LURKING beneath a veneer of majestic architecture and academic prowess, the secretive ghosts of Oxford find their homes between narrow cobbled streets and alleyways; beyond the shaded windows of old colleges and churches.

Some of them hover quietly around the vicinities of high street shops and cafes, invisible to the busy eyes of tourists and locals alike.

If you’re brave enough, your first step will be to join forces with Oxford’s dedicated ghoul seeker, Bill Spectre. Unlike the ghosts, he’s difficult to miss – dressed all in black as a Victorian undertaker, Bill begins his spook tours outside Oxford Castle Unlocked, next to the Castle Mound, on Friday and Saturday evenings.

With his piercing blue eyes and white hair beneath a lofty top hat, you might be fooled into believing that Bill – real name Bill Ritchie – has been ghostbusting his whole life. In fact, a series of less spooky jobs led him to this one.

He said: “I trained to be an actor originally, and did that for about seven years doing TV and theatre parts and so on.

“When my wife and I got married in 1997, I thought I’d better find a way to get a proper income. After being an electrician and a picture printer for a while, I started these ghost trails, and I’ve been doing them ever since.”

Between Bill’s first gig working behind the scenes at a London theatre and his current one as Oxford’s spookiest tour guide, it’s been quite a journey.

Born in Birmingham and originally moving to the Oxfordshire village of Blewbury with his father, Bill really came into his own as an actor during a year-long stint in America.

“After that, I thought I’d try and be a proper actor!” he laughs. “I came home and went to drama school – the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.”

Fully qualified and determined to succeed, Bill moved around between England and Scotland in the hope of getting his first full-time acting job. Eventually, he discovered that his best chance of success was going it alone.

“Acting is very competitive,” he admits. “I found that I was spending too much time waiting, trying to drum up work from other people, when actually what I should have done is what I do now – dreaming up my own ideas and making them happen.”

Performing in a range of roles, it’s variety that keeps Bill’s passion for theatre alive – even in his current guise, alternative trails in Burford, Woodstock and Stratford Upon Avon keep his personality fresh.

It was Burford where the character of Spectre first emerged, near his home town of Witney. It wasn’t long before Bill was approached by the former Broad Street attraction, The Oxford Story, which was the first to request his ghost act in the city.

“Originally, they wanted me to do something for Halloween,” Bill said. “After seeing my work, they were very happy to help me get going independently in Oxford, and helped me to advertise without charging.

“Now it’s part of the continuing group which now runs Oxford Castle Unlocked; when that opened up and the Oxford Story closed, I moved my headquarters down to the Castle Quarter.”

Find Bill Spectre online at ghosttrail.org