With summer rains and mists in the air, thoughts turn to the winter months when the ghosts of the past visit the living. One such ghost is the hairy hands of Dartmoor who has a companion in the Two Bridges Hotel. One of the earliest to make the headlines of the hairy hands is the case of Dr Helby from Dartmoor Prison who was asked to go to near-by Postbridge. He had his motor cycle and sidecar to take with him, and two little daughters of the Deputy Governor, to the town. Riding down the hill he was suddenly flung off by an unknown source with such force his neck was broken on impact. The motor cycle trundled on for a little while longer before the two girls fell out as the sidecar turned over. The occupants in a following car stopped and comforted the shaken children. When the police arrived, they could not work out how Dr Helby could be so far from the road.

Not far from the infamous Dartmoor prison is the Two Bridges Hotel where a young woman haunts the rooms overlooking the nearby stream and moors. She is believed to be a maid who, once full of life, is now full of spirit when she appears to guests in an apron and mop cap. Like so many young women of the 18th century, she was seduced and abandoned by her seducer when found to be pregnant. Taking her own life, and that of her child, seemed the only way out. Leave your room untidy and it will be tidied up, jewellery straightened and sometimes ‘borrowed’ Never a set of earrings, just single pieces that return days, even weeks later. Her real passion is shoes – she has to have any item of footwear in straight rows, so beware.

Near by is another sad ghost of Mary Jay who was born in 1790 and soon after an orphan spending her early life in the Newton Abbot Workhouse. Apprenticed to a farmer at Ford Farm, Manaton, she quickly found her feet and became part of the family. Unfortunately, she and the eldest son of the house fell in love and secretly started an affair. When she became pregnant, the son told his father hoping to marry Mary. Little did he know that Mary was his father’s illegitimate daughter whom he had abandoned years before with her dying mother. Hearing the news the son left the farm in anger – never to return. Mary could not forgive her father and went off to the barn where she committed suicide. She was buried at a cross road on the moor.

There are a number of such wayside graves in the country sited at crossroads or fork, because of the grim law that forbade the burial of suicides and criminals in consecrated ground, requiring them to be buried at a crossroads with a stake through their hearts. Many drivers and walkers have felt uneasy near the grave, some have seen a figure standing at the head of the grave. What is strange is the fact that every day fresh flowers appear on the grave – are they from her father who never forgave himself. Her grave is marked on the OS map as Jay’s Grave. SX7379

Dartmoor has many a good inn from which to explore the moors and hunt ghosts so just go to www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk and Dartmoor.co.uk Good ghost hunting

Many horror stories start with, ‘Don’t go into the attic’ and late at night Overbeck’s, in Devon, is no exception.  The first strange things to happen were to scouts and school groups who would experience strange noises.  Beds being lifted off the floor and cold hands clasping the shoulders of those who scoffed at the idea.  An intelligent ghost? A local builder did not think so when he was doing work to wind down that area and remove the beds.  Knelt on the floor he heard footsteps approaching him, looked behind but saw no one.  After a few minutes had passed he once again heard the footsteps, once again no one appeared.  This time he searched the area but to no avail so he carried on working.  What happened next was to stay with him for the rest of his life. The footsteps grew closer, but he carried on working until a cold hand gripped his shoulder. Looking round to see who was holding him sheer terror took over as he continued to feel the grip but saw no one. In panic he picked up his tools and fled to his van through the garden. Leaving the Y.H.A. staff bemused for it was only 11.30am. There is a more sinister entity, which lives in the attic, and it guards the house from the water tank room.  What is so sinister about this entity is that it appears to be able to take the form of loved ones who have passed away and appears to ‘challenge’ visitors to the attic.

Another incident is of a man working at the property who had seen his fiancée cruelly cut down in her prime by a drunk driver.  The busy season had just ended.  Thoughts were on Christmas and the getting ready for the next season during the five months closed. Overbeck’s was quiet on the winters eve when he was about to go home but noticed blue lights in the attic.  Fearing intruders, he made his way to the attic with his dog, just in case.  Opening the door before moving into the long corridor, he noticed a figure at the far end.  Before he could utter a word, the figure was upon him.  It was his dead fiancée whispering the words ’remember our promise’. He was so upset that he rushed down to tell the staff of the Y.H.A but they reported that “Remember the Promise” had appeared on a blackboards all evening whilst they were cleaning up parts of the Y.H.A.

We found out later that the promise was that should one of them pass away before the other, then it would be for the other to take their own life … and join their dead partner. So was it really his fiancée or the hidden dangers of Overbeck’s … maybe one day we shall discover the real powers behind such events.  The incident did prompt him to visit the grave with the flowers on the anniversary of their ‘marriage’.

Some weeks later, an old woman approached him and said, “Do not believe all you see here…some are just shadows from a door left open in the old place” but before he could ask anything of the old woman she had vanished.