Tudors in Devon (and some ghosts too!) - Berry Pomeroy Castle

 Today's post contains not only some Tudor history and some local history, but some ghost stories too! I really am spoiling you! 

Most people reading this will have heard of Henry VIII and his infamous 6 wives! Most will even be able to name those poor unfortunate ladies - Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleeves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr - but what some of you might not know is that one of the most famous stately home castles in Devon was actually owned by Jane Seymour's brother! 

Berry Pomeroy Castle sits out in the countryside between Paignton and Totnes on the edge of Berry Pomeroy village. The place is atmospheric and set into some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. Sadly, however the house stands in ruins these days and was in fact not actually ever finished in the first place! Here's a pic I took last time I was there...

Berry Pomeroy Castle, taken in between lockdowns 2020 by myself, Dr Emma Barrett.

Berry Pomeroy's origins are interesting. Originally, the house or at least parts of it were thought to be of Norman origin, however it's been discovered recently that in fact whilst the Pomeroy family was present in the village in that era, they actually lived in a smaller mansion near tot he church! The original structures, then were more likely built in the late 1400s by Henry Pomeroy or his heirs. 
The distinctive house within - as seen in my pic above, was actually built much later. 
Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector of England (Uncle of Henry VII's surviving son and brother tot he late Queen Jane) bought the land and buildings on it in 1547 during a time where he was in high favour and was buying up fancy houses throughout the country. Whilst Berry Pomeroy was the most valuable asset he acquired, there is no evidence that he did anything to the mansion himself - especially due to his soon thereafter downfall and execution. (Jane Seymour's brothers fell from grace quickly with both Edward and Thomas being executed within about ten years of each other! Thomas is also an interesting character having married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr in secret - but that's another story for another time!)

After Edward was executed, the house passed down to his heirs rather than revert to the crown, and it was his son who first settled there and began an ambitious plan to build a huge stately home there. Alas, he ran out of cash before he was done and so Berry Pomeroy was never completed! Despite that, the land and the ruin within are still owned by the Seymour family to this day.
 For a more in depth account of the history of the house, the current caretakers - English Heritage - have a great blog post on it and rather than just repeat that, I suggest that you have a look at that HERE 

I first encountered Berry Pomeroy a lot earlier in life than my love of history, though! When I was younger, I began to collect Ghost Stories from people with a view to writing a book (a project 25 years in the making and still ongoing! See HERE for more info on that! ) and being local to Totnes of course I heard a lot of stories about Berry Pomeroy (these will be in the book if I ever finish it!). From ghostly figures in the woods, to spectral children Berry Pomeroy has earned it's reputation as one of the most haunted sites in Devon! I've actually visited the place many a time myself - as a younger woman looking for ghosts and as an older one just to enjoy the peace and ambiance! Below is a pic of me and one of my close friends posing for an atmospheric photo at the last visit!

Myself (Dr Emma Barrett) and a friend Miss Tabitha Shave at the ruins

Now, I tend to take the middle road with ghost stories I am open-minded but also quite skeptical - I love to hear about experiences and have experienced some weird (but probably explainable) phenomena myself, but I do take a lot of ghost stories with a pinch of salt. Berry Pomeroy is a fine example of that. One of the most repeated and recognised stories is that of The white and Blue ladies of the castle.

I quote from a ghostly blogger:

"The White Lady is the restless soul of Margaret Pomeroy. She haunts the dungeons of St. Margaret’s Tower and has been seen waving to visitors. She was held captive in the castle dungeons by her sister, Eleanor, because of jealousy and starved to death in the dungeons"

A ghoulish though indeed. Whilst I have chosen this quote - this is a very common tale about the castle and I have heard similar told to me accompanied by apparent sightings. (as in "I thought I saw the ghost of Matilda / Margaret De Pomeroy... then launch into the story). 

HOWEVER! It's not true! 

In the 1800s, the castle ruins became a haven for artists and writers during the romantic movement and of course the castle was perfect as the setting for a gothic novel! In 1806, a writer by the name of Edward Montague wrote a spooky gothic novel using the castle as it's base. His novel featured the fictional Elinor De Pomeroy and her sister Matilda. Elinor, jealous of her sister marrying the man that she loved, had her murdered. The sister's ghost then began to appear as a white lady around the castle to bring attention to her sister's nefarious deeds! Sound familiar? Probably because it is very likely that this novel forms the basis for these particular tales! 

Further to this, however - I have also seen people claiming that the book is based on real events, some say from the medieval period, others say from the 1700s... the latter is very unlikely as the house was a ruin far before then!

As to a medieval source, firstly, Elinor De Pomeroy seems never to have existed! There is some evidence that there may have been a lady called Matilda De Pomeroy - in fact her full name was Matilda “Maud” De Vitre De Pomeroy. However Matilda was not a daughter of the house, but was in fact married into the family as the wife of Henry De Pomeroy in the 1100s. As we have seen by the above history, this means she actually never set foot on the grounds of the castle as it is known now, and would have resided at the previous smaller mansion nearer the village. Matilda did indeed die young, most likely in childbirth or shortly after from the dates given for her only son's birth, however that is about all that is known about her!

To add to this, the idea of a "white lady" ghost is actually a staple of many folk-lorish ghost stories all around the world - thought to be the spirits of the murdered, suicides or those who have died at a time of unrequited love. It is more likely, then, that Montague based his white lady ghost more in this sort of folklore than actual events.

The second most famous spirit said to haunt Berry Pomeroy is the fabled "blue lady" and she seems to originate from the 1700s. In the 1790s, a memoir was published by a rich doctor (Dr Farquar) who told a tale of a woman roaming the village of Berry Pomeroy who he considered to be a reliable harbinger of local deaths. Not a living woman, but a ghost of some poor unfortunate. Dr Farquar's story seems to be the first instance of this ghost story coming to light, with later retellings moving to describe the woman as dressed in blue. This then morphed into sightings at the castle, and then finally to her as a spectre which led the unwary to their deaths in falling from one of the towers. In many ghostly blogs the blue lady of Berry Pomeroy is stated to be that of a woman who lived in the Norman castle and who murdered her incest-conceived child. This is of course, debunked by the history, since the castle did not stand in Norman times. Also, noteworthy, incestual relationships are another staple of Gothic Literature (the Castle of Otrano springs to mind, by Warpole - which is said to be the first true gothic novel), and so it is likely that this story too is the product of over stimulated gothic imagination!

A Ghost Story (and some history!)

 Hello all!
As some of you will be aware, I am (and have been for some time) working on a creative non-fiction book about local ghost stories called "Conversations About Ghosts" and I would like to share a ghost story from that collection with you as well as some of my research surrounding it. This story was told to me by my mother, and was one of her "real life" experiences.  Here's the story:

‘When I was a fair bit younger than I am now, and pregnant with my second to last. Me and M (her ex-husband) decided to take Rex – my old collie – for a walk up in the countryside behind the house. It was late in the afternoon but it was summer so we set out into the fields with our picnic and a book each. We were still fairly newly married at the time, with baby on the way. I didn’t want to walk too far so we stuck to the fields opposite the house and then settled down in the grass. I guess my mum had the other kids as it was just me and M. Rex didn’t need a lead as there were no sheep or anything around so we just let him off to explore and play - irresponsible, maybe - but we were young and it was normal for us when walking him. We stayed in the fields which run alongside the lane until evening began to really creep in, when the air got more chill we decided to call it a day and packed up our things. I called Rex back from the other end of the field by a gate where he was sniffing about... but he didn’t come. I called again and nothing - then he started to bark, deep and booming, growling barks. Now, Rex was a really friendly dog! He never barked aggressively (although being a collie, excited barking was a different matter). This sounded fairly threatening though and so, embarrassed, I ran up to grab him. The naughty thing was at one of the stiles which go over into a lane behind, and when he saw us coming he jumped over the short fence. I was astounded, this was so out of character! He was normally such a good dog but he was obviously really wound up. M and I ditched our bag by the stile, I climbed over into the lane to grab the dog and M followed. There, we were surprised (and initially somewhat relieved) not to find a person or perhaps another dog as the object of Rex’s ire, but in fact a very small and compact patch of mist. 

Then confusion rose again. 

Why on earth was the stupid dog barking at mist?
So, I was a bit spooked, I won’t lie. The lane is very spooky anyway, deserted with not a house in sight, just tall hedges and countryside. This wasn’t the first spooky thing I have seen in my life, but it was just odd and weird and I was pregnant and tired and not in the mood. I looked at M to see he seemed to share my feelings, lips pressed and eyes wary. I called firmly to Rex who was, just by the way, on the other side of the damn mist. He ignored me. Completely. We tried walking away and calling him but he just stayed, ‘ruprupruprup’ a few growls, then back to the barking. In the whole time I’d owned him, I’d only ever seen Rex do this once before, and that was when M and I had had a big row and he’d got between us. Even then, he’d not growled, just barked, so this was a whole new experience. As I looked at the mist too, I got a weird feeling about it. It kind of looked a bit like a person's outline, a man - taller than me - definite head shape, but with a undefined body and then tapers which looked like arms and legs. Even as I stood puzzling on it, M put a hand on my shoulder - I physically jumped - right out of my skin.
'Annie,' he said, 'does that... does that look like a person?'
I was glad he'd said it first. I said nothing but managed to nod. It was right next to us, not moving - still and normal, but with my dog barking madly on the other side.
'I'm going to have to get him,' I said, but I was still reluctant to touch the misty figure. I wet my lips and then suddenly, I stepped forward and grabbed the dog's collar. It was like walking into a freezer! I started shivering almost in the - what - 2 seconds I was in there? I grabbed for the dog and I managed to get him and then I tell you, I was over that stile in a second and gone!

And that was her story, a story she told over and over again! Now, I am sure, like me as a young skeptic that I was, you are probably thinking "come on, that was just mist", but even if it was, my mother wasn't the only person to tell me a story about that exact same place! (you'll have to wait for the book to hear the rest!)  Let me show you my little map from my notes...

   On the graphic included above, points A to E are places where the stories I have gathered about this lane are said to have happened, to the best of my knowledge from piecing it together from the stories. There is also a missing point F and G because I am unsure where exactly in the lane these encounters happened. So straight off the bat, there seems to be a lot of ghost stories originating about this same lane. 

    In part, this can be put down to the fact that stories travel - especially on little estates like ours, and the lane is very quiet and eerie, especially in early morning or at twilight! It would only take a person to hear a story such as my mothers and then find themselves alone walking their dog as the sun is dipping to start to feel that chill on your spine. Having walked it myself many a time, I can tell you that both sides of the lane are set in by tall hedges with only the occasional gate to break the trees. As my mum described, there were no houses really anywhere close by it, aside from an old place called Butteville House (built 1820s) just on the edge of the lane. It’s a popular spot for both hiking and dog walking as no cars are allowed up it past Butteville. 

The picturesque Buttville House, Kingsbridge, alongside which the lane runs. Image from Strutt and Parker Estate Agents

The floor is uneven, some old broken cobbles still remaining here and there but mostly mud and stones. It runs for a good mile, before splitting into two parts, one of which returns you to the housing estates, the other which snakes off towards the now modern road to the next village. As far as I can gather, Mum and M were in the first part of the lane, still, before it broke into two. 

"But this is a history blog, Emma!" I hear you shout, "so let's do some history!" 

Ok! Let's do some history! A quick glance at some old maps shows me that the "lane" is actually all that remains of the old road from my hometown to another little village nearby, although it no longer goes that far. The first thing that is interesting is that whilst the "lane" proper seems to have been a road, the offshoot looks more like it was a footpath and went a slightly different way. This holds up to walk it as that part of the lane is much narrower and meets a modern road which did not exist then.

This is from the 1886 Ordinance Survey

By 1938 however, the roads on the map were then labelled with road names, however "the lane" - whilst marked, is not named, therefore leading me to believe that sometime between 1886 and 1938 this road fell into disuse!

A theory put about in local myth and told to me at least twice was that it was a condemned man making his last walk to the gallows, however since there never was a gallows in Kingsbridge along this road, that can purely be put down to myth! I did look a little further into this just in case, using internet newspaper archives. Turns out there was only one instance of highway robbery reported in the town and it was on a completely different road. Searches for Butteville and Buttville came up with only births and deaths at the house! There was an unexpected death at nearby Washbrook Mill in 1899, however it was an elderly woman who died after feeling unwell rather than anything nefarious. No accidental deaths were even recorded on the road!

And so all leads came to nothing!

This is the part of doing this sort of research that the spooky ghostly documentaries and "ghost hunter" shows never tell you - I'd say 90% of my research into these sorts of hauntings lead to nothing when you start to explore the history - of course the older a building or place, the more likely it is to throw up something relatable, but not always! This was one of those cases. So, why are so many people experiencing weird phenomena on an apparently unremarkable road? Who knows!

 

The Lost Villages of the South hams

Hallsands - The Village that was Reclaimed by the Sea

 

In the Western Daily Mercury, 1917, it was reported that the village of Hallsands had “ceased to be” (1). This came after a mass of storms and horrific weather conditions rendered the village uninhabitable. Almost the entirety of the village was built on the shore-front and was engulfed by water, battered by storms, and destroyed. By the end of winter 1917, only one house in the entire village was left habitable. One house – from a population of 189. A stark and life-changing natural disaster which left the citizens of Hallsands facing the awful truth that this was, “The end of [their] village” and that they would have to “go elsewhere” (2)

These days, there’s not much left of the village. A few modern houses and an old guesthouse are perched up on the cliffs above and now make up what is still known as the village of Hallsands. There is a small beach cove and the ruins of the chapel on the hill. The path down is broken and unwalkable so the National Trust has installed a viewing platform for people to look down on the two remaining houses and the ruins of the rest. (3)This was a natural disaster caused by unnatural means. This disaster was completely man made. The BBC Devon website gives the details: from the spring of 1897 - 1901, 660,000 tonnes of material were dredged from the shorelines around the village to provide silt for the new expansion on the naval dock in Plymouth(3). It took 18 years for this dredging to herald the end for Hallsands. What’s more, the villagers tried to warn the men responsible more than once. 

This was not just local news but was even reported nationally. In the Scotsman in 1903 an article appeared entitled “A Village Threatened.” (3) In this article a correspondent from Kingsbridge claimed that “for years, the contractor has been taking the beach shingles which rise up the terraces. […] he has also taken away a large amount of sand from the skerries which form the breakwater which protects the village”.

For much more in-depth info on what happened at Hallsands, look HERE

SOUTH HUISH - Quietly Abandoned

Another, much lesser known abandoned place in Devon is the village of South Huish. South Huish is a tiny village (and also a civil parish) out in the countryside near Kingsbridge. Not truly abandoned, there are now several homes on the land which was once the original South Huish Village surrounding the only true ruin which remains, the old church which was abandoned in the 1860s (6). The church itself is quite eerie, especially on a quiet day. The old graves lay mainly untended as the old ruins stand preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches charity.

The reason for South Huish’s downfall is much less dramatic and is a tale of simple migration. By 1869, the church was considered no longer viable, as the population using it had grown so poor.
Nowadays, there are no housing or cottage ruins, but four homes still standing as well as a couple of farms thereabout. After the church was abandoned, making an end to the village, the congregation was all moved to the more viable Galmpton Village. The ruins of the church and graveyard are free access and worth a look. I photographed the stones and submitted the files to the “findagrave” website recently, so if you are a family historian with a family member in South Huish, Malborough or Gamlpton before the 1860s, those might be of use to you :)

1.   “Hallsands disaster”, Western Daily Mercury, 29^th January, 1917. P.3
2.    This quote was printed on the national trust’s information board at the scene.
3. Go here for a copy of the information boards supplied by the National Trust: http://www.slaptonline.org/library/
4. "Inside Out - Hallsands; The Village That Collapsed Into The Sea", Bbc.Co.Uk, 2002 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series1/hallsands.shtml> [Accessed 20 January 2020].
5.   The Scotsman, 03 March 1903, p.6
6.    http://friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/south-huish/