Storyteller: Gates, monks and things that go bump in Paignton

Last year, I suggested that I was planning on adding a Paignton Ghost Walk to my repertoire...well, I’ve now started to put that plan into action...

As with my Dartmoor walks, just before I launched them, I held a Free Evening of Storytelling in a local pub, inviting people to come and join me, sharing some of my stories, in the hope that others would share theirs, adding to what I already knew, and giving me extra tales, possibly shaping the route that I took my guests on around the towns. 

I am now at that stage with Paignton. I have sounded out two potential venues to meet people in, at both ends of the town, in the hope that, if locals can’t make one, they might make the other, holding them a week apart. 

I’m looking at early February, with a view to hosting my first Paignton Ghost Walk in early March. Watch this space, and my Facebook page for further details.

When I carried out this process, for my Bovey Tracey walk, my research, and the subsequent free Evening of Storytelling, left me with two stories that I was desperate to find the locations of. I’d found the seeds of the stories in my go to source, Shades and Spectres – A Guide to Devon Hauntings, as compiled by the Devon Folk Life Register. 

This was set up as a Job Creation Scheme, back in 1978, when five people were given access to the archives in Exeter Museum, and tasked with compiling a registry, in alphabetical order of Devon parishes, of all the folklore, and ghost stories they could find. 

The results form a very useful guide, for researchers, like myself, as it contains references to all the sources they plundered, aiding further research.

However, I was still left with two dangling threads. 

One concerns a ghost chained to a gate, that terrorised passing locals, until it was supposedly exorcised. Whilst the other is all about a family that incorporated into their house, an ancient, wooden staircase, from Buckfast Abbey, that came complete with a band of phantom monks. This story also ends with an exorcism, but neither story gives away its location, and I’ve been on their trails ever since.

The chained ghost, was said to haunt a particular lane in the Bovey Tracey area, and was in the habit of jumping out on unsuspecting passers-by at night. The situation got so bad, that locals were afraid to use that lane after dark. 

In the end, the owner of the property, with the gate in question, was petitioned to remove it, either the ghost or the gate itself. After exorcism failed to solve the problem, the wrought-iron gate was replaced with a wooden one, to which nothing could be chained. 

The locals were no longer hassled after the gate was replaced. This begs the question, what happened to the gate, and did the ghost remain attached to it?

As a result of my enquiries into the fate of the gate, and its original location, I came across Ethan Pennell, and his marvellous Dartmoor Folklore Map. On it, he mentions the chained ghost of Bovey Tracey, but he also highlights another man in chains on the gate at the entrance to Lizwell Farm, just outside of Widecombe in the Moor.

Could my theory be correct, is this where the original Bovey Tracey gate was moved to, taking its problem with it?

More recently, I was contacted by a fellow researcher, called Jowan Albon, who wanted to pick my brains about some other snippets of stories from the Bovey area, that had been passed his way by my good friend, Mark Lindsey Earley, who I’d set up other projects with, in the Dartmoor area, who also ran his version of a Bovey Tracey Ghost Walk, and now resides in New Zealand. 

Jowan suggested to me that the gate in question could be the black, wrought-iron one that sits permanently ajar at the top of the lane/driveway that leads down to Indio Priory and the new houses that have been built on the estate. As there is still an old gate in situ, it doesn’t really fit the facts of the folklore, but it suits me to talk about it there, as I have other stories that take me in that direction on my walk.

Then, just the other day, that same Mark, that I’ve just mentioned, sent me a link to a YouTube channel that includes videos relating folklore tales and spooky happenings, throughout the British Isles, including Bovey Tracey, and the one he had highlighted for me was about the chained ghost, no less. I played it, and it has added a bit more flesh to the story, but, alas, still no definitive location...

The video tells of a man called Elias Finch, who, back in 1715, was a smuggler, carrying contraband across Dartmoor. One of his colleagues grassed on him, and he got arrested by the excise men, taken to court, and found guilty. His punishment was to be chained to an iron gate, for a fortnight, and given only bread and water. 

The location was called Mill Lane. Locals would walk by, often returning from a night at The White Hart, but did nothing to help him. On the tenth day, there was a hard frost, and Elias died from exposure and hypothermia. His body was buried in a hole in the ground, at a nearby crossroads, but his ghost returned to torment those who refused to help him.

I’ve researched some of these details, only to find there is no Mill Lane in Bovey Tracey, the closest is in the Lustleigh area. Maybe the name has been changed, but it suggests it was probably near to the river, where mills would have been located.

The pub named, The White Hart, also doesn’t exist in the vicinity, suggesting that, although it makes for a good story, it’s a bit lacking in facts. The recording goes on to imply that the haunting went on being experienced into the 20th century, with sightings as recently as the 1980s and 90s, when a group of lads claimed to have seen this chained ghost that had caused them to fall off their bikes.  Only then, did the council replace the iron gate with a wooden one, in an attempt to cease the haunting. 

The old gate is said to have been housed in the Town Archives...where ever that might be! It is still said that when the wind is in the right direction, and the moon is high, a faint clinking of chains can still be heard in the vicinity…

Mark and I are of the same mind, and wanted to find out more about this story, so we both contacted the person behind this particular channel, which is called Britain’s Haunted Tales, and it would appear it comes from the same source as I use, although with a different cover! Except my version doesn’t contain that amount of detail, which begs the question, is there another version of my book? Or has the story been dramatised for the recording on YouTube?

Intrigued by this new research tool, I scrolled through other recordings, and, by chance I came across a telling of the other story I’m trying to track down, the monks on the staircase. 

In this version, the family are given a name, the Carter family, and the house is described as Georgian, but still no actual address. I messaged the owner of the channel again, to see if he knew any more details, but sadly he’d drawn a blank too. 

It would appear that word of the family’s phantom nightly visitors, had got out, and media had camped outside the house desperate for a glimpse. It was then that the family chose to have the house exorcised, to rid themselves of the unwanted attention. Somehow, they’ve managed to keep their anonymity, and the location of the property a secret. 

Books published around that time, referring to the incident, don’t tell, and my enquiries at Buckfast Abbey, regarding the sale of the staircase, have drawn a blank. Someone, somewhere, must know of a house that contains an old wooden staircase, with monks’ initials carved in the treads. Until I find more details, I will just have to stop outside a random house, on my Bovey Tracey Ghost Walk, and tell the story there.

One final story of interest, that caught my eye as I continued to scroll through the YouTube channel, concerns a Cabin 46 in the woods, at Centre Parcs, at Longleat. Members of my family, visit annually, so I thought I would add a bit of spookiness to their next visit, by sharing this particular story...

Cabin 46 isn’t one you can book...you get allocated it if there is a mix up with any bookings, or as a way to solve any unexpected problems. People who have been unfortunate to be allocated it, often report shadowy shapes in the trees, hear children laughing, or see wet footprints on the wooden floorboards. They usually only stay one night, before handing back the keys without a word of explanation the next day...but the staff are well aware why...happy future holidays to my family!

If you like to listen to your spooky stories, rather than read them, then I can highly recommend this YouTube channel of Britain’s Haunted Tales...happy listening!