Richmond Haunts long-form

Haunted Libraries, Part 2: Ghost Stories from Oxford to Melbourne

April 7, 2025 1:00:58 Various

Episode notes

About this episode

Libraries preserve voices from the past, making them natural settings for stories about figures who never left the stacks. Part 2 takes an international approach, visiting historic reading rooms, university collections, castle libraries and former private estates on five continents.

In Britain, the episode includes the Lit & Phil in Newcastle upon Tyne, Merton College Library, the Bodleian and Laudian libraries at Oxford, the librarian ghost of Raglan Castle and Combermere Abbey Library in Shropshire. Morelia Public Library represents Mexico, while the Grange Library in Toronto carries the journey into Canada.

The final stops are State Library Victoria in Melbourne and the Africana Library in Kimberley, South Africa. By placing each reported haunting beside the institution’s history, the episode shows how libraries become repositories not only for books and archives, but also for local memory and folklore.