Oxford Guide Reports Street Lamps Flickering 55 Times for Civil War Ghost

OXFORD, ENGLAND — Behind the honeyed stone of Oxford's colleges, according to a guide interviewed by Spooky Isles, a restless company of the dead still keeps its rounds. Tom McDonnell, who has led walking tours of the city for around 16 years and now guides The Oxford Ghost Tour, says he has seen street lights switch on and off 55 times along Magpie Lane and Merton Road.

Local legend, as Mr. McDonnell relates it, ties the phenomenon to Prudence Burcote, said to be searching for a French lover who vanished during the English Civil War. He describes the lights as an urban legend, but states that he has witnessed the effect himself on those 55 occasions.

Other matters were laid before the interviewer. Mr. McDonnell says some guests have reported a sense of unease on Merton Road, and that near Merton College chapel customers' pet dogs often begin barking at something invisible. He also names the story of the Grey Man at the Bear as the one that draws the strongest reaction, though the interview gives no particulars.

He further suggests that the ghosts of Wadham College deserve wider notice. There were, he says, multiple sightings of ghostly friars there in the late sixties, and the college stands on the site of an old friary that fell victim to the dissolution of the monasteries.

Asked whether he treats the tales as folklore or experience, Mr. McDonnell says he tries to investigate the origins of legends, while also including stories heard first hand and sometimes his own. His book, Dead but Awake, draws on around 40 interviews conducted over a decade. He adds that a school report at age five noted his unhealthy obsession with the paranormal.

Tours leave daily at 6.30pm from the blue gates of Trinity College on Broad Street, with additional 4pm departures running daily from 25 October through March.