anne Greene, who apparently came back from the dead in 1649. After being hanged, beaten and stamped on for smothering her illegitimate child, her body was taken for dissection. Just before the scalpel made its cut, however, she woke up, and later lived on to old age. She had been apparently dead for three days.
Ten years later the same thing happened to another maidservant. After waking up from her hanging, the unfortunate woman was carried to Broken Hayes field - now Gloucester Green bus station - and lynched from a tree. This time, however, she stayed dead.
If the bizarre is your cup of tea, spare a thought for Professor Buckland of Christ Church, first professor of geology. The learned man declared that he would eat anything once, and accordingly dined off mole, crocodile, and blue bottles. His most infamous snack was the preserved heart of a French king, the prized possession of one friend. Visitors to his rooms in Tom Quad were treated to his pet bears, jackals and eagles - one of the bears even came to morning service in the chapel.
Oxford's bloody history perhaps reached its apex when it served as a base for Charles I in the civil war. Troops staying at Woodstock Palace, now Blenheim, were disturbed in the night by the sound of a large animal sniffing around them. Their heavy four-poster beds were lifted into the air by an unknown force, and noises of ghostly cannons heard in the night. Finally a mysterious fire burned the old palace almost to the ground, and the 'Devil of Woodstock' has become a local legend.
Any corner of Oxford has its ghosts and ghouls. Even Broad Street, now home to sweatshirt shops, was once the place where Bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were burnt to death under Queen Mary. So if you're out and about this Halloween night, keep your ears pricked and your eyes open, and you might just feel some spooky echo of a turbulent past.
23rd Oct 2003