I read with interest the piece by Sally Hall on John Rackham's book The Ghosts of Brighton and Hove.

I have read the book and I am writing regarding the nonsense mentioned about the walling up of nuns and monks for sexual misdemeanors.

This is a piece of pure Victorian fiction. There are no records of this being a recognised punishment.

The bones sometimes found were of monks or nuns who chose to be hermits or anchoresses; the latter was also a possibility for the laity.

Frequently, on their death, the single cell usually attached to a convent, monastery or church, was bricked up.

Victorian romanticism and anti Catholicism led to the wrong interpretation of 'walling-up'.

-Rev D A Russell, Foredown Road, Portslade