A Pub, Pirate And A Haunting
Dec. 5th, 2024 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo There were holdups, so the SatNav found us a less obvious route home via Godstone in Surrey.
Sitting in the passenger seat I googled places to eat in Godstone. The Fox and Hounds came out ahead of the pack.
Ancient pub, beams, a strong smell of woodsmoke, Harvey's on draught, pretty decent food- though the veg was overcooked- but basically rather wonderful.
And then there's the story.
it may have been emrboidered but it's basically true....
John Edward Trenchman grew up in London's docklands and went to sea at 12. The legend says "ran away to sea" but I doubt there was much running away involved. For a slum kid living by the water it would have been the smart thing to do to.
And sooner or later, by fair ways or foul, he was sailing under the greatest pirate of them all, the psychopathic Welshman Henry Morgan, who made such a success of his trade (as few pirates did) that he wound up being rough and ready with the ladies at the court of Charles II and served a term as Governor of Jamaica.
Trenchman was with Morgan at the capture of the Spanish town of Porto Bello in Panama- as great a military triumph- and atrocity- as any pirate ever pulled off. At 55 he retired from the sea and became a smuggler, transporting goods from the South coast to Croydon, through the wilds of Sussex and Surrey (and those counties were pretty wild and wooded in the late 17th century.)
One of his gang betrayed him- saving his own neck by spilling the beans to the revenue men- and the revenue men laid an ambush in the woods just south of Godstone. The engagement is known as the Battle of Tilbuster. Trenchman, mortally wounded, made his way to the nearby Fox and Hounds, collapsed in the arms of one the drinkers- and bled out.....
They buried him without ceremony in a patch of unconsecrated ground to the South of Godstone Church.
Then the hauntings began.
On the evening of the burial two grave diggers wer chased out of the churchyard by a man dressed as a sailor who popped up out of nowhere.
The frightened locals thought they might lay the ghost by putting a stone on the grave. Seven days later they found the stone smashed to pieces as if with a sledge hammer. They put another stone in place and the same thing happened. At the same time people were seeing a spectral sailor lurking among the graves- and pools of blood started appearing in front of the altar in the church.
So,
They dug up the old pirate, read the prayer book service over him, reburied him just outsde the church porch, erected a proper, fancy headstone.
And the hauntings ceased .
The headstone remains in place. The skull and crossbones was a commonly used symbol of mortality which adorns the graves of many blameless citizens- but in this case it's more than commonly appropriate.
I gather people still leave offerings- flowers and shiny silver coins.....
Sitting in the passenger seat I googled places to eat in Godstone. The Fox and Hounds came out ahead of the pack.
Ancient pub, beams, a strong smell of woodsmoke, Harvey's on draught, pretty decent food- though the veg was overcooked- but basically rather wonderful.
And then there's the story.
it may have been emrboidered but it's basically true....
John Edward Trenchman grew up in London's docklands and went to sea at 12. The legend says "ran away to sea" but I doubt there was much running away involved. For a slum kid living by the water it would have been the smart thing to do to.
And sooner or later, by fair ways or foul, he was sailing under the greatest pirate of them all, the psychopathic Welshman Henry Morgan, who made such a success of his trade (as few pirates did) that he wound up being rough and ready with the ladies at the court of Charles II and served a term as Governor of Jamaica.
Trenchman was with Morgan at the capture of the Spanish town of Porto Bello in Panama- as great a military triumph- and atrocity- as any pirate ever pulled off. At 55 he retired from the sea and became a smuggler, transporting goods from the South coast to Croydon, through the wilds of Sussex and Surrey (and those counties were pretty wild and wooded in the late 17th century.)
One of his gang betrayed him- saving his own neck by spilling the beans to the revenue men- and the revenue men laid an ambush in the woods just south of Godstone. The engagement is known as the Battle of Tilbuster. Trenchman, mortally wounded, made his way to the nearby Fox and Hounds, collapsed in the arms of one the drinkers- and bled out.....
They buried him without ceremony in a patch of unconsecrated ground to the South of Godstone Church.
Then the hauntings began.
On the evening of the burial two grave diggers wer chased out of the churchyard by a man dressed as a sailor who popped up out of nowhere.
The frightened locals thought they might lay the ghost by putting a stone on the grave. Seven days later they found the stone smashed to pieces as if with a sledge hammer. They put another stone in place and the same thing happened. At the same time people were seeing a spectral sailor lurking among the graves- and pools of blood started appearing in front of the altar in the church.
So,
They dug up the old pirate, read the prayer book service over him, reburied him just outsde the church porch, erected a proper, fancy headstone.
And the hauntings ceased .
The headstone remains in place. The skull and crossbones was a commonly used symbol of mortality which adorns the graves of many blameless citizens- but in this case it's more than commonly appropriate.
I gather people still leave offerings- flowers and shiny silver coins.....
