Description

The memorial commemorates Charlotte Dymond, an 18-year-old domestic servant who worked at the nearby Penhale Farm. On Sunday, April 14, 1844, wearing her "Sunday best" clothes, she was murdered on the moor by her boyfriend and fellow servant, Matthew Weekes (sometimes spelled Weeks), following an argument over her intentions to leave him for another man.  Weekes fled but was soon apprehended in Plymouth. He was tried, found guilty, and executed at Bodmin Gaol on August 12, 1844, in front of a crowd estimated at up to 20,000 people.  The case was a regional sensation and engendered profound public sympathy for the young victim, leading to the rare step of the local community raising a public subscription to pay for a monument to a domestic servant. Today, the tragic tale is firmly embedded in Cornish folklore—complete with ghost stories of Charlotte roaming the moor in her Sunday best—and was immortalized by the famous Cornish poet Charles Causley in his work, The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond.