Lucy Lightfoot is the name of a fictional girl who supposedly disappeared mysteriously from the Isle of Wight in 1831. The story was fabricated by James Evans, the vicar of St Olave's Church, Gatcombe, in the early 1960s, as he himself later admitted. [1] [2]
Lucy was born at a farm near Bowcombe. She was last seen around 10:30am on 13 June 1831. There was a near total eclipse of the sun that day, lasting about half an hour. A violent thunder storm also struck the island, causing flooding and crop damage. After the storm had abated, her horse was found tied to the gate at St Olave's Church in Gatcombe. Lucy was nowhere to be found. Her parents offered a large award for her return, but moved away after two years searching turned up nothing.
Also of note is the detail that a steel misericord attached to a wooden effigy identified as "Edward Estur" was found shattered after her disappearance. A valuable chrysoberyl set in lodestone on the hilt was found to be missing.
The most prominent explanations involved a possible time slip. Supposedly research by the Rev Samuel Trelawney in 1865 unearthed a manuscript by Philippe de Mézières, [3] chancellor of Peter I, listing the names of the English knights recruited by Peter I of Cyprus in 1363. One Sir Edward Estur was listed as being accompanied by a girl with the same name as Lucy, from Carisbrooke Castle.
In the 1960s, the Vicar of St Olave's, James Evans, admitted to having fabricated the entire story. [1]
A song by Spherical Objects titled "Lucy" was inspired by the legend. It appeared in the 1979 album Elliptical Optimism [7]
Sabine Baring-Gould of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 publications, though this list continues to grow.
St Olave's Church, Hart Street, is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station.
Freshwater is a large village and civil parish at the western end of the Isle of Wight, England. The southern, coastal part of the village is Freshwater Bay, named for the adjacent small cove. Freshwater sits at the western end of the region known as the Back of the Wight or the West Wight, a popular tourist area.
Arreton is a village and civil parish in the central eastern part of the Isle of Wight, England. It is about 3 miles south east of Newport.
Sir Charles Hilton Seely, 2nd Baronet, VD, KGStJ, was a British industrialist, landowner and Liberal Unionist politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1895 to 1906 and for Mansfield from 1916 to 1918. He was a Justice of the Peace for Hampshire and Nottinghamshire and the Deputy Lieutenant for Nottinghamshire. He was also a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John.
Colonel Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet KGStJ, DL was a British industrialist and politician.
Carisbrooke is a village on the south-western outskirts of Newport, in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, England. It is best known as the site of Carisbrooke Castle. It also has a medieval parish church, St Mary's Church, which began as part of a Benedictine priory established by French monks c. 1150. The priory was dissolved by King Henry V of England in 1415, during the Hundred Years' War. In 1907, the church was restored. It has a 14th-century tower rising in five stages with a turret at one corner and a battlemented and pinnacled crown.
Gatcombe is a village in the civil parish of Chillerton and Gatcombe, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located about two and a half miles south of Newport, in the centre of the island. The parish, which includes Chillerton, had a population of 422 at the 2011 census.
Sir Basil John Gould, CMG, CIE was a British Political Officer in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet from 1935 to 1945.
Molly Downer was reportedly the last witch on the Isle of Wight.
Edward James Keymer Roberts was an Anglican bishop who held three separate episcopal appointments between 1956 and 1977.
John Prideaux Lightfoot was an English clergyman who served as the rector of Exeter College, Oxford, from 18 March 1854 until his death and as vice-chancellor of Oxford University from 1862 to 1866. He was the president of the Oxford Architectural Society from November 1854 to November 1855.
St Mary's Church, Carisbrooke is a parish church in the Church of England located in Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight. A service is held every Sunday morning at 8:00 and 9:30.
St Olave's Church, Gatcombe is a parish church in the Church of England located in Gatcombe, Isle of Wight. It is grouped with Sts Thomas Minster, Newport, St John's, Newport and St Mary's, Carisbrooke.
The Adoration of the Magi is a Morris & Co. tapestry depicting the story in Christianity of the Three Kings who were guided to the birthplace of Jesus by the star of Bethlehem. It is sometimes called The Star of Bethlehem or simply The Adoration.
Antony Hubert Michael "Tony" Turner was a former Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight.
Gatcombe House is a 15,234 sq ft (1,415.3 m2) manor house in Gatcombe on the Isle of Wight, England. The original building was constructed by the Stur (Estur) family as noted in the Domesday Book. St. Olave's Church, built next to the manor to serve as its chapel, was dedicated in 1292. It also belonged at one time to the Lisles of Wootton.
St Mary's Church is a parish church in Goudhurst, Kent, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
Peter Francis Mills, self-styled as Petros I Palaeologus, was an English eccentric and pretender from the Isle of Wight. Mills believed that his mother's last name, Colenutt, was derived from Koloneia, an ancient province of the Byzantine Empire, and consequently believed himself to be descended from the Palaiologos dynasty, the empire's final ruling family. Though his genealogy was never completely finished, Mills took the titles "Despot and Autokrator of the Romans" and "Duke of Morea", though he never achieved any widespread recognition and never seriously attempted to enforce his claims. Mills was often seen around his hometown of Newport dressed either in a military uniform or long, flowing robes. Upon his death in 1988, Mills' second wife Patricia took up his claim as "Empress of the Romans", his children by his first wife having denounced his pretensions as a "utter sham".