Refloating The Ship Inn

On Saturday, 12th July 2025, around 90 people went to a meeting in Cockwood Parish Room to try to save The Ship Inn.

Here's the joyful Facebook post:

From Babette: 

Anne, Martin and myself would like to say thank you to all who attended and/ or contributed to yesterdays meeting regarding The Ship. There were in excess of 90 people who overwhelmingly agreed to support further exploration of purchasing The Ship as a community pub&hub. The hard work now begins, starting with establishing a web site and a committee. Further details to follow - once again thank you for your huge support

Here's some pictures of it from January 2024.

In Autumn 2023, Storm Claran hit the cob-built pub. A side of it collapsed.

 Rumours are everywhere about why it hasn't been rebuilt. Perhaps the stipulations of Historic England were commercially impossible ? 

Here's a link to the Devon Live story which includes an interview with the landlady, Heather Brown 

It's good news that so many folk bothered to turn up to support the idea of a Community Pub

Ghost in The Galleon

Many thanks to Steve Nosworthy for this photograph of The Ship Inn.
The Ship Inn  and the cottages next door are now all together and are The Galleon Inn.

Sarah Smith remembers when the buildings were The Galleon and Galleon Cottage.  It  was her Grandad who knocked into one, the several cottages down the alleyway to make Galleon Cottage, where she lived as a child.

Sarah and her brother David would cartwheel down the long,  upstairs corridor. There was a bathroom at the end. It was in the end bedroom that the 2 children would often see "a man dressed all in black, with a long coat and tall black hat, sitting in a rocking chair just rocking away."

'It really was scary, as none of the adults could see him."

Sarah saw Steve Nosworthy's photograph (above) of The Ship Inn when it was recently published on the Starcross News Facebook page. There's a man standing in front of the cottage window. Sarah realised that "He looks exactly like the ghost we saw."

The present landlord of The Galleon is aware of several stories about deaths in The Galleon, but he hasn't seen any ghosts, doesn't believe in ghosts and would rather not have his name associated with ghost stories.

This  isn't the only Starcross ghost story. There's more to come...