A MONK appearing in a blaze of light at a pub and a lady wafting past in a cloud of perfume are just two of the ghostly happenings included in a new book about the spooks of west Oxfordshire.

Retired commercial manager Joe Robinson, of Bibury Close, Witney, has spent the last few months investigating the supernatural goings on and in May will be publishing a book of ghostly tales.

This is the seond time Joe, 66, has gone into print - his first booklet was called Wychwood: The Secret Forest in Myth and Legend.

Already, the manager of West Oxfordshire District Council's visitor information centre, Carol Wager, has expressed an interest in Leylines and Legends: The Haunted Places of West Oxfordshire, which includes a guided trail around Witney's haunted spots.

Other stories tell of a ghostly coach and four which still gallops down a road in Charlbury, and the highwayman Black Stocking who lurks along the lanes between Minster Lovell and Burford. Joe said: "I've got a very open mind but I still received a shock when investigating a ghost in Long Hanborough.

"While I was in the house, a china ornament flew from a shelf and smashed on the floor."

He says Minster Lovell must count as one of the most haunted places in England. There are many tales concerning Lord Francis Lovell who, after fleeing the country following Richard III's defeat at Boswell Field, returned to join Lambert Simnell's partisans at the Battle of Stoke.

Following their defeat he disappeared into thin air or, so it seemed, until 1708, during renovation work an underground vault was discovered containing a body.

One tale insisted that Francis had been hiding in the secret vault but the one servant who knew of his whereabouts died and consigned the noble Lord to a grisly end.

It is generally accepted the strange sightings of a White Knight near the ruins are connected with Francis Lovell.

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