18th Century folklore inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles writer in Dartmoor Devon is surrounded by ghost stories
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Gps Coordinates / 50.604988,-3.7924936,
Jays Grave Suicide England VR Paranormal
Manaton, Newton Abbot TQ13 9XF
Motorists, passing at night, claim to have glimpsed ghostly figures in their headlights, others report seeing a dark, hooded figure kneeling there.
Jay's Grave was the inspiration for John Galsworthy's short story The Apple Tree, written in 1916.
Gps Coordinates / 50.6050751,-3.7925419
Embellishments such as the orphaned baby being taken into the Poor House in Newton Abbot or Wolborough where she was given the name Mary Jay.
Seth Lakeman to write his 2004 song and album, both called Kitty Jay.
The Living Grave for the BBC 2 TV anthology series Leap in the Dark, broadcast in 1980.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -3.7926193 / Gps Link -3.7926895 / Gps Link -3.7927487
Gps Coordinates / 50.6051526,-3.7926193 / 50.6052329,-3.7926895 / 50.6053154,-3.7927487
There are always fresh flowers on the grave, the placement of which is the subject of local folklore – some claim they are placed there by pixies, but it is known that the author Beatrice Chase was one person who did this, before her death in 1955.
British rock band Wishbone Ash to write the lyrics to a song called "Lady Jay" which appears on the band's 1974 album There's the Rub.
Gps Coordinates / 50.6048534,-3.7922787
By 2007 the placing of flowers had expanded into all sorts of votive offerings: coins, candles, shells, small crosses and toys, for instance.
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An early newspaper account of the discovery of the grave appears on page 5 of the North Devon Journal for 23 January 1851, under "County Intelligence":
In the parish of Manaton, near Widdecombe on the moor while some men in the employ of James Bryant, Esq., of Prospect, at his seat, Hedge Barton, were removing some accumulations of way soil, a few days since, they discovered what appeared to be a grave. On further investigation, they found the skeleton of a body, which proved from enquiry to be the remains of Ann Jay, a woman who hanged herself some three generations since in a barn at a place called Forder, and was buried at Four Cross Lane, according to the custom of that enlightened age.
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