The Master’s Lodgings is so called because it became the home of the Master of Magdalen College School and a boarding house for pupils of Magdalen into the 1970s. Back in 1740, however, it was known as Northgate House and became famous in the town for the site of a particularly nasty murder.

The Reverend Doctor Littleton Burton lived in the house at the time. He dismissed a young serving man called Henry Kerwood for being ‘saucy’ but the servant hid in a barn. When he was discovered, he was again told to leave the premises and to encourage him to do so he was hit with a stick. At this, Kerwood picked up a pitchfork and struck the Reverend on the head, killing him. He fled the scene and although there was a 10 guinea reward offered (a huge sum in those days), he was never caught. There is a memorial to Reverend Burton in the College Chapel.