Hi everyone,
I've created a .htaccess file containing 301 redirects and the 404 redirect for a temporary site, the 301's work correctly but the 404 doesn't, yet both index.html and 404.html are in the same htdocs directory. The .htaccess file is placed 1 directory above in the parent directory.

I'm new to .htaccess and would appreciate any help as to why the 404 doesnt work yet the 301 redirect does.

Redirect 301 /careers.php http://www.example.com/newcareers.php
Redirect 301 /contact.php http://www.example.com/contact_us.php
ErrorDocument 404 /http://www.example.com/404.html

The new site I'm working on is hidden in a sub folder, but strangely the 404 redirect points the user to the 'new' home page of the new site and not to the current 404.html page.

Can anyone help?

Thanks