Copyright Valerie Martin 1997

Text first published in the West Sussex Gazette in August 1997.

At Cissbury Ring there once stood what was probably one of the world's major Neolithic commercial and industrial centres when the use of flint in the making of weapons and tools meant that it was one of the most valuable commodities of the time.

I believe that the mines were engineered when other shafts in the Sussex area had been exhausted. The shafts had a veritable rabbit warren of galleries leading from them. It was here that the ancient miners perspired as they toiled with primitive tools fashioned from red deer antlers. It is hard to imagine, but at this time the hill was one of the major commercial and industrial nerve centres of the Neolithic world, and supplies of Cissbury flints have turned up in northern England and all over Europe. At the time of Abraham, flint extraction was in its heyday at Cissbury and tools, weapons and articles of ritual, were regularly transported along the ancient ridge-top trackways en route to great centres such as Stonehenge.

Two thousand years separate the sweat of these old flint miners from the construction of the mighty Iron Age Fort at Cissbury as a tribal headquarters and refuge in times of danger. An amazing estimate of some 60,000 tons of chalk was excavated from the ditch area during the Iron Age to build the fine ramparts we see today. Even they are a shadow of the former great earthwork that could have employed 200 men and taken two years to complete. It was awesome and spectacular in its day, surmounted by an impressive mile-long defence wall of massive hewn timbers enclosing the area. There were originally between 8,000 - 12,000 of these giant lumber supports surrounding Cissbury, each about 15 ft. high. A construction of no mean feat at that time.

By 50 BC the Cissbury Camp appears to have gone out of use as a fortress and was abandoned to the wind and rain. It took the Romans to see the potential of the downland and they began to cultivate considerable tracts of land within the ramparts. It was possibly administered and occupied as a military station. Maybe a unit of some long forgotten legion was quartered on the site looking out to sea.

The Romano-British presence eventually diminished on Cissbury and the landscape reverted back to a deserted open space. Around a century later, Saxon pirates landed and stormed up the valley frightening the local native tribes. The hordes trekked out in small pioneering groups to take by force any likely spot where they settled down and commenced farming. Legend says that Cissa, the early Saxon leader, resided at Cissbury.   I wonder?

Nearer to our own time, during Elizabethan days, an old chart records the name of Old Bury relating to Cissbury Ring. This title appears to have remained until the 19th century when Easter festivals were conducted there. It is assumed that the villagers of Findon made their way to the celebrations to partake in the rejoicing. The function appears to have been very emotive and Kiss in the Ring was enacted as the young local fraternity danced with high spirited gaiety in a circle, singing as they went —

It was not uncommon as proceedings drew to a close later in the day, for the young people to disperse under cover of darkness into the surrounding fields and scrub. Far too many village Easter infants are said to have been born nine months later, as a result of these high spirited capers on The Bury above Findon at Eastertide.     The writer and naturalist, W. H. Hudson (1841-1922), resided in Worthing and is reputed to have said that illegitimate babies were "as plentiful as blackberries" in the villages of the South Downs.    (William Henry Hudson was a kind of wandering Gilbert White).

There may be treasure beneath Cissbury Ring. It was at one time believed that an ancient civilisation had concealed their wealth of gold in the hillside.

This is a ghost story from the nearby Worthing area in the 1860s when the entrance to a two-mile long legendary tunnel was discovered.   This passage led from the opulent and historic Offington Hall (demolished to make way for the Warren roundabout in the 1960s) to Cissbury Ring a little over two miles away.  

The history of Offington Hall goes back a long way and was set in its own park and dated from medieval days and was in existence at least from 1357.

In the early 1500s there were as many as 32 living-in servants at the property.  Apparently in its heyday the estate comprised a complex of buildings and over the years the actual Hall was considerably enlarged and included a gatehouse leading to the property.   The Hall contained a grand courtyard and also a guesthouse.    There was a chapel that at one time was Worthing's main place of worship for the Roman Catholic population.  At various times in its history Offington Hall could boast sixty-eight rooms, fifteen stores, two handsome halls and three galleries.   To give you an idea of the magnitude of the place, in the year 1664, there were twenty-five hearths recorded.   Imagine how many servants girls were employed early in the morning to prepare the fires in winter.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Offington Manor was owned by Thomas Gaisford and it was during his tenure that the mysterious blocked tunnel was discovered.   It was concealed behind panelling in the library of the house to the ancient cellars.   It was reputed to lead to a vast treasure hidden by the occupants long ago of Cissbury Ring.    

Originally I wondered if this legend of wealth could somehow be a link to the men of ancient times working at the Mint at Cissbury Ring?    See my article The Cissbury Moneyers.

My idea was shattered because the tunnel is said to date from much earlier.....to 3,500 BC according to carbon dating.

Thomas Gaisford thought he was on to a good thing and arranged to finance an expeditionary force whereupon he offered to hand over half of any monies unearthed to whoever cleared the tunnel and brought out treasure.    

Adventurers arrived with picks and spades and set about the arduous task of digging and clearing the passage.    It is not said how long for, nor how far along the tunnel they reached.

The long passageway was sealed with debris and they sweated and toiled eager to clear the blockage way with their picks and spades. They imagined the reward awaiting them, and busily worked in their underground cave in anticipation of the wealth that would be theirs.   Unfortunately, how long they burrowed away in the hillside is not known, but it must have been for some considerable weeks.

The tale ends abruptly when the treasure seekers heard a sound other than the scrap of their shovels.   They stopped work and looked at one another and listened.  It was hissing.    With their swinging lanterns held high they were faced with the ghostly sight of a spectre serpent (or serpents as the story goes), eerily slithering towards them in the tunnel with the intent of menacing attack.  Although these creatures must have surely been supernatural creatures confined underground, the men still feared their venomous bite and are said to have quickly retreated and never dared to return to the haunted tunnel recover the treasure in the Cissbury hillside.   The tunnel was sealed for ever — or so they thought.

When the manor house was demolished in 1963..... what became of the tunnel?    It must be still in existence somewhere underground and leading from the area of the Warren Road roundabout wending its way through the hewn out chalk to Cissbury Ring.... most likely to somewhere on the southern side!   Does it still contain the serpent(s) and deserve further paranormal investigation?

Fairies are also said to dance on Cissbury Ring at midnight on Midsummer's Eve — if I can ever authenticate the tale it will be another story.

Continue if you would like to read about the The Cissbury Torc.

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