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Smugglers, Ancient buildings, and steeped in history.
No wonder then that Sussex has its fair share of ghostly sightings and goings
on. Some stories have been told for centuries and have now become more folklore
than haunting but still they are told to quiet the old and scare the young.
The modern age has evolved some widely-circulating stories of its own, each
with its own typical pattern, and at least one of these, 'the Phantom Hitch-Hiker',
has cropped up in a Sussex setting.
A motorist, so the story goes, gave a lift to a girl
who was hitching southwards on the London to Worthing road. As he passed through
Horsham, he felt a great longing for a cup of coffee, so he stopped at a wayside
cafe; the girl refused to get out, so he left her sitting in the car.
When he came back, she had disappeared, and he could find nobody who had
seen what became of her. He was so worried over what might have happened to
her that he decided to telephone her parents (for she had mentioned their
address); to his horror, he learnt that their only daughter had been killed
three years before, run over while hitching a lift outside a Horsham cafe.
Old vicarage: Sudley Road, Bognor
Now demolished, this building demonstrated a variety
of strange and unexplained happenings. Footsteps were often heard upstairs
and dragging over the floor when no one was there. Slamming doors, rattling
windows, sightings of an apparition. Although the vicarage has now gone,
sounds of digging can still be heard in the old garden area up to this day.
Nan Tuck of Buxted: near Uckfield
Nan Tuck was a girl who lived in the village
of Buxted near Uckfield who was accused of witchcraft. She was
found dead in what is now known as Tuck`s Wood hanging from one of the trees.
Although what actually happened will never be known, she was more than likely
lynched by the villagers who then concocted a story of suicide to cover
up their own implications in this tale. Whatever occurred, local legend has
it that you may see Nan Tuck running down the lane that bears her name.
Still running from the villagers who accused her of witchcraft!
Buck Barn Crossroads: Horsham to Worthing road
Sightings of an old man sitting on the milestone
or crossing the road were quite common before the road was turned into a dual
carriageway and the road now has a reputation for being a black spot for accidents.
Pycombe?
The locals tell stories about a ghost of a girl who was killed in a motor
accident. Most sightings occur late at night and has been seen quite recently.......
Definitely demonic are the spectral packs of 'wish hounds' or 'witch hounds';
as late as the 1930s it was possible to find Downland shepherds who claimed
that they, or more often their sheepdogs, had heard them sweeping past overhead,
as they hunted the souls of the damned through the sky.
The great windswept height of Ditchling Beacon is said to be the site of
such a spectral hunt; one can hear the cry of the hounds, the horses' hooves,
and the huntsman's horn, but nothing is ever to be seen. The belief can lend
itself to deliberate exploitation; round Fairlight Cove, smugglers and their
allies used to fill the ears of credulous folk with tales about 'wind hounds',
fierce unearthly creatures that raced along the cliffs on certain nights -
the nights when cargoes were due to be landed.
Smugglers did a great deal to foster all sorts of ghost stories as a cover
for their activities. It is widely believed that the famous eighteenth-century
'Drummer of Herstmonceux', a spectre sometimes described as being nine feet
tall, which filled the nights with eerie drum-beats, was a signalman for the
local smuggling gang, and it was noticed that once the preventive men had
restored the rule of law in this part of Sussex, the manifestations ceased.
Occasionally tricks of this sort were unmasked on the spot by some resolute
investigator, as in an incident as Edburton early in the nineteenth century:
One morning the whole place was in consternation, owing to a report that two
men had been frightened close to a large wood by a ghost, which appeared in
the shape of an animal about the size of a calf, with two flaming eyes. Everyone
was afraid to go near the place. Mr Thomas Marshall ... went and examined
it, and found a large quantity of smuggled goods.
If you have a tale of strange happenings or ghostly goings on and would
like to share it with others, then contact me with an E-mail to let me know
about it and I shall post it on this site for all to read..........
Some Reputedly Haunted Sites
Cowfold Monastery
Jacob's Post, Cuckfield Park
Ockenden Manor, Cuckfield
The King's Head, Cuckfield
Danny House, Pyecombe
The Pound, near Angmering
East Street, Brighton
Hurst Road, Eastbourne
The Mermaid Inn, Rye
Tuckvar, Alfriston
