Sunday, June 26, 2022

26th June 2022

 Today I read of a Viking hoard found by a metal detectorist in Scotland, he had done the right thing and informed and given the hoard to the right people.  There was a Christian cross as well and when the mud had been removed a beautiful patterned surface appeared.  Past history of an age we know little of, go to the cinema and you will see 'Viking berserkers', killing, raping and pillaging giving us little understanding of how the world was at the time.  But delicate workmanship, love of artistic things and also practical things jostle us into thinking more about how our ancestors lived before us.  Which leads me  on to other thoughts.



I had come across this essay, blog is too simple to describe it, of a lecturer who lives in Hebden Bridge and walks the countryside around here.  Normally he walks with his young son but this time he had taken a group out to Nutclough Wood.  It was a thinking walk, a philosophical awareness of what there is in the history around and what we should project into the future for our children.

19th century depiction of Nutclough Wood


He followed in his musings the co-operative movements of the valleys, the socialism that lies hidden under the surface of the towns.  Look at those towns, the back to back terraces folding down the wooded hills and understand the industrialism that built homes for the workers.

And then understand community! I say that with a slight dramatic turn, because the thing you see when you enter a graveyard are the surnames of their relations still living within the towns.  Follow the chat boards and people still recall old school days, people who have recently died and in which house they had lived all their life.  

Life is a narrative, just as history is.  We add or subtract from that narrative, when we come to impose our vision on the landscape around us, we mark it for the future.  Paul Knight's essay was caught up with the great farming dilemma we are in now.  Millions of trees are supposed to be planted for carbon capture.  He stops at an old meadow that has escaped the pesticides and herbicides and had been 'preserved'. In 2014 half of the meadow was planted with trees before it was realised that a rich inheritance of wild flowers and their seeds were part of the meadow.  What do you do? Both were left with a 'messier' edging to the meadow.  Anyone who knows the current jargon of the moment, that it is the 'wilding' part.  In fact the meadow with its wild flowers had become a 'bank' for seeds.

We cannot go back only forward, every action now has consequences for the future, occasionally we must stay the hand and just allow those remnants of history to fall through and remind us that once long ago other people lived and were part of a community.

One thing I have learnt from living here, is the strong conviction of fellow Yorkshire bloggers of the roots of co-operation and socialism that underlies these Northern towns, forget our London-based government, who know little of nothing.  Start turning to the people who actually are in control in our towns, argue with them maybe, but allow that bright spirit of community to register its vote.

12 comments:

  1. An uplifting post Thelma to start off my Sunday morning. At present there's not a lot of good news about - or things to cheer us up; but then I see that lovely painting which has an exquisite golden glow to it and that exquisite Viking cross which as you say is food for thought. Touring the graveyard and seeing generations of the same family - still with the family in the area carrying on the traditions, contributing to community life. Things are not so bad after all, Thank you for an uplifting start to the day!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it. I had decided to write about it on a Sunday, a day for me which always makes me think of holidays and pleasant weather. Also Paul Knight has a lot of local links which is worth exploring.

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  2. Your last paragraph is so true - London based politicians that know nothing of life outside of their offices handing down edicts on what the rest of us should be doing.

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    1. The problem with government and the people within that government is that they are either always thinking of the next election or their own necks. The system has broken down and we need a different way to govern people. Could it be regional?

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  3. Is this the Viking hoard that is in Kircudbright?We saw it last week while on holiday in Castle Douglas.Stunning.Barbarax

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    1. No Barbara I think the one you saw was the Galloway Hoard in Kirkcudbright. The one I mentioned has no name at the moment, probably to stop people digging around the area.

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  4. I love this, Thelma. Have you ever read "The Immense Journey"? I think that you would like it.

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    1. No haven't read the book Debby, but will look out for it.

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    1. Thanks Joanne, a place to research and discover the good in the people of the past.

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  6. I'm not surprised to hear that the Vikings were a more varied society than is usually represented in book or film. I lived a good part of my childhood in a rather well-heeled village which was staunchly Tory, apart from one or two revolutionary kinds who might have once voted Liberal (!). After my father retired he became involved in many of the things that went on in the village and was always impressed by how much everyone helped each other with such things as village fetes, charities, firework displays, the cricket club and so on. "They're mostly socialists, but they don't know it" was his analysis.

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    1. I think your father was so right, people come together in community and look after the people around them. What we need is a re-education of the term socialist, so that it does not fall under the spell of old history which mouths 'Marxism' all the time without realising the silliness of it. Reading around Nutclough Mill, and it was a place for the workers run by reasonable leaders. As for Vikings, York was their capital city and though I have never been to the Viking Museum, basically because they also 'create' the smell of the city. But its history lies in church walls, burials and the names of the villages and towns round there.

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