Hidden Henley

This week a story of the power of love and of differing views about the “facts” back in the 18^th century; the busy ghost of Mary Blandy has been seen not just around Blandy House in Hart Street in our town, but at Oxford Castle, Turville, Hambleden, our Kenton Theatre, Catherine Wheel and where my photo was taken at the Little Angel (note the inscription on the curious dinghy planter).

The daughter of a prosperous solicitor, Mary Blandy seems to have become under the spell of a certain Captain Cranstoun, who was initially encouraged by her parents – until word came that he was already married. Cranstoun supplied Mary with some love potion powders to secretly add to her father’s food which would soften his attitude to his daughter’s romance. It’s likely that this contained arsenic which some reports say was used in small quantities as a tonic, and her father’s mood did seem brighter after the first dose. The servants who ate the gruel from this survived, but continuing with these powders left Mr Blandy ill, and he died in the summer of 1751.

Mary was eventually arrested, put on trial for murdering her father, found guilty and sentenced to execution by hanging in Oxford. Her lover abandoned her and escaped abroad. It may have been either the Castle Yard or Westgate where she was put to death from a rope supported by a wooden beam lashed between two trees. She protested her innocence until the end, and was also concerned that she should retain her modesty at the gallows saying “for the sake of decency, gentlemen, don’t hang me too high”. Her body is supposed to have been buried in the chancel at St Mary’s church in Henley, but some accounts say that there is no trace of her grave.