Haunted Bodmin Moor E-Book

Jason Higgs

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 128

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

The wild sweep of Bodmin moor is home to countless ghosts, spirits and ghouls as well as hundreds of inhabitants in the towns and villages dotted across this ancient, windswept moorland. Containing a chilling range of spooky tales, from the ghost of a murdered sailor at the ancient Jamaica Inn to the White Lady that wanders Altarnun village, and featuring eyewitness accounts and previously unpublished investigations carried out by the author and the Supernatural Investigations team, Haunted Bodmin Moor is guaranteed to make your blood run cold.

Leseprobe

I would like to dedicate this book to my parents, Pamela and Gordon Higgs, whose rational beliefs and continued support have enabled me to question all my paranormal experiences and allowed me to pursue a logical and natural answer for those events that may at first appear supernatural.

Contents

Foreword by Paul Bradford

Acknowledgements

Introduction

one A Brief History of Bodmin Moor

two Bodmin Town

three Who Murdered Charlotte Dymond?

four Parishes and Villages

five The Secrets of Davidstow Airfield and War Museum

six Jamaica Inn

seven Inns on the Moor

Afterword

Select Bibliography and Further Reading

Foreword

My interest in the paranormal never came from a personal experience, unlike other people’s curiosity for the unknown. Mine was borne out of a passion for all things science fiction and the possibility that fictional science could be bordering on fact. I was born and raised in the UK but now live with my family in America. After many years investigating the supernatural, I became the ‘technology guy’ on the smash hit Sy-Fy channel series ‘Ghost Hunters International’, investigating the unknown around the world. During my travels I have had the opportunity to capture some amazing exotic locations on camera and in 2009 I released my first publication of photography, entitled Wish You Were Here. It is obvious that Jason also has an appetite for photography and Haunted Bodmin Moor contains some moody and intriguing images from his travels around the Cornish countryside.

From communications with Jason, I’ve discovered that Bodmin Moor is more than just an interest for him – it is a passion. From growing up on the moor, sharing his day-to-day life with his parents, to hair-raising paranormal experiences within his family home, Jason’s accounts are effectively put into print.

Historically, Bodmin Moor, which was first farmed 4,000 years ago, has much of its history remaining within its soil. Prehistoric and medieval artefacts lay untouched and unspoiled until this day.

The vastness of the moor has always invoked both fear and awe to its locals and those weary travellers who are simply passing through. However, its beauty and its legends blended into one, as the stories were passed down from generation to generation, inspiring artists and writers alike to create wondrous pieces of work.

So, please sit back and learn about another side to the astounding moor, from someone who has lived and breathed it their whole life.

Paul Bradford

Ghost Hunters International, 2012

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of exceptional friends and family who have guided me along the correct path whilst writing this book. I would like to say a special thank you to my colleagues at Supernatural Investigations: Kevin Hynes, who authored Haunted Plymouth, and Stuart Andrews, who co-authored our first book, Paranormal Cornwall. Also special thanks to Clare Buckland and Becky Andrews, who have contributed to many investigations over the years.

Also thanks go to Paul Bradford, Technical Manager for Ghost Hunters International, for his kind words, time and effort in writing the foreword to this book.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all those that provided the kind of information you would not find in a book or online, those that live and breathe the moor and have done so for many years.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. I apologise to anyone who may have been inadvertently missed out and will gladly receive any information enabling me to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions.

Introduction

AS I write this, I am sitting atop a granite anomaly on top of the Cheesewring on the edge of Bodmin Moor. It is a warm sunny day in April and the horizon is so clear I can see for miles and miles. To the east I can just make out the city of Plymouth, across the border in Devon. To the west the view stretches out over the rest of Bodmin Moor, enveloping the A30, one of the two main roads into Cornwall. This arterial route through the county passes some of the most well-known haunted locations in this desolate landscape, including such locations as Jamaica Inn, an eighteenth-century coaching inn which still lines the old route from Bodmin to Launceston, an area popularised by the 1936 publication of Daphne du Mauriers’ aptly named novel, Jamaica Inn. Also mentioned in this book is the disreputable vicar of Altarnun, a village situated just a few miles up the A30 towards Okehampton. Further west, past the A30 and deep in the heart of the moor, lies Davidstow and Rough Tor, where the heinous murder of Charlotte Dymond was committed in 1844. To the north, Sharp Tor can be seen. A blip on the landscape that from my current position looks small and easy to climb, yet once you reach the foot of the tor, you realise how steep and daunting the rocky nubbin is. Apart from the sound of the odd motorbike, it is hard to imagine that I am living in the twenty-first century. The moor is vast and baron, littered with mined granite and windswept trees. A lonely wild pony wanders past and stops to chomp on any edible tufts of grass, while white dots of sheep can be seen bobbing along between ancient stone boundaries.

View of Rough Tor from the car park.

As you take time to process the view you realise that the moorland is hiding centuries of history in plain sight. In the distance, on Stowes Hill, you can see the mathematical placement of standing stones called the Hurlers, a Bronze-Age stone temple consisting of three large stone circles. The name derives from a legend that men and women were playing Cornish hurling on a Sunday and were mystically turned to stone as a punishment.

From ancient battles fought hard with swords and gauntlets, and lost and weary travellers, perishing in the hidden bogs the moor has to offer, to ruinous engine houses, which once furiously mined the granite beneath for copper and tin, now dotted across the moorland, it is not hard to understand why this moor has so many of its own myths, legends and ghost stories.

Bodmin Moor is not for the faint-hearted and you soon realise that you should approach this place with intrepid caution.

Jason Higgs, 2012

www.supernaturalinvestigations.org.uk

1

A Brief History of Bodmin Moor

BODMIN Moor is a wild and untamed expanse of granite moorland situated in the north-east of Cornwall. It covers approximately 80 square miles and its recorded history dates back to 10,000 BC. It is believed that hunter-gatherers wandered the moorland, at that time thick with trees and shrubs, searching for wildebeests or deer from which to make lunch for their secluded communities. Following on from this period the woodland was eventually cleared and the land became arable for farming. During this time, about 4500 BC, various megalithic monuments were erected; mainly cairns and stone circles for use as ceremonial sites. The unusual natural compilation of stones, such as the Cheesewring on Stowes Hill, would have been viewed in the same way. As time passed into the birth of the Bronze Age the creation of the structures continued, and it is believed that over 300 further cairns and stone circles were created. More than 200 settlements have been recorded and found on the moor, with various granite walls and barrows littering the land. Various flint work has been discovered by archaeologists on the moor, suggesting that the hunter gatherers were skilful in the art of flint knapping, which is the process of shaping the flint piece into a sharp useful hunting tool. In 2005, Channel 4’s Time Team travelled to Bodmin Moor to investigate what historical secrets the sweeping landscape may be hiding. They particularly focussed on two specific sites at the base of Rough Tor. The first was a 500-metre long stone cairn, running on an east-west alignment pointing towards the tor. The second was a concentration of circular structures, thought to be Bronze-Age roundhouses, and other features indicating a Bronze-Age village. The find confirmed that there was indeed evidence of a Bronze-Age village, with discovery of pottery dating from about 1500 BC. They also found evidence for complex construction in the cairn, with retaining walls and a rubble infill in the middle. While no specific date was found for this structure, it is believed it ranged from the Neolithic period. Over time the moorland population grew and farming became rife, with many farm structures being erected. Today, there are around 500 farm holdings with about 10,000 cows, 55,000 sheep and 1,000 horses and ponies.

View from the top of Stowes Hill with the Cheesewring stone formation on the left.

King Arthur’s Hall at Garrow Tor. (Photo courtesy of Simon Lewis, www.westcountryviews.co.uk)

Dozmary Pool in the height of winter. It looks like it could go on for miles.

The moor has some surprising mystical connections: although it is difficult to prove the existence of King Arthur or his link to Bodmin Moor, the landscape itself boasts a number of areas named after the legendary king himself. Legend has it that King Arthur, or Arthur Pendragon, was the leader of Britain in the late fifth and early sixth centuries – leading the defence of Britain against the Saxons in the early sixth century. Whether or not the legend of King Arthur is true, it is known that various hotspots around Bodmin Moor are littered with Arthurian remnants, such as King Arthur’s Castle, which can be found near Bodmin Moor at Tintagel. With regard to the moor itself, three locations give rise to the name of King Arthur; the first is a man-shaped depression in granite near Trewortha Tor, known locally as Arthurs Bed. Legend has it that this is the place that Arthur laid his head during his travels. The second location is known as King Arthur’s Hall and is a prehistoric stone-lined enclosure. An ancient wall of stone surrounds a soggy marshland area that looks like the dilapidated remains of a hall. The whole area is known as King Arthur’s Downs and is located near Garrow Tor.

Remnants of old engine houses line the horizon in the Gonamena Valley.

Finally, and probably the most well-known connection, is Dozmary Pool near Coliford Lake. As the tale is told, the ‘Lady of the Lake’, the holder of the mighty sword Excalibur, lived beneath the rippling waters of Dozmary Pool. It is believed that King Arthur rowed out to the middle of the lake, where the sword mysteriously rose from beneath. After months of fierce battles with the mystical sword, Sir Bedivere and Arthur returned to the pool to give back the sword to the Lady of the Lake. As Arthur lay bleeding and dying after the Battle of Camlann, Sir Bedivere threw the sword as hard as he could into the air before a hand rose from the pool and grasped the airborne weapon. Slowly, the hand withdrew into the water and the sword and lady were never seen again.

Dozmary Pool has another mysterious connection with regards to an early seventeenth-century magistrate known as Jan Tregeagle. Tregeagle had a harsh and particularly evil reputation. Over time certain stories arose about the magistrate that indicated that he had murdered his wife and made a pact with the Devil. It was alleged that, whilst searching for deviant exploits, he made a Faustian bargain with the Devil and was blessed with riches and power beyond comprehension. However, on death, he was damned to the bottomless pits of Dozmary Pool. It has been proven in recent years that the lake is not bottomless; however, people who visit the lake have reported hearing unusual moans and groans around the lake which have been attributed to the spirit or ghost of the magistrate himself.

The moor has been romanticised on occasion over the years and has played many parts in novels, dramas and tales of the sea. The moor is home to some amazing inns which will be covered in more detail later, but an example would be the splendour of Jamaica Inn, near Bolventor. A hotel/pub steeped in history and known around the world due to its portrayal in Daphne du Maurier’s bestselling novel Jamaica Inn. This tale of love and betrayal was later immortalised in a film of the same name in 1939, directed by the well-known suspense director of the mid-twentieth century, Alfred Hitchcock. The film and book brought Cornwall and Bodmin Moor its own fame and people travelled from all over the world to visit the moor and, in particular, Jamaica Inn. Of course, the inn is still standing today and has managed to generate its own fame as a place of eerie happenings. Far from du Maurier’s romantic portrayal, Jamaica Inn hides a sinister past with a tremendous amount of people experiencing paranormal activity here.

A short distance from Bolventor is Rough Tor and Brown Willy. Simply mentioning Rough Tor conjures up a popular name among the locals; Charlotte Dymond, the ill-fated eighteen-year-old who was cut down in the prime of youth by a murderous lover.

With the advance of the copper and tin mining era in the eighteenth century, the moor was ripped apart as granite was churned out and large open mineshafts were dug deep into the land. The construction of a railway to ship the mined elements to nearby Liskeard, known as the Caradon Railway, was built alongside Caradon Hill and continued up to the Cheesewring. With such large construction and mining there was inevitably a large workforce from nearby villages. Many people at that time worked long hours and did not have the luxury of vehicles to transport them from their home to their place of work. Many workers would be up at 4 a.m., walk 5 miles or more to the mines before working a twelve-hour day and then walking the same 5 miles home. The next day would be the same, probably for seven days a week.

One such stonecutter chose not to travel and decided to live on the moor itself. At this time the village of Minions would not have existed, so living on the moor would have been a very bleak place. Daniel Gumb was born in Linkinhorne in 1703 and, shortly after getting married, moved to the base of Stowes Hill at the Cheesewring – now Cheesewring quarry. As you can imagine, at that time there were no houses or huts to live in, so Daniel constructed his own house from slabs of granite and by digging deep into the moor. Using a slab of granite 30ft by 10ft as a roof, Daniel managed to use other granite slabs as supports to finally construct a three-roomed house with a chimney. Imagining that this was a pretty basic and bleak place to live, high on the moor, with the winter wind howling and the cold of the granite, it is hard to believe that Daniel raised nine children here.