Chapter 4
The Ghost Club
1962
39
YEARS
SHERRINGTON MANOR
“The visits to haunted houses began with a visit to Sherrington Manor in Sussex.”
“Years ago, grey-haired Cecil Chandless, Lord of the Manor, told me about the brown-clad figure that haunted his home, Sherrington Manor.”
“He saw the ghost several times on the staircase.”
“One summer afternoon the family were at tea when they were surprised to hear the crunch of horses’ hooves aand the grind of carriage wheels which seemed to herald the arrival of a horse-drawn coach…”
“Immediate investigation showed the drive to be deserted and nothing was ever discovered to account for the noises…”
Sherrington bridge and the river
“We duly went to Sherrington Manor..”
Page from Christopher Underwood’s childhood photograph album.
“We talked to Mrs Chandless and her daughter Marissa and other members of the family and household about the curious experiences that they all have had.”
Ghost Club members at Sherrington Manor.
“They all fully accept that they have unbidden guests and indeed would not be without them, for they feel that Sherrington is haunted by happy ghosts, as such a charming house should be…”
“When the family went to the New Forest during the last war they believe that ‘Marmaduke’ followed them and fretted to get back to Sherrington…”
Underwood talks with Mrs Chandless (second and third from the left - in front of the window).
“They heard impatient knocks and felt something invisible brush against them; they sensed strongly that they were required to return to their Sussex home...
‘Now,’
Mrs Chandless will tell you,
none of us feels that we could ever leave here again’…”
Underwood’s account of Sherrington Manor can be found in the entry ‘Selmeston, near Alfriston, Sussex’ in his Gazetteer of British Ghosts (1971).
