Michael Morey’s Hump, Arreton (Isle of Wight)
This is a Bronze Age round barrow, but its name comes from its being used as a place of execution in 1736. Michael Morey (or Moorey) was a woodsman who murdered his own grandson for the sake of some money the boy had inherited, and then tried to disguise the death as an accident by carrying the corpse back to his cottage and setting fire to it. He was hanged on the Hump, and his decaying corpse was gibbeted there for many years; some say that when the remains were at last taken down they were buried in the barrow. His ghost is said to ride round it three times at midnight, calling out ‘Michael Morey’s Hump’ in wailing tones. A nearby pub, the Hare and Hounds, still (2003) displays a beam said to be from this gibbet, and a skull said to be Michael Morey’s.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008
