Jan Tregeagle

the chapel that was built.

And have you heard of Jan Tregeagle?

No.

So there is a story about Jan Tregeagle.

He's the kind of classic Cornish bad person in, in Cornish mythology who...

It's, it's really interesting because their parts of their story seem to be in lots of bits of Cornwall, not just there.

And so they were kind of fleeing the devil apparently, and then ended up at Roche Rock, and I think they might have been scared out of Roche Rock by the devil's hounds or something like that.

But Jan Tregeagle was a really bad man, and was actually based on someone real-

But he did not wanna pay up when it was his time to go, so he sought help from the church.

Uh, and a, uh, rather clever churchman said, "I will set, uh, the spirit of Jan Tregeagle, uh, an impossible series of tasks.

And, um, as long as he's kept occupied doing those tasks, the devil cannot claim him." And so one of them was to empty the pool with a seashell.

[laughs]

A tiny seashell, basically a thimbleful at a time, and he was to keep going, and going, and going.

And when he finally stops, when the pool is finally empty, then it's said that the devil will have his due.

Uh, and I just love the fact that, uh, the pool is up on the m- you know, a lonely stretch of the moors, and, um, it's said, and has been said for generations, that if you listen carefully on, on nights when the wind howls, you can still hear the, the wails of Jan Tregeagle as he, you know, despairingly goes about his impossible task.

I love those kind of stories.