Nude Mansfield Students Sleepwalks Into Fence
A Mansfield student had a shock in the early hours of Saturday morning when he woke up naked and disoriented outside the college building site. Having gone to sleep in his bed the previous evening, first year student Steven Cumberland woke to find himself on the stone floor of the quad with lacerated ankles and feet. His concerned friends found him and immediately called an ambulance, which took him to the John Radcliffe Hospital. His wounds were treated, and he was discharged a few hours later.
College sources were initially cagey about the incident, and refused to comment on the reasons behind Cumberland’s injuries. Cumberland, however, was unabashedly candid about his experience. He had sleepwalked the 50 metres from his room to the building site, negotiating a number of doors, and eventually crashing into a large mesh fence, badly cutting his ankles and feet.
Luckily the fence prevented him from entering the construction area, which is to be the site of a new accommodation block for the college. Having only ever sleepwalked once before, the whole saga was a surprise to the student, who told The Oxford Student: “As I've been going round to apologise to the relevant people - on the Junior Dean’s direction - it's been amazing to hear all the anecdotes about the incident.
“I have to admit that I believe most of them with the amount of marks all over my body.” Despite the whole incident, Cumberland managed to retain his sense of humour: “I joked to the doctor that 'it must have been the fresh air’. He wasn't amused.” Cumberland is grateful to his peers for the attention he received. He told The Oxford Student: “I now realise that Mansfield is a truly warm and wonderful place.
5th May 2005