Folklore Of Sussex

Every May Day, bundles of branches tied with colourful ribbons appear on Hastings’ shopfronts and streetlamps. Drumming swells as crowds of green-clad bogies, festival-goers in shorts and t-shirts, and Morris dancers fill Hastings’ winding streets. And then comes the main event: Jack in the Green’s wizened face appears on a towering cone of leaves topped with a crown at the centre of the festivities. The Jack in the Green festival marks the passage of spring to summer. But from where does this bizarre tradition originate? The roots are too tangled to know for sure, and the first recording of the festival was in 1770. However, some believe celebrations of the ‘Green Man’ hail from the pagan Anglo-Saxons who established England’s historic county of Sussex, and the myth transformed with each subsequent generation. But Jack in the Green is only one of Sussex’s many mysteries. Fearsome beasts, terrifying giants, cackling witches, and plucky fairies are just a few of the creatures populating the folklore of this strange and savage land. Ending with the modern celebration of the Jack in the Green festival, this collection of stories traces the roots of Sussex’s centuries of tall tales, mythology, and folklore.

Sussex, though near London and nowadays extensively urbanised, has a rich heritage of traditional local stories, customs and beliefs. Among many topics explored here are tales linked to landscape features and ancient churches which involve such colourful themes as lost bells, buried treasures, dragons, fairies and the devil. There are also traditions relating to ghosts, graves and gibbets and the strange powers of witches. This book, when it was first published in 1973, was the first to be entirely devoted to Sussex folklore. This new edition contains information collected over the last thirty years, updated accounts of county customs and, alongside the original line drawings, is illustrated with photographs and printed ephemera relating to Sussex lore.

With screaming demons in Wealdon copses and dragons lurking in bottomless ponds, the folk tales of Sussex truly represent the diversity of the area. Meet knuckers and willocks, mawkins and marsh monsters, the Piltdown Man, Lord Moon of Amberley Swamp and the princess of the Mixon Hole. There is also something terrible crawling to Crawley from Gatwick, which develops a degraded appetite in a bin ... From ghosts and madmen to witches and wise women, Michael O’Leary reveals many of the hidden horrors of Sussex – horrors that can be found in the most beautiful places, or that lurk beneath the seemingly mundane. Amid these dark tales are stories of humour and silliness, of love, lust and passion.

The stories in this collection have slipped on a sunbeam, skidded on the dew and sprinted fast as a fox to be here with you. Of course, they're true, puffed on to the page with a hint of lavender and a gust of sage. They tell of Sussex: its sparkling seas; chalk giants; wise witches and crossdressing smugglers. Once you've heard them, you'll know that when leaves skitter, it's Puck, the sprite of Sussex, fighting with his sister the Fairy Queen. When you hear laughter in the forest, it's Flint, the phantom highwayman making his escape, and when you run over the Downs, you'll remember they were shaped by the Devil's buttocks. These tales – specially chosen for the enjoyment of 7- to 11-year-old readers – sparkle with magic and explode with adventure. Not only will children love to read them, or listen to them being read, these stories will also stimulate an interest in the county and help children engage with their own surroundings.