The Hanging Pit: The Haunting of Bodmin Jail (Investigating the Haunted)

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In 1844 a crowd of over 250,000 gathered to watch the execution of the Lightfoot brothers (William and James), who were convicted for the brutal robbery and murder of a local well-known timber merchant (Neville Norway). Such was the clamour the watch the executions unfold, train carriages carrying around 1,100 people had stopped on the railway that ran alongside the jail.

Becquart, Charlotte (19 June 2021). "Ghost of 'agitated' woman caught on camera at Bodmin Jail". CornwallLive . Retrieved 22 July 2023. Self manifesting spooks, spiritual apparitions, ghostly entities, or lost phantoms still haunting the jail since their incarceration here two hundred years before us, believe in them if you will? Bodmin Jail (alternatively Bodmin Gaol) is a historic former prison situated in Bodmin, on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Built in 1779 and closed in 1927, a large range of buildings fell into ruin, but parts of the prison have been turned into a tourist attraction, and more recently another large part was converted into a hotel. Between 1779 and 1927, Bodmin Jail - or to use its alternative name Bodmin Gaol - started life with its construction by prisoners of war, with the prison being the first British prison to hold prisoners in individual cells. has on many occasions been asked by children visiting the jail with their parents who the lady in the long dress is that they saw crying in the jail cell. He also recallsMr. Wren: I had a dreadful dream. I dream't that my brother Neville was murdered by two men on the road from Bodmin to Wadebridge. One fired a pistol twice but I heard no report.

Tony believed the 'apparition' caught might be that of William Hampton, the last man to be hanged in the county. An unmarried mother of two illegitimate sons, of which one was partially crippled, Wadge was almost as low in the Victorian social spectrum as it was possible to get. The pitiful ghost of Matthew Weekes is said to wander aimlessly throughout the darkened hallways of Bodmin's jail, having been hanged on the drop gallows erected outside the walls of the great prison for murder.William Hampton, from St Erth, was convicted of murder at Bodmin court on June 24, 1909 and was sentenced to death. If you’d like to visit these haunted places in Cornwall, why not book a last minute break to Cornwall in October half term?