Ilminster
At a crossroads outside the town, on the Dowlish road, is a spot marked on the map as Mary Hunt’s Grave, where people occasionally lay flowers. Stories about Mary (or Molly) have been collected in the latter part of the twentieth century by the folklorists Kingsley Palmer and Roy Patten, but there is no indication how much earlier they may be; they are so contradictory that it is doubtful whether Mary ever existed. She is variously called a witch, a gypsy, a prostitute, a woman who murdered her husband, a victim of murder, or a girl who killed herself because she was pregnant; but all informants agree that her ghost walks at midnight, or at least can be heard rattling its chains and turning in the grave. Apparently not everyone takes this very seriously, since some informants say the ghost is riding on a go-kart, or ‘a kind of trolley’, or even on roller skates; sometimes it is seen knitting, because, they say, she was knitting when she was murdered.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008
