The Ghosts of Oxford Castle and Prison
The Ghosts of Oxford Castle and Prison
Oxford Castle is located on the western side central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The castle is believed to have been built around 1071 by the Norman Baron, Robert D'Oyly the elder, to dominate the town after he was granted land in Oxfordshire by William the Conqueror. D'Oyly’s holdings were mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 30 acres of meadow and a mill, the Castle wasn’t mentioned. Only 48 castles were listed in the Domesday Book, it’s plausible that between 500 to 600 castles were built by the end of the 11th century. The castle was built towards the West side of the town, using the River Thames as a natural defensive boundary which was diverted it to create a moat. The castle was probably built using the same design that Robert D'Oyly had used for a castle that he built in Wallingford, 12 miles away.
Eventually, by the end of the 12th century, the wooden keep and the palisade walls were replaced in stone and a new curtain wall was built onto St George’s Tower, the tallest tower of the Castle. St George’s Tower is believed to be of Anglo Saxon origin and was built as a watch tower.
In the 1140s, Robert D'Oyly’s nephew, Robert D'Oyly the younger inherited the Castle and was heavily involved in the Anarchy, a civil war against rival cousins, King Stephen and Empress Matilda for the English throne. At the start of the war, D'Oyly supported King Stephen but then declared his support for Empress Matilda. In 1141, Matilda used Oxford as the base for her campaign but in The autumn of 1142, Stephen attacked the Castle, setting up two siege mounds and then waited for the castles supplies to run out so that Matilda would surrender. This went on for three months until eventually, Matilda planned an escape. She waited for the snow and for the River to freeze over. She dressed in white to camouflage herself in the snow. 3 or 4 knights accompanied her, lowering her down the walls and then escaped by crossing the frozen river. The next day she reached Abington on Thames safely and Oxford Castle was surrendered to King Stephen. In the last few weeks of the siege, Robert D'Oyly died and the Castle was granted to William de Chesney until the end of the war, it was then granted to Roger de Bussy and then reclaimed by Robert D'Oyly’s youngest son Henry in 1154.
The castle was attacked again during the Barons war between 1215 and 1217. Because of this, the Castles defences were reinforced. The church at the South East of the Castle was demolished and a loaded barbican was built in its place and the wooden buildings were replaced in stone.
By the mid 14th century, the Castle was badly in need of repair but due to lack of military action it was left only to make it worse.
Henry the 4th sat in judgement at Oxford Castle on the 13th of January 1400 over the Revolt of the Earls, the men who supported his cousin, King Richard the 2nd who was believed to have been starved to death under Henry’s instructions. Until 1577, the Oxford Assizes were held at the Castle and it was used as a criminal court and a jail. A plague broke out in the year of 1577, known as the Black Assize where the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, two knights, 80 gentlemen and the entire grand jury all died, including Sir Robert D'Oyly, a descendent of the castles founder.
When the First English Civil War broke out in 1642, the Royalists used Oxford as their main base. In 1646, the Parliamentarians successfully attacked the city under Colonel Richard Ingoldsby who refortified the Castle, demolishing most of the medieval stonework. In 1652, during the third Civil War, the Parliamentary garrison pulled down the defences of the Castle in response to Charles the 2nds warning and retreated to the New College, causing much damage in the process.
The castle was used as a local prison after the English Civil War, and like many other prisons at that time, profited by charging prisoners for board and lodging. The prison had a gallows where many prisoners were executed, which included the murderer Mary Blandy in 1752.
The castle was bought by the Oxford County Justices in 1785 who rebuilt the prison which was completed in 1805. The new governor, Daniel Harris used the inmates as labourers to conduct early archaeological excavations with the guidance of the antiquarian Edward King.
New buildings were added to the site in the 19th century including the County Hall in 1840 and the Oxfordshire Militia Armoury in 1854 and the prison was extended in 1876. The inmates varied and included children, the youngest being a seven year old girl sentenced to seven days labour for stealing a pram. The prison closed in 1996 and reverted to the Oxfordshire County Council and is now a tourist attraction which includes a restaurant and a heritage complex offering guided tours.
GHOSTS
When the castle was a prison, many people witnessed the spectre of a woman wearing a white cloak believed to be the spirit of Empress Matilda, replaying her escape from the Castle in 1142.
One night, a prison guard saw a person from a distance lingering in a corridor. As he approached the person, he noticed that it looked like a woman wearing a long white cloak. He got closer and she went around a corner, entering an area that was off limits so he raised the alarm, thinking that a prisoner was trying to escape. After an extensive search, no one was found and every prisoner was accounted for.
One of the most famous murderers in Oxfordshire was Mary Blandy. Mary was born in Oxford in 1720 into a middle class family and she was well educated. Mary was known to be very attractive but after she contracted smallpox, it left her face badly scarred. By the time Mary was 26, her father, Francis Blandy, a lawyer put up a dowry of £10,000, a huge amount of money in this time period, for a suitor for Mary. A Scottish army officer and aristocrat, William Henry Cranston, took notice of Mary and her father thought his plan had worked. After a year of courting, Cranston asked Francis if he could marry his daughter and Francis agreed, Until he found out one thing that had been hidden from him, Cranston was already married with a child in Scotland. Mary was deeply in love with Cranston but Francis was angry and banned him from seeing Mary. They would secretly meet up and he told her that he had a plan to deal with her father. He gave Mary a white powder which he said was a love potion given to him by a wise woman in Scotland and that if she mixed it in with his food or a drink, it would cause him change his mind and like Cranston. Cranston then left for Scotland with a large amount of money that Mary gave him for his expenses. When he got to Scotland, he sent Mary a supply of the white powder with instructions on how to use it. Mary mixed the powder in her father’s tea and in his food. Not long afterwards, Francis became very ill, with stomach cramps and vomiting, two of the maids who had been eating some of his leftover food also became ill with the same symptoms. Mary was forced to call for a doctor as Francis was becoming increasingly ill. Luckily, the two maids who became ill recovered but her father got worse. In a panic, Mary burned the letters that she had received from Cranston and attempted to burn the white powder but one of the maids managed to rescue some from the fire and took it to a local chemist to have it tested. The white powder was arsenic. While Francis was on his deathbed, Mary confessed what she and Cranston had done and that she didn’t realise that it was poison. She begged for his forgiveness in which he gave her and told her not to tell anyone about the poison. Francis was suspected of poisoning and was kept under house arrest but on the day her father died she escaped and tried to hide in a local pub but she was followed by an angry mob who her back home and restrained her. She was then transferred to Oxford jail to await trial. Being of a high social status, Mary was given privileges that other prisoners didn't have such as hosting tea with friends, even though her ankles were shackled.
Mary was convicted of murder by poisoning in March 1752 and was sentenced to death. She had defended herself, saying that she didn’t intend to poison her father, and that she believed it to be a simple love potion but the jury didn’t believe her as one of the servants said that they witnessed Mary stirring the powder into her father’s tea.
On the 6th of April 1752, Mary Blandy was hanged in the courtyard of Oxford Castle Prison.
Mary’s ghost has been seen many times around Oxfordshire, including in various locations around the Castle and in her family home, Blandy House, which is now a dental practice.
People believe that if you talk about the scars on Mary’s face, her ghost will react. One day a tour guide had been telling Mary’s story and when he mentioned her scars, a door flung open with an aggressive force. Immediately afterwards, the nearby fire doors did the same thing.
A group of friends where visiting the Castle and Prison in 2015 when they reporting seeing the ghost of Mary Blandy. As they were talking about her, she stepped out from a doorway, looked at them and stepped back in the room that she came from. When they investigated, the room was empty.
Other ghosts that have been seen many times are that of Charles the 1st, who is said to have loved Oxford that much that he returned after his death.
In 1610, George Napier, an Oxford born priest was hung drawn and quartered at Oxford Castle for being a practicing Catholic, which was treason at that time. His body parts were displayed on the gates of the city. Napier’s family managed to gather up most his body parts with the exception of his head. It’s believed that the headless ghost of George Napier rides a horse around the city still searching for his head.
When visitors to the Castle and Prison have entered the crypt area, they’ve reported the smell of alcohol. In Medieval times, an alcoholic monk known as Brother Bernard who spent most of his time in the crypt, brewing and drinking beer while the other monks would be carrying out their daily duties above in the chapel. Many people have witnessed the ghost of Brother Bernard in the corner of the crypt now known as Bernard’s Corner.
In the 1970s, when the prison was still in use, a group of inmates held a séance in the modern block. This apparently started a series of poltergeist activity. One night, two guards were on duty when they were alarmed at seeing a white, misty shape moved towards them up a flight of stairs, they panicked even more when it came close to them and then disappeared.
On another occasion, a guard was doing his nightly patrol with a guard dog when the dog started to growl. When the guard looked ahead, he saw two figures ahead of him. He described them as two black shapes with no visible limbs and when he called out to them, they turned to look at him and then disappeared.
Over the years, the prison has been used by film companies and crews had reported hearing screams and shouting coming from various cells.
Cleaners have experienced much paranormal activity too, they’ve heard shouting coming from the cells and objects randomly moving.
Comments
Post a Comment