It was commonly held in
Cornwall that the ghost of a suicide or a person who
died a violent or accidental death was bound to
"walk" in the parish in which the death
occurred.
In 1874, an
inhabitant of the parish of Perranuthno fell into a
mine shaft which happened to lie near the parish's
boundary so that, owing to the underlie, the body was
actually found in the adjoining parish of St. Hilary.
The Perran people
maintained that the man died where he was found, in
St. Hilary, and must be buried there even though he
was "a Perran man." He was sure to walk,
they argued, in the parish in which he died and the
Perrans wanted him buried there as well.
A while later,
another curious fact came to light as it was
discovered that the Perran man had probably died in
St. Hilary, but had actually been brought to the
surface in another mine shaft which emerged in the
parish of Breage.
In which parish the
spirit would eventually walk was never decided.
