Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Jail Cutthroat Weekend - Cornwall,

Ghosts of Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Jail

Jamaica Inn - This mysterious Inn has had more than its fair share of fame and infamy.  Home to many ghosts and spirits it never fails to impress or give the impression that you are definitely being watched.  With many haunted bedrooms, a bar where glasses smash frequently on their own and people suddenly answer questions that have been asked from disembodied voices, leaving them feeling as if they are going slightly mad.  The old stable block is a place where many fear to go, even the staff.  It is menacing to put it mildly and houses a known spirit called Jack who takes strong dislikes to certain people and makes his prescence felt in a terrifying manner.  Bangs, knocks, taps and voices are often heard.  We also have a new area which is the old attic and just being up there for a short time makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.  We can\'t wait to work with you at the Jamaica Inn and because as much as this notorious pub is terrifying it really is a great challenge to spend the night ghost hunting here. 

Bodmin Jail - Haunted Happenings have carried out many investigations here in the past and Bodmin Jail is rapidly becoming one of our most popular locations. We have seen poltergeist activity, apparitions, shadows, people being touched and so much more. This location is a resting place for some of the most sinister spirits we have ever encountered. The Jail is harsh, barbaric and sinister.  Those that were incarcerated here would have felt hopeless and defeated.  It is no wonder that many visitors to Bodmin Jail hear the words \"Help Me\" whispered in their ears.  These are words of despair but are terrifying if you are the one hearing them.  The cells are very active particular down in the lower levels where voices are heard through the walls from once cell to another as if the prisoners are still there trying to communicate with each other. 

Some of the ghosts seen here have been described as \'The Butcher\' who has been seen on hundreds of occasions, there is a female presence in Sarah\'s Cell along with children who were treated as harshly as the adults.  There is a dangerous spirit who has been seen as a dark shadow in the lower cells.  The Naval Wing is an area where poltergeist activity often occurs and stones are thrown.  Bodmin Jail is a difficult place to investigate due to the terror that it instills but for those that have difficulties there are large projector sized webcams to watch which are fascinating particularly when you see the activity that occurs in Bodmin Jail.

History of Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Jail

History of Jamaica Inn. 

Jamaica Inn is located on the bleak Bodmin Moor, near Bolventor.  It is often commonly thought that the inn takes its name from the smugglers who smuggled rum into the country from Jamaica and stored it at the inn. However, the name of the inn is actually said to derive from the important local Trelawney family of landowners, of which two family members served as Governors of Jamaica in the 18th century. 

The inn was built in 1750 and extended in 1778 with a coach house, stables and a tack room assembled in an L-shaped fashion. The inn became a smugglers\' stopping point while they used approximately 100 secret routes to move around their contraband.  Originally, the half-way house was alone on this part of the moor, but later a church, parsonage and school were added by Mr. Kodd, the proprietor of the land, satisfying the area\'s residents.

According to narrated story, gangs of wreckers operated on the coast of Cornwall during early 19th century. Cornwall has been very aptly described as the “haven of smugglers” in view of its topographic features of “rocky coves, sheltered bays, tumultuous waves and wild and untenanted landscapes”.  The wreckers ensnared ships to this coast line by tricking them with use of beacon lights, which they purposefully installed on the shores of the coast. Once the ships foundered on the rocky coast they were looted by the wreckers.

By 1847, Francis Rodd of Trebartha Hall, who had been High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1845, was building a chapel at Bolventor to accommodate those who lived in the Jamaica Inn area.  In 1865, Murray wrote that the inn was frequented in the winter by sportsmen and offered only rudimentary accommodations.  The current building still includes the extension of a coach house, stables and a tack room added in.  The Inn was owned for a period by the novelist Alistair MacLean.

The Jamaica Inn’s past notoriety as the pirates\' den was known to Du Maurier three years before she wrote her book, when she had lived in the inn, and on the basis of which she had spun her popular novel the “Jamaica Inn”, which was adopted into a melodramatic film of the same name made by Alfred Hitchcock. Before living in the inn, she had resided in Fowey estuary, known earlier as Foreside, a house in Bodinnick and subsequently in Menabilly.  She described the nocturnal activities of a smuggling ring based at the now celebrated inn,  It should be noted though that in Du Maurier\'s novel, the Jamaica Inn was solely the home of the landlord and a rendezvous and storagehouse for smuggling. In the popular film made by Hitchcock in 1939 with the pirate\'s story line, the heroine’s role of a young girl who encounters the gangsters in the Jamaica Inn as “Lady Vanishes” was played by Maureen O’ Hara in her debut appearance while the main role of the ugly and fierce leader of the pirates was played by Laughton. The young girl finds out that her uncle is a member of the gang, and a young man accused of treason is about to be hanged. She soon cuts the noose around the young man and assists him to escape through the backdoor.  More recently another series surrounding the Jamaica Inn has been televised such is the popularity of the history of this Ancient Inn. 

History or Bodmin Jail

Bodmin Gaol was designed by Sir John Call and built in 1779 by prisoners of war and was operational for 150 years where it saw over 50 public hangings. The first hanging was apparently in 1785, but the finishing date of the jail was in 1788. Executioners were paid about £10 a hanging. The last person to be hanged was in 1909, subsequent executions took place in Exeter Prison.  It was the first British prison to hold prisoners in individual cells, isolating and segregating them from human contact. 

The Debtors Act of 1869 abolished imprisonment for debt so the prison had spare space that was taken over by the Admiralty for naval prisoners. Eventually the naval prison occupied an entire wing of the building, before it was closed in 1922.

During World War I, such was the safety and security surrounding the prison that it was deemed worthy of holding some of Britain\'s priceless national treasures including the Domesday Book and the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

The jail closed in 1927 and since that date there have been no prison within the county of Cornwall. 

Now, a lot of the jail remains in ruins, and presents a forbidding aspect when seen from a distance. Some parts have been refurbished and these now form a tourist attraction with exhibitions telling of the history of the jail and of offenders imprisoned there. 

The exhibits are fairly basic in design, showcasing gory mannequins accompanied with plaques, describing the offence committed by particular persons and their sentence, in their respective cells.