Parson Cole’s Ghost at Luxulyan

Long ago Parson Cole died and left all his money to his wife, but the people of the Luxulyan thought this was wrong, as during his lifetime he’d told many of them that he planned to leave his wealth to someone else. Soon after his death, Parson Cole’s restless ghost began to appearing in the village, frightening people as they walked down the lane by the vicarage. Sometimes his apparition would be seen threshing alongside other spirits at his barn, which appeared to be engulfed in flames.

The whole village were quite upset by this troublesome ghost, and finally, at their wit’s end, the people decided to send for the rector of Roche, a very learned man, to see if he could lay Parson Cole’s restless spirit.

One day the rector arrived at the village church and discovered Cole’s ghost beneath the communion table. Chasing the spirit out and cornering the apparition, he challenged the ghost to a theological debate. Outside by the church stile the two of them battled it out in this war of words. When the parson’s ghost finally lost the debate, the rector of Roche chased the spirit down the hill and put him in an oven in the old cottage just outside the vicarage, and there he remains to this day.

Canon Rashleigh says he first learned of the story when there was some restoration work being done on the vicarage in Luxulyan.  He mentioned to one of the workers, a man named Luke Retallick, that there were some old archway headings in the abandoned cottage nearby that he would quite like to have, if Lord Robartes (who owned the property) would allow it. To which Retallick responded 'For goodness sake don’t ‘ee do that! Old Cole is sealed in the oven and if ‘ee let him out there will be the devil to pay.' Soon afterwards the Canon interviewed local man Charles Roch, who told him the full tale.