Witchcraft in Sussex

A Story of Witchcraft in Sussex.

Taken from 'Glimpses of our Ancestors', 1883.  C.Fleet.

Sussex was, as with most counties in England, subject to a period in our history that was at best misguided, and at worst, downright cruel.  I speak of the times of Witchcraft and how, at a certain point in our history, it could mean death for any poor person accused of such deeds.  Those souls, some of which  were no more than herbalists of the time, country folk with great knowledge of all things healing, and people who preferred to live alone in solitude with few friends for company, became victims of horrendous crimes carried out in the name of the church, the government and the will of the people.

It must be said though, that at this time, education was pretty much non-existent, except for those born into nobility, religious service and a few self-educated persons, most folk were very superstitious and wary of strangers especially of those who lived on the fringe of their lives.  This lack of education and fear of the dark was a main reason of the witch hunts that prevailed throughout the British Isles and beyond.  Supported by Noted dignataries and the backing of the church, it became a driving force to be feared by all who lived during these years.

The following excerpt I found interesting and wanted to place it online for you to read.  I hope you enjoy it......

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R.H.Nibbs Churches

The Churches of Sussex

Drawn by R.H.Nibbs Artist

Richard Henry Nibbs worked as an artist over the whole of the Sussex area and recorded through his drawings the various buildings and the state they were in at that time.

He used many mediums during his lifetime and his etchings of the Sussex landscape are many and drawn with skill and attention to detail.  He made drawings of all the churches of Sussex at that time (1850s) with extra drawings of some of the finer details within the churches.  These drawings were then made into a book called 'The Churches of Sussex', 1872.  You can see the introduction page below which I thought was important enough to be included within this article.  

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A Brighton Haunting

Strange Tale from Brighton - circa 1926

IT will be news to all but a few people that Brighton is the scene of an extra-ordinary and well authenticated ghost story. It is a story of a prim house, exactly like its neighbours in a prosaic street ; of a grim apparition ; of noises, strange and even terrifying ; and of a dramatic, and apparently effective, exorcism, with candle, bell and book in the most approved medieval manner.

It is altogether a curious, and in some ways a disturbing story.

The teller of it started with the disadvantage that, as it was a true story, concerning a house rated, rented and inhabited, and about local people , reticence has to be observed about names and addresses.

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Gay Prioress

Tales of the Gay Prioress of Easebourne

There are lots of priories in Sussex, and all in various stages of preservation, but I know of only one that is at present used as a vicarage, and this one is doubtless passed hundreds of times by the many sightseers who go to look at the famous Cowdray ruins. It is Easebourne Priory, where priory and church are almost one.

The beautiful and noble house of Cowdray, brought to ruin by fire in September, 1793, has such romantically historic associations that it is hardly surprising it should receive the wondering attention of visitors, who gaze mutely at the sheering but jagged stone of the great walls and the huge sixteenth-century windows now open to the sky. But the priory at Easebourne is not in ruin; in fact, with modernization, it is remarkably well preserved, and escapes the traveller's notice.

It was, of course, this very neglect, so close to our own doorstep, that persuaded us it was time a little of the old `glory' of the priory was restored. I use the word 'glory' because while our tale of Easebourne Priory will send us dipping back into the glory of Cowdray, it will also bring, to light a colourful little piece of scandal.

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Old Sussex Dialect

Specimens of Old Sussex Dialect.

There follows a few examples of how hard it was to understand pure country dialect such as that in Sussex.  

EH be gwene t'Henvul t'mor ter look at dem dere hogs.  Dey sey deirn be better dun ouern, eh sey dey beant.

Ouern be a good lot o' shuts, an dey be middlin lusty.  

De travlin's purty bad, and de brooks be out, but b'ou-t-will eh shall goo, regn eh shall git dere somehow.

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House Surgeon

House Surgeon - County Hospital, Sussex.

Memories of how the County Hospital was run in the 1860s.

I left the Dispensary in 1862, and about mid-summer, 1864, was elected House Surgeon to the Sussex County Hospital, a post which had been my aim since the time I was pupil there. During that interval, surgery had advanced a little, but not very much. Diseases of joints which had, during my pupilage, been treated with blisters and cupping, were now put on splint, and kept at rest.

The first traces of the present aseptic and antiseptic treatment of wounds might be seen in the greater cleanliness, and in the use of such lotions as lead, zinc, and specially carbolic acid instead of plain water, though it must not be forgotten that Friar's balsam, balsam of Peru, and turpentine in various forms had been used from time immemorial.

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The Lanes - A History

The Lanes of Brighton - The Heart.

What impression would the words " The Lanes" convey to the millions of people who yearly pass up and down the long thoroughfare that leads from the railway station to the sea ? Little do they reek of The Lanes, they who speed down the London Road, in their hundred thousands, by foot, cycle, car or coach. I have been astonished to find how many are the inhabitants of Brighton and Hove to whom " The Lanes " is merely the name of a quarter of the town they have rarely had occasion to visit.

The Lanes are the most picturesque as well as the most distinctive portion of Brighton. They are a quaint survival of the long past. Medieval in plan, mustily ancient in buildings and in odour, they are a flagrant anachronism. In Canterbury, in York, in any ancient Cathedral city, they would belong to the general scheme of things and would be vigorously and clamantly exploited. But in Brighton—up to date mushroom Brighton, tripper haunted, motor-ridden —this labyrinthine congeries of tortuous streets is nothing but a blank contradiction of the rest. The Lanes are one of the things of which Brighton does not speak. She hides them discreetly out of sight, behind the lofty ornate buildings of her busiest shopping thoroughfares. Yet they have artistic and historic interest.

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A Soldier's Tale

A Foreign Soldier in a Strange Land.

Here is a true story, told by Colonel Coats, the humane old soldier who devoted his life, unto death itself, to the cause of the wounded in that exotic hospital which was the Dome in Brighton during the First World War. 1914-1918.

In the first days of the fighting, when our organization in France was still in the improvised stage, a wounded Indian, of the Mohammedan faith, was picked up unconscious on the battle field and sent to Brighton. He arrived still unconscious. He was placed in a bed in the Dome. Consciousness returned to him. He opened his eyes, he saw, he wondered.

He saw above him the great arch of the Dome, pierced with coloured transparencies, patterned with intricate arabesques, rich with symbolic devices. From it, high over his head, hung the great central chandelier, its ten thousand crystals flashing with prismatic hues. Around him was a wide circle of Saracenic arches picked out in gold, and each bearing a lamp that seemed a cluster of diamonds. On the broad capital of a pillar in front of him he could read the Koranic text, written in the flowing Arabian characters,

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