Had another good yomp over Dartmoor yesterday in the Houndtor area which took me past Jay's Grave.
This is the grave of Kitty Jay, traditionally known as Jay's Grave. Kitty Jay was a orphaned girl brought in a Poor House. Eventually finding work at a local Dartmoor Farm, where she became the attention of the farmers son and quickly fell pregnant by him, whereupon the farmers son cast her aside. In those days a young unmarried pregnant girl was considered a 'whore' a disgrace someone who would be unemployable again. Sadly Kitty took her own life by hanging herself in the barn. Back then anyone who committed suicide could not be buried in Consecrated Ground, they were buried at cross roads with a stake driven through their heart so their soul would never return.
Kitty's grave is on the side of the road, whenever you pass it there is always flowers on it, sometime wild sometimes garden ----- No one knows who puts the flowers on the grave.
1327 Jay's Grave 1327080921 by Trev Bartlett MBE, on Flickr
This is the grave of Kitty Jay, traditionally known as Jay's Grave. Kitty Jay was a orphaned girl brought in a Poor House. Eventually finding work at a local Dartmoor Farm, where she became the attention of the farmers son and quickly fell pregnant by him, whereupon the farmers son cast her aside. In those days a young unmarried pregnant girl was considered a 'whore' a disgrace someone who would be unemployable again. Sadly Kitty took her own life by hanging herself in the barn. Back then anyone who committed suicide could not be buried in Consecrated Ground, they were buried at cross roads with a stake driven through their heart so their soul would never return.
Kitty's grave is on the side of the road, whenever you pass it there is always flowers on it, sometime wild sometimes garden ----- No one knows who puts the flowers on the grave.
1327 Jay's Grave 1327080921 by Trev Bartlett MBE, on Flickr
Comment