Chipping Norton Tourist Information

To the visitor passing through Chipping Norton seems just like any other Cotswold Town, honey coloured cottages and quaint back lanes with old buildings, but it holds a secret, it must be the most Haunted corner of England.

Every May and October a shadowy figure roams the town after dark, called the Stowfair man by locals he is said to make objects disappear, many locals swear they have experience of this.

On the High St. is the Crown and Cushion Hotel, where the Gunpowder Plot was hatched, aided by Robert Catesby who used to own Chastleton House just outside the town. The ghosts of the conspirators huddled in a corner of the Bar have been seen by more than one person.

Just down from the High St is the Parish Church, from whose tower the local priest was hanged, and his ghost is still reputed to be walking about the town.

Further delights await the explorer, a couple of miles away are the Rollright Stones, a stone circle some say is older than Stonehenge, a local legend says that if you count them, you never get the same total twice.

It is also a focal point of many Ley Lines.

Mysterious tunnels are reputed to criss cross the town, used by ancient monks to visit Inns, out of sight of the God Fearing citizens.

Description by Graham Birks