Ghostly goings on in Looe


An old, lonely, empty house…


is it any wonder spooky stories would spring up?


When somebody asked about the eerie reputation of Polvellan Manor in West Looe on the Looe Times Past, Present and Future Facebook site, it sparked lively debate.


A former owner


remembered ‘the sudden chill when entering what was known as the haunted room’.


Others recall that during its time as a care home, a dog would appear beside the bed of a patient before he or she passed away.


And there were comments about ‘really bad vibes in that place upstairs - just feels like everyone that was once there was still there.’


Is it haunted? Or, as some have


suggested, are lights and noises that have been reported more likely because people have


invaded during the years of Polvellan’s decline?


Memories of the place are actually very positive and very fond, and no great tragedy can be associated with the site - though perhaps its best-known resident, the politician and reformer Charles Buller, did die at the young age of 42 in 1848.


It was used as a


maternity home during World War Two, a fate shared with grand houses including Flete in South Devon and Pentillie Castle, near Saltash.


Many people have said they were born there, to mums evacuated to safety away from the Blitzes on London and nearby Plymouth.


Others remember with pleasure working there during its years as a hotel and, later, a nursing home. It closed during the 1990s


It was built by John Lemon, a notable composer of chants and


If you have a spooky story you would like to share in the Looe News please contact us on 01579 342174


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sacred music, in 1787 after his election as MP for West Looe borough in 1784. Landscaped pleasure grounds, complete with boathouse, were created on reclaimed land that now form Millpool car ark.


The house was enlarged and embellished, probably in the 1840s and 1850s, and a rear wing was added at the end of the 19th century.


The house was leased to the Buller family of Morval in the early 1800s.


A regular visitor to Charles Buller at Polvellan was the


famous economist John Stuart Mill. Buller never married. He was


considered a very talented man, witty, popular and generous, and is described by Carlyle as ‘the genialest radical I have ever met’. A bust of Buller is in Westminster Abbey, and another was unveiled at Liskeard in 1905.


Haunted or not,


everybody is in agreement on one topic - it is a shame to see such a beautiful house empty and in decline.


There are plans to develop it as apartments - but the status of the plans is not known.


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