The following story was reported in a local newspaper, the Gazette:

"At the end of the 19th century, Thomas Abery, West Malling’s blacksmith, also-ran the Joiners Arms in Gas Works Lane. One of his lodgers at the time was an Italian of dubious aristocratic origins who extracted a promise from Thomas that he would look after his incurably ill daughter if she could be transported from Italy. Although she never arrived, the Italian gentlemen was so grateful for the offer of help, he told Thomas to go to St Leonards tower at midnight where an apparition would appear to guide him to a casket of valuable jewels which would be left as a gift. At the stroke of midnight, while his family waited on the road, Thomas Abery entered the tower and the apparition appeared as promised. But just as the whereabouts of the treasure was about to be revealed, Thomas panicked and fled, never to return.

Mrs Alice Geoffries, who was 87 in 1970, was one of the children waiting on the road that night for the father to return with the jewels that would bring the family fame and wealth. She remembered how her father had described the apparition as white and so terrifying that he couldn't make himself wait long enough to receive the directions to the treasure, but she was still convinced that they were there, somewhere. Her daughter, Mrs Madeleine Friend, who also believed that they were still there, spent an exhausting time in 1970 examining the tower for any trace of them. However, the jewels have remained elusive to this day."

This event appears to have been the birth of a local legend about the tower. It speaks of a ghostly, but monstrous figure, which if witnessed in one of the windows of the tower, will bring death and disaster.

This legend has been put to the test several times, but allegedly all the people who witnessed the figure died shortly after. This series of events has helped reinforce the legend of the tower. The root of the legend seems to revolve around the secret of the hidden jewels; those who find the jewels after their encounter with the ghostly figure live, those do not find the jewels perish shortly after.

A paranormal investigation has taken place on the Tower grounds, which included the use of a Ouija board. During the Ouija board session, communication was made which inferred the figure is actually a demon set the task of taking souls of those who desire everlasting riches.

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