The Stag Inn is a Grade II listed 16th century timber-framed pub on All Saints Street in Hastings Old Town, reputedly dating to 1547. During 19th century alterations, builders found the mummified bodies of two cats in a blocked-up chimney. They were originally hung from hooks in the front bar and, in the 1980s, put in a glass-fronted case on the wall.
Wikipedia gives two explanations: the cats may have entered the chimney and been overcome by smoke, which then preserved them, or they may have been a witch's sacrifice, a practice reported elsewhere in Hastings in the 16th and 17th centuries. An alleged witch named Hannah Clarke is claimed to have put the cats up the chimney in 1665 and sealed it, trying to ward off plague with witchcraft.
A local guide also says the pub is told of as haunted, with a Dutch sea captain and a young girl in white, and that the cats are believed to protect the pub from evil spirits. I found no record of Hannah Clarke outside pub legend, so the name is tagged as tradition. Concealed cats in chimneys are a real folk-magic practice, which gives the story a credible frame.
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