5 minute read
History
The Ghost of Dendles Wood
Local historian and Dartmoor guide Paul Rendell tells the story of the witch who lived in Dendles Wood
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At the meeting of two rivers on the south side of Dartmoor there used to stand a dwelling house where an old woman called Hannah and her son lived. She was said to possess much skill in magic and was disliked by the local people, who wondered how they both survived, as the son did not work as far as they knew and their garden was not looked after, so didn’t seem to produce any food. A farmer who lived nearby began to have a number of problems over a short period of time - his horse died, then a cow, and some of his sheep fell sick. Then the farmer himself fell sick. This all happened a few weeks after a number of hens had been stolen from his farm, for which he blamed Hannah’s son. The old woman did not take kindly to being called a witch and her son a thief, so it is said she put a curse on the farmer. The people of Cornwood went to see the witch to try to get her to break the spell. They found the cottage deep in Dendles Wood and knocked on the door. Noone answered, so they went away, but not too far, so they could watch the cottage. After many hours, the old woman’s son made an appearance. Alongside him was a lurcher, a dog that nobody knew he had. It was soon chasing and catching rabbits, which the youth put in a sack. Within a short time over 20 rabbits had been caught. This incensed the locals who believed the rabbits belonged to them. They shouted, the boy ran off with the dog and they gave chase across the slippery woodland fl oor, jumping over the boulders. The boy leapt across the stream known as Broadall Lake and called his dog to follow, but it froze. The boy was heard shouting ‘Rin, mawther, rin!’, the dog jumped onto a rock in the river but slipped off into the water and disappeared. Within an instant the old woman was seen struggling in the water, in the same spot. She had taken on the shape of the dog but now it had drowned, the spell had been broken. From that day forward the farmer recovered and never had any problems on his farm again. It was said that the witch had died that day in the stream, but some locals did not believe it. As no one had seen the pair for months, they decided to visit the cottage. What they saw shocked them, proving that she had been a witch and was now dead. They found the corpse of an old woman inside with a bunch of broom in one hand and the skin of a black cat in the other. The son was never seen again and the dwelling fell into disrepair. She was truly dead... or is she still there haunting the woods? For it is said that people still claim to see the dog...n
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