Vernham Dean

The old Roman road called Chute Causeway, is said to be haunted by a pastor who abandoned the villagers of Vernham Dean to die during the Black Death in 1665.

Looking north down Conholt Hill From the footpath that crosses the border from Wiltshire into Hampshire and heads down into Vernham Dean.

Chute Causeway runs from Winchester to Mildenhall skirting the borders of Wiltshire and Hampshire. When the Black Death hit London in 1665, it also affected several other areas including the parishes of Vernham Dean and Chute. The villagers of Vernham Dean fled to Conholt Hill on the Chute Causeway to isolate themselves when the disease became apparent. According to legend their minister promised to bring them food and support but his courage failed him and he left his parishioners to die of the plague. It is said that he did not escape the Black either and haunts the Chute Causeway trying to reach his flock and seek forgiveness.

In one of the fields around Vernham Dean there is a field in which Civil War soldiers are supposed to be buried. This could actually be a plague pit for those who died during the Black Death.