Aubrey the English antiquarian recorded this tradition in 1718 about a cauldron in the church, a cauldron that is still there: In the Vestry here is an extraordinary great kettle or cauldron, which the inhabitants say by tradition was brought hither by the Fairies, time out of mind, from Borough Hill, about a mile from hence. To this place if any one went to borrow a yoke of oxen, money, &c. he might have it for a year, or longer, so he kept his word to return it. There is a cave, where some have fancied to hear musick. On this Borough-hill (in the Tything of Cherte), is a great stone lying along the length of about six feet; they went to this stone and knocked at it, and declared what they would borrow, and when they would repay; and a voice would answer when they should come, and that they should find what they desired to borrow at that stone. This cauldron, with the trivet, was borrowed here after the manner aforesaid, but not returned according to promise; and though the cauldron was afterwards carried to the stone, it could not be received: and ever since that time no borrowing there. In 1736 Salmon gives a rather more pragmatic explanation: The great Caldron which lay in the Vestry beyond the Memory of Man was no more brought thither from Waverley than, as report goes, by the Fairies. It need not raise any man’s wonder for what use it was, there having been many in England till very lately to be seen, as well as very large Spits which were given for entertainment of the Parish at the Wedding of poor Maids. So was in some places a Sum of Money charged upon Lands for them; and a House for them to dwell in for a year after Marriage (139). Note that in subsequent centuries the cauldron was detached from Borough-Hill (no one is sure where this hill is) and associated, instead, with Ludwell.

One early nineteenth-century writer comments: ‘Several well-connected fairy stories were current, from ancient tradition, towards the close of the last century; and we are enabled, through the aid of one, who, himself a native of the South Downs, has now passed the ‘three-score and ten’ of life, to preserve one or two of these all but obsolete legends, which we shall take the liberty of relating, as nearly as may be collected, in the verba ipsissima of the Master Fowington aforesaid. With regard to the first of these stories, I have only to premise that Burlow Castle formerly stood on an elevated spot near the little river Cuckmere, which is the western boundary of the easternmost group of the Downs’ (Lower 1854, 160-161). He goes on to describe an encounter between fairy and farmer, suggesting Burlow or Burlough Castle was a fairy haunt.

Note the ‘castle’ is marked ‘earthworks’ on the os: note that there is some debate as to the real dates of the construction.