The Hanging Tree sits atop One Tree Hill, overlooking Welbury - a parish within the borough of Horsingdon, and a mile or so from Horsingdon Hill. Unsurprisingly, the Hanging Tree acquired its name as a consequence of it once being Horsingdon's central site of public execution. During the latter half of the 17th, it was here that a significant number of people met their deaths as a result of being found guilty of the crime of witchcraft - including three individuals believed to have been active in the Horsingdon Coven.
A cloaked and hooded figure has occasionally been spied in the vicinity - usually around midnight and on the eves of certain festivals; local folklore holds this to be the revenant of one of the witches whose life the Tree once claimed. Strange offerings, whose nature and origins are uncertain, have also been found at the base of the Tree - although no one in their right mind touches such unwholesome leavings.
Like so many other of the strange places for which the region is renowned, the Tree has been the site of a number of mysterious - albeit infrequent - disappearances. As a consequence - and in spite of the quite spectacular view of the Borough available from the crest of the Hill where the Tree stands - few people nowadays care to visit the locale.
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