In the South West of England there are many places rich in spooky stories and mystical history, but how many of them can you actually stay in?
Nun’s Cross Farm is an old farmhouse that is enriched with stories of intrigue and mystery, as well as much of the land surrounding it.
Belonging to Mount Kelly School, in Tavistock, Devon, the farm can be rented with a capacity of 27 people and 36 guests.
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With bunk beds and fireplaces inside, much of the ancient theme has been preserved for those who dare to spend a night there, Devon Live reports.
The origins of the farm
The farm was built by hand in the 1870s by a man named John Hooper and his wife. They used what little capital they had to lease land from the Duchy of Cornwall and built their home with hand-picked stones.
By the time the property was completed and only one cow purchased, the Hooper had only “four pence and a half penny” between them.
Despite seemingly having the odds against them, the Hoopers eventually managed to run a fairly profitable cow farm, earning around £ 100 a year.
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There was a succession of families who subsequently owned the farm until it was finally abandoned somewhere between 1929 and the 1940s.
It was used for a short time as a camping base by Royal Navy training expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s.
The farm has slowly fallen into disrepair over the years, but has now received much needed care, making it habitable for those who dare to stay overnight.
I say dare … but why?
The mystery of the disappearance of a farmer’s wife The door to Nun’s Cross Farm (Image: Devon Live)
Here’s where things start to get a little, for lack of a better word, weird.
A classic campfire ghost story that will make your neck hair stand on end, this story is about the disappearance of a farmer’s wife.
Some time after the Hooper tenure at Nun’s Cross, a farmer and his wife occupied the property. One evening the woman went to check their cattle on a misty night never to return.
It’s easy to think of this as just another wild tale, but it’s a whole different story when you watch the farmhouse on a foggy day from the Nuns’ Cross that gives the building its name.
Nun’s cross
Nun’s, or sometimes Siward’s, Cross is the oldest recorded stone cross on Dartmoor – seated above the farm. It is specifically named in 1240 when the parish boundaries were registered, but the cross could even date back to the last reign of the Anglo-Saxons (1066).
It is believed to be named after Earl Siward, who owned land around Tavistock before the Norman Conquest.
The cross marks the road which connected the abbeys of Buckfastleigh and Tavistock.
The final mystery of the carved stone farmhouse Nun’s Cross Farmhouse from afar on a foggy day (Image: Devon Live)
The last strange aspect of the farm really has no explanation. This has puzzled Herald readers since the late 1990s, when a reader wrote to us to ask us to investigate, inquiring about a stone bearing a coat of arms including the letters V and T separated by a sword.
In 1998, a reader wrote to us: “Can you or your readers give me any information about the sword stone which is said to be in the remote area of Nun’s Cross Farm on Dartmoor?
“I believe it is a block of about two square feet that stands in a bank or a wall and has a sword inscribed on it. I searched for it several times without success.”
This intrigued our reporters then as well as today, the only official explanation having been from Paul Rendell, editor of “The Dartmoor Newsletter” who apparently rang with advice for the reader.
“The initials represent Vincent Thomas, a school in Exeter that got involved in the area a few years ago, perhaps when the farm was used as a base for adventure training.”
But speculation is still rife, the T could refer to the name of Tyrwhitt who was at one point a large landowner who lived in nearby Tor Royal.
Others suggest that the rock could have been accidentally picked up by the Hoopers during their construction, but also that it could be much older than expected.
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-09-04 23:00:00
