ANOTHER GHOST STORY

I thought you might enjoy another ghost story.  This one concerns the playful spirit of a little girl - possibly over four hundred years old.

She's said to haunt the Priory Gatehouse, a house built around 1540 by a prosperous Tudor merchant in Totnes on the site of the former gatehouse to the medieval Priory.  When the ground floor of the house was run as a shoe shop its owner, a Mrs Margaret Stone, and her staff were constantly aware of a strange 'something' in the atmosphere - and often experienced sudden inexplicable drops in temperature.

When she started selling children's shoes more dramatic things began happening.  Coming into work in the morning, she'd find shoe boxes all over the floor - always children's shoes - and things disturbed.  There seemed to be no system to it.  Sometimes stuff was moved around at night, or re-arranged when someone's back was turned.  A point was reached when Margaret Stone would simply say "Naughty girl!" when something was lost or moved.

My thanks are due to Bob Mann for his terrific book The Ghost of Totnes, which is where I've found yet another ghost story.  And there are more to come!

I'm off shortly to photograph the Priory Gatehouse.  I'll be sharing the result with you soon.