Bohemia Village Voice

Letter from Bob Smith (Feb 2010)

Dear Sir,

I’m now 71. When I was young I lived and played in Bohemia. In about 1947-48, when I was ten years old, a gang of four of us used to play in Summerfields Woods. We’d squeeze through a hole in the wall – the woods were fenced off in those days. Before the Summerfields Preservation Society, the woods were all brambles and overgrown trees. On one particular summer’s day, we followed a very narrow path through the vegetation ending up at the Roman Bath. We followed two nuns along this overgrown path, past two ponds as far as the Roman Bath, where the path ended. When we got to the Roman Bath, the nuns had disappeared into thin air. You couldn’t get any further, so where they went to is a mystery to this day.

Bob Smith, Charmouth, Dorset

Dear Sir,

I’ve known Bob Smith for years and was familiar with his story of the two nuns. As part of the campaign to get the walled garden repaired, I found myself a couple of months ago, addressing some students at Hastings College. I was looking for volunteers. One of the young lads, aged 17, said “I’d like to help but we’ve got a problem. We used to cut through Brisco’s Walk. One day, we found two nuns, by the Roman Baths, holding candles. We were really scared, and ran off.”

Sue Thomson, Bohemia Walled Garden Association.

Letter from Mr D Quilter (Apr 2010).

Dear Sir, I think I can explain the mysterious sightings of nuns in Summerfields Woods. The nuns were probably real, not ghosts. It is a very short walk from the Convent and Catholic Church.

In the font in the Convent they always used the purest water they could get, and I have been told they got it from the spring at the Roman Bath.

Mr D. Quilter, Cornfield Terrace.