I was just looking through my local ghost books on Oxfordshire when I came across this from Oxfordshire Stories of the Supernatural by Betty Puttick, Countryside Books, 2003, pp. 11-12:
Some [phantom hitchhiker] accounts are linked to a fatal accident which once happened at the site, and are associated with the victim, but there appears to be no such incident to explain the young girl's apparition that has sometimes been seen at the roadside near Asthall Manor. Her clothes and appearance suggest that she is a gypsy and in recent times, in the mid-1990s, drivers who have given her a lift all have a similar tale to tell.
It was an evening in October when a driver noticed a figure by the side of the road. She had dark shoulder length hair, olive skin and a gypsy-like appearance, and she had moved into the middle of the road, waving him to stop. He drew up and asked her what was the matter. She made no reply but walked round to the passenger door, which he opened, and got into the car. It had been raining, but the girl was more than just damp, she was completely soaking wet, her hair dripping down over her face as if she had been in the river. The driver said she must get home as soon as possible or she would catch pneumonia but she made no reply, simply pointing ahead. He was conscious of an overwhelming feeling of anxiety at the strangeness of the situation, when suddenly the girl spoke for the first time. 'It's too late, he's gone, ' she said, and at that she disappeared.
The driver arrived home feeling shaken by his unlikely experience, but it was some time before he could tell anyone about it.
It was also wet on an afternoon in March when a woman set off from Burford to pick up her son from school. She had just passed Asthall Manor when she noticed a young gypsy girl in the road waving her to stop. As she drew up she could see that the gypsy was soaking wet, and before she could speak the girl said, 'You got my message then?' She walked round to the passenger side of the car, and when the driver asked, 'What message? Where do you want to go?' the gypsy simply stared silently back at her with an agonised expression. Then suddenly she said, 'The water, the river - he's gone,' and without another word she disappeared, leaving just a wet car seat and a pool of water on the floor where she had been.
The driver continued on her journey, bemused by this experience, and like the driver mentioned above, felt unable to tell anyone what had happened for some time.
What is the story behind the appearances of the gypsy hitchhiker on that particular stretch of road near Asthall Manor? Her soaking wet appearance suggests a connection with the river Windrush nearby. Her brief remark to both drivers gives the impression that someone had drowned in the river - perhaps her efforts to save them were fruitless, and sorrow has kept her forever earthbound to the site of the tragedy? Perhaps we may never know.
