Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Horsingdon Transmissions No.180: Forgotten Dwellings



This overgrown and dilapidated cottage near Horsingdon Wood dates back less than a century - but is built on far older foundations. Indeed, as far as the extant parish records are concerned, there has been a dwelling on the site since before the 15th Century; what is missing from these ledgers, however, is any clear indication of its inhabitants. This may be significant: this area of Horsingdon has long associations with the practice of witchcraft and sorcery, and it has always been a trait of residents of the region to wilfully ignore and ostracise those locales and individuals deemed to be tainted by even the least hint of the uncanny: as if their erasure from everyday discourse somehow expunges the very existence of these troublesome people and places - as well as their memory. Indeed, one sometimes discovers that those sites least spoken of are the ones which hoard the most terrible histories.

I have yet to ecounter anyone in the borough willing to disclose anything about this particular house, let alone acknowledge its existence. In this instance actions do, indeed, speak louder than words - signifying the fact that this building must have once memorialised something so truly, unspeakably monstrous that it necessitated a collective unremembering. Needless to say, such locations are best avoided by the curious - regardless as to how much their grim secrets call to us.

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