Folklore

Sussex has both a rich folklore of water dragons, fairies, devil's, ghosts, haunted places, witches and cuckoos and a strong belief in local superstitions.

Did you know:

• that water dragons, otherwise known as Knuckers live in Knuckholes a bottomless pool of water.

• fairies were known as 'pharisees' in Sussex dialect and are fond of dancing.  Two famous writers have written about fairies in Sussex and one of them wrote that fairies came out to play in their rings on Halloween?  These two were Hilaire Belloc and Rudyard Kipling.  Harrow Hill near Worthing is thought to be the last home of the fairies in England.

• geographic feature named after devils include Devil's Dyke.  Legend has it that the Devil, a folk villain and figure of fun, tried to drown all Wealden churches by cutting the dyke through the Downs at night to enable the sea to reach further inland.  The dragon is thought to have confused a candle, lit by an inquisative old lady to see what the noise was about, and the rising sun.  The devil ran off leaving the dyke unfinished.

• black dog ghosts,wish hounds or witch hounds were thought to be omens of death.  In Sussex there is a superstition that only dogs can see the ghosts of dogs walking and one such place is Ditchling Beacon and barking been heard.

• ghosts in Cuckfield include Geranium Jane at the Kings Head, a chambermaid at Ockendon Manor, Wicked Dame Sergison of Cuckfield Park .  See here for more information about them.

• Bevis the giant was associated with Arundel where he lived and sometimes stroode over the sea to the Isle of Wight; the Long Man at Wilmington was a memorial to a giant killed at Firle; Gill's Grave on Mount Caburn was a memorial to a giant called Gill.

• superstitions include looking for the lucky nine peas in thefirst pod that was gathered, listening ot for cuckoos of which every cuckoo in Sussex was thought to be female and a bringer of good tidings and told no lies and you cut your nails on a Monday without thinking about a fox's tale so that you received a present. A falling branch from a particular lime tree in Cuckfield Park foretold the death od one of the family living there.

• the scene of the worst train crash recorded in 1832 was in Clayton Tunnel.  23 lives were lost and 176 injured.   Bodies were carried out and laid in a field nearby; the field is thought to be haunted.

More information can be found here.