The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Schedule of Dilapidations at Ecclesden Mill Tower
Highdown New Mill, old mill, Angmering, West Sussex
I.Background & History
Highdown New Mill, also called Ecclesden Mill, is a tower mill at Angmering in West Sussex, and has since been converted to residential accommodation. It stands on the low ground beneath the South Downs, in the neighbourhood of Ecclesden and Highdown Hill.
The Society's surveyors know it as a round tower of the Sussex kind, built to take the wind that comes inland from the Channel. The conversion to a dwelling has divided its interior into rooms, but the great thickness of the walls remains as the millwrights left it.
II.The Entity
The Grist Lantern
A small, steady, yellowish flame hangs in the air at the height of a carried lantern, with no hand beneath it and no wick within. It keeps always to the edge of the wet ground below the tower, and the voice comes out of the flame with the soft catch of breath behind it. It is said to hang at the exact height of the eyes of the person whose voice it has borrowed, and a dry hand held near it comes away damp.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
Those who follow the Lantern are led into the drained ditches and flooded meadows of the coastal plain, and the Society holds no record of one who followed it and came home entire. It speaks only what the hearer most longs to be told, and so cannot be reasoned with.
III.The Account
I was instructed by the Society to prepare a schedule of the structure, and I set down the measurements as I took them. The tower is some twenty-four feet across at the base, the wall three feet and four inches at the door, and the floors four in number. The ground to the south falls toward a ditch that is wet in every season, and above it, at nine in the evening of my first day, I observed a small yellow flame standing in the air. I measured its height by a staff set in the grass, and found it to be five feet and two inches. I record the figure because my wife is of that height to the eye, and I did not then think it a coincidence worth the mention.
The tradition of the place holds that in the reign of the first Edward the miller's wife of Ecclesden went out across the wet meadow at nightfall to look for a strayed child. She carried a horn lantern and was swallowed by the ditch, and the miller, hearing her call him from the water that same night, ran out to answer and was lost likewise. It is said that the voice afterwards continued, and that the lantern was seen burning on the water for a week though no hand held it. The parish remembered the light as a kindness at first, a thing that called travellers home. The kindness passed from the story in time, and the burials in the churchyard of those who followed it grew a little more frequent.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A small yellow flame at the height of a human eye, standing over the ditch south of the tower.
- ✦The voice of an absent loved one, spoken with a soft catch of breath, from the meadow or from the air before the window.
- ✦Condensation on the inside of windows, and wet palms in those who have heard the voice.
- ✦A faint smell of lamp-oil and river-water in rooms where neither is kept.
- ✦Footprints found in the meadow that lead out toward the ditch and do not return.
Testimony of Witnesses
“I heard my brother Will calling from the wheat, and he was in Jamaica. I stopped my ears with straw, sir, and the horse screamed and broke its traces, and in the morning there was a path of wet grass to the ditch.”
“It spoke as my Edward, who was drowned off Selsey in the spring. It said it was cold and would I bring a light. I did not go, sir, but my girl did, and was fetched back from the water and has not been right since.”
“I examined three persons taken from the meadow, each with wet clothing and each smiling. Each told me, with no variation, that someone who loved them had called for a lamp. I could discover no cause.”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A horn lantern, lit
- ☐A bowl of ditch-water
- ☐A length of white cord
- ☐A slate and chalk
- ☐A handful of coarse salt
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the meadow at nightfall with the ears stopped by beeswax, and let no person go out alone, for the Lantern speaks to one at a time.
- II.2. Draw a line of salt between the tower door and the ditch, and stand behind it.
- III.3. Light the horn lantern and set it upon the line, so that its flame and the other flame stand level.
- IV.4. Tie the cord about the wrist and give the end to a companion who is deaf, or who has been made so by wax.
- V.5. Write upon the slate the name of the person whose voice has been heard, and beneath it the place where that person truly is.
- VI.6. Pour the ditch-water upon the salt at the stroke of midnight and put out the horn lantern with the bare hand.
- VII.7. Return to the tower without looking at the meadow, and speak to no one until the morning bell.
Caution. The Society records that Mr. Farrant, who took out the wax to answer a call at the sixth step, was found in the ditch the following spring, and that those who drew him out found his hands still raised as though he carried a light.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Ecclesden Manor · Manor House · 0.2 miles
The Rent-Day Rapper, poltergeist. It beats upon the manor's panelling in the cadence of a steward's knock, and the doors below swing open to admit no one.
St Margaret's Church · Church · 0.9 miles
The Lych-Gate Bride, white lady. A woman in a sodden wedding veil stands at the churchyard gate and turns her face from you as you pass, and in the morning your own doorstep is wet.
Poling Preceptory · Templar Preceptory · 2.3 miles
The Hooded Brethren of the Ford, phantom procession. Knights without faces cross the field in silence at Compline, and the farm dogs lie down and will not rise.
Castle Goring · Manor House · 1.5 miles
The Gilt Pacer, spectre. A gentleman in an unfashionable coat paces the long gallery, and the clocks in the rooms stop one by one as he passes.
Southern Theatre Arts Centre · Old Theatre · 1.5 miles
The Prompter's Shade, revenant. A voice whispers lines from the wings to an empty stage, and those who repeat them cannot afterwards recall their own names.
Titnore Wood · Ancient Wood · 1.1 miles
The Coppice Stooper, unclassified entity. A bent shape stands at the edge of the coppiced stools at dusk, and it is always a little nearer than it was before.
English Martyrs' Catholic Church · Church · 1.9 miles
The Candle-Eyed Ewe, spectral animal. A white ewe stands in the porch at night with eyes burning like two altar tapers, and it does not blink when approached.
Highdown Hill · Downland Hill · 0.6 miles
The Barrow Whelp, phantom hound. A small black dog runs beside the traveller on the hill at midnight, and the grass beneath it does not bend.
St Mary's Church · Church · 2.1 miles
The Bell-Rope Hand, possession. The sexton's hands are seized at dusk and ring the bell for a death that has not yet occurred.
Zachary Merton Hospital · Hospital · 2.1 miles
The Starched Matron, spectre. A nurse in a stiff apron stands at the foot of the bed smoothing the sheet, and the patient is found cold by morning.
St Nicholas Church · Church · 2.2 miles
The Clay Sitter, revenant. A figure rises from the new-dug grave in the clay of its own burial and sits upon the wall until it is called by name.
St Symphorian's Church · Church · 2.3 miles
The Rood-Screen Widow, white lady. A pale woman kneels behind the carved screen, and her prayers are heard in the voices of the congregation's own departed.
Slayer's Slab · Tomb · 3.7 miles
The Slab-Sitter, headless apparition. A tall figure with no head sits upon the stone at evening and turns, without eyes, to follow the traveller down the lane.
Swandean Isolation Hospital · Hospital · 2.5 miles
The Fever-Ward Bell, poltergeist. A small brass bell rings at the bedside of the long-emptied ward, and the beds are found made and warm.
Clapham Wood · Ancient Wood · 2.0 miles
The Hornbeam Mourners, phantom procession. Figures in rusty crape move between the trees at dusk without sound, and the one at the rear always turns its face toward you.
