By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist
🎃 Halloween is upon us and in today’s blog post we will be taking a peek into some of the ghostly occurrences that can be teased out from our collections. 👻
St Cuthman’s School
The Victorian mansion that went onto house school children was originally built in 1876 for Alexander Scrimgeour. The site went onto be purchased by the Bedford Estate in 1928. The first school on this site was not established until after the estate was purchased St Cyprian’s School in 1939 for £13,500. Then in 1947 St Cuthman’s School was established as a girl’s boarding school. It remained on this site as a girl’s boarding school until 1957 after space was becoming limited and due its remoteness it became too difficult to fill teacher positions. It was sold to West Sussex County Council who than began running a mixed-sex special needs school which subsequently closed in 2004. Between 2010-2017 Durand Academy was ran from the site but it has since been unoccupied.
Within the document ‘A Brief History of the Wispers Estate and St Cuthman’s School’ by Michael Gates (E/182A/19/2) there is a whole section dedicated to the ghost stories of the school. There are accounts of door knobs rattling with no explanation, doors that would not move no matter how much force was applied, a lady in black walking straight through a window, and shadowy figures appearing and disappearing on the lawn. Children and adults alike reported these sightings.
Cuckfield Place
When searching the term ‘haunted’ on our catalogue you will stumble upon a Garland photograph titled “Cuckfield: the haunted avenue leading up to Cuckfield Place” and with this your attention is grabbed. What makes this avenue haunted?
Unfortunately, little can be gleamed from our catalogue, but the wider internet and reference books have provided! According to Cuckfield in old picture postcards by M Wright (Lib 14893) the avenue pictured above was cursed by the ‘Doom Tree’ which was located at the “far end of the lime avenue which is believed to shed a bough as an omen of the death of a Sergison”. Furthermore, there were at one time gates that the ghost of Warden Sergison’s mother was seen swinging on after her passing in 1848. It is even alleged that an exorcism was performed to expel this ghost!
More on this supposed ‘Doom Tree’ we can turn to the internet for more answers. In Harrison Ainsworth’s preface to his novel “Rookwood” the superstitions circling this tree are explained and inspiration he took from Cuckfield Place:
“The supernatural occurrence, forming the ground work of one of the ballads which I have made the harbinger of doom to the house of Rookwood, is ascribed, by popular superstition, to a family resident in Sussex; upon whose estate of fatal tree (a gigantic lime, with mighty arms and huge girth of trunk, as ascribed in the song) is still carefully preserved. Cuckfield Place, to which this singular piece of timber is attached, is, I may state for the benefit of the curious, the real Rookwood Hall; for I have not drawn upon imagination, but upon memory and, in describing the seat and domains of that fated family. The general features of the venerable structure, several of its chambers, the old Garden, and, in particular the noble Park, with its spreading prospects, the picturesque views of the hall, “like bits of Mrs Radcliffe” (as the poet Shelley once observed of the same scene), it’s deep blades through which the deer come lightly tripping down, its uplands, slopes, brooks, brakes, coverts and groves, are carefully delineated.”
Amberley Castle Hotel
Tucked away in a bundle of documents you can find a letter and photographs claiming to have captured evidence of the paranormal at Amberley Castle. Take a look at these…
To the sceptic it is hard to take such photographs of apparent ghosts seriously. But to the believer it hard to explain away these strange white blurry smudges. The one who took these photographs is adamant in his letter that they are at a loss as to what happened to create such a result. Do you think they’ve captured photographic evidence of ghosts or was it just an error with their camera?
Trick Spirit Photography
During the mid-1800s photographers began experimenting with double exposures and some saw this an opportunity to take advantage of. Being able to take a photograph of sitter and have their dead loved one appear behind them in the resulting image preyed upon people’s grief for profit. The mainstream business of spirit photography did not reach England until 1872 when Fredrick Hudson’s studio began providing this service. Heading into the turn of the century scepticism was growing and in 1922, Harry Price (see our previous blog post for more about him) and other sceptics proved one of the biggest spirit photographers, William Hope, to be a fraud. But this did little to his reputation as spiritualism reined on strong.
In our archive we have a couple examples of spirit photography, however, it is rather clear that these are in gest!
A Psychical Visit
Searching our catalogue for the term ‘psychic’ brought back some interesting results that were worthwhile to delve deeper into. It appears that in Harting a haunting took place in the early 1900s and someone could not rest in peace until they were listened to. This even caught the attention of the Society for Psychical Research decades later!
On 22 August 1905, Thomas Henry Jewitt was laid to rest in Harting, however, after this took place his sister began having vivid dreams. Thomas would tell her in these dreams that his tombstone had been erected over the wrong grave. After over a year of this torment the husband of the sister feared she would lose her mind, so drastic measures ensued. The burial sites of Thomas and the one adjacent were exhumed 18 months later and it was proved that the tombstones were placed incorrectly. Once this mistake had been rectified the sister’s dreams ceased. Over twenty years later the Society for Psychical Research contacted the Reverend of Harting church to confirm the details of this story as this contact from beyond the grave must have piqued their interest!
Periodicals
From the Bognor Regis Local History Society newsletter from August 1985 (Lib 16290/13) R Iden details the ghostly appearances of Upper Bognor. Sightings of woman with young boy walking three King Charles spaniels, a woman wearing a crinoline and emanated a blueish glow and shadowy headless man have all been apparently spotted in Hotham Park!
Then from the Midhurst Magazine from 2023-24, Dawn Cansfield wrote of ghosts in Midhurst from well-known stories and first-hand accounts. The Spread-Eagle hotel and the Angel Hotel are said to be haunted. By the Cowdray ruins it is said that the ghost of a monk roams the area. There have even been sightings of Roman solider ghosts in Stedham!
Library Books
Within our reference library, we have a small selection of books relating to ghosts and haunting experiences. Sussex Ghosts and Legends by Tony Wales (Lib 12063) provides a fun foray around the ghostly tales of the county! In particular the story of Geranium Jane who is said to haunt the pub, The King’s Head, in Cuckfield. Another book of interest is Haunted Inns by Marc Alexander (Lib 12301).
Stay up to date with WSRO – follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and YouTube
West Sussex Record Office 