Sue Pengelly-Haunted History Tours of Devon

21/03/2025

1874. Shebbear.
Charlotte Harris was helping her husband work the land at Dumpling Hill farm, he was using a threshing machine pulled by horses and their young son, driving the horses, was making a bit of a hash of it. He being so young, didn't have the control of them the job required.
Charlotte heard her husband shouting at their boy and rushed to take over guiding the horses. In her efforts to be quick about climbing up and swinging into the seat her skirts got caught in the threshing machine. Charlotte was dragged into the machinery.

The poor woman's agonised screams were heard by her husband who thrust some straw into the thresher and tried to pull his wife out. Charlottes leg was a mass of bloodied and crushed bone. She was carried to the house and put to bed while a doctor was fetched. All this time Charlotte has no pain relief.
The Doctor eventually arrived and had brought the local surgeon who had been nearby. They could see amputation was the only means to save Charlotte. The operation was carried out on her kitchen table. No anaesthetic of any potency was available to ease her pain which must have been immense. Charlotte's leg was removed to her thigh. The shock was so great that charlotte died the next day. She was forty five. Leaving her husband to run the farm and bring up their children.

21/03/2025

Exclusive access tour.
4th June 7.30pm
A Haunted history tour of Hall Estate, Bishops Tawton, with Sue Pengelly.
Visit the servants wing closed in 1939.
The wash house complete with poachers man trap.
Walk the grounds hearing fascinating local stories. Refreshments in the Great Hall.
£20pp to book please call or message Lorna (admin) 07788756773.

19/03/2025

1911.
Albert Trickey, an elderly farmer from Tawstock, was arrested in Barnstaple for being steaming drunk. This wouldn't be very unusual except Albert was astride his horse, rolling from side to side in an effort to gain some balance, while flailing a sword in the air fighting off enemies only he could see. After a night in the cells Albert appeared in court minus his sword and relatively sober.

Asked to explain his behaviour Albert said he could sort out the Turkish/Italian war by himself and proceeded to give point by point instruction as to how this could be achieved. Casting an eye on the jaded magistrates Albert wised up and, in case the authorities got any ideas, he quickly added that he only had one eye that worked and he suffered with palpitations something dreadful and would probably die soon. Albert was fined five shillings for being drunk in charge of a horse.

19/03/2025

Northgate End Haunted History Tour – Barnstaple Town Centre with Sue Pengelly-Haunted History Tours of Devon - 20th March 7.30pm
Step into the shadows of Barnstaple’s past with Haunted History Tours of Devon! Join us for an enlightening and eerie evening as we uncover tales of rogues, ghostly goings-on, murder, strange events, and forgotten death customs.

📅 Thursday, 20th March 2025
⏰ 7:30 PM
📍 Starts & ends at ThePlough@StAnne's, Paternoster Row, Barnstaple.

This spine-chilling tour takes you through High Street, Mermaid Walk, and Boutport Street, revealing the secrets lurking in the heart of the town.

After the tour, return to ThePlough@StAnne's for refreshments and a chance to explore fascinating artefacts.

Book tickets here: https://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/event/barnstaple-town-centre-northgate-end-haunted-history-tour-0

17/03/2025

1939 Bideford. Mary Jane Bennett was staying with her aunt, she had left her husband due to his cruelty.
Mary’s aunt had come home from doing some shopping to find no sign of Mary, she went upstairs to the bedroom and saw Mary lying on the bed with a pillow over her face, at first she thought she was sleeping, using a pillow to keep out the light.
Getting no response to calling from the doorway she removed the pillow and screamed blue murder.
Poor Mary’s face was a mess of blood and gore, beside her on the bed was a heavy flat iron covered in blood.

After a huge search Mary’s husband’s body was found washed up at Weare Gifford, after murdering his wife he had committed su***de by tying fishing weights around his neck and jumping in to the river to avoid the hangman.

It was surmised that Mary's husband had guessed where she was and had watched the house to see when she would be alone. Seeing her aunt go shopping was the ideal opportunity. No doubt, he had gone to the door full of apologies, as they do, 'it will never happen again' and all the usual nonsense abusers spout when they realise the woman is sick to death of them. Whether Mary let him in to talk, or he pushed his way in, will never be known but Mary Bennett paid a terrible price.

15/03/2025

14/03/2025

In 1828 a family on a farm near Torrington were convinced a ghost was haunting them. Every night they would cower in fear as stones rained down on the walls and door of the house.
A friend of theirs was sceptical of the ghost theory and one night he made himself comfy in the stable and waited. In the early hours of the morning he was alerted to something or someone sliding past him in the darkness. The sceptical friend crept from his hiding place, armed himself with a whip, and began to thrash the living daylights out of the ghost. Who, when lanterns were brought to look at the cowering bloodied mess on the floor, turned out to be a farm servant with a grudge.

Similar happened on Exmoor with people seeing a white figure in a churchyard, one woman had fainted in fear and others were too terrified to go out at night. Two farmers were not convinced of the ghost theory and lay in wait crouching down behind headstones. When the ghostly white figure appeared they leapt out and gave him a thrashing with horse whips, the ‘ghost’ ran off yelping.
The culprit was a young solicitors clerk who couldn’t walk upright for a week.

14/03/2025

12/03/2025

1872. Agnes Jeffery and Maria Parkin were in Barnstaple workhouse and resented every minute of their incarceration. Agnes, the ringleader, decided they had to get out, both needed a drink and both missed their friends.
A plan was hatched. As everyone was locked in the only way out was over the walls. Four walls in all. Not to be deterred by this minor inconvenience the women set about planning their escape. Agnes was ahead of the game. Earlier she had come across a ladder left by workmen and hidden it. Now all they had to do was sit tight and wait until everyone was asleep. As workhouse inmates were worked until they dropped the women knew once everyone was asleep they were unlikely to be discovered for a while. They were right.

What the women, obviously focused on their forthcoming drink, had failed to do, was bundle something in their beds to make it look as though they were in them when the nightwatchman came around. This detail was their undoing.
At 9.30 the watchman did his rounds, lifting the lantern in each dormitory and giving a cursory glance at the beds, he noticed Agnes and Maria were missing.

A search of the workhouse was done, checking the men's dormitory first. Naturally. Eventually, the ladder was found propped up against the outside wall. In the company of the police every public house in the town was searched, all sixty two of them, but not a sign of Agnes and Maria was found. That would be because people would have tipped them off about the direction of the constable and the night porter. It was a cat and mouse chase for four hours.

Just before one am both women were found huddled together in an outside toilet in the drying yard of the workhouse, roaring drunk and failing at trying to be quiet.

The reprobates were arrested for absconding from the workhouse wearing workhouse clothes. Not that they were bothered in the slightest. Getting two drunk, giggly, rebellious women to their feet would have taken some doing and that pantomime probably added to their glee at escaping. The magistrate was less impressed and sentenced them to fourteen days in prison with hard labour. Were they bothered. Not one bit. Prison work was the same as workhouse work but the food was better. The women would have dined out on their escapade for weeks. Weeks.

12/03/2025

A beauty of a Bideford tour coming up with exclusive access to a hidden gem! Dates to follow.

12/03/2025

This tour covers Queen St, Bear St, Alexandra Rd, Gaydon St, Vicarage St, Boutport St, Butchers row. Dogs are welcome. If you're waiting to see what the weather is like before booking or can't book online, turn up and pay on the door.

10/03/2025

1849 Taddiport. Henry Clements could never be accused of being slow on the uptake. Like many a working man he enjoyed his beer but failed to see why people had to wait until after 1pm to buy some. He decided to do something about this travesty and went into business, brewing and serving his own beer because 'someone had to help they dying o thirst in the mornins'

The church goers knew of Henry's growing enterprise because they passed his cottage to get to the church and and couldn't miss the early morning drinkers gathering at his door. Although disappointed at Henrys lack of religious piety they more or less ignored the makeshift pub until Henry's endeavour began attracting the criminal element from miles around.

Church goers put in an official complaint stating that picking their way through pickpockets and drunks to get home was getting a bit much. Even Henry could see they had a point and this was bringing unwanted legal attention. In court Henry was fined £2. A huge sum in 1849. He paid it and went right back to brewing the beer but only for the locals who wanted it, before and after church.

Photo: ehive

09/03/2025

1913 Crediton.
The Rev Henry Hodgson had, for several years, a Boer war Artillery shell as a doorstop. In an idle moment the Rev thought it would be a good idea to heat a French sword bayonet he had, bend it and weld it to the artillery shell to make it easier to pick up.
He heated and bent the bayonet, took the percussion cap out of the shell, inserted the bayonet into the hole and...BOOM!!
The Rev was instantly minus every window, his furniture was rendered to matchsticks, the door blew off and he had fractures to one leg and arm. The fact that he survived would indicate that God had a sense of humour or the heavenly realms just weren't ready for this lunatic.

08/03/2025

As International women's day is being celebrated and some of the well off women in history are being lauded I thought it prudent to celebrate a local woman of the poor variety. No money. No home. No prospects. No employment. No honour and no way out. Desperate circumstances in life breed victims or survivors. Eliza Boatfield chose survivor.

Eliza was taken from the workhouse, at the age of nine, to work on a local farm, 'work' being little more than sanctioned slave labour. She toiled there for ten years until she was seen in an emaciated condition with an injury to her leg, most likely gangrene.
In 1852, age nineteen, Eliza had her leg removed. The first person in Devon to do so under ether. This was perilous in itself, as the new wonder drug, like chloroform, it had to be administered very carefully in case the patient died. And they often did.

Eliza, once the stump was healed, was fitted with a wooden leg attached to a leather corset, this would have been hideously uncomfortable until the leather had moulded to her shape. She would have had to learn to regain her balance and walk again. The confusion, pain, frustration and fear she suffered at that time can not be overstated. And, to cap it all, she had to make a living somehow or live in the workhouse for the rest of her life as an invalid. Eliza wasn't skilled in anything but farm work and that was no longer possible. There was only one other way to avoid the workhouse.

To the streets she went. The fear that girl must have felt. The abject terror of being approached by a man who wanted servicing, whether she liked the look of him or not, and knowing this was her life now must have shook her to her core. But this Devon girl gathered her courage and got on with staying alive.

The fact that Eliza survived her operation at all is nothing short of incredible. People, the poor especially, died, on average, within two years of an amputation, if they were lucky. Eliza worked the streets for two years before a customer fell in love with her. They married, she gave up the old life and had four children. Living to a great old age with her husband.
This, in my opinion, is a woman of immense courage.

Eliza's story, in full, is covered in my forthcoming book.

07/03/2025

1776 Braunton Burrows. We walk the shores of our beautiful county rarely giving a thought to the lives that have been lost at sea, the bodies that have lain on the beaches, stripped of their clothing, valuables and especially their boots.
In 1776 a six hundred ton Dutch ship on its way to Amsterdam from Surinam got caught in thick fog, mistook Lundy for Portland and sealed it's doom.
News of a ship in trouble travelled fast and as the Aurora floundered the crew were throwing goods over the side in an effort to lighten the ships load to stay afloat a little longer. People at Braunton, Saunton and everywhere in between, knew a shipwreck when they saw one and hightailed it down to the beach with carts to grab anything they could as it washed ashore.

The wreckers must have thought it was Christmas as barrel after barrel of brandy floated into their open arms. Barrels of coffee, expensive fabrics, clothing and other good purchased in Surinam came ashore too and quite what the locals made of forty parrots in cages is anyone's guess.
The ship broke up very quickly and bodies began to wash up. As was the custom, drowned sailors were quickly frisked for anything they may have on them but the greater attention was on getting the casks of brandy and anything valuable away before anyone alerted the excise men to a shipwreck.
Twenty-one men drowned within sight of the beach. Thirteen had saved themselves by jumping into a longboat along with a considerable amount of money that had been onboard. When the excise men did arrive the beach had been stripped bare of everything except those who had drowned.
Something to think about when you're enjoying a walk and an ice-cream.
Picture credit: Vika_Glitter

06/03/2025

1842. Barnstaple workhouse. Eliza had a surprising amount of strength for one so small. Bored witless in chapel, being preached about Godly living when you have lived off your wits for years and are now destitute is enough to send anyone over the edge, Eliza was allegedy disruptive. Her punishment was to be put in the 'black hole' the punishment room of the workhouse.

Eliza was as mad as hell at this incarceration of her person, taking her knife from her boot she used her fury as fuel and hacked a large board covering a window into a hundred pieces while screaming profanities. She then began to attack the door still hurling curses and any amount of profanity at the Governor and porter who had manhandled her into her present predicament.

Her captors hearing all the noise decided to intervene and opened the door. Eliza was ready and began furiously kicking the governors shins. He couldn't get away from her thrashing feet in the small space because the porter was behind him.The men eventually, after much fighting from Eliza, managed to get her boots of her and threw her back inside the makeshift prison to calm down.

The Governor, his shins black with bruises decided Eliza should be punished in court for destroying workhouse property. She was fined forty shillings or two months in prison. If she had forty shillings she wouldn't have been in the workhouse.
An inmate, seeing how badly Eliza was being treated and tried to intervene, was given two weeks with hard labour.

These men probably thought because Eliza was tiny that she would have been easy to handle. A woman, of any size and full of fury is never a person to be reckoned with.

05/03/2025

Another experience of mine...due to films some people think seeing a ghost is going to be scary but a lot of the time you won't know they are a ghost until they suddenly disappear.

And, in my experience, ghosts can be seen in full daylight. I was around twelve years old and visiting Oare Church on Exmoor with my parents, it was a lovely sunny day, my dad and I were walking up to the door and my attention was drawn to a man in a black suit lounging on a grave just off to my right.

I was shocked at this behaviour and drew my dad's attention to the man. My dad was always all about our safety and for seconds I think he thought the man was real. He certainly looked real. The man, lounging like he was on a sofa, propped up on one elbow, lifted his other hand to us acknowledging he could see us and knew we could see him and laughed.

My dad looked across in time for us to see the man fading away. Like an old negative is the best way I can describe it. No drama from me or my dad, we just carried on with our day. I have been back several times since, as an adult, and not seen him. I guess that day he was just visiting an area he had loved and wanted to be noticed. Fifty years later that man is as clear in my memory as he was that day and to me, proves ghosts have a sense of humour.

05/03/2025

Private afternoon or evening tours are available. For details please pm me.