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Kitty Jay (song)
2004 · iScream
Kitty Jay is the fourth track on Seth Lakeman's 2004 album of the same name, written by Lakeman and running to 3 minutes 12 seconds. It tells the story of Jay's Grave, a well-known spot on Dartmoor near Hound Tor and Manaton.
A Living Tradition review of the album summarises the legend the song follows: a servant girl believed to have hanged herself in a barn after finding she was pregnant. As a suicide she could not be buried in consecrated ground, so she was laid at a crossroads, where fresh flowers, shells, coins and twig crosses are still left.
It is the song most associated with his name and the one he is shown performing in the 2023 Commons photograph used for his own listing. The grave itself and the folklore of the legend are covered in the linked listings.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org; en.wikipedia.org; www.livingtradition.co.uk
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Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“Dreary, in one sense, they may be, but they yet influence and attract, for here we behold nature in her most wild form.”
Also on Our DartmoorRound cairn near White Tor — Bronze Age round cairn with a stone burial chamber, set high on the eastern slopes near White Tor.
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