It was at a wedding reception at the Swan and Old Mill pub in Minster Lovell that the young woman disappeared.

Exhausted from dancing, she found an oak chest in a quiet room and settled down inside to sleep. She was never seen alive again.

Trapped and unable to open the chest from within, only her skeleton was found years later.

And, according to a new book, her ghost still haunts the pub.

Former newspaper reporter Donald Stuart has uncovered 2,000 ghost stories for his new book Haunted English Pubs.

Of the 600 to make the book, 35 relate to Oxfordshire pubs.

Mr Stuart, 76, said: “I have a Celtic background so was brought up with fairy stories, and so to some extent I believe what I’m told. I remember my parents telling me stories about ghoulies and ghosties, and banshees and so on.”

“Pubs trade on ghost stories. The stories seem to go back to the 18th and 19th centuries for the most part.

“Maybe in those times people were more gullible or made up stories to explain strange events.

“But most of the stories are completely unique.”

In Minster Lovell, local historian Graham Kew said his father had experienced supernatural events while living and working at the Old Swan and Mill.

He said: “A ghost people refer to in the Old Swan is the grey lady, because she’s a little older.

“She was the wife of the landlord in the 1950s, and she was electrocuted and died. Not long after, her husband had a nervous breakdown and came to live with us. It wasn’t long before she began to appear, walking around the upstairs bedrooms of the pub, because that’s where she worked.”

The ghost of a Royal Navy petty officer who drowned himself in the Thames after getting into debt is said to have been seen at the bar of The Perch in Binsey, trying to get a pint.

Landlord Johnny Mignon said: “When I first took the premises on, the energy was quite dark, and many times we had bad experiences.

“One of my friends, an employee, couldn’t sleep in the guest bedroom because he said the energy was very bad. I didn’t believe him, but the next day I went into the room and the door slammed behind me, so I said a quick prayer and got out.”

He is not the only county landlord to experience strange goings-on.

Landlady Liaan Van Zyl said she saw the white lady reported to haunt The George Hotel in Dorchester-on-Thames, once a stopping point for coaches travelling between London and Oxford.

She said: “A year and a half ago I saw the lady at the bar. It was a misty figure and you couldn’t see details, but you could see that she was wearing period clothing from the puffy sleeves and the apron.

“I didn’t even know it was supposed to be haunted and I was closing up the bar when I saw this shape out the corner of my eye.

“I thought I must be overtired, but when I blinked and looked again it was still there. I walked up to it and was only a metre away. When I went round the bar to walk up to it, it vanished.”

But being a landlord is no guarantee of safety from the spirit world.

According to Mr Stuart’s book, not only does the ghost of highwayman Claude Duval haunt The Holt Hotel at Hopcrofts Holt, near Steeple Aston, but it went on to murder a subsequent landlord and his wife.

Current landlord Chris Best said: “I haven’t personally seen a ghost, but we do get people coming on paranormal weekends.

“Housekeeping has reported that furniture has been pushed up against the door when they try to get in, and there is no one in the room.”

Investigators have also descended on The King’s Arms in Holywell Street, Oxford. Assistant manager Richard Bennett said they uncovered a whole family of ghosts – a chambermaid, her husband, their son and daughter.

“I made sure I wasn’t here that night,” he said. “If the pub is haunted I don’t want to know about it.”

But other landlords are less superstitious.

The Plough in Upper Wolvercote is believed to be haunted by the ghosts of some of the 34 people killed in a horrific rail accident on Christmas Eve 1874, when the overcrowded Paddington to Birkenhead train was derailed by ice.

The pub’s stables were used as a hospital and temporary morgue, and punters have reported apparitions and the sound of groaning.

But landlord Tim Bowring said: “As far as I know, the only spirits we’ve got are gin and whisky.”

To buy Haunted English Pubs, priced £10, visit theinnbook.com