Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: Oxfordshire

Apparitions / Hauntings / Mary Blandy / Usual Suspects

Town Hall, Henley on Thames

It has been suggested that the ghost of Mary Blandy was witnessed by a number of people at a re-enactment of her trial at the Henley Town Hall sometime prior to 1969. Her actual trial took place on 3 March 1752 at the Oxford Assizes held in the hall of the Divinity School.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Courtiers House

On 7 June 1799, twenty nine year old Mrs Sarah Fletcher committed suicide at Courtiers. She hung herself from the curtain rails of her four-poster bed using a handkerchief and a piece of cord. It is said that she was driven to take her own life after she discovered her husband, who was a Captain in the Royal Navy was arranging a bigamous marriage to a wealthy heiress.

Festivals / May

Garland Dressing, Charlton On Otmoor

1st May – is Garland Dressing Day in Charlton On Otmoor.  A wooden cross is bedecked with Yew and Box leaves.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Faringdon Churchyard

The churchyard is said to be haunted by the headless apparition of Hampden Pye, who was an Officer in the Royal Navy during the 17th century.

According to the story Hampden’s step mother hated him and bribed the captain of his ship to have him accidentally decapitated by a cannon during an engagement.

Apparitions / Civil War Hauntings / Hauntings

Blenheim Palace

The house is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Roundhead, a soldier fighting on the side of Cromwell during the English Civil war. He appears sitting near to the fire in one of the bedrooms.

Devil / Legends

St Mary’s Church, Ambrosden

The church has a siting legend attached to it, every morning when the stone masons returned to the field in which the church was being built, they would find the stones to have mysteriously moved to another site. Eventually after happening on a number of occasions the workmen gave up and built the church where the stones reappeared. The Devil was blamed as the prime suspect.

Apparitions / Hauntings / Legends / Roman Hauntings

Icknield Way

This ancient trackway, believed to date to the Neolithic period, is said to be haunted by Roman legionaries and Black dogs.

At one time, before modern transport allowed freedom of movement, it was believed to lead directly to hell.

Buried Treasure / Legends / Roman

Sinnoden Hill

Sinnoden Hill standing next to Harp hill, was once a Roman Fort during the period of their occupation. Legend suggests that there is buried treasure on the hill, hidden in Roman times in an area called the money pit.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Legends

Scutchamer Knob (Cwichelmslaewe)

Within a small woodland adjacent to the ancient Ridgeway path, where it crosses the parish of East Hendred, stands Scutchamer Knob. It is a raised earth mound and legend has it, that it is the burial mound of the Saxon king Cwichelm.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Featured Sites / Legends / Pantheons

Wayland’s Smithy

Wayland’s Smithy is one of the most impressive and atmospheric Neolithic burial chambers in Britain. Somehow this ancient grave became associated with Wayland, the Saxon god of metalworking, from whom it takes its name.

History