Exploring the ghostly past of Hastings

They include a cabin boy whose bones were found beside a Dutch wreck at Bulverhythe, two mummified cats sealed in a chimney against the plague, a priest hiding smugglers' brandy in freshly dug graves, a shanty town that declared itself the twenty-fourth state of America, a coffin lid scratched from the inside and the footsteps that follow walkers through Bottle Alley. Rather than asking whether the stories are true, Molly asks what they remember: plague, smuggling, poverty, eviction and hard times. Every community with any age to it has some form of ghostly tales or folklore lurking under its skin. Hollington is no different in that respect. John D'Anter, author of Hollington In Supernatural Tales and Folklore collected those tales that he heard growing up in the area, and further collected over a number of years for his own amusement. Hear tales of ghosts, phantom carriages, a psychotic bogeyman, the devil, a lurking vampire and a regenerating vicar amongst others. If you're local to the Hollington area, some of these tales will be long familiar and some may be surprising discoveries. If this is all new to you, sit back and enjoy this wander through Hollington’s largely unrecorded supernatural oral heritage There will be a Q&A after Molly and John's talks and a chance to share your own ghost story.

The event starts at 7pm.