The Black Smock Inn - Stathe, Somerset

During the 17th century, Somerset saw many turbulent years of plague, civil war, rebellion and bloody retribution - yet the folk of Stathe and Oath remember another tale.

Local superstitions and jealousies were roused by a fair maid of Oath whose smock was always gleaming white, and whose charms had turned the head of many a young man. She was accused of witchcraft and brought before the village elders who, finding the evidence against her to be inconclusive, subjected her to trial by drowning. The poor maid was duly thrown into the nearby River Parrett where she sank beneath the muddy waters and drowned. Her limp body was dragged from the river and carried into the inn. But once there, she shocked her persecutors by springing into life and escaping up the chimney. Some saw her emerge on the roof, her smock now black with soot. As she dropped to the ground she turned into a hare and bounded away.

Some say she was never seen or heard of again, but others say she still haunts the locality to this day.