On the 12th of June in the year 1535, during the reign of King Henry VIII, the people of Oxford awoke to a most curious scene. Whereas the great spires of the university's buildings ever stood proudly against the morning sky, on this day one seemed to have grown legs!

It was reported that around 4 o'clock, witnesses outside Balilol College glimpsed movement atop the bell tower. Rubbing their sleepy eyes, they saw to their disbelief the structure lifting itself from its foundation and slowly ambling across the quad. Students and faculty spilled from their rooms, roused by the scraping and shuffling, to find the tower had stopped to gaze upon them with its pointed peak.

Word quickly spread and soon all of Oxford had turned out, gawking open-mouthed as the stone tower danced a jig around the courtyard. Attempts by custodians to question the tower or guide it with ropes ended with them flung aside like rag dolls. Only when the sun had fully risen did the mysterious locomotion cease, the tower settling back where it stood, again as motionless as if it had never stirred.

Inquiries by the Bishop of Oxford could find no explanation, and the incident was never repeated. To this day scholars debate what force, natural or supernatural, allowed the tower to so curiously comically jaunt about on its own that summer morn. It remains a quirk in history, a fact which gives us pause to smile at the impossible and wonder at forces beyond our ken.