FLETCHERS HOUSE

Lion Street, Rye, Sussex. Junction of A268/A259

 

John Fletcher, dramatist and contemporary of William Shakespeare, was here in 1579. His father, the Rev Richard Fletcher, who had resided here some years was aggrieved at not being appointed vicar of Rye because of the refusal of the Rev Richard Connope to resign, despite the latter's continued absence, and left the town when John was only two years old. Richard eventually became Bishop of London.

 

The house had been a private house for many hundreds of years, but in 1932 it became a restaurant. Like the majority of buildings in this attractive, popular centre few alterations were made add even the original front door of the vicarage with York and Tudor Roses carved on its lintel has been retained.

 

At 4 o'clock one afternoon in 1951 Mrs. Betty Howard, one of the owners of the restaurant, was walking up stairs end on hearing a noise turned round and saw on the landing a few feet below a youngish man in dark lounge suit.

 

Thinking it was a customer, she went to speak to him but he just disappeared. He was about 6ft tall and appeared to be in his early thirties. The figure was never seen again, but the manageress told me that 'what sounds like footsteps going up the stairs' are heard sometimes in the evenings.

 

 

 

 

Story by Andrew Green: 'Our Haunted Kingdom'

 

 

 

 

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