Folklore page 2

Extracts from the excellent web site at the Sussex Archaeology & Folklore. Click on this link to take you to their site for more information

The Devil And St. Dunstan Rottingdean

St. Dunstan, who lived until 988CE, is also noted for other encounters with the Devil, the first in Mayfield where he worked as a blacksmith though at the time he was the Archbishop of Canterbury. One day when he was working in his smithy, making either a horseshoe or a piece of metalwork for a church, the devil came to him disguised as a beautiful girl who began talking about spiritual matters but then fell to flirting. St. Dunstan seeing a cloven hoof under the girl's skirt, picked up his red hot tongs and clamped them round the Devil's nose who shrieked and changed shape through various hidious monsters before turning back into his real form as the Devil at which point St. Dunstan released him and he fled to Tunbridge Wells to cool his nose in the waters there, giving the iron rich waters their characteristic red colour and making it notably warmer in the process. One version of the story says that St. Dunstan landed on a bridge, which still bears his name and walked to Tunbridge Wells where he cooled his tongs in the water to produce its red colouring. The tongs still reside in Mayfield, hanging on the wall above his anvil and hammer. One writer considered only the hammer to be of any freat antiquity.

The second legend regarding the Devil and St. Dunstan also occured in Mayfield when the convent there had just been built. The Devil appeared to St. Dunstan and said that he was going to knock down all the houses in the village. St. Dunstan bargained with the Devil and got him to agree to leave standing any house with a horseshoe on the outside. At that time, the custom of nailing horseshoes to dooe for luck wasn't well known so the Devil agreed but St. Dunstan managed to nail a horseshoe to all the houses in the village before the Devil could get to them so the village was saved.

The Devil managed to get some measure of revenge against St. Dunstan but repeatedly setting Mayfield church, then built of wood, off it's normal East-West axis, leaving St. Dunstan to repeatedly correct it. He then proceeded to hinder the building of the new stone church.

Another church is involved with yet another St. Dunstan story. This time is is the steeple of the church in the village of Brookland, just over the border into Kent. The Devil took the steeple and was chased by St. Dunstan who caused the Devil to drop the steeple near Hastings by application of the tongs mentioned in the Mayfield story. St. Dunstan then cooled his tongs in a spring in the Silverhill region of Hastings, which became chalybeate. The Devil And Churches

As has been noted above, the Devil doesn't like churches, according to one legend regarding Hollington Church near Hastings, he was powerless to stop it being built so he moved it a distance away into some woodland to make it difficult for people to find it. Another version tells us that priests were summoned to banish the Devil after he had undid the work of the workmen when they were building the church. The Devil agreed to desist if the church was erected at a spot he chose, the priests agreed and the church was built, after which a thick woodland sprung up around it.

At St. Nicholas church, Brighton, the Devil tried other more subtle means to destroy the church. St. Nicholas was trying to root out the worship of Diana in the area so the Devil disguised himself as a pious woman an gave pilgrims who came by a vase of oil with which to annoint the church. The liquit the vases contained would actually burn stone walls. The bishop however met with the pilgrims and thwarted the Devil's plan.

Elliot Curwen, who did a talk on the Devil in Sussex says that he also tried to prevent the building of Waldron church, there being a Church Field 2 miles away, and the legend regarding the building of Alfriston Church has also been ascribed to the work of the Devil.

Yet another church moving tale doesn't mention the Devil but is included here for completeness. When the church at Udimore was being built, the days work was spoilt by the stones being carried to another place whilst a voice shreiked "O'er the mere". This episode is credited as giving the village of Udimore its name.

Churches in out of the way places may be an indication that they are built on old Pagan sites, the struggle actually being between the existing pagans and the Christians who want to build. Certainly the sites of some churches boggles the practical mind and legends such as these may be a means to explain their location.

Black Dogs In Sussex

Sussex itself has its fair share of Black Dog ghosts, the common name for which are 'Wish Hounds' or 'Witch Hounds'. Despite sightings of Black Dogs, it was once a superstition in Sussex that when the ghosts of dogs walk abroad, they are only seen by other dogs. The Sussex historian M.A. Lower once said : "Nearly every unfrequented corner has its Demon in the form of a Black Dog". From East to West, here are the stories :

* There has been a sighting of a ghostly black dog in Harewick Bottom, a small valley in the South Downs just south-east of Jevington. The dog appeared and then vanished.

* A sighting of a Ghostly Black Dog on Windover Hill above the Long Man of Wilmington corresponds with other sightings of Black Dogs around barrows in other parts of the country. The area of the South Downs is where most of the Black Dog sightings are concentrated.

* Alfriston has two ghostly dogs, though only one of them black. The black dog ghost here has been seen several times on a full moon running from the Downs through "Town Fields" to look over the flint wall of the road before running back again. The second dog is white but had a reputation of being an omen of death
or bad luck. The dog and his master, an heir to a local estate, were murdered by some farm labourers to supply them with drinking money. The Dog and his master were buried at the side of the road and the ghost of the dog appeared on Midsummer Eve every seven years until the road was widened, the remains found and given a proper burial.

* On the main road which runs East-West to the south of Lewes and Mount Caburn, before it was widened, a ghostly black dog, like a Labrador was seen walking east along the road before disappearing into thin air.

* In a valley to the east of Philpots Promontory Camp wanders the ghost of a Black Dog. A poacher in the area has said : "There's one thing I dare not do; I'd be afear'd to walk through that girt valley below Big-On-Little after dark. It's a terrible ellynge place and a gurt black ghost hound walks there o'nights". Ellynge is a local Sussex word for eerie and the hound is called "Gytrack" which is very similar to the "Guytrash" found in the north of England. Ian Hannah notes that the valley "seems to have no name (except that it is locally known as the Grattack, after a dog)".

* Just south-east Ditchling is a spur of the Downs called 'Blackdog Hill' which is haunted by the ghost of a headless black dog. It is interesting to note the path that runs diagonally over the hill points directly towards Westmeston Church and may be the remains of an old 'Corpse Way' or 'Coffin Road' along which the dead were taken along a dead straight line to be buried. The dog is seen by many cultures as a protector of the dead. The dog has been seen on the road from Ditchling to Westmeston which curves around the hill. Nearby is the earthworks of Ditchling Beacon hillfort where as late as 1933, a wild hunt has been heard flying overhead with the sound of horses hooves and yapping dogs. This was a common tale told by the shepherds who worked on this area of the downs, who would say their sheepdogs would crouch down and look upwards wimpering because the witch-hounds were passing overhead. The shepherds are all gone, but the tale remains. Another version of the tale says the phenomenon is actually a phantom army which passes over the area on May 24th to May 26th and leaves a nasty smell as it passes.

* A wood near Henfield was haunted by an animal the size of a calf with flaming red eyes. This particular story may have been started by smugglers, who often used such tales to keep people away from where they stored their illegal goods.

* In the appropriately named village of Yapton south-west of Arundel, it is said that the villagers leave their door open to let the ghostly black dog roam freely. This is more out of fear of angering it and causing it to howl than welcoming it into their houses as the dog would howl if not allowed to pass freely. Other stories relating to the leaving of doors open include a farmer having a calf get his head stuck in the bars of a gate, causing the farmer to leave all doors and gates open. Another tale tells of a man who to avoid window tax, blocks up all his windows, causing his servants to leave his doors open to let some light into the place. A more prosaic reason is that the doors were left open for the smugglers so they could easily hide themselves and thier booty.

There are also places in Sussex with Black Dog place names but no legend known by the author, who would like to hear any information on these, or any other Black Dog tales in Sussex, from anyone who knows any.

* Just south of the Surrey border near Haslemere is a place called Black Dog copse.

* An old name for a lane that runs between the old Crawley high street and West Green is Black Dog Lane.

* A Place marked on old OS maps as Black Dog near Horsted Keynes.