In 1865 a body was found in boarded-up room in #ChambercombeManor. It is said that the manor is now #haunted - we're are off to #Devon to investigate!
We were in Devon for a week so we had a good amount of time to explore the #NorthDevon coastline from Croyde to Baggy Point, up to Woolacombe, around to Morte Point and across to Lee Bay and Ilfracombe. As I'm sure you are aware, these parts of the West Country are dangerous, full of dodgy #smugglers and #wreckers. If you aren't aware, then you should be.
Wreckers especially are dangerous folk, they used to rule the coastline with terrible treachery and murder. They would confuse incoming ships by tying lanterns around the necks of mules and walking them up and down the coastline. Ships would smash into the rocks and the wreckers would kill any survivors and steal the goods that washed up onshore.
Nigel and I are of course outraged by treachery and murder, but we are quite partial to a bit of treasure, and we never pass up the opportunity to go looking for it. It is said that wreckers are a thing of the past in Devon but we're not so convinced. We were sure there must be treasure to find in the rock pools and caves around the rocky coastal paths. We took some family with us, just for backup. Safety in numbers n' all that.
This particular day we headed to Lee Bay at low tide. If you head West from the bay when the tide is out then Sandy Cove is accessible by foot over the rugged rocks. As we stumbled across the rocks we kept our eyes peeled for treasure and I told my family about some of the ghostly goings on I had been reading about in the village just down the road.
Just outside Ilfracombe is the haunted Chambercombe Manor. The tale of what happened here was first recounted in the journal The Leisure Hour in 1865 when a traveller is said to have read the manuscripts of William Oatway in a pub. The landlord's grandfather had stumbled on them when renovating a house near Chambercombe and he gave them to the traveller so he had something to read during his stay. The manuscripts start in 1663.
William was just a young man when he found out who his father, Alexander Oatway, really was. He had often wondered where his father found his fortune. He never seen him work a day in his life but the Oatway family were never hard up, far from it in fact. They lived in a beautiful manor house and William had been sent to the best private school around. You see, his father hadn't wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. He wanted him to be a good man and earn a honest living.
One night William was restless. He lay awake listening to the storm outside but he was sure he could hear more than just the wind howling and the rain crashing against his window; he heard voices. It was the Devil's hour and no time to be outside, especially in this weather. He got dressed and decided to investigate.
He followed the voices staying in the shadows, being careful not to be seen. There were two voices and he was sure one of them was his father's. He followed them all the way to Hele Bay where he hid in the rocks and watched as the two figures joined a group of men. A group of very bad men. A group of wreckers.
William was so confused, what was his father doing with these men? The group split up spreading across the bay. A shipwreck had begun to wash ashore. A drowning man tried to drag himself out the sea but on of the wreckers pinned him down with a pitchfork whilst another finished him off. Luckily the storm drowned out William's gasp of shock.
He followed his father as he went into a cave. Goods from the shipwreck lined the floor and his father began to fill his sack. William heard a faint moan from the back of the cave and he crept in further to get a better look. When he realised the moan had come from a woman he knew he had to do something. He didn't know whether his father would kill her if he saw her but he didn't want to hang around to find out. He grabbed her and held his hand over her mouth and told her to be quiet. He helped her up and together they escaped without being seen.
When he got home he yelled to his mother. His mother was soon at his side tending to the woman. When his father got home some hours later, he was shocked to see the woman there.
"What happened to this poor woman?" he cried.
"I think you know, father" answered William. His head was spinning, everything he'd ever known was a lie.
"Would you have killed her, if you'd found her?" William asked, his voice full of rage. Alexander took a deep breath, his son knew what he was, there was no more hiding.
"I did it for you William. I did it so you didn't have to. I did it to give you a good life and to give you everything you needed to become a good man. You have become a better man than I could ever be, and this is why I did it, for you." Alexander's voice was firm, like he actually believed what he was saying.
"I wont be here in the morning. Mother has promised me she will nurse the poor woman back to health. The name of the woman you would have killed is Ellen Gregory. Good bye father, I won't be coming back", and with that he was gone.
William went to Cornwall where he learned to farm and mine. One day he ran into a beautiful woman in the local tavern and because some things are just meant to be, it was Ellen who he had recused all those years ago. They got married and together had a beautiful daughter called Kate.
They lived a simple life but William could not stop thinking about his wonderful childhood home and how lovely it would be if his daughter could grow up there. His parents had passed years ago and news came that Chambercombe Manor was available for rent. Of course they could never afford to buy the place but they could perhaps live there as tenants.
They managed to scrape enough together to move into Chambercombe Manor and William set up a local farming and mining business using the skills he had learned. One day a man travelling through the village asked William for work and taking a liking to him, William gave the man employment and lodging. Some time later William found out that the man used to be a pirate! William didn't want anything to do with such a terrible man and kicked him out. In the morning he was gone, but so was his daughter.
His daughter had fallen in love with the Irish Captain Wallace and had followed him to Dublin where they got married. William's heart was broken. Everyday he longed for his daughter to come home. He would dream about buying Chambercombe Manor for her where she could raise children of her own. Not that he could ever afford it.
20 years later there was news of a shipwreck. William often worked with locals to rescue ships caught in storms and to scare off wreckers. Sometimes they were rewarded for it, not much, but it wasn't about the money. He felt like he was setting right his father's wrongs. He headed to the bay where he saw a body floating in the sea. As he pulled a woman's body out the water he could see that it wasn't just the ship that had been smashed against the rocks, the poor woman's face hardly looked like a face anymore. He would take her home to Ellen who would tend to her wounds.
When he was home he lay the woman on the bed and Ellen began to take off her sea-sodden clothes. As she did Ellen felt something heavy between the layers of her skirts. Removing the layers, she found a coin purse, and another coin purse, and another. Six coin purses. William's eyes widened as he looked at the money. There was more than enough there to buy Chambercombe Manor. He wondered how likely this woman would be to make it. He started wondering whether it would be best to put the poor woman out of her misery. When he mentioned it to Ellen she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"No William, we look after those we save, we do not put them out of there misery!" she gasped.
Once the woman wounds were washed and bandaged they went to bed. But In the middle of the night William got up. He went into the survivors room. He put a pillow over her face and he held it there until the breathing stopped. He went back to bed. No one would know what he had done. He would finally be able to buy his family home and one day when his daughter came home, he would be able to give it to her. He finally understood why his father did what he did all those years ago.
The next day his wife sobbed that the woman did not make it through the night. She was sure she would make it. There was a knock at the door, it was a messenger. The messenger was asking if they had found any bodies from the shipwreck. There were many survivors and they were hoping to find them all. William knew if he told them that he had found someone from the ship then he would have to give up the money to the ship's survivors. He lied and said they found no one.
"I guess we will keep looking then," said the messenger, "the crew tell us there was a woman on the boat, a widow. She was a local woman coming back home to be with her family after her husband had died. Please let us know if you hear anything, her name was Katherine Wallace."
William's heart stopped. Kate. It was his daughter returning home, and he had killed her.
I don't know how much of this story is true, or what what happened to William and Ellen after this, but 200 years later a real body of a woman was found in a boarded-up room in the loft of Chambercombe Manor. The Manor is now supposedly haunted by Kate and her guilt-ridden father and there have been many paranormal sightings around the estate. If you're brave enough, you can take a look around Chambercoombe Manor yourself.
On this day we weren't brave enough, we were just here to find treasure, and we found some! Nigel found a tennis ball that he was very happy with. My friends found some crabs. We found lots of shells and limpets, some pretty feathers and some really good stones for skimming!
There are lots of ways to explore the North Devon Coast from walking and hiking to kayaking and coasteering. There is also some great climbing at Baggy Point and awesome surfing in Croyde.
Have you been explored the North Devon coastline? Did you find any treasures or come across any ghost stories? Please feel free to tell us about it below!
Comments