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The Sexton and the Rings of Watchet

Kentsford Manor near the fifteenth-century church of St Decuman on a little hill outside Watchet, was once the original house of the distinguished Wyndham family, many of whom are buried in the church, their monuments being in the Wyndham chapel. One of the brasses there is to Florence, wife of John Wyndham and it is her strange story and her ghost that has for centuries haunted Kents-ford Manor. She was taken ill one day and rapidly grew worse, finally dying and her body being buried in the family vault. The sexton had noticed that her fingers bore valuable rings so he made up his mind there and then that he would remove them for himself rather than the body-snatchers who, at that period, plundered corpses for sale to the hospitals. Waiting until nightfall he entered the vault and began to ease the seven rings from the dead lady's fingers, but one of them cut his finger. His blood spurted out and at the same time he saw there was blood coming from the cut on the finger of the corpse he was robbing. His fear and alarm increased wildly when he saw the corpse move slightly, then rise up in her coffin.

Terrified, he rushed out of the church towards the sea and drowned himself. Florence Wyndham got out of her coffin and walked back to the manor to join her husband again. Even recently her white ghost has been heard tapping insistently and continually on the window-panes of the manor house as if imploring someone to let her in. She has also been seen standing on the staircase.

There is a second local but unauthenticated version of this story, which still involves the sexton. He had set out at about midnight to steal the rings when he was waylaid and set upon by a gang of local ruffians, quite probably body-snatchers who had learned of the death of a rich woman almost certainly buried with her jewellery; it was likely to be a very rewarding raid. They at once ordered him to let them into the church and show them the coffin which he was forced to do by fear of severe injury, even death. When he led them to the coffin, they ordered him to take off the rings and hand them over, snatching them from him, before rushing out of the church.

In the dark church the frightened sexton was even more terrified when he.saw white figures flitting around him. The lady from whom he had stolen the rings sat up in her coffin and at the same time other coffins opened. In absolute panic he fled back to his home. The next day he sent for the rector, protesting his innocence and relating what had happened, but not confessing what his own intentions had been. So deep was the shock that he died that same day. Bedfordshire | British Isles | Cornwall | Dorset | Ghost in Cornwall | Howfield Manor | Penzance | Ramhurst | Sandford |