"Widecombe Fair" is one of the best known English folk songs. Tom Pearce lends his grey mare to a group of people, among them the Uncle Tom Cobley of the famous phrase, who ride to Widecombe fair. The mare does not survive the trip.
The closing verses turn the song into a ghost story. When the wind whistles cold on the moor at night, Tom Pearce's old mare is said to appear ghastly white, with her riders, still making the journey. This is the supernatural element and it comes from the song itself rather than from any separate witness account.
Some local historians, among them Tony Beard, have argued that the characters were real people from Spreyton and that the song may commemorate an event of 1802. That rests on local research and is not firmly documented, and the Wikipedia article on the song notes it is poorly cited.
It is entered here as folklore with a ghost attached. There are no known first hand sightings of the mare, and the place is given as Widecombe because of the fair, though the moor roads between Spreyton and Widecombe would fit the story just as well.
Comments