A ghost at Polhill campus?

We have been made aware of reports about the sightings of a ghost at the Polhill campus.

The sightings have been made by students at Liberty Park over recent months.

The spectre, who appears to be bothering nobody, has been seen wandering across the sports field in the earlyhours and mostly when foggy conditions prevail. 

It's thought that this is the spirit of one Thomas Laxton who's family had a large orchard on the site until 1957.

It is presumed that he is unhappy with the use his old land is being put to!

Thomas Laxton was a plant breeder who introduced many new varieties of strawberries, and worked with Charles Darwin in experiments on peas.

The nursery that he founded, carried on by his descendants for many generations,

became famous for the apple varieties that it introduced.

Thomas was born 1830 in Tinwell, near Stamford, Lincolnshire. He began his work as a plant breeder in 1865, interested mostly in peas and strawberries. He started his plant breeding in Stamford, then later moved his operations to orchards and fields in Bedford, Bedfordshire and in nearby Girtford in Sandy, Bedfordshire. He consulted with Charles Darwin on pea-breeding experiments. Laxton was, in fact, close to the genetic discoveries that Gregor Johann Mendel would make around the same time.

In 1872, Thomas began producing new strawberry varieties. He himself would introduce seventeen varieties in all, including King of the Earlies (1888), Noble (1884), and Royal Sovereign (1892.) He died in 1893.

The business was carried on successfully by sons and grandsons, who adjusted the name of the business to Laxton Bros (Laxton Brothers.). The business had 140 acres for trials and growing, and a shop in Bedford at 63 High Street. Most of the apple varieties that came out under the Laxton name came out under their watch, and they introduced a further 47 varieties of strawberries. In 1897, the company put out a book called The Strawberry Manual (published by Hulatt & Richardson.). In 1937, Winston Churchill ordered raspberry plants from them for his Chartwell estate in Westerham, Kent, at a cost of £2 13s 7d.

In 1957, both the store and the nursery business were closed. The orchards have all been built over now. It's not certain what happened to the assets and the intellectual rights: they may have been merged with another nursery at the time called Laxton & Bunyard Nurseries Ltd that still existed in Brampton, Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) as of 1969.