Book / Manuscript
'A Sussex Life: The Memories of Gilbert Sargent', edited by Dave Arthur, pages on Sussex witches, 1989
- Historical date
- 1989
- Location
- Bexhill-on-Sea, UK
- Category
- Book / Manuscript
- People
- Alex Sanders
- Source
- A Sussex Life: The Memories of Gilbert Sargent (ed. Dave Arthur, 1989); Bexhill Observer archive, Bexhill Museum (item 200)
- Contributed by
- Bexhill Museum
- Added to the archive
About this item
A Sussex Life: The Memories of Gilbert Sargent, edited by Dave Arthur, 1989, pages 54 and 55. Gilbert Sargent was a countryman from Catsfield, and these two pages carry the editor's commentary on witchcraft in Sussex rather than Sargent's own words. The passage sets modern covens against the old village wise women and cunning men, notes that many modern witches claim descent from a pre-Christian fertility cult, and remarks that when Alex Sanders died in St Leonards in 1988 'the Alexandrian witches who attended his cremation at Hastings were far more urban-middle-class than rural-proletarian'. The rest of the spread gives Sussex shape shifting and wizard stories. The museum's notes record that the editor and his wife Toni Arthur, who made the 1970 record Hearken to the Witches Rune, knew Sanders.
Byline: Dave Arthur, editor.
Bexhill Museum item 200. Held in the Bexhill Observer archive at Bexhill Museum. Publication: A Sussex Life: The Memories of Gilbert Sargent (ed. Dave Arthur, 1989).
Shown in UNSEEN: The Alex Sanders Archive at Bexhill Museum, Part Three, The Vacant Throne (6 September 2026), presented by Julian Porter of Bexhill Museum and hosted by Sharon Day for Alexandrian Witchcraft.
'A Sussex Life: The Memories of Gilbert Sargent', edited by Dave Arthur, pages on Sussex witches, 1989. (1989). Bexhill Observer archive, Bexhill Museum. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive. https://www.alexandrianwitchcraft.com/archive/bexhill-museum-200-a-sussex-life-gilbert-sargent-1989
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