FTX-412 - TREGEAGLE'S GHOST

West Country Folklore & Superstition

Selected dialect speakers from Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall: talking about ghosts and witches, as well as conjurors, cures, charms and curses - including - the ghost they couldn't shoot - the lady in black, the sailor, who found treasure in a haunted house - spectre of funeral coach - headless horseman - curing the "King's Evil" with a frog - view of drugs, flying saucers, secret weapons etc.

BILL COLE, Altarnum, Launceston, Cornwall, rec. 1977 - (1) Legend of Dolzmeny Pool - 0'52" (2) Tregeagle's Ghost - 1'42" (3) The Ghost that couldn't get shot & the basket-snatcher - 1'44" (4) The little old Cornish woman all in black - 1'58" (5) The sailor and the haunted house - 2'49"

PERCY BROOK, South Zeal, Okehampton, Devon, rec. 1977: (6) Witched cattle and the cure - 3'04"

TOM HOUSE, Ansty, Blandford, Dorset, rec. 1977 - (7) His father with pony and trap - 1'57" (8) Isiah's Bush - 1'32" (9) The man who cheated the flies - 2'16" - (10) The road that went nowhere - 1'12"

WILLIAM TUCK, Beaminster, Dorset rec. 1968 - (11) Scythe to prevent witching - 1'07" (12) The world coming to an end - 1'00" (13) Curing warts by telling; spell only passed by a man to a woman - 1'06" (14) Toads for casting spells - 1'00" (15) Gypsy putting a spell on a cow - 0'54" (16) The spectre of a funeral coach - 1'17" (17) The headless horseman - 0'29" (18) Cures: adder's tongues and stinging nettles - 1'31" (19) The Quack Doctor at a fair - 0'33"

ERNEST SHIRE, Churchinford, near Taunton, Somerset, rec. 1968 - (20) Local herbal cures: elder blossom, meadow sweet & devil's beak etc. - 1'03" (21) A visiting herbalist or quack - 1'03" (22) Cures for warts and tapeworms; warts with a halfpenny; ringworms by witch walking round; and by farmer - 2'25" (23) Stopping nose-blooding - 0'14" (24) Snake-charming - 0'56" (25) Wortleberries; blackberry jam - 1'43"

Mrs AYRES, Blackborough, Honiton, Somerset, rec 1968 - (26) The way we talk - 0'31" (27) Nightly appearances of ghosts; white dog rattling chains - 0'38" (28) My son's experience - 0'34" (29) Gypsies - 0'38"

Mr. & Mrs. WEBBER, Luxborough, Watchet, Somerset, rec. 1968 - (30) Witches and Conjuror Baker at Dunster - 1'12" (31) A frog for the King's Evil - 1'09" (32) Fanny Pope turns into a hare & popular belief in witchcraft - 2'13" (33) Tying horse's legs together - 0'13" (34) Mr Ayres, the gamekeeper & cure for ringworm - 1'05" (35) the murder of Molly Phillips and a crystal ball - 1'59" (36) Belief in witchcraft and spells (& the interviewer is interviewed) - 1'36" (37) Animal instincts; tree of life; everything is accident - 3'53" (38) Drunkenness & a man seeing horses on fire - 1'11" (39) Drug-taking - - 0'34" (40) Irony of present day & lack of mystery - 0'50" (41) Flying saucers & The Savage Mind - 1'15" (42) Firing through a mountain (Mrs. Webber shows the family photographs & remarks how her husband has changed) - 1'22" (43) Radio and Television - 0'19" (44) Secret weapon in Belgium in the First World War (1914-18) - 0'58"

Recorded by John B Smith of Bristol University 1968-1977, edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1978.