The Howling of Jan Tregeagle
On stormy nights in Cornwall, people say the howling in the wind is the spirit of a cruel magistrate, condemned to impossible tasks forever.
What was reported
Jan Tregeagle was a real 17th-century steward and magistrate in Cornwall, remembered as a hard and dishonest man. Legend says that after his death he was called back from the grave to give evidence in a court case, and the churchmen then didn't know how to send him back.
They set him tasks with no end: emptying Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor with a limpet shell that had a hole in it, and weaving ropes out of sand. His howls of despair, people say, are what you hear on the moors and along the coast in a storm. In one story he dropped a sack of sand, which became Loe Bar.
Explanations offered
The legend probably grew from local memories of an unpopular man, mixed with older tales of restless spirits. Loe Bar is a natural shingle bank, built up by the sea.
- When
- Told since the 17th century
- Where
- Loe Bar, Cornwall, England
- Witnesses
- Cornish folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
More from England