Years ago, an incident happened where on a Halloween trip to Rye it was found that 2 did not go into 3, and no more need be said... other than it became known as 'The Halloween That Wasn't' and involved the last copies of an out-of-print book.
Yesterday's trip to Rye, started with the Curse of that Halloween past conspiring to thwart the best laid plans and preparations for the perfect Halloween day trip that had been set in motion two months previously.
The idea was to go to Rye with two friends, look around the town, go on an organised ghost walk, have lots of seasonal food and drink whilst continuing the tradition of telling newly written ghost stories and poetry. The evening would then be rounded off by staying in The Mermaid Hotel, Rye's oldest hotel in which every bedroom is reputedly haunted to some extent.
Oh, how our auspicious arrival at the hotel's car park was to change... A friendly porter was there to remove the private parking sign blocking the entrance to the narrow archway allowing access to the parking behind; but on entering reception we were told that there were no rooms for us and that they had been expecting us the day before!
The hotel claimed that they had tried to email... but no emails had been received! The person booking from our end had definitely booked the right day, and the hotel had totally messed up! Refunds and offers of alternative day's accommodation couldn't hide the obvious disappointment. Sometimes shit just happens!
But despite the let-down this caused, we still resolved to enjoy the day and at least I wasn't told to move my car from the hotel's car park.
Secondhand and new bookshops were rummaged and bargains gained, when in the last one visited, the offending 'formerly out-of-print tome' that had cursed us so many years ago graced its shelves in multiple copies as if mocking our earlier misfortune.
After our shopping spree, the plan was to then go on an organised ghost walk. Starting at the Heritage Centre, a few free old pennies were given to play on the slot machines and automata upstairs whilst waiting for the start of the 15 minute audio-visual presentation of the town of Rye's history with their giant town model. So about 20 past 6pm the Town Crier took about 30 paying punters on a walk around ancient Rye pointing out the locations of all the ghostly sightings and unpleasant murders. An excellent tour that lasted just short of 2 hours.
And humorously the 'Halloween That Wasn't' book reared its mocking head again on the ghost walk! The book in question is John Ryan's 'Murder In The Churchyard which is an illustrated book by the author of Captain Pugwash that deals with the murder of Rye's deputy Mayor in 1743 in a case of mistaken identity.
John Breeds, the murderer, had intended to kill the Mayor, and so when caught the Mayor's punishment was extreme and vindictive. John Breeds was hanged and then his body placed in a specially made iron frame and left to rot on public view as a warning to others. The body was never buried and the frame with John Breed's skull is now tucked away in the town hall attic and not placed on display anymore. However for our ghost walk we got to go up in the attic and have a look at the remains of the murderer, whose skull still remains unburied after 275 years!
After the excellent tour, we headed back to Folkestone. Then after a quick stop off in the festively decorated Ship Inn, in Sandgate, we did manage to have our prepared hampers of food and gruesome storytelling and see in All Souls Day. Perhaps more a day of 'Trick and Treat' rather than 'Trick or Treat' but undoubtedly an enjoyable day nonetheless.
Thursday 1st November 2018
