Michelham Priory.

Michelham Priory

I recall the summer day, when i was living and working in Eastbourne,

that i took a bus ride and a packed lunch to Michelham village.

The Priory is built on a bend in the river Cuckmere, nearby,

and is now an island. It was a priory until Henry VIII came along.

There is still a prior supposed to haunt the gatehouse, and 

a thin, sickly looking female ghost, another  grey lady.

There appears to be a second  ghostly lady inside the house, in Tudor dress. 

It's a house  with old wooden staircases and furniture, and a moat.

It's a very attractive site, and very soothing as an atmosphere,

Although i do recall a television interview with a man, one of the staff

resident there, perhaps, i can't remember exactly,

who claimed to be kept awake at night, by forces,

which seemed to want to drive him out. As i recall his story,

he sat on the stairsand bargained with them, to leave him alone, 

and said he'd not bother them. 

They seemed to agree with the deal.

For more info have a look at:

https://sussexpast.co.uk/properties-to-discover/michelham-priory

Or the page at Dark Encounters.

clapham wood

Clapham Wood

I guess if i've talked about Chanctonbury, i need

to bring up Clapham Woods and magic and paganism

there....sorry if i took a long time to get off the ground today..

My broomstick isn't working. Very woozy... anyway, 

the mists are clearing....,

It appears a painting was discovered of a demon in a disused manor 

house and rituals and murders have been committed here,

attributed to The Friends of Hecate, a Satanic cult.

To be quite honest i see no connection whatsoever between the Roman 

goddess and the Christian Satan, but then i don't see how 

modern druidism has any evidence that it relates in any way to 

what Druids practised, given that we know very little about them.

There is alleged to be a dark, sickening 

and claustrophobic atmosphere in the woods.

There is also a story of a cyclist entering the woods, and

suspected of being a ghost, as he could not be found, 

when he was searched for,

. a story, which sounds like one by E F Benson.

Maybe there are giant slugs in the woods...

around eastbourne

Eastbourne

The long man of Wilmington

This impressive figure makes a signal of the paganess of the area. 

However it doesn't seem to be very old. 

It's a major landmark, and i have walked over the hills

 along the countryside paths 

and down into the area of East Sussex,  where they 

say they invented the famous banana treat the banoffee pie.

The hill figure isn't pagan as such. Studies appesr to show

 that it was drawn in the 16th or 17th century.

It's known to have been sketched for an illustration

 in 1710 by the surveyor John Rowley.

So, it isn't ancient, and the Druidic festivals performed there

are out of time, but there were deep interests in magic and mysticism 

in the 16th and 17th centuries, as always probably.

So there isn't a real disparity.

I mean, it's an outwelling of a statement about the landscape,

and done a lot more effectively, i think,

than an awful lot of modern landscape sited installation art.

If people go to worship there on beltane, say, 

who knows what mystic powers will be reawakened by their doing so.

The Long Man

It's very impressive, and it makes the landscape feel pagan, 

even if it isn't. That's the power of art and symbolism.

Beachy Head

Beachy Head

I used to live in Eastbourne, and so know it well,

at least as well as anyone can,

 a place which keeps seeming to change

every time you go there.

 

It has a site on the fringes of a very haunted landscape.

Also some stunning bits of coast, Exceat, Seven Sisters, 

and Beachy Head.

 

I knew someone, who jumped off Beachy Head, and survived. 

You would expect it to be haunted.

I believe a grey lady ghost is seen there, going over the edge,

but given that people do jump from there

can that be guaranteed not to have been a real suicide?

There's also alleged to be a farmer's wife, who walks along the top

with a baby in her arms, and then jumps.

I also believe thst a monk is seen there, trying 

to persuade passers by to jump!

 As i understand the story a monk was shackled and thrown off,

at the time of Henry VIII'th's dissolution of the monasteries.

So he stands at the bottom and summons people to join him.

There was a pub up there, when i lived there, 

which makes you wonder, if a good meal and a drink might 

help make people think that life was worth living after all?

These days i expect it might take more than one square meal.

 

ghosts of Pevensey

Ghosts of Pevensey

My being besotted with the pagan stretch of coast aside,

what hauntings are there in Pevensey?

There is supposed to be a white

 ( sometimes grey, but misty, so maybe that ambiguity is understandable)

 lady seen on the castle walls.

There are a number of contenders to who she might be, 

Lady Joan Pelham, who around 1399 was besieged

 in the castle by Yorkist forces, 

or Queen Joan of Navarre, who married Henry IV in 1401,

But when he died intrigue began, and she was imprisoned,

charged with being a witch. She ended up in Pevensey 

under the charge of Sir John Pelham, constable of Pevensey castle, 

and our other candidate's husband. She was released by Henry V, 

as he did repent treating her in this way, but you imagine 

that her period there would entitle her 

to be a candidate for the ghost

The Mint House, a building opposite the East Gate of the castle,

is also said to be haunted, by another? female ghost.

This one is reported to be dressed in Elizabethan garb, 

seen inside, but also pressing her face agajnst the window.

Attribution of grey, green, blue or white misty ladies has to be

entirely speculative, doesn't it? But nothing particularly ancient  there.

Other reports include a Roman centurion... after all 

It was not only William the Conqueror who landed here, so did the Romans...

A monk and a drummer boy.

pevensey

Pevensey

I'm going to tell you a psychotic little personal story.

It is an event from my childhood.

This happened on a holiday in Hastings.

It kind of escalated into an episode for me,

which resulted in my bizarre mind, i guess,

And my fascination with the occult.

It was a bad time to take me on a holiday in the first place.

I had had an operation on my sinuses the week prior 

to the trip out. I always had a problem with them, 

and so i was put to sleep in order to perform the surgery.

I was brought home the following morning, groggy,

and opening a drawer to get some cutlery i took

the whole drawer out in one pull, scattering its contents

All over the floor. The morning after we caught a coach early.

The holiday was marked by two incidents. The first,

I blacked out in the tunnels beneath Hastings Castle.

(To be precise my eyesight went green)

The other was in Pevensey. My father liked castles...

Well, when we tried to leave, we couldn't find the bus stop for

the return home. We discovered that  buses 

were few and far between. I had the distinct feeling

that history was trying to retain me!

That something about this whole landscape 

was a powerful force aimed at holding me fast in its clutches.

Silly childish belief, or life long obsession?

I call it the Pevensey Web. 

Nothing supernatural here, unless it be within myself.

History for the English leapt forward in this place, as William the Conqueror

landed on the beaches here.

Maybe i was reincarnated from someone, who died at

The Battle of Hastings.

 

Chanctonbury 2

Chanctonbury

Apparently at Chanctonbury there is also a druidic

spirit, who is seen walking, with his head lowered, as

though searching for something. It could be that

he is meditating or lost in thought.

There was also an old man seen, 

although it is suggested that he might be the same ghost.

He may have been a guardian spirit.

The story is that they dug up a Saxon hoard hard by,

and after that the old man was not seen any more.

There is a sense of something being there. 

When  I went I could feel it myself, 

however I saw nothing. Perhaps the guardian

spirit no longer takes physical form, but is still watchful.

You might feel that you are being followed around.

There used to be moonlit walks at Chanctonbury Ring 

as day excursions from London Victoria, 

in the good old days.

Whatever happened to them?

On my 9th birthday in 1968 a group held a vigil on 

Chanctonbury Rings, ( not to celebrate my birthday, sadly)

and one of the participants allegedly 

lost the use of his arms and legs, and fell to the floor screaming.

There are quite a lot of stories like that, from people, who 

brave the night there. Is there residue magic from 

witch's ceremonies lurking in the ground, 

or power from the depths of the earth, 

which disrupt human senses?

Chanctonbury

Chanctonbury

This is a different story. The old ways seem to survive

in legendary places after all. This is a site replete with stories of ghosts, witches

and the "Good People" ( what you would no doubt

call the fairies, but as elemental forces, maybe,

that doesn't do them full justice.)

There is even a story that the devil, himself, 

might appear on Midsummer's Eve or any moonlit night,

should you perform certain acts, like running around the ring seven times.

I would query if we really mean the horned beast here, and not just the 

Christian Satan. I will keep the two separate, as i believe

them to be two separate belief systems.

 

Sounds of children crying, or the chanting of monks, have been heard

If you remember in a early blog i said i had heard this

at Whitby Abbey, and was far from sure that it could not be 

put down to music being played somewhere. 

After all, i have heard all kinds of ringtones on mobile phones.

It is a strange place, however, and you can feel it. 

Maybe it is so alive with power, that it can 

respond to  what's in your mind, and make you hear

 what you want to hear.

If witches have been summoning there for centuries,

who knows what power might be let loose in this ancient place?

cissbury

Cissbury

I'm a bit late getting off the ground today.

A cold stsrt. It's freezing... anyway, 

I wanted to continue with hill forts.

On the way inland towards the Downs.

Cissbury.

I've  been to Cissbury, although not very recently.

Cissbury appears to have a not very archaic ghost.

Like with Highdown it seems more recent.

The place really does have an eerie feel to it. 

An old friend of Sussex folk is the highwayman.

It's claimed that the highwayman attacked long distance coaches

on the boundary of Findon.

He was caught, tried and executed for his crimes.

It's claimed that as he died, he said he would not

rest easily in his grave, and apparently he doesn't.

His ghost used to be seen on horseback, 

and drivers would pass over a body in the road.

Even the crack of bones passing over it!

However like me he doesn't like modern times, 

and hasn't been seen for many years.

Nobody knows where his mortal remains are buried...

the eld

The old world.

Very much a struggle yesterday.

So i missed a day. Finishing off a long sci fi story about the apocalypse, 

which doesn't want to end... well, the end already happened 

i suppose before the story began.

And wasn't it cold? Well it was here... 

Fit for the world of ancient England.

I was thinking about the prehistoric hillforts.

Highdown has always had a soft spot for me. It's a great 

Viewpoint overlooking thesea from Worthing to Littlehampton..

View from Highdown

You would think that something ancient walked here, but if it does,
then the story of the peculiar tomb of Old John Oliver has eclipsed it.
He was the miller from Lancing (b 1709) who was buried
in a showy tomb, before the stile, which leads up to the hill.
They say that he was buried upside
down because on judgement day, everything would be turned
Topsy-turvy. Well, that must be now, as everything's topsy-turvy now.
Which must be why his ghost has been seen and heard.
He was reputed to be a smuggler, so maybe he had
other uses for the tomb!
I think this is a mysterious haunted place in its own right.
Quite apart from him.

localities on the coast

The dark pagan South

Is the coast more haunted than inland.?

I live on the coast, and i often wonder if some of that 

sense of desolation off the sea rubs off on you.

I feel a little like the elderly professor holidaying

on the coast, in "Oh Whistle and I'll Come to you, My Lad!"

It doesn't need to be the windswept Essex  or Norfolk coasts

for that wild ocean spirit of isolation and being overwhelmed 

by the elements to get the better of you.

West Sussex sea

Well, its my conjecture that South of the Downs is a land of awful mystical 

and yes deadly primitive energy of the powerful and merciless sea, and primeordial throwbacks into spiritual prehistory,

which has embedded itself into our very souls.

Ancient, pagan, primitive and basically amoral, 

by which i mean it has no regard for human life whatsoever.

Something so primal and monstrous thst it defies description.

So i'll cherrypick a few primitive examples of the darksome, dire 

historic primalness of the place, over days to come.

The realm of sea landings and shsdowy history of 

the British, between The Pevensey Landings, 

and Nelson's setting off for Trafalgar.

Which gives you some idea of the area in question.

piers 4

I believe that things are on the mend, 

but this bug adamantly refuses to get its talons out of me.

The symptoms do appear to be subsiding. 

Not going, though, altogether.

Very busy yeaterday, so didn't get organised to blog .

 i'll finish the brief pier survey with Blackpool pier
Again it appears to be more a case of the theater being haunted
than the pier itself?
It's said to be the ghost of a "Charlie" who threw himself off
a balcony. This is probably testimony of a medium, and so
without verification, even if someone called Charlie did do that.

Blackpool pier

There doesn't appear to be any clearer information on-line.
If i find any more i'll post it, but i think the story proves
that places of entertainment are absolutely
places where memories are retained.
Of course there are so many haunted theatres a whole website
Wouldn't be enough to cover them all.

more piers

Derelict Piers

If you would like to know more about derelict pers, here is a useful website

 http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2009/12/grand-and-

 abandoned-3-peeling-pleasure-piers/

Apparently the Grand pier at Weston was in the same condition 

as so may others.

More fire damage. Poor Weston Super Mare,

But it does appear to have been rebuilt and reopened.

CROMER PIER

Another pavilion theatre again said to be haunted.

This is of an actor who appears on stsge when real actors,

are on the stage,  or so the story goes.

He has a tall black hat, has black hair and an ashen face... 

Maybe he's Johnny Depp!

Actually, they say that he is an Irish actor called

Dick Condon....There is also poltergeist activity.

Also ghostly sounds of  a male voice, and a female voice

laughing and singing.

There also claims of mediaeval figures wearing sackcloth walking 

outside along the pier.... why such ancient looking ghosts?

Well apparently a pier stood in Cromer from the 1300s, and over the centurues

there were several before the current one, 

The last previous one being of cast iron and destroyed in a storm in 1822

This is a pier greedy for a ghostly reputation, as there is a claim

that the lifeboat shed on the pier and its surrounds

Cromer pier

are also haunted by the spirits of dead lifeboatmen.

I hear that it's considered that the whole cocktail of stories may have been

elaborated and added to by the Most Haunted visit.

I haven't seen that episode myself...

As i said i gave up on M H, and the like,  because of all the screaming 

covering what they reported hearing, and distracting you

from what was claimed to be being witnessed.

weston pier

A much more recent pucture of THE SAME PIER

Weston pier - this one at least, has fallen into disrepair

That is to say, the last i heard. It was shut up, at the time of my research, 

And this is how it looked.

It suffered extensive storm damage in 1990, and was shut to the public in 1994.

More to come....back to the ghosts....

piers 3

Weston pier

My family story

It's also a christmas story, although not a ghost story.

On Boxing day 1897 members of my ancestral family burnt down the pier pavillion

at Weston Super Mare.

The story really begins when, due to the flow of visitors coming to Weston

to take the air, the council decided that a landing place for boats 

was needed.A plan was devised to link a rocky outcrop, called Berne Island

later Birnbeck Island, with the mainland. It was completed in 1866.

There was a pavilion on the pier, a promenade and a landing jetty.

Steamer traffic increased the pier's popularity.

Amusement stalls and fairground rides added to its popularity 

in 1890. Then my ancestral family, at least one branch,

arrived in Weston.

They were the Bennets, .... no, not Gordon Bennet, but Thomas,

and his wife Mary. She is the one, who carried my family blood,

A  cousin. My 3x gt grandfather, Lorenz Heinrich Opperman had several daughters,

Augusta Charlotte, my ancestor, and Mary, who married a man 

called Joseph Hinchcliffe. It was their daughter, who took her family 

to Weston Super Mare, and Thomas was the one who  then took over

Weston pier pavillion.

He was a publican, and must have been there for at least 4 years.

Putting the children to bed on boxing day in the pavilion

living quarters, one of the oil lamps was upset.

The fire which resulted caused then  £3000-3500. But 

insurance covered the damage, and it was rebuilt.

In the 1901 census the family were living in the new 

pavilion buildings on the pier.

piers 2

Eastbourne

Another Pier that I know well. I used to live and work in Eastbourne.

This apparently has a soldier's ghost on it. He is seen smoking

and leaning against the pier railings, and is reported to acknowledge

late night visitors, as there is a nightclub on the pier

(At least there was at the time of the information, which i've sourced.)

Hastings

The story connected with this pier, which, as i said, was coincidentally

another fire casualty, was that it has a time slip connected with it, 

a little like the Versaille incident.

Apparently, during a recent refurbishment, workers reported 

that one evening, coming in to work, they unexpectedly found

one of the shop units occupied. It was a fully fitted old- fashioned tea room.

Edwardian, they thought.

The following day when they came in, they said, the tea room

had vanished. 

Apparently this time-slip tea-room had been seen before

and was one which dated from about 1900. 

Last time i visited the pier was before the recent fire,

Hastings Pier c 2007

And there was a tea shop there, albeit not an Edwardian one.

piers

Cleveden pier

This one is interesting so, i think, i'll simply let you see for yoursekves

 by giving the web address: 

Http://hayleyisaghost.co.uk/clevedon-pier-ghost/

 This could be a common situation, where sitings are prompted to

Increase by virtue of being reported, and other witnesses

enhancing their own experiences, or sharing in the milieu.

It's a case of shadows seen out of the corner of the eye.

Frankly, though, the testimony of someone who says that they see

something as against that of someone, who never has, 

do have to be weighed against who is sensitive,

and who is not, and the tendency of the human eye 

to be deceived. We are hot wired to see human forms, 

whether they are there or not. Survival is the reason

for this talent, or capacity, because if there really is

something there, we need time to react, and find safety.

All of which implies that there might after all be something there

 to be seen, in the first place.

Might our ancestors have had to be on the look out for

hostile spiritual entities as well as human enemies?

I'll try to keep entering blogs. Bad day yesterday, 

Really headachy and not well. The flu bug still

has hold, but today seems confined to making me feel sniffly

and giddy. I wish that spiritual enemy would release its hold on me,

Tomorrow more piers with any luck.....

haunted piers 1

Piers 1

I'll start in Brighton, as it's quite close to home.

I mentioned the West Pier, which is little more today 

than a skeleton in the sea, but it had a ghost.

As is often the case, the theatre on the pier is where

the haunting took place. The fairly common theatrical 

ghost, of a  well dressed gentleman, seated in the audience

during rehearsals. Apparently it was assumed to be the designer 

of the pier's theatre. 

Nowadays there's another ghost, a great silver pole 

sticking up into the sky on the promenade....

a strange sort of gravestone for one of the great

Original state of dereliction

 

West Pier after fire.it's even worse today

The ghost train on Palace Pier

archtectural features of the coast .

The Palace pier is also said to be haunted. That, of course, still

stands, and is a wonderful thing to remember Brighton's past by.

The ghost train is supposed to be haunted.

It's one of those hauntings, where things happen when 

the ride is switched off.

Torches turn off by themselves, when employees walk 

through in the dark,and footsteps are heard.

It's a place we are informed that employees don't like to enter

after hours.

haunted piers

Piers

No, not Piers Anthony.

I mean those wonderful old structures,  which were built

when seaside holidays took off, as fun spaces 

and fairgrounds, along the English coast.

Many today are falling into the sea, are rotting away,

or have fallen foul of arson

e.g Brighton's now skeletal West Pier, and Hastings, 

Hastings pier

 which has had such a shocking fire trauma in 2010, 

after having been restored, and i remember 

sitting in a cafe there as late as 2008;

 and Eastbourne, fire wounded only the other year

Eastbourne pier

I went there for a day trip the week after the fire.

My brother was on holiday there in a flat overlooking it!

Has somebody got a grievance against piers, and assassinating them?

Then, there's the old dance hall in a pier on the lake,

in Carnival of Souls..... very spooky indeed.

An empty pier is a strange haunted thing.

Members of my ancestral family were employed 

to caretake a pier, and burnt it down by accident!

I've researched that incident... and although it isn't a ghost

Story, I'll tell that too, as it exists now as a memory....

But i will  tell the tales of some haunted piers

In the next few blogs......

Happy New Year?

I actually feel a trifle better today. 

It's been an awful Christmas with toothache following three

extractions, and a latent fluey bug which exploded over New Year

with one final attempt to turn me into a zombie.

I think that it succeeded.

The carnival of souls

 so, what's for the New Year for any of us, except being 

drowned in the internet, and being ressurected...

Nothing else?

They keep showing this movie...Carnival of Souls on tv.

How many of you have wandered the streets,

 and felt that nobody either sees and hears you, 

and that there is no sound? 

That you are no longer a part of this world?

That there's no place in life left for you........

That something  or someone else is calling you from The Other Side...

Who would that be? What place would that be?

witches

I am quite ill at the  moment,

With a severe head cold or flu, 

So can't guarantee a blog at all.

Well who knows... why is it doctors have returned

to the dark ages, and neither know what illnesses are

nor intend to treat us?... this society is retreating 

into statements like "let them die and decrease the 

surplus polpulation," just like the mercenary money lender,

Scrooge, or hanging judges.

The Malleus describes an event in Zabern, where a woman 

attempted to persuade a pregnant lady to take her as a

midwife, and she agreed, but as she neared birthing,

knowing this woman's bad reputation, she brought in

a different midwife.

The woman lay a curse on her in front of witnesses.

She said, "because she has offended me, I am going to

put something into her entrails." She gave her six months grace,

and then told her that she would suffer terrible pains.

This duly happened, and by praying and fasting she finally stopped

the agony. It was said brambles and other things fell from her body.

The midwife was brought to trial, and of course confessed

that a lot of harm was caused by midwives.

No doubt after considerable punishment herself.

witch trials 2

Witch trials 2

Here is a quote from the Malleus Maleficarium.(1486 or thereabouts)

"The fact that certain witches, against the instinct of human nature

.....are in the habit of devouring and eating human children. And concerning

this, the Inquisitor of Como has told us the following:that he was

 summoned by the inhabitants of the county of Barby...because

 a certain man had missed his child from its cradle,

and finding a congress of women in the night -time, swore

that he saw them kill his child and drink its blood and devour it......

We must add that in all these matters witch midwives cause yet greater 

injuries, as penitent witches have often told us.....

No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives. 

For, when they do not kill children, then, as if for some other purpose, 

they take them out of the room and,

 raising them up in the air, offer them to devils."

Incredible isn't it.? Well, where women bleed men keep

their distance, and don't wish to be involved, and 

shy away from birthing, which means that they have no idea 

what was really happening.

It's unbelievable that any sane man shared these views.

Probably they were lifted in the air by their heels themselves,

and then the devils owned them!

 of course there were more enlightened men around, with 

intelligent medical knowledge, but presumably 

the writer of the 'Witches Hammer' didn't ask them

For their opinion.

I'll tell you a tale of a witch midwife from this book tomorrow.

witch trials

Witch trials

The case i mentioned is interesting as it attests

to a large body of individuals, who would be natural victims

of the witch persecutors: the midwives.

I have been looking at the history of midwifery,

and doesn't it just have a bearing on the situation?

There are many cases of older women, giving assistance at a birth

Or standing in after birth to look after the newly born 

children, and those children dying, so that the midwife is accused 

of bewitching the children to death!

But the fact is that they were just local women called on

for their experience of helping with birth and looking after babies

who maybe had herbalist knowledge too,

and delivery of children was frought in those days, 

with no medical treatment, no medical training, no 

medical utensils. They didn't even have forceps to help

the process until years afterwards.

Many babies would naturally have died in the process of birth

or in the ensuing weeks. 

These women were therefore perfect targets 

and thus accused of causing the child's death.

It is always a risk of offering medical care to superstitious oeople,

that a failure can be taken as a sign of malice.

It isn't only that, either. 

I could add a feminist take on the situation, 

that men would have no awareness at all of the birthing process....

More to come......