HEARD the one about the witch's two cats that were bricked-up alive in a fireplace during the Great Plague but are now on display in a pub?

Or the woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in the Army alongside her soldier love before living to the grand old age of 108?

And how about the MP rumoured to be buried sitting on an iron chair in full evening dress with a bottle of port and a roast chicken in front of him?

Or the man who sold his wife for half a pint of gin before changing his mind and buying her back?

Obscure local history expert Paul Zwierzanski could give you full chapter and verse on these and many more Sussex eccentrics of the distant past.

And hundreds of students across the world have reason to be grateful after basing their coursework on his tireless research.

Paul, 47, of North Street, Portslade, receives emails every week from people begging for help delving into little-known Sussex history.

The pleas for information have flooded in from across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

Although many are from students working on projects and dissertations, he has also advised organisations such as the BBC on good locations for filming.

Although a builder by day, Mr Zwierzanski spends his spare time adding to his web site, www.yeoldesussexpages.co.uk, which averages more than 5,000 visitors a week.

He started the site four years ago to record aspects of Sussex history and heritage far removed from the glitzy nightclubs and eateries of modern-day Brighton.

Paul, who moved from Manchester to Sussex 26 years ago, said: "I have always been interested in local history and thought it would be fun to start building up this guide to Sussex. There is so much fascinating history to tell.

"As more and more people found the site I started getting lots of requests for help. If I research something for someone, I then put it up on the site.

"I don't mind putting in the time and effort for them - I like to help and I enjoy the research so it does not feel like work.

"With the information I have I could make the web site three times as big as it is now - it is just a matter of finding enough time."

Paul and his wife Loraine pay regular visits to churches and historic local sites where he takes copious notes, photos and video footage.

He also scours libraries and second-hand bookshops for long-forgotten tales and anecdotes.

The site combines guides to areas such as Brighton and Chichester, famous locals such as Virginia Woolf and Rudyard Kipling and more unusual topics, including early Sussex smugglers, big cat sightings and the hoax of the Piltdown Man, a skull purporting to be an ancient ancestor of modern man.

Paul also enjoys retelling ghost stories and weird and wonderful legends said to have taken place across the county such as the blackened bodies of the two mummified cats who greet visitors to the Stag Inn in Hastings.

They were discovered in one of the chimneys of the Elizabethan building during restoration work in the 19th Century and are now displayed in a glass case in the public bar.

Legend suggests they belonged to a witch called Hannah Clarke and were bricked alive into the fireplace after cats and dogs were blamed for the Great Plague of 1665.

Another story tells how Phoebe Jessel dressed as a man to enlist in the Army after falling in love with Private Samuel Golding.

She followed him to the West Indies and Gibraltar but did not reveal her true identity until he was wounded five years later.

They married after he left hospital and she kept a stall near the Steine gardens in Brighton. She died on December 12, 1821, aged 108.

The wife-selling happened at the site of stocks and a whipping-post in Ninfield in 1790.

In accordance with tradition, the wife arrived with a halter around her neck and in the company of two witnesses.

A contemporary report stated: "She appeared mightily delighted about the ceremony and the hopeful pair departed with joy and expectation from the happy union."

But a later report revealed the seller changed his mind and bought her back for "an advanced price".

East Sussex MP John "Mad Jack" Fuller inherited the family mansion, Rose Hill in Brightling, on his 20th birthday in 1777.

He became well known for the follies he built around his Brightling Park estate.

These included a 25ft-high, pyramid-shaped mausoleum built in 1811 in the churchyard of Brightling Church.

But Paul insists that there is no truth in the rumour he was buried in full evening dress waiting for the resurrection.

Instead he is said to be buried lying down beneath the pyramid.