In the quiet East Sussex village of Brede lies the tomb of a Tudor knight called Sir Goddard Oxenbridge.

He was a real landowner who lived during the reign of Henry VIII. But local folklore remembers somebody rather different: an enormous man who ate children, could not be killed by metal weapons and eventually met a particularly gruesome end.

He became known as the Giant of Brede.

Sir Goddard Oxenbridge

The story begins inside St George’s Church, Brede.

In the Oxenbridge Chapel lies Sir Goddard’s tomb, topped by a large stone effigy showing him in armour with his head resting upon a helmet. He died in 1531, while the monument was erected a few years later.

This is the real man behind the legend.

The Oxenbridges were an important Sussex family, and their home still stands a short distance away at Brede Place.

The house was rebuilt by the family during the fifteenth century, with Sir Goddard adding parts of the red-brick building during the sixteenth.

Hidden away amongst the lanes and woodland around Brede, it became the setting for a much darker version of Sir Goddard’s life.

---

The Giant of Brede

According to local folklore, Sir Goddard was an enormous man with an even more frightening appetite.

The Giant of Brede was said to eat children.

Worse still, conventional weapons were supposedly useless against him. No blade or weapon made from metal could kill him.

Eventually the local children decided to rid themselves of the giant.

The story says they left a large quantity of beer for him near a bridge close to Brede Place. The giant drank until he collapsed.

Knowing that metal could not harm him, the children brought something different.

A wooden saw.

They supposedly sawed the giant in half while he lay helpless beside the bridge.

His terrible cries gave the place its name:

Groaning Bridge.

The name still survives in this secluded landscape, with Groaning Lake lying close to Stubb Lane and Brede Place.

---

Why Did Sir Goddard Become a Monster?

There is nothing to suggest that the real Sir Goddard spent his evenings eating the children of Sussex.

So how did a Tudor landowner become a monster?

Perhaps his physical size and local importance provided the beginning of the story. Religious divisions following the Reformation may also have helped turn figures associated with the old order into darker characters.

Then there were the smugglers.

Brede Place later became associated with smuggling, and stories developed of smugglers deliberately using strange noises and frightening tales to keep unwanted visitors away.

An old house, an isolated bridge, mysterious groaning in the darkness and an already established story about a terrifying giant would have made a very effective warning to anyone thinking of getting too close.

Whatever its origins, over generations the legend grew.

---

The Brede Ogre in Hastings

There is another surviving piece of the story a few miles away at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.

The museum holds an extraordinary cast-iron fireback dated 1652 and associated with the Brede Ogre.

A fireback was a heavy iron plate placed behind an open fire. This one carries a grotesque face with swirling hair between two armed figures.

More importantly for our journey, the fireback was probably cast at Brede Furnace.

That takes the story to one final location.

---

Brede Furnace and Powdermill Reservoir

Brede Furnace was part of the once-important Wealden iron industry, producing cast-iron objects including firebacks.

The furnace has gone.

After the ironworks closed, the site became associated with gunpowder production — hence the later name Powdermill.

The landscape was eventually transformed again when Powdermill Reservoir was created.

Today there is virtually nothing obvious to show that an iron furnace once operated here. The old industrial landscape has disappeared beneath and around the reservoir.

But the fireback in Hastings Museum survives — probably cast here more than three and a half centuries ago and still carrying the image associated with the Giant of Brede.

---

A Sussex Legend That Refused to Die

The real Sir Goddard Oxenbridge died nearly 500 years ago.

But folklore gave him another life entirely.

A Tudor knight became a giant.
The giant became a child-eating monster.
And only beer, a wooden saw and the children of Sussex could finally defeat him.

That is the strange story of the Giant of Brede.

---

Watch the full film

I followed the Giant of Brede story across East Sussex, from Sir Goddard Oxenbridge’s tomb and Brede Place to Groaning Bridge, Hastings Museum and the landscape of the former Brede Furnace.

Watch the full story below.

Locations in this story

The locations featured in this article can also be found on my public Sussex Photography map. View the Giant of Brede locations on the map