chanctonbury

The name of cissbury ring is thought to have been named after a Saxon king called cissa this would have been before the conquest of 1066, The flint mines on the south eastern side of cissbury ring date from Neolithic times the flint that was mined was used as tool's like axe's shovel's as well as cutting implement's, The mine was then used again in the 19th century for flint faced cottages in Sussex and Surrey as well as church's.

The best flint was found where there was no water so the miner would have looked in the drier spot\rquote s of the mine at cissbury ring, The shafts inside these mines were upto 10 to 50 feet deep with chamber's at the bottom where the flint was, The height of these chambers was 3 foot high from floor to ceiling so that most of the time the miner was on his hands and knee's, To light up these mines the miner would have used a chalk lit oil lamp. Deer antler's were used as picks while Oxon. shoulder bones were used as shovel's.

There is this ghost story of a phantom highwayman that haunt's the old coach road below cissbury ring , The story goes that during the 18th century a highwayman would hold up coach's and people on horseback this went on for a while until he was caught for his crimes and was hanged by the side of the of the old coach road before they hanged him the highwayman said that he would not rest !, So they then hanged him and thought nothing more of what he had said so they then dug a hole in the middle of the coach road and buried him !, But then come the next morning the body of the highwayman was on top of the grave ? so they then buried him again but once again come the morning the body was on top of the grave again this went on for about a month then stopped ,It was said that as coach's went along the old coach road that the coach would go over a bump in the road where the highwayman was buried but when the coach driver looked back there was nothing there, Then in the 19th century a highwayman held up a coach but when the driver of the coach went to run the highwayman down the coach went right through the man on horseback ?, Also villagers would report of going over a bump in the middle of the road but when they looked back there was nothing there could it have been the grave of the highwayman ?, Its said that the ghost of the highwayman still haunts the old coach road so if you hear the sound of horses hoof's it might be the ghost of the highwayman if so say hello !!.

If you head north from cissbury ring for about 4 miles you will then come to chanctonbury ring that look's a bit different after the hurricane of October 87 for in 1760 a man called sir Charles goring planted the tree's on the ring he did this as a boy , He did this single handed toiling with the tree's that were seedling's and the water up and down that hill one by one ,Sir Charles goring lived to 85 to see the tree's on chanctonbury ring grow to maturity. Charles goring then wrote a poem about chanctonbury as well as the tree's he planted some 85 year's ago the poem went ,

Oh ! could I live to see the top in all its beauty dressed,

That time;'s arrived, I've had my wish , And lived to 85,

I' ll thank my god who gave such grace, As long as ere I live !.

Then there are these ghost stories on chanctonbury ring, The first one its said that if you count the tree's on chanctonbury you can raise the army of julius Caesar but you had to count the tree's before the hurricane of 87 ?, As you had to count the tree's that were lost.

The second ghost story is that of a Saxon king some say it is Harold just before the battle of Hastings or is it a druid that can be seen on the ring and round it, Then there is this ghost of a rider on horseback that gallop's past then disappears could the rider be someone from the civil war ?.

Its said that on midsummer's eve that if you run round the ring anti clockwise or (widdershins) 7 times you will then raise the devil, The devil will then offer you a bowl of milk for your soul some say its a bowl of soup, Also its said on midsummer's eve that fairies or (farisees) can be seen dancing round the ring !.

There's this local saying that when chanctonbury ring is wearing lady goring's night-cap (when its cloudy)the people in the village's below are going to get wet (its going to rain a bit ?).

According to a local legend one night the devil was digging out a dyke by poynings to flood all the church's in the Weald of Sussex, When St cuthbert said to the devil if you can dig a dyke before the sun comes up then you have won and there will be no more church's in the Weald, But if the sun comes up before you have finished then you must flee, So St cuthbert had a candle lit in one of the cottages in the Weald so that when the devil saw it he thought that the sun was coming up and so the devil fled, What he had dug out formed devil's dyke (near Brighton) then a clod of earth fell off his spade and formed chanctonbury ring then another clod formed cissbury ring and as the devil fled across the channel the last clod of earth fell off and formed the isle of Wight.

Just to the west of cissbury ring is the village of findon mentioned in the doomsday book of 1086 it mentioned that the village had a church as well as a manor house, The manor house of findon dates from the time of Edward the confessor in 1052, It then formed part of the estate of William de braose after the battle of Hastings in 1066, The manor house that you can see today dates from the 13th century, It was said that in the 14th century Edward the third stayed the night, Until the 16th century the manor of findon was held by the Mowbray earls of Essex the house then passed to Thomas cromwell who was the lord treasurer to henry the VIII, At the time of the civil war in1640 to 1649 the manor house was in the hands of the royalist earls of thanet , Next to the manor house is the church of St john's that dates from the 11th century with the chapel being added in the 13th century, Then the church of St john's was restored in 1867.

It was then in 1651 that Charles the II stayed the night near findon manor just before heading to France from Shoreham after the civil war and the execution of Charles the I in 1649.

The start of any village is its church, Its past prosperity and the piety of the parishioners who would have used the church for mass, The monuments and the brasses of the church may record some of the important and not some important people of the village or town going back some 500 to 600 years or more, Also the gravestones in the churchyard might tell of generations of village folk that at one time lived in and around the village, Also if the graveyard is elevated a few feet above its surroundings so that you have to step down to get inside the church, A good example of this is the church at pyecombe, You see as the people died and were buried the dirt that was taken out to make room for the coffin was spread out round the churchyard so that as the centuries went on the graveyard would raise in height !.

The church was once built of wood then later replaced with stone and was the one place that villagers lavished time and money on, During Anglo Saxon times the church was built near the manor house of a local lord, And the lord would then appoint the priest and gave him a glebe (some land) some lords built church's as private chapels next to the manor house, As in some cases the church was built some distance from the manor house this would account for some villages being split in half (like the village of pyecombe), Church expenses as well as the priest were paid for by tithes a system where the villager was compelled to contribute money or any other belongings this would be one tenth, So it was one pig out of ten one bundle of corn out of ten and so on, As well as using the church to prey in they also used the nave of the church as a communal village hall to watch plays and the odd miracle ! or participate in `church ales` these were revelries held on holy days (holidays) where no one worked and it was obligatory to attend mass, It seems that the church ales were nothing more than over indulging in drink this being followed by the odd dance or two ?, The ale was probably brewed in a brew house that was attached to the church the ale was then sold in the church as well as the churchyard and the money that was raised from the sale of the ale went towards something special like a bell for the church tower, Church ales were common throughout the 15th century as the drinking often led to over indulging they were discouraged by the more sensitive priest or priests so that this event slowly but gradually fell into decline and by the 17th century had completely disappeared.

During the middle ages there were to many priests and many clerics found employment as chantry priests for some families and religious guilds, Most villages at the time were illiterate (could not read or write) so that the interiors of many church's were decorated with elaborate paintings and sculptures as well as stained glass window's that were lovingly done, That told of stories from the bible so that when the villager went to church and then stood or sat for mass they were in awe of what was on the walls of the church, From the paintings of the last judgement that the villager saw and was presented with two alternatives on life after death, From eternity in heaven with god to that of everlasting torment with the devil in hell you can guess which one the villager picked ? most village folk were superstitious and still are !, And not only that but the poor villager would have had to pay for the upkeep of the church which they could ill afford, Some of them turned to crime highway robbery as well as looting but that was the exception more than the rule.