The Sussex pub with a gravestone in its garden
"May God forgive those who forgot their duty to him who was just and afflicted" reads the inscription on Walter Budd's gravestone
- Published
People, tables and drinks are among the common finds in a pub garden, but patrons of a quaint country pub in West Sussex encounter the unexpected - a gravestone.
Nestled among the flowerbeds at the George and Dragon pub in Dragon's Green is a white marble cross commemorating the late Walter Budd, whose story of social exclusion should serve as a lesson.
Born in 1867 to Alfred and Charlotte Budd who ran the pub, Walter suffered from albinism and epilepsy.
According to West Sussex author Petula Mitchell, the "suspicion" with which these conditions were viewed went on to shape Walter's relatively short life.
'Viewed with suspicion'
"During the Victorian era, both of these conditions were viewed with suspicion. Epilepsy in particular was linked with sexual deviancy...," Ms Mitchell told Secret Sussex.
Albinism was similarly viewed, linked with "incest and sexual deviancy", she said.
Ms Mitchell says that this status as a social pariah, coupled with an accusation of theft, led Walter to take his own life in 1983, just before he turned 26.
His untimely death prompted allegations from all sides. Walter's parents claimed he was driven to his end by locals, who in turn accused Mrs Budd of treating him cruelly.
The difficulties for a family grieving their son did not end there, however.
The pub, the ghost and the grave
The Budd's buried their son in Shipley churchyard, but the original gravestone bore an inscription that proved controversial.
"May God forgive those who forgot their duty to him who was just and afflicted," it read.
Ms Mitchell explains: "The incumbent vicar at the time took great exception to one of the inscriptions on the monument, so he ordered that Mr and Mrs Budd remove it.
"They did so, and they put it in their own front garden, which of course as owners of the pub they had every right to do."
And that is where the gravestone remains, honouring an individual against whom the odds were firmly stacked during the Victorian era.
The 200-year-old pub can be found in the hamlet of Dragon's Green
Walter's spirit is not the only one which lives on at the George and Dragon.
According to pub regular Steve, the lore is that Mrs Budd still "haunts this pub".
Strange happenings involving a photo of the former landlady that resides on the bar fuels those suspicions.
Steve said: "She [Mrs Budd] likes to hang there, because she can see the front door...she can see what's coming and going.
"When the current owners of the pub closed it so that they could renovate it, they took her picture down so it didn't get damaged, and stuff would happen."
One example was the sudden slamming of the front door, for no reason. Randomly disappearing tools was another.
"When they put her picture back up, everything went back to normal," he said.
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