The skull displayed at The Hare and Hounds is linked to a notorious and macabre local crime dating from the 1730's.
The story revolves around Michal Morey, a woodcutter in his mid-sixties and his young grandson, James Dove, who lived a poor existence in an isolated cottage at Sullens in the valley below St George's Down. James' mother died within a month of his birth, and after the remarriage of his father, the child remained with his grandfather.
The known facts of the case are that James was brutally murdered, aged 14, in June 1736 after accompanying his grandfather into Arreton woods. His body being dismembered, placed in two leather bags and left concealed in the depths of the wood, together with a discarded billhook and bloodstained gloves.
Not being able to offer any explanation for his grandson's disappearance, a warrant was issued for Michal Morey, who absconded for about one week, but was taken into custody at the end of July 1736 and held in Winchester awaiting trail.
Some three months later the gruesome discovery of the remains of James Dove was made. The body was so decomposed that identification was only possible from fragments of clothing.
Morey's trial took place at Winchester in March 1737. Although the evidence against him was circumstantial and he never at any time confessed to the killing, Morey was summarily sentenced to death and within an hour executed at the public gallows.
According to the law his fate was then to hang in chains from a gibbet erected in his home parish of Arreton for a prescribed length of time - this gruesome practice being intended as a deterrent against crime. The site chosen for the gibbet was a Bronze Age barrow near to The Hare and Hounds now known as Michal Morey Hump. The gibbet with its exceptionally long upright cost the parish of Arreton £6.20 paid to John Phillips, the village wheelwright for his work.
It is said the gibbet post was later recycled to recoup some of the cost and used to form the main roof beam, over 22 feet in length of the original Tap Room of The Hare and Hounds.
The Bronze Age barrow on which the gibbet stood has been disturbed or excavated on four occasions since 1815, revealing in all some nine skeletons thought to date from Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon times.
Although 'The Hare and Hounds Skull' probably unearthed in 1933, was supposed to be that of Michal Morey, later research has revealed it to be of prehistoric origin and belonging to a young woman who died in her late teens.
The actual skull of Michal Morey and his place of burial have never been positively identified, but the crime for which he was convicted and the legends surrounding it live on.
Michal Morey is dead.
For chopping off his grandsons head.
He is hung on Arreton Down.
For rooks and ravens to peck down.