Devon Ghost Tales

When I expressed interest in researching and collecting stories for Devon Ghost Tales , one thing was said to me, time and again. Do we need another Devon ghost story book ? Surely there are plenty on the bookshelves already? And I would agree with you! There are a lot, ranging from Devon-wide ghost stories to localised collections. But, very interestingly, not all of them are ghost stories .

Theo Brown, the Devon folklorist, said that ‘real ghosts (that is, the kind that someone claims to have seen, heard or smelt) seldom, if ever, have a story attached to them’. Some of these books are gazetteers of reports of ghostly sightings with no backstory, and a few of them are stories telling the backstory. And the former outweigh the latter by ten to one.

So, how to create a balance, be faithful to the story (where there is a story) but also create something new that is not dismissed as ‘just another Devon ghost story book’?

Well, I can promise you that I have tried to be thorough in my research. I began by reading every single Devon ghost story book that I could get my hands on, collated the stories and then cross-referenced them. It became obvious which ones were ‘collected’ from the same earlier sources because they used the same phrases and language. It was also interesting to see how motifs were repeated over the stories; for example, I had three different stories from different places which included a ghost being required to empty out water from a pond by use of a sieve, and each finding that they had to put something in it that stopped the water flowing away.

With well over 200 stories or sightings to choose from, I was aware of Ruth St Leger-Gordon’s comment about the story of ‘Childe the Hunter’. ‘This,’ she says, ‘is perhaps the best known of all the Dartmoor tales. For this reason, although frequently quoted, it cannot be well omitted here.’ I understood the sentiment, and could have easily chosen the more popular ones to include. But that would be just like all the other ghost story books.

At the end of the day, I am a storyteller. Like historians and folklorists, I do the local research and find out what people have said and recorded. The historians and folklorists go on to publish the stories as told to them, in the context of the day the story was collected. However, as a storyteller I stand back, and look at the story from a wider perspective. Who could the ghost be? What are they doing here? Why would they be doing that now? What would be the consequence? Would anyone else be involved? What are the wider human questions that arise from this story? Are there variants of the story that give a different point of view? Thus as a storyteller, a different kind of story emerges!

I whittled it down to sixty that interested me. I made site visits, explored the local area, ferreted in churches, libraries and museums for information and anywhere else that would give me a lead. I even spoke to people at random on the local streets. The main selection process depended on whether I was inspired to write a story when I got home and how much of the local detail I could incorporate into the story.

Some of the stories are my version of ones that have been retold many times; they reflect the detail in earlier writings, what is told locally, and have a storyteller spin to it. Some of the stories are based on a small paragraph of 70–100 words that I found in an old book or magazine article. And some were just told to me in good faith. My research may not have turned up another version of the story, but it has provided some interesting background and context which have inspired the writing. Thus, not just another Devon ghost story book!

Many thanks to Vicki Jocher, Fiona Pickford, Maxine Akehurst, Richard Akehurst and members of Exeter Steampunk for coming with me while I explored the sites. Many thanks to members of staff and volunteers in libraries, museums, churches and the big houses I visited, and in particular to Jannette Fernandez, Jackson and Jo Bruce-Hall, John Tarling and Douglas Hull, who helped me source some of the stories which were not recorded elsewhere.

Many thanks to Jane Corry’s writers’ group, and Cindy Loo Turner and Marion Leeper (from Sky Possums) for giving me feedback while I was developing the stories. Many thanks to the ninety-five members of the Devon Ghost Tales Facebook page who allowed me to debate some of the dilemmas I was having with research, writing, and even the placing of commas! Many thanks to Adam Golding, Emma Donovan, Caroline Strickland, Marion Leeper, Fiona Pickford, Kathy Wallis and Karen Wilson for reading my penultimate drafts and finding the miscreant commas, bad tenses and other mayhem I created with the English language. Many thanks to Vicki Jocher for her wonderful linocut illustrations. And not forgetting Jeff Ridge, who, among all the other things to be grateful for, also drew the map.

And thank you, dear reader, for choosing Devon Ghost Tales.

The Prospect Inn is on the quay in Exeter next to some craft shops and does a nice line in food and drink. But Christmas Eve holds a dark secret. Sometimes, and only sometimes, a girl in Victorian dress can be seen climbing the stairs at the top of the house. She carries a rag doll in her arms. As she reaches the top of the stairs, she turns, holds the doll to her face and gives a smile to whoever sees her. She turns and then is gone, into the attic door. Who is she? We may not know: all that we do know is that the Prospect Inn used to be called the Fountain Inn and it was established by Richard Sercombe.

Richard Sercombe was rightly proud of himself. From the turn of the nineteenth century he had been the ferryman across the Exeter quay. Day in, day out. Meeting the same people and total strangers. He was well known and knew everybody. You wanted to make a connection, you asked the ferry boat man. They didn’t always know his name but his face was widely known. And if the odd coin or two made it into his pocket for the little indiscretions that he overheard and passed on, well, all to the good.

His house was on the quayside and his wife Elizabeth would provide refreshments for the thirsty travellers as they waited for the ferry. Only a few minutes back and forth on the boat, but the travellers were willing to take their turn and rest awhile. The ale that Elizabeth brewed and the simple fare she cooked made their house a popular stop.

They had only one child to care for: a granddaughter, Betty. Her father was Elizabeth and Richard’s only son, Thomas, but he had been impressed to serve in the navy and died at sea. The child’s mother had abandoned her in favour of another suitor and in their grief, the Sercombes took the child in. Elizabeth had made a rag doll out of the clothes that were left behind by her son. She used buttons for eyes and cross stitched a smiling mouth. When she finished the doll, she held it to her nose and caught the last aromas of her boy, before she called Betty and gave it to her. Betty swooped it up in her arms and sat on the stairs at the top of the house, singing and telling stories to it.

Betty had her own role to play in the business. She would skip up to the travellers with the rag doll in her hand and offer to sing them a song, or do a little dance. Amid laughter and good-hearted banter, she twirled and gave her heart out. A coin or several would be tossed in her direction and she would run to her grandmother, who carefully put the coin in her apron pocket. As the night grew later, she would soon give her farewells, walking up the stairs, with her doll dragging behind her, waving to the men below.

Between the three of them, they were industrious and in time Richard was able to buy the house next to his own and convert the two into a much bigger house. Elizabeth’s eyes sparkled with excitement at the promise of expanding the business.

As they lay on the paillasses in the new house, Richard said to his wife, ‘This will improve our prospects and raise us up. Our granddaughter will have opportunities that we never had. It will be a fountain of good fortune for us. A new future.’

They decided to call their alehouse the Fountain, and hoped that good fortune would surely come their way.

Elizabeth proved to be a clever businesswoman and the alehouse thrived. She brewed more of her own and also bought in ale from the brewery. She and her husband were able to build the business so that eventually Richard hired someone else to run the ferry. The young man, John, took lodging with the family and also helped out with moving barrels and other tasks within the alehouse.

Betty blossomed into a fine young woman. Working in the Fountain, she was a joy to her grandparents as she encouraged the singing and dancing that brought the young men into the alehouse to eat, drink and party. There was many a buck who fancied his chances with her. Not only was she very fair, but they looked around them and saw the opportunity that might come from marrying the sole heiress to a very successful business.

‘Dance for us!’ they would cry out, and she would jump up on one of the empty barrels and step dance until it rumbled and even toppled over. There was laughter as each man tried to catch her as she fell. But she was nimble on her feet and she gave her favours to no one.

John watched. As the ferry man and erstwhile bar hand, he had seen her grow up and loved her with a passion. He grew jealous each time she smiled at a customer and wanted to lash out when one would put his arm around her waist. She was oblivious to his interest in her. But it was his intention to have her.

He tried to court her, suggesting that they go for walks along the quayside. Anything to have some time with her away from the pub. But she shook her head, smiled at him and always promised tomorrow.

Unfortunately, a promise of tomorrow is sometimes taken as a commitment for today and John had it fixed in his head that they were betrothed. He began to watch her obsessively, marking every smile, turn of her ankle or trill of laughter as a sign she was cuckolding him. Richard was too busy with the business to notice anything, but Elizabeth knew that something was wrong. She tried to caution Betty, warn her against playing with the passions of the men around her. But Betty dismissed the thought from her head. As far as she was concerned, she had grown up with John around and he was nothing more than a friendly, if possessive, uncle. Elizabeth persisted and it was arranged that Betty would go to north Devon to stay with her aunt. The pub was quieter when she was gone and the punters bemoaned her loss but Elizabeth told them how well Betty was faring, living with her family. They gave her a toast and then turned back to their tankards and drank another pint.

Three weeks later John disappeared from his post. Richard was furious but Elizabeth was relieved. Maybe now he was free from his infatuation with Betty. Then news came from north Devon. John had followed Betty there and given vent to his passion for her. She had fought him back and in the process had grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed him. She was held in the town prison, awaiting trial for murder. Richard and Elizabeth closed the pub and went north to see what they could do. Within weeks it was evident that Betty was bearing a child, forced on her by John. She was released from confinement and returned back to the Fountain.

With her belly growing, there was no dancing, no twirling. Betty kept out of sight of any of the punters, shamed by what her body was doing to her. Elizabeth apologised many times for sending her away, and Richard castigated himself for not seeing what was obvious to others.

Business in the pub continued; there was still plenty of trade.

A storm rolled around the skies the night that Betty gave birth to her child. She was in great pain and the midwives were delayed. Elizabeth did the best she could but by the time the child was born, Betty had given up the ghost.

Elizabeth and Richard were devastated. They had lost their son so long ago and now their granddaughter too. If it was not for the mewling scrap in their arms, who knows what they might have done. Richard could not own up to his feelings of despair and anger. He worked on through the day and the night, putting all his energy into the running of the Fountain. His laughter echoed around the bar, hiding the sorrow that he felt. When the last man had gone from the pub, he would descend into the cellars, kick at the barrels and call Betty’s name. Sometimes he would challenge himself to lift the heaviest barrels, hoping the pain in his arms and chest would drown out the grief. But nothing really worked for him.

Elizabeth existed in a fog, barely able to function. She lay in her bed, unable even to rise. Richard would sit by her side and try to give her soup to sustain her. One of the serving women suggested moving the baby into the bedroom. The cot was brought in, alongside her bed. One of the women did her best to feed the child with bread and milk but the little infant sobbed and pushed their hands away. For a long time Elizabeth took no notice of the child. The doctors feared that both Elizabeth and the baby might fade away. Then one night, Elizabeth was tossing in her bed. Richard did not know what to do. Was she asleep or was she awake? Then Elizabeth called out, ‘Betty! Betty my love, forgive me.’ She sat bolt upright in her bed and then berated her husband for having no light in the room. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and rose unsteadily. It had been some weeks since she had been out of her bed. Richard was trying to light the lamp, his fingers stumbling over what should have been an easy task.

‘The child. Where is the child?’ Elizabeth started to move around the room, balancing herself by the edge of the head-board, the bedpost and the sideboard. She reached the cot and stood over