The apparition of Judge Glanville’s daughter haunts the house. As expected, this is the result of a tragic love story, for she was in love with a sailor, much to her father’s disapproval. He wanted her to marry a goldsmith, much to her objection. As a consequence, she in company with her lover and servant murdered the goldsmith. However, the deed was swiftly detected and the three brought to trial. In a bizarre twist of fate, the trial Judge was none other than her father. With irrefutable evidence the three were convicted and sentenced to hang. Since that time, numerous witnesses have reported seeing the ghost of the young woman around the school. A door to the courtyard has been heard to slam, and others have reported the sounds of a silk dress rustling on the stairs. Coxe regards this as “one of the best authenticated ghosts in Devon”.

According to sources, the ghost of “Wicked Lady Howard” rides from Fitzford House to Okehampton Park, then back to her home of Fitzford in a unique spectral coach – made from the bones of her four murdered husbands! It is said that she killed all of them. A headless coachman drives the ghoulish sight. A skeletal or black hound leads the cortege, depending on which report you believe. The purpose of this journey is a form of punishment for Lady Howard. She is commanded to pick a single blade of grass each night until when the castle mound is finally free of any grass before she can be released from her torment.

In the grounds of what was once Tavistock Abbey you can see Betsy Grimbal’s Tower – the western gatehouse of the great abbey “which once dominated the town”. Under the arch stands the stone coffin found when the Chapter House was destroyed. The bones contained in it are now in St Eustachius' Church.

 

A soldier or monk, depending on which accounts you read, murdered Betsy on the spiral staircase of the gatehouse. So grisly was the act that her bloodstains were left on the wall – and are said never to disappear. However, time must be taking its toll as they are now apparently quite hard to find! Betsy’s ghost has been spotted at one of the narrow windows at times of national disaster. She was reported by a police officer in 1966 shortly before Aberfan.