Stop 10
The chained man
The South West is filled with stories of pirates, wreckers and smugglers. Some stories survive as the spirits live on.
In 1715 a man named Elias Finch was found guilty by the magistrate in Bovey of smuggling brandy and lace across Dartmoor. The punishment handed to him was to be chained to a gate on Mill Lane, with no cover and only the bare amount of bread and water, for 10 whole days.
Days and nights passed with Elias chained to the gate. He would beg passers by for mercy, but locals didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the magistrate, so they kept walking by. Probably awkwardly refusing to make eye contact, or doing that little eyebrow raise you do when you see someone you kind of know in the street.
On the final night, the temperature plummeted and the townsfolk woke to a pitiful sight. Elias had not survived the cold, he lay at the foot of the gate, the shackles around his wrists frosted over.
His body was laid to rest, but there was no rest for his spirit. For centuries people walking home along Mill Lane at night would tell stories of a chained man, leaping out at them, rattling his manacles. Scaring them half to death.
Eventually, the iron gate which Elias was chained to was removed and a wooden stile put in it’s place. A style with nowhere to secure a chain. Miraculously, the hauntings stopped. Almost. Some say, on foggy nights when it’s deathly cold, you can still hear the rattles of chains, echoing in the gloom.
There is no longer a Mill Lane in Bovey Tracey and the location of the Elias’s demise has been lost to time.
A person can’t help but notice Mill Marsh Park sits adjacent to The Old Mill, with Mill Marsh Path leading to where a wooden stile stands at Station Road… Could this be the spot?
Sources:
www.torbayweekly.co.uk/news/storyteller-gates-monks-and-things-that-go-bump-in-paignton-6657955
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF8fYWLiTng&t=63s
Word of mouth