Ghosts of Devon

hi I'm Richard Felix and I'm going to take you on a tour of some of the most haunted parts of Devon sure I'm going to tell you stories of murders suicides black dogs wish pounds yet hounds pixas and of course ghosts I cannot believe this there's a real grave here at the crossroads and when people go into that room and the lot of these identical that one particular will nil so what is something Google to identify this of course that's another reason why I believe that to a certain extent very portable I have never come across what's down here on the well house just in time to see to medieval soldiers disappearing through the wall into this building hi I'm Richard Felix and I'm going to take you on a tour of some of the most haunted parts of Devon sure I'm going to tell you stories of murders suicides black dogs Wish hounds yet hounds Pixies and of course ghosts so why don't you turn down those lights give me your full attention settle back and let me take you on a tour of haunted Devon I'm not one of my favorite haunts I just spent my honeymoon here at would it come in the more it's a very haunted village and it's got a very haunted pub called the old Inn it's extremely cold it is the beginning of January it's too cold to do the story out here so I'm going to make an appointment and I'm going round for a pint at the old Inn so come and join me we're inside the old Inn at Widdecombe in the moor James you're the assistant manager that's right you've been here a long time that's 20 years now so it's quite a long time flip in huh you've done a lot a lot of things happening yes yes okay many years ago it is haunted isn't it it is yes we do have two ghosts reportedly but one really yeah and it's called Harry do you know who Harry Uhl really no I don't know I mean I'm assuming it's just a nickname that's been given to him over the years yeah you wouldn't believe the number of people that live and work with ghosts that just give him a nickname Oh Harry's been around Jana's been doing this and he's been yeah so it's a similar situation yeah nobody can throw any light on it though not really no you know we don't know who he is where it's from why he's here or anything really all you know is that he is he is here and Duke do customers ever say see this old guy or we're not really we have one or two customers that sort of wander around and think all you know that's not quite right or they feel something but they've nobody's ever seen him as such no wallet to strange goings on but that's but you have had an extreme yeah we had I used to live in yeah upstairs here and I was the only person here and my chef came in in the morning and said don't and I had a drink or two the night before and I was like know why we used to keep a big ball of string in the kitchen hmm I used to time to meet joints up with and it he said come and have a look and it'd been woven in and out all the kitchen equipment the whole ball of string and it wasn't cut or tied in a knot anywhere but the whole lot had gone right the way around and through the kitchen so that was quite interesting just of it obviously you went into it to see if anybody had been yes yeah you know I mean I you know the whole place is obviously alarmed and the stomach so it couldn't just with anybody wandering it but I don't all the staff had asked the bosses you know had you been in no no you trying to wind me up no yeah and why would anybody go to I presume it caused quite a bit of oh it I mean it's not a man I mean with us just cutting it to get it off it took us 10 minutes so it's a windy all the way we must have taken well in theory ages yeah yeah so they're definitely to ability something genuine poltergeist activity on the break yeah you know we have things fall off shelves and that sort of thing every now and again as well so he's just playing tricks on you yes we'll be honest with you friendly guy yeah oh yeah yeah he's never caused any bother what about Mary Jays baby or groceries reportedly a baby that cries upstairs yeah in one of the bedrooms and out round reportedly it is Mary J's yes baby but quite how I don't know because she was pregnant reputedly killed herself Lee so she never actually had the baby so what that's all about we don't I don't know and I don't it's a bit of legit it's the fact you look the most famous ghost to do with the area yeah he's often branded as that's who the ghost is and I think you know if if it was if it really was Mary Jay or Mary J's baby or something she's have quite a pretty ghost because I think she's around yeah it was quite honest with any self-respecting go or even would make a beeline for this well you know come on make a very good idea so if you're going to come down to wideo get woody come in the more I knew your ground it you have to come here to this pub it is fabulous we have a good time yeah James you're a gentleman thank you very much indeed any capital thank you thank you right here we go this is I've just come up this sunken roadway here it's a bridle path and I'm looking for Jays grave and I can see it in front of me I can also see here on the left hand side a spine a bone I hope I hope that it's a sheep's huh I'm sure it is gosh I cannot believe this there's a real grave here at the crossroads I'm kneeling at a crossroads and the reason I'm kneeling is because it is such a windy spot this is scary no way would you find me here in the dark it's really quite awesome this is Mary Jays grave and it's situated to crossroads and it's a very famous landmark on dark or this girl was born in the workhouse at Newton Abbot around 1790 but eventually went into farm service she was made pregnant we know not who buy by the local Squire the farmer but of course in those days it was a terrible thing to happen to someone and unfortunately the father whoever he was wouldn't lay claim to the baby Mary was working at the time in farm service at Ford farm at mammoth on she took herself into the barn and hanged herself with a rope from the rafters in those days in the 1800s self murder as it was called meant that you were destined for hell people in those days were terrified of the church and I genuinely believed this is one of the reasons why there are ghosts to this day the church ruled by fear so if you committed a crime then you were destined to go to hell especially if you were a Protestant and unfortunately Mary knew that by taking her own life that she would not get through the pearly gates into heaven and that she would be destined to burn in Hellfire now given those circumstances what would you do would you choose to go up there and try it on knowing you wouldn't get in go straight to hell or linger stay here and that's what they did and because of that suicides were not allowed to be buried in the parish church were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground and were always brought to a crossroads just like this one and buried at the crossroads usually with a stake through their heart because the people in those days knew the situation and realize that their souls and their spirits would never rest but if they buried them cross roads when their spirits rose from the grave they would be confused and not know which way to go and not bother anyone but to make doubly sure here they buried her at this crossroads which is also the crossroads of the four parishes round here so not one of the parishes or the parish churches would have been responsible and poor Mary of course is still here and I believe that her soul and her spirit still lingers to this day people don't stay around here people drive another way rather than going past this grave and there have been reports of a figure a bent-over figure standing here and then as the people go by the figure stands upright and then vanishes in the 1860s a road worker across the road was digging and found bones originally they thought that they were the bones of one of the Dartmoor ponies but on examination they found that they were the bones the skeleton of a young lady and they ordered the bones to be reburied here in this real genuine grave of a suicide here at the crossroads overlooked by hound tour and apparently no matter what time of the year it is whenever any one visitors this grave there is always fresh flowers at the grave I didn't know whether I'd find any or even whether I didn't find the grave but it's here of those wreaths on it there's even a poppy on it and a cross and money on top but just to make sure I brought some fresh flowers here for Mary J to place on her grave in the vain hope that she should at least understand and know we judge ourselves I'm telling you now you can go from this place don't be afraid leave this place and go as I'm going to do now because I really really don't like it here it's a lovely sunny morning and it's January and I'm in Brixham I'm standing outside the Brixham Heritage Museum it was once a police station I've been here before and when I came here about three years ago I on earth something something rather than a car band something rather strange inside this building it's haunted of course otherwise I wouldn't be here so I'm going inside to meet Patsy do come in welcome I'm actually in Brixham Heritage Museum but actually we're in prison aren't we fancy yes this is a genuine self German piece you are a work the administrator here of the museum this was a police station original is that right yes it was open about 1902 as a Penn Station yeah uh and he does not that I can honestly say yes but I have a feeling that there was one but nothing that I know of this document but certainly no executions or anything only one that it was just just the police station yes yes I yeah I see obviously the people that were the executors would be taken to the county town which of course was Exeter I would think in those days yes they came here and were held and taken to the Assizes and then afterwards whatever but it is haunted isn't it um two of our members say yes right to have our very sane members say yes Wow and what sort of things happen here uh well there's a smell a nice name I haven't yeah of tobacco cherry cherry something tobacco yes and the data the curator has smelled on the corridor at the back one member saw a figure in the doorway of maritime gallery I think she saw him twice and one of our volunteers saw a figure coming from the theater next door coming through the wall this way and then disappearing and he was the only one in the museum and it was locked at the time I presume he thought it was a member of public yes you did but you'd come in and excuse me it's time to go sort of that's right because that's what people do normally that they actually put it into reality what they've just seen oh it's a customer not oh my god it's a ghost lovely sometimes it very uses a lot of people in this place of course it is easier the most places I would think but but going back to the cherry tobacco I was talking to another member of your staff earlier and they actually reckoned that there was a policeman in the 60s that did smoke this particular sort of Quebec oh oh right after that oh yeah cuz obviously it could have been anybody with it with a pipe or something not these days of course was obviously people are allowed to smoking in public buildings but apparently it was the same tobacco that this policeman smoked in this building so he may just be a policeman but I don't know loved his job so much the deep that he may still be here I wouldn't lie I really don't know about now but maybe this smell lingered in the brickwork well you never know that's a possibility but I mean the other thing is that there's nothing there's nothing evil here there's nothing nothing no no it's definitely not I mean our volunteer said that the figure that she saw in the doorway was definitely a benign figure there was no or evil coming from death or not now the other thing amazing when I came here to see two or three years ago we were talking about years ago you actually had parts of skeletons of bones that had been found under the road when apparently the seat used to come farther up here in Brixham and of course in the end I think it wasn't the 1860s was a very serious Gale and a lot of say underside of it again yeah they were washed up because a lot of MU drowned yeah well yes so I got 40 I think I couldn't actually I believe it was and I just wonder whether about some of the bones that were originally here in those days could have been from one of the sailors and because he hadn't had a decent burial then that could have caused the haunting who knows I don't know it's a possum nothing like to say yes I wouldn't like to say yes but you wouldn't say no I would say no unless you've got nothing to be disproved about Tom it's fantastic thank you very much indeed thank you if you're looking for a good hotel to stay in while you're doing a ghost tour of Devon and you could do no worse than coming here to the smugglers haunt in Brixham obviously it's haunted otherwise I wouldn't be telling you about it some very good ghost stories in here and a mystery as well so without further ado let's go inside and have a look John we're now obviously inside the smugglers haunt you've been here or three and half years suspect is he haunted we have our moments here but that way we do have our moments there are books about Brixham I said about different ghosts here but I have one particular story which I won't tell anybody it's not written about and it's not publicized but over the last 20 months 21 months I've had this story by six different people told to me and the stories identical and I won't tell anybody it and when I hear again which I'm sure I will I know it is genuine so thick is something that only you know or obviously I know and my wife doing knows about and not even the staff know I won't tell with staff and people come down and report it to you after spending a night here or something like that yes and I've had this say six times this is an identical story which I won't and when I had no debt stories told to me I know it's not late I know it's not plate because it's not written about publicized no one knows not even yourself in this and I keep it to myself so when it happens I know that these and it's quite an eerie story and this thing happens that people don't dream it will physically wake them up and now wide awake and when I hear it and the people tell me this story and they say you might think I've it's serious and go on and when they start table I said well you're not the first one to tell me their story and that makes them feel better about it as well six times six times in 21 22 months I've had this particular story and you're not going to tell me no because I don't want it I quite understand it because obviously the other stories that are documented Agee she the one that throw herself out of yes a bedroom window said yes room number world of rooms have been altered I think rose up an upstairs window which is now that but you're supposed to be I don't know we always blame when we have happenings do selling moves or that we always blame it on the woman having on a key whether it is her or not I don't know on your medium until you've got a chimney in one of the rooms us there so at me that is supposedly to be a child most work we've done some other paranormal teams in here and when people go into that room and a lot of rooms identical that one particular room they all say the fireplace is something people are June about the fireplace it's just a certain things about it always as it's always and we've got loads of fireplaces but at one particular room and then we're actually sitting purely by accident honestly in what someone's told you is the most haunted part it's meant to be a gentleman supposed to sit here and you get pipe smoke uh I've actually not the last I suppose 2004 five where you could get some as you walk through here and you will smell a smoke but I've not at it now for a bit of a while but you never see it you just smell a certain hopefully I'll smell it again because now windless no smoke okay so that would be a little better won't that be interesting yes that will be yes isn't it supposed to be seen through the mirror as well yes it's supposed to see if you look in the mirror you see and when you look at the table he's not there cuz they're asleep mirrors are supposed to be portals to the other world so it might thank good so that that's fascinating though because you see what you've just told me is the first thing is obvious is far better than any of the know stories that I reckon we're going to get because this is a ghost story but only you know about and that's what makes you so real I mean you tastic oh I I'm waiting to hear again I look forward to this I know I hear again it's genuine well if it again voodoo and you will tell me when you and I I'll have to think about it I love to think about it don't keep it yourself that's fantastic John thank you very much indeed you're welcome I'm standing in front of what is one of the most haunted castles in Devon berry Pomeroy I came here a few years ago spent most of the night here and I promise you it is a very scary place on a cold dark windy night it was originally given to Ralph de pomeroy by William the Conqueror many years later henry de pomeroy rebelled against King Richard on the side of his brother King John when King Richard came back to this country he crushed the rebellion Henry fled and held out for a short period of time but some Michaels mount he eventually took his own life by bleeding himself to death roman style there are lots of ghosts here does the white lady of Barry Pomeroy who is believed to be Lady Margaret Pomeroy she was the sister of Lady Eleanor and Lady Eleanor was terribly terribly jealous of Margaret and she kept a prisoner in a tower for 19 years until she eventually died how she managed to exist for 19 years no one knows but even to this day the old crumbled tower is still called Lady Margaret's Tower and of course it's haunted many years ago a gentleman with his spaniel walking towards Lady Margaret's Tower and all of a sudden the dogs stopped all its hackles went up and it would go no farther he even picked the dog up baby style cradled it in his arms and kept walking towards the tower but it screamed it shouted and eventually jumped out of his arms and ran out of the castle it had seen something that obviously he couldn't see the battlements are very haunted apparently Lady Margaret laws people up onto the battlements and people have not been known to fall over there are also two Knights up there when the castle was under siege and they couldn't get out they knew that there was no hope for them they knew they'd be executed they dressed in their finest armor took the horses onto the top of the battlements blindfolded the horses and rode them over the battlements to a terrible death and apparently their ghosts are still here to this very day the reason we have not gone into the castle is because there are so many reports of film crews not being able to film once a BBC TV crew were here and after three days of malfunctioning equipment they had to give up and go to another castle so to be quite honest with you if you're looking for an exciting interesting haunted castle in Devon this is the place for you I visited an awful lot of church yards and churches in my time many of them haunted but I must be honest with you I don't think I've ever been in quite such a scary place as this this is the ruins of Holy Trinity Church buckfast Lee it's scary there's something I don't know there's just something about it that is daytime and I don't like it you would under no circumstances get me here after dark the place is an unfortunate Church to say the least it was struck by lightning in 1848 set on fire in Victorian times and then in 1992 arsonists destroyed the church and left it as you see it now there's something I don't know there's just something about it it has an atmosphere all of its own and under a legend and a story like nothing on earth Squire Richard Cable who lived through the vast part of the 1600s was was a reputedly an evil man a local rake he terrorized the local women locked them away in his in his mansion house raped them and God knows what else when he eventually died on the 5th of July 1677 they say that the wished hounds came baying and howling around his house those are larger-than-life black dogs that here in Devon hunt in packs across Dartmoor and they came to take away his soul he usually apparently wished hounds or yeah hounds they're also called in Devon seemed to be going about the county looking for the souls of unbaptized children to take them to purgatory but here for some reason we don't know why they came for Squire cable the people were so frightened of the squire that they buried him in the strangest tomb that you'll ever see and I just found that tomb which is just out that door so I'm going to take you to have a look at it it's here this is the most unusual to I've ever seen in my life the cable tomb the source of local legends and of inspiration to the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle you see when the wish towns came to take away the soul of Richard Cable these were the larger-than-life big black shaggy dogs harbingers of death Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the time was was convalescing in Norfolk and talking to a chap that lived very close to here they got very friendly and started talking of myths and legends and it became the inspiration for no less than the Hound of the Baskervilles but the people of book firstly work was so terrified of Richard cable or should I say a Richard cables ghost that they placed the body down below in this amazing tomb stoned him up and then put these amazing bars on it and then to stop his soul from rising from the grave they placed this huge block of white stone on top of it because in olden days people believed that the ghosts or the souls of witches wizards suicides would not rest and so if they encased them they believed that it would stop them from rising but whether it has stopped Richard Cable from rising nobody knows people say that they see strange red glowing lights around the tomb at night talking of stopping people rising from the grave this was also a famous place for Body Snatchers or resurrection men being a very remote graveyard Body Snatchers used to come here and dig up freshly laid to rest bodies what they used to do was come along with it with a young boy and wooden spades so that they didn't make a sound on the stones in the soil dig down they knew where the head of the coffin was and they dug a small hole down sent the boy down who smashed the wood of the coffin they attached a rope around the neck of the dead body and pulled it up out of the hole it was illegal to steal the shroud or the clothes so they stripped the body put the clothes or the shroud back in the coffin and took the naked body away for the purpose of dissection and of course that's another reason why I believe that to a certain extent this is a very very haunted graveyard not the place to be when you're on your own at night and I must be honest with you I I for some reason I've been glancing from one side to the other of the graveyard I'm just very uneasy in here and I must be honest with you can't wait to leave I think I'm probably standing in the most historic part of Exeter and behind me the most amazing building the Royal Clarence Hotel this building was originally the town house of no less than Sir Walter Raleigh and it's haunted it has a strange ghost a coughing and choking ghost that still haunts the bedrooms while Sir Walter Raleigh was living here there was a Dutch sea captain obviously in Holland who had a terrible argument disagreement with one of his friends and unfortunately this friend died before they'd made up the argument now for some reason the soul of his dead friend laid heavily on him and actually laid so heavy that it affected his left shoulder to such an extent but he couldn't get rid of the soul of this person anyway he heard about this man living in Exeter Sir Walter who breathes smoke out of his mouth he thought he must have been a wizard or or something and he came over here to England to Exeter and made an appointment to see Sir Walter he explained his predicament and so Walter did no more than breathe smoke onto his left shoulder and released the soul of the man and it drifted away from him and he was free but unfortunately the Royal Clarence isn't free because the soul or the spirit of that Dutchman is still to this day in the building and still haunts one of the rooms I don't know which one people are woken in the middle of the night to hear someone in the room coughing and choking and spluttering obviously the Dutchman who was was choked by Sir Walter Ally's tobacco smoke but this is the most amazingly historic building everyone anyone special and famous stayed here Nelson stayed here when he was given the freedom of Exeter the Duchess of Clarence hence the name who of course was the wife of salable King William the fourth who of course was stationed up the road at Devonport she used to stay here and in the time of George v and Queen Mary they actually allowed them to call it the Royal Clarence after her after the distress of Clarence it really is the most awesome building and if you're coming to this amazing city of Exeter for whatever reason a history walk or talk or a ghost walk and you look you need somewhere famous you need somewhere special to stay and I suggest you stay at the Royal Clarence and you ask for the haunted bedroom I'm now it underneath the Royal Clarence Hotel in the cellars this part of the building actually known as the well house and just around the corner here is an ancient well Exeter of course is a Roman town and I'm actually standing on the Roman level and up here the Norman level and guess what this cell is haunted in the early 1900's a gentleman called Richard bat stone was I presume out having drink with his mates and they had a wager that he dint stay the night in the cellar underneath the wells house well they bet him half a crown and he said no way I couldn't possibly won't do it for that but I'll do it for two half-crowns so it was arranged he was going to spend the night here and he came down here with one of his friends and he said to his friend all very well great idea but no way am I staying down here alone what I suggest is that you come along lock me in and then a little bit later come back let me out and I'll give you one of the two half-crowns agreed they locked him in a put-up Wendy's mate and Richard stayed here but unfortunately his friend I presume had such a good night that he forgot to come back and let Richard out until the following morning when the drink had worn off and his friend remembered his oh my goodness I've left Richard down below he came down to find Eve opened the door and came in and sitting in the corner over there just behind the well was a little wizened old man long gray hair shriveled face and fists tightly clenched he came over to him and he opened up his hand and clenched in the hand with the two half-crowns they carried him upstairs when they got to the top Richard expired he died something awful must have happened to him down here in the cellar and we think that we know what frightened Richard so much because there is something quite amazing on the other side of this cellar bricked up in the wall over here just this way in all my travels around the country looking for ghosts and the paranormal I have never come across what's down here under the well house what was once bricked up here in the wall in this alcove is a human skeleton in taxco I mean oh my goodness me now why is it here various stories people were sometimes bricked up behind the walls people certainly during the time of the plague rather than burying them in unconsecrated ground in a plague pit might have buried their loved ones in the house or of course the other story suicides were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground and of course the city burial ground was just across the road from here they wouldn't allow them to be buried there perhaps they picked them up and buried them here and of course suicides were bound for hell and so for some reason the soul of that person may still be haunting this cellar to this day but of course there's another possibility because they're now pretty sure that this is not one skeleton and it's part male and part female and it could well be the skeleton of John the monk and Martha the nun that were taken away and brought here and their bodies secreted away behind this wall perhaps we'll never know I'm now in the most magnificent little courtyard medieval this building is now asks restaurant but before the Reformation this was an annual as college very similar to Chantry priests their role was to say a mass to pray for your soul obviously after you were dead on the anniversary of your death if you had money and of course remember Exeter was a very wealthy place you would actually pay the annual a priest's to pray for your soul to speed it through purgatory to send it to heaven of course once the Reformation came all of that literally went out of the window but this courtyard is haunted underneath this pot here apparently is an ancient well and one of the priests had a liaison for want of a better word with a nun her name was Martha his name was John and of course she became pregnant and in those days it was customary to wall them up behind the walls of a building they knew this was going to happen to them so they had a suicide pact and they both threw themselves down this well and drowned themselves committing of course in the eyes of God self murder suicide now they knew where they were destined for they would not be allowed through the pearly gates into heaven they would go straight to hell in that situation what would you do would you try it on at the pearly gates hoping that some Peter would let you in knowing full well there was no way would you go straight to hell no thank you I'll stay here and they have and they're still here to this day their ghosts still haunt this courtyard many years ago this was a gentlemen's club and there is a report of one of the gentlemen here and I believe before he had drinks actually saw the ghostly apparition of a nun and a monk walking through the courtyard and disappearing through the wall there's also a poltergeist in the top floor of the building here in front of me who throws things around bothers the cleaners a lot they never work on their own they like to work in pairs moves their dusters pulls out the plugs of the vacuum and causes mayhem in the building who the ghost is we're not sure but apparently the name given to him for some reason I don't know why is e th e L and you're not allowed to say the name I don't know why but I'm certainly not going to mention the name because I don't want him to follow me home tonight so many amazing stories in Exeter that we've actually run out of daylight and we've now had to go to night-vision behind me here this amazing medieval house with this awesome outdoor behind the door is the most amazing medieval courtyard and in medieval times this building belonged to the Archdeacon of Barnstable but in later times in the 1930s it was split into two number 10 and number 11 and this was the home of the Bishop of credit on his niece who was staying here with him and one day coming home I presumed from shopping opened the door went in and a loud scream came from the courtyard and the Bishop's wife came scurrying out to see what had happened just in time to see to medieval soldiers disappearing through the wall into this building they both saw the soldiers now the amazing thing is that in the olden days in medieval times this part of the building would most definitely have been the guard room for the soldiers who protected the Archdeacon and it's pretty obvious that they're still here but the amazing thing is this wonderful sandstone red sandstone the red of the sandstone the more iron oxide there is in it and of course the silica in it and all of these properties are used in recording purposes is it a possibility that they both saw a replay a recording of those two soldiers going through the wall into their guard room I'm I'm driving obviously on a road in the middle of Dartmoor this is the Morton Hampstead two Princetown Road it's called Carters Road named after the contractor that built it after the Turnpike's came in there are many haunted roads up and down the British Isles but this one here in Devon is as haunted I think as you'll get something very strange and something very eerie and I'm just going to lock the doors because I'm spooked before I start it's all to do with with something called the hairy hands and it originates from the early 1900's the first instance ghost story if you like was of a chap walking back along this road and like many people in the olden day they obviously heard a horse coming not a problem but it started galloping as it got towards him and all he could do was actually press himself against the hedgerow and that the the stone wall at the side here and hoped that the horse didn't hit him it came galloping towards him he saw nothing admittedly it was nighttime just like now but not only did he hear a horse but he also heard the the noise of the saddle and the stirrups and and the harnesses in fact it was it was being ridden by someone but he saw nothing it didn't hit him it didn't touch him it didn't brush past him it just went by but there was nobody there and he hadn't been drinking in the 1920s there was a spate of accidents along this part of the road mainly to do with motorcycles and fatalities a chap was killed on a motorbike nobody knew why the motorbike didn't seem to crash into anything then another accident took place the rider was killed but the passenger the pillion survived and actually said that they saw a pair of large hands grasped the front of the motorbike the handlebars and wrestle with it they were they were big and they were hairy hands which caused the accident and the death the pillion passenger never actually got over it it happened again a third time this time it was a doctor he'll be who was the doctor at Dartmoor Prison and basically he was going to post bridge to do a post-mortem for another accident not on the same Road and he got the deputy governors two children with him in the sidecar he was killed as well the two children were thrown out but not injured and they say both of them said that they saw a pair of big hairy hands grasped the handlebars drivers people of reported seeing hands on the windscreens and god forbid that I should actually see something now the doors are locked it is not bad but you hear these stories and you think oh yeah you know myths and legends but could it be true oh gosh nobody really knows a shara bang in the 1930s a bus left the road and and crashed into a ditch nobody was hurt and again the driver of the bus reported seeing two hairy hands on on his windscreen years later some people staying very very close on the moors near the road about quarter a mile off the road in a caravan and one night the lady was she was asleep in the in the top bunk and her husband was in the bottom bunk and for some reason she knows not why something woke her and she had a little window a little slit of a window and she said she got this awful sense this feeling that there was something outside the caravan but wanted to hurt them that wanted to harm them and the next thing she saw or by the way I forgot to tell you yes the the window was slightly open and she saw a hand creeping up the window hairy big and two of the fingers started to come in through the window she was wearing a crucifix so my goodness and she she clutched the crucifix said a prayer and it started to slide back down the window and disappeared she closed the window woke her husband who of course usual story told her that that she was dreaming but what she will never know but it's a frightening story to say the least the thing is what is it disembodied hands you hear of disembodied legs disembodied heads but not very often hands I don't know quite what it is about Devon is a beautiful County but when that veil of darkness comes over the Moors at night it takes on another role these elementals the elements earth fire water wind I don't know is it something to do with these these strange creatures these beings that have never actually been part of this earth that for some reason take refuge on the moors and sometimes cross over onto the roads these hairy hands that were perhaps never human in the same way as the the wild hunt the wish hounds the f hounds these strange creatures that still to this day dwell here on Dartmoor for what reason I know not possibly they're to terrify people like me the door's locked I think perhaps if I speed up a bit whatever might be following me I might just be able to outrun this is the 13th century church house it's now an inn and it's a hotel as well I've been here before had rather a disturbed night in here when I spent the night but extremely haunted very windy out here absolutely fantastic inside let's go in I'm sitting in the old church House Hotel and in it's very close to a poor pen it goes back to the 14th century just look at this inglenook wouldn't you just love to sit and read a book with a glass of brandy in your hand in front of this fire quite something very very haunted of course but when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle met Fletcher Robinson who was an old friend that they were convalescing in chroma in Norfolk and they got talking about black dogs and of course Norfolk is famous for black shuck these are harbingers of death big black shaggy dogs and Fletcher Robinson living of course in Devon and them having a big history of black dogs Conan Doyle was was inspired to say the least and he actually came down here and stayed for quite a few weeks with Fletcher Robinson learning about the EF hounds and the the wish hounds of Devon to such an extent that Conan Doyle decided to write a book of course about big black dogs the chap that picked him up from the station and took him round for quite a few weeks the coachman was a guy called Henry Baskerville of course the book became known as the Hound of the Baskervilles this this place is extremely haunted like all the places that we've visited in Devon there's a monk that wanders around the place because remember this was called the old church house and the people building the church which was across the way actually lived in this building while they were building it so there's this this brown robed figure that they believed to be a monk that's been seen in various places and Darren one of the guys that runs the place here actually saw the figure he was standing at the bar his glasses on the end of his on the end of his nose and he sort of looked up and saw this figure in brown with a hood standing at the bar he went to serve it and then it just disappeared bedrooms are haunted bedroom ones haunted bedroom 12 is haunted one chapter out them a letter after staying here saying that he woke up in the middle of the night to see a figure standing looking out of the window pointing towards the church but nobody knows why a lot of the Timbers in the place are from old ships wrecked galleons and they reckon that if you stare long and hard enough one of the panels in the other room that you can see the face of the captain of one of those wrecked ships staring out at you from the woodwork so pretty good pub pretty good in fantastic hotel very haunted in 1086 William the conquerer granted land here at Oak Hampton to bold wind debris on he was a Norman and obviously he'd come over here with King William and was granted land to keep the Saxons under control they built a fort here they held onto the land until the 12th century when the Courtenay family took it over they were a famous aristocratic family Henry the Eighth had Henry Courtenay beheaded and took over the land and the castle fell into disrepair and has now become the romantic ghostly ruin that you see behind me it's haunted by yet another black dog harbingers of death they're seen all over the British Isles but they've given different names in the Isle of Man are known as the more to do in Lancashire they're known as striker and trash in Yorkshire Padfoot and in East Anglia they're known as black shuck but here in Devon they're known as yet hounds and wish hounds but strangely enough they seem to hunt in packs here in Dartmoor they're something to do with the old norse legends because most of the places where black dogs are seen were once Viking settlements they used to tell sagas stories of larger-than-life figures and I think this is probably where they come from also their their myths and legends their harbingers of debt if you see one within a few weeks you're a member of your family will be dead so yes only myths and legends but only two years ago I was doing a talk in skegness and a lady came up to me and told me that her husband used to work at a early warning center on the York Moors and he used to drive back to Whitby on his scooter one night about two o'clock he was driving along and he saw what he believed to be a large black donkey in front of him as he got closer to it he realized it wasn't it was a dog a large dog with shaggy fur red staring eyes and pointed ears he pulled out and drove off it frightened him to death as soon as he got home he woke the wife to teller of his fears a fortnight later both he and his twelve-year-old daughter will run over by a lorry on a hill in Whitby and killed so much for the myths and legends of England this is reality this is fact so does the Black Dog evoke Hampton castle also exists I'm not hanging around long enough to find out and to complete my haunted tour of Devon I'm staying at the White Hart Hotel you know Campton it's got three ghosts in it so an apt place to finish and I'm staying the night here there's the ghost of a cavalier that haunts the Tudor room apparently was shot in there during the English Civil War and as a ghost of a mother and child the mother who reputedly hanged herself here in the hotel and the ghost - her little boy who's still looking for to this day mother is grounded here because obviously she believes that she can't get into heaven and the little boy is still looking for his mum and apparently they have met up on frequent occasions both members of staff and customers say that they hear the cries of a little boy and he has been seen wandering on the stairs looking for his mum a few years ago a lady staying in the hotel on three separate nights heard a little boy crying the first night she heard him and got out of bed came to the door and opened the door there was no one there the second night she actually saw the little boy standing on the landing it frightened her quite a lot and on the third night she only heard him she didn't see him and then at the end of her stay she was talking to a chap a builder who was staying here and he said he'd been kept awake during the night by a child crying so it seems quite a haunted place an apt place for me to finish I'm staying the night I hope I don't hear him I hope you've enjoyed watching the DVD as much as I've enjoyed making it as I always say at the end of every DVD and I hope this applies to me as well do sleep well 10 have nightmares

Channel: Steve Johnson

Views: 113,161

Rating: 4.7237353 out of 5

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Id: kRH7Oq2ar64

Length: 58min 23sec (3503 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 22 2016