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SEAFORD AND CUCKMERE VALLEY 147
navigate the little Cuckmere with barges. Close to the church is an ancient vicarage of post and panel, illustrating the lowly abodes which the clergy of its day were often content with. This house and hall were engraved in The Builder, September 24th, 1892. Of the six bells in the church tower, the only one that is ancient is dedicated to St. Augustine.
The registers of the church are of great interest, inasmuch as the entries in them are of an earlier period than we usually find in such records. Entries of marriages commence in the year 1504, whereas the official order to keep such records was not sent out till 1538. A curious entry which is worthy of note reads :
" Mildred Reed, buried Jan. 12-1816, aged 24."
Underneath this entry is the following note :
" A rumour having gone forth that this young woman was buried alive, her grave was opened eleven days after her interment in the presence of the minister of the parish, one of the churchwardens, the medical gentleman who attended her in her last illness, and a great multitude of people, all of whom on inspection of the body, were perfectly satisfied that the rumour was unfounded: although one old man who is very deaf said he heard a noise proceed from the grave two or three days preceding the exhumation. John Benn, Curate." |
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