Plumber turned up despite being dead

Something "to make your flesh creep," as Dickens's Fat Boy put it. Or more likely not. At any rate, a ghost story which I came across recently and thought deserved a wider circulation. I found the tale in a book I have long possessed but rarely consulted: Apparitions & Haunted Houses, by Sir Ernest Bennett, "late fellow of Hertford College, Oxford" as the title page tells us. It was published in July 1939. As part of his "Survey of Evidence" of psychic phenomena, as the book is subtitled, Sir Ernest interviewed Alfred Axtell, of 17 Woodstock Road. He described how, 30 years before, shortly after moving into the property, he saw the ghost of its previous occupant, "a gentleman of the name of Walklett", who had died there.

"It had occasion, about seven o'clock in the evening, to go up one of the staircases. I saw distinctly an apparition in the form of Mr Walklett. The light being dim, I struck a light, whereupon the apparition vanished. I might say that I was well acquainted with the deceased Mr Walklett. I dismissed this matter from my mind, and did not mention it to anyone. A few weeks afterwards, at about nine o'clock in the evening, an old nurse who lived with us suddenly returned from the same staircase and fell into chair in a semi-swoon. When she had recovered she explained that her fright had been caused by seeing a man standing on the staircase, and the description corresponded to that of Mr Walklett."

Two further sightings occurred shortly after: first, Mr Axtell's son came running back from the staircase saying he had "seen Father Christmas"; then his wife, seeing Axtell on the first floor landing one night, remarked: "Someone has just walked behind you into the bathroom."

Mr Axtell continued: "Now we come to a strange part of the whole story. Twenty-eight years had gone by. One night, my stepson was in the drawing room on the first floor with me. He knew that smoking in this room was not allowed . . . so he went out to the landing, and a few minutes afterwards he opened the drawing room door and called me out. My step-son was ashen grey and very much upset. I took him downstairs, and when he had regained his composure, I said to him, 'You saw something tell me exactly what it was.'"

His stepson Mr Maasy, of 57 Plantation Road told his story, and later repeated it to Sir Ernest. "On the night when I had my strange experience, my stepfather had just left me to finish my smoke, and had returned to the drawing room. I suddenly heard a shuffling sound, but did not look up for a moment, thinking that he had returned for something. When I did, to my surprise, I saw what appeared to be an ordinary old man in a dressing gown, walking across the floor.

"It was all so natural that I was on the point of asking him what he wanted I was not alarmed at all when to my horror he continued his walk until he passed right through a closed door which had not been opened for years, and had a coat rack screwed right across it. By this time I thought I was going out of my mind, and I went straight to the drawing room and told my stepfather what I had seen."

Bennett concludes: "There were apparently five witnesses of the apparition of Mr Walklett, though three of them are now dead. The story of the figure's appearances is an unusual one, for after it had been seen by four different persons within a period of 18 months there was no recurrence of the apparition for twenty-eight years."

One naturally wonders whether Mr Walklett continues to haunt the premises. If he does, nothing has become known to the authorities at Somerville College, which bought the property from University College in 1957. Somerville's archivist tells me that the original plan had been to demolish the whole building to make way for what is now the Dorothy Hodgkin Quad; in the event, planners insisted that the facade and what is immediately behind it be kept.

One wonders, too, what is known about Mr Walklett. As so often before, I called on the invaluable assistance of Dr Malcolm Graham, the head of the county council's Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, based at the Central Library. He tells me: "John A.Walklett was born in around 1852 and died in 1905. He is recorded at 17 Woodstock Road as "J & FH Walklett, plumbers" in directories from 1895/96 to 1903 and as John A.Walklett, plumber, from 1904 to 1905. His widow kept the business going in 1906 and Alfred Axtell is first listed there in 1907." Malcolm attached a copy (see below) of the 1901 census page which includes him. This was courtesy of Ancestry Library Edition which users of Oxfordshire Studies, the Central Library and main Oxfordshire libraries now have access to.

In the light of Mr Walklett's occupation, perhaps his night-time perambulations can be accounted for in his frantic search for further highly lucrative commissions . . .