The Cardinals Hatt

The Story Of The Cardinals Hatt -
In Mediaeval times a deep water channel ran right up to Botusfleming, where the Rising Sun Inn now stands, providing water transport for farm produce etc.
And so it was on a bleak November day, there arrived a Cardinal and his entourage from the cathedral of Bayeux to inspect the daughter church at St. Germans. (It would appear the St. Germans river was not navigable in those far off days.) After disembarking the horse and pack donkeys, the envoy and his servants proceeded further up the hill. Darkness was drawing in, worse still rain started to fall, so the Cardinal, espying a small hostelry, called a halt and arranged to stay the night. The Landlord was overwhelmed by such an august person as the cardinal. Came the morning, the company departed. An hour later, while the landlord was relating to his cronies the recent event, the silence was broken by a very agitated outrider shouting "My Cardinal's Hat!" An intense search revealed nothing. The dejected outrider decided to return. Bidding the landlord "Goodbye", he went up the mounting platform. Just as he was about to mount his horse, he steadied himself with the post. To his immense surprise and joy, a round hat-box toppled off the post! The hostelry became known as the "Cardinal's Hatt" and it retained that name until the Reformation when a number of Dutch religious refugees settled in the area. The "Cardinal's Hatt" became the "Hollands Inn", and so it was that the tiny hamlet just north of the inn became known as "Hatt"!!!