Clayton Valley.

If you look up onto the downs from Clayton you will see the windmills recognised as jack and Jill, Jill being the white post mill (post mill windmills on a central pivot where the mill was turned into the wind by horse or man) and jack is the black smock mill (smock mill named after a farmers smock and to look like one) that is now a private resident, The site where the two mills are was known as duncton gate or duncton mill back in 1765, It was said that before the old mill was demolished that it was haunted by the ghost of an old miller who used to bang on the doors and window's of the old mill.

It was in 1821 that Jill was built in patcham near Brighton then moved to its present location in 1852 by a team of 14 oxen, Jill worked upto 1907 she then was restored some time later and works today the mill is open on Sundays as well as bank holidays, Next to Jill stands jack that was built in 1866 and replaced the old duncton mill, The old brakewheel from the duncton mill was used in jack and it was said that the wheel would creek badly on windy days jack worked up until 1927 when in a thunderstorm the sails of jack were hit by lightning jack then spent many years as a sorrowful pillar, Then in 1973 a film company spent upto £ 33,000 to have sails put back on jack !, Although jack does not work I think he looks better for it !.

If you now walk east for around 4 miles you will come to ditchling beacon at 813 feet is one of the highest points on the south downs it was on this beacon and many others like it that fires were lit to warn of the Spanish armada coming, Head for about an other mile to the bottom of the downs you will come to the village of westmeston, It was recorded in the doomsday book of 1086 that the village of westmeston had a population of 23, In the year of 1091 the farmer from westmeston farm was taking his tithes (a cow one sheep a bale of hay) down to Lewes priory after delivering his tithes the farmer was walking along the banks of the river Ouse when this man on a barge(bargee) called out `stone for wistminster church ?`, I be from wismistern called out the farmer so the bargee said this stone must be for you then !, So then the farmer brought up his wagon and the bargee and the farmer started to load the stone onto the wagon, Then the farmer said bye to the bargee and made his way back to the farm feeling a bit guilty of what he had done decided to put the stone under a load of bricks and hay, Some time later the clerk of the priory was passing and decided to check up on the farmer and his tithes, When the clerk said to the farmer `your family is a heathen lot you never seem to go to church so that a church must be built here?`, To which the farmer said `oh Ah ! I can supply the stone ?` picking up the hay and bricks and showing the clerk the stone he had got from that particular day by the river Ouse.

There is this story of a kindly squire who built cottages for his workers frequently drove his cart along the lanes to ditchling when by chance he saw the wives and children of his workers he would then offer them a lift in his cart, It was no good protesting that they would rather walk ! oh no he must help them home, So in the cart they would ride only to be set down the same distance from home from where he had picked them up so in the end they had to walk !.

If by chance you are on the bridleway by westmeston walking in the direction of the downs between the 24th to the 26th of may and you hear the sound of horses hoofs and men moaning as well as a nasty smell in the air ?, For it is said that it is the ghosts of men from the battle of Lewes in 1264 not only that but the nasty smell is only prevalent on those days !.

There is also said to be a ghost of a nun that walks from the church of westmeston through the wall of church cottage and onto the cross-roads and then disappears by south bank cottage ?, It is said that the best time to see this nun is in the afternoon ( It could be that was the time when she died ?), There is also said to be a ghost of a monk that carves panel's inside westmeston place and that when people have seen this ghost of this monk carving have only woken up at the point at where the monk has got to the piece already done so that no one knows what the finished panel should look like !.

By westmeston farm there is a place known as black dog hill, The story goes that this large black dog was chasing game so the gamekeeper pulled out his blunderbuss (shotgun with large barrel at one end) and shot the dogs head off ! so now and forever more the ghost of this headless dog goes round black dog hill and howls, In the year of 1597 the rector of westmeston was brought up before the archdeacons court to answer charges of letting cattle graze in the churchyard and for not putting glass into the window's of the church ?, In the year of 1801 the number of men and boys in the village of westmeston willing to serve for their country ( join the army ) was none !, Then there's this story of the rector of westmeston and the vicar of ditchling during the civil war of 1640 to1649 having battle of words and much waving of walking sticks !.

On some nights above westmeston on he downs there is said to be the ghost of a Saxon chieftain who is said to be watching his people (Saxon chieftains were buried on hills above their settlements), In 1881 two boys were set home from school early and as they climbed the downs and got close to ditchling beacon there was quite a bit of snow on the downs and as they walked on the wind was getting quite strong and the light started to fail by now they were hopelessly lost, Just then this shepherd took the boys by the hand and told them that they were on devils dyke he then guided the boys home, It was never known where the shepherd had come from, Some say it was divine guidance ! from then on the two boys were known as the heavenly twins.

The village of Clayton is mentioned in the doomsday book of 1086 with the church that you can see today, The church of Clayton dates from the 11th century, If you look on the inside of the church you can see the remains of wall paintings that were completed by monks in 1091 as they passed that way from bramber to Lewes They are said to be paintings of the last judgement, In the 17th century the paintings inside the church were limewashed by puritans who introduced the dismal Sunday service when simply pleasures were frowned upon, It was not until 1893 during restoration of the church that workmen chipped off a piece of plaster and then found the paintings on the underneath they then applied wax and preservatives to the above paintings, It remained like that until in 1963 when the old preservatives and wax were taken off and once again restored to their present condition, It would be fare to say that what you can see today inside the church is not what the paintings would have looked like when the monks painted them, The lynch gate that you can see on the outside of the church is thought to date from the early 20th century although it could be earlier.

Just up the road is Clayton tunnel with its folly that was built just after the London to Brighton railway was finished in 1841 the cottage that you can see on top of the tunnel was built in 1849 it cost then to built it a staggering £365 !, It was also said that a one time resident of the cottage had 9 children was this due to the motion of the trains going through the tunnel ?, You make your own mind up !, Its also said that Clayton tunnel is haunted by the ghosts of passengers who were killed in a train crash, Out of the 150 that were on the train 26 died and 51 were injured the story goes that a train coming up from Brighton and a train coming from hassocks meet inside the tunnel and then another engine coming from Brighton crashed into the two trains, It was thought that the crash was caused by signal failure !, There is also said to be a ghost of a guard running down the railway line from hassocks to the tunnel trying to stop the train ?, This all happened in 1926 but was not the only misfortune that happened inside the tunnel for there was another one in 1885.

If you head north from Clayton for about 3 miles you will come to the village of keymer, The word keymer or kymer means cow pond !, You see ky means cow and mer or mere means pond so its (keymer = cow pond) you see at on time there was a large dew pond in one of the fields so keymer was named after it !.

On the downs overlooking keymer is keymer post that marks the county boundary between east and west Sussex, During the 18th century keymer post was used by smugglers as a lookout point while travelling from Brighton to ditchling and the north, Next if you head west you will come to the town of hassocks there is not a lot of the town before the building of the London to Brighton railway between 1839 to1841 as many railway workers built their homes there.

At the time of king Alfred from about 870 to 900 AD Ditchling was one of his manor's in a will ditchling was left to Alfred's cousin osferth this would have been about 920,The word Ditchling for anyone who want\'s to know means (dych's people ?) you see there was a Saxon chieftain called dych = ditch its said that he's buried on lodge hill ?, And ling = the people of a place so ditchling means dych's people ?, Ditchling then remained a small village until the Norman conquest of 1066 when it was given to William de warreane, The doomsday book of 1086 records ditchling as having a church and some farm buildings, Then in 1090 William de warreane gave the church of ditchling to the cluniac priory of St pancras at Lewes.

The church at ditchling was built in the 11th century with more being added in the 12th century it was then restored in the 19th century, Next to the church stand's wing's place that was built in 1540 for henry the VIII's forth wife Anne of cleves as part of a divorce settlement, Known as Anne of cleves house but now called wing's place but there is no evidence that Anne of cleves ever stayed there ?, It was said that one of the kings conditions was that Anne was not allowed out of the house without telling him where she was going !, Only part of wings place that dates from the16th century is left today.

In 1665 when ditchling had a long tradition of religious non-conformism when the 5 mile act forbid any villagers to worship within 5 miles of any town or village being caught meant the death sentence, So that is why there is a Unitarian church in the twitten (twitten= a path between two hedges) so that people could worship in secret without being caught and hung for it !.

If you head north for about 2 miles you will come to the royal oak it was here in 1734 that a peddler and thief called Jacob harris decided to rob the royal oak, He ransacked the place and then cut the throat's of the landlord his wife and their maid and then robbed the place !, For his crime Jacob harris was hanged on ditchling common and his dead body was left on the gallows for days so that passers by could see the body, The body was left as a deterrent so that if you do this, We will do that to you !, The wood of the gallows was chipped away by villagers who thought that the wood of a hanged mans gallows would cure toothache, So the villagers would chip bits of wood off and chew it, What is left of the gallows is on the inside of the royal oak !.

There is this ghost story that ditchling beacon is haunted by the witch hounds that could be heard yelping on the downs as they raced through the night it was said that they were the dogs of a local squire, Then there is this story of a witch that was known as `jack o spades` that lived in one of the cottages in the village like other witches she had the power to do anything to villagers, One night it was said that she took the form of a hare and jumped out the window of her cottage and ran for the downs being chased by men and their dogs who had waited for such an opportunity to catch the witch, on most nights she would get away but not on this night for as she jumped through the window of her cottage one of the dogs nipped one of her back legs (she's a hare don't forget), Come the next morning this time a witch ! she called for one of her neighbours to put a bandage on her leg where a wound had mysteriously appeared from the night before.

On the downs above the village of streat there is a row of tree's shaped like a (V) these tree's mark the golden jubilee of queen Victoria, There was going to be an `R` next to the `V` but the lay of the land made it impossible some say that the money ran out !, During the planting of the tree's workmen found a cave in the cave there were bottles of wine and brandy but sadly the bottles of wine and brandy were empty!, It was thought that the bottles were left by smugglers.