The Haunting of Bishop Lacy at the Bishop Lacy Inn

In the heart of Chudleigh’s Teign Valley, where South Devon’s ancient beauty cradles the Bishop Lacy Inn, the oldest edifice in town, the spectral figure of Bishop Edmund Lacy haunts the 14th-century timbers, his black-robed form a solemn echo of a life steeped in faith and unspoken burdens. Once the summer retreat of this revered Bishop of Exeter, the inn’s walls whisper of his prayers and penance, now disturbed by his restless spirit, seen gliding through taprooms or penning phantom sermons, his presence marked by incense and Latin chants. From a coachman’s fright in 1689 to a child’s vision in 1924, Lacy’s ghost lingers as guardian or penitent, binding Chudleigh’s past to its present in a haunting vigil that never fades.