Saxon Burial at Broomfield, Essex

Visiting the church at Broomfield with its prehistoric stones, one set in the wall of the church by the porch, the other two stones outside the wych gate, I became fascinated by the story of the Dragon pond and associated streams that were to be found in this area. Such stories are of course made up of myths but dragons and Saxons are an alliance that warrants a little more study, and a rich princely Saxon burial found here at Broomfield needs at least some notes.
The burial was excavated by Sir Hercules Read in 1894 and some of the finds found there way into the British Museum, one particular interesting find was a pyramidal jewel, and here I will quote from a BM Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities 1923..


Plaited gold wire is also seen on the pyramidal jewel from the richly furnished burial at Broomfield, Essex..... The purpose of such pyramids is at present unknown, but its garnet inlay and the small piece of cell-work associated with it point to a Kewntish origin, which is of interest in view of the paucity of relics from the East Saxon territory. The interment was found 6 or 7 feet below the surface in a line ESE andWNW, and it appeared as if a warrior had been placed in a wooden coffin and burnt on the spot, but the total disappearance of the skeleton has been often noticed in Kent. His sword was recovered, and near the centre of the grave was a bronze pan, 13 inches in diameter, with a pair of drop handles, resting on fabric of two qualities. The vessel contained a cow's horn, two squat vases of blue glass and two wooden cups, turned on the lathe and furnished with rims of gilt bronze. As the pottery of the period outside Kent was hand-made, the use of the lathe may imply contact with the Jutish kingdom, which was then at its zenith.
The grave also contained two wooden buckets with iron mounts, 12 inches in diameter and 10 inches deep, which had been sunk into the floor, and a hemispherical iron cup on a tall stem terminating in four feet. This had a height of over 11 inches and may correspond to the bronzevessel of the Taplow burial. There were in addition a deep cylindrical cauldron of iron holding about 2 gallons, a shield boss with indications of a wooden shield, and a grey wheel-turned vase with impressed chevrons, singularly like one from the King's Field, Faversham...


Saxon burial, found in 1888, in gravel pit behind Clobb's Row.

Workmen digging gravel found remains of a sword, spear and knife 6-7 feet down. The sword's wooden sheath seemed to have been bound with tape-like material. With the sword were a gold pyramid and buckle plate, both set with garnets. the site was excavated in 1894. The northern part of the grave had been cut away.. The grave was curiously formed , dome-shaped and with curious extensions at the corners, and was c.8 feet long. The grave walls were covered with soot or charcoal. At the end of the grave were rows of large flint nodules. Flints and Roman tile fragments were found throughout the fill. A two-handled circular bronze pan was found on the eastern side of the centre of the grave.. It lay on a mass of folded woollen fabric of two qualities and some coarse material, apparently flax (including perhaps reddish tufts from a hairy cloak, of which there are quantities in the BM) and supported by logs of birchwood lying E-W, close together. In the pan were the tips of two cow's horns, two blue glass bowls, two lathe-turned wooden cups with gilt bronze rims. Nearby were two wooden buckets with iron mountings, sunk into the earth. A hemispherical iron cup on a tall stem, with four feet, was found in the middle of the south side of the grave; it was full of a hard, compacted mass of sand. In the south-west corner of the grave was an iron cauldron. At the north end was a sword, spearhead, shield boss and sherds of a wheel- thrown pot, ornamented with an impressed lozenge stamp. Between the pan and the west end of the grave a good deal of very dark matter was found, presumably charcoal, fragments of wood, parts of flat iron bars, angle irons and rivets. No sign of a body, the excavators thought it had been placed in a coffin and then burnt. The finds had no signs of fire damage. Possibly it was a southerly example of a half-burnt burial.
The burial has many similarities to the Taplow, Bucks., burial in its richness and the arrangement of the objects. Both are considered to be 'princely burials'. Finds in the British Museum.

The area in front of the church

This hollowed out dip is large and maybe the quarried gravel pit, the centre is filled with hemp agrimony and horses graze over this large area surrounded by houses.

A small footbridge over a stream? towards the hollow leading from the pond (or? the excavated saxon burial)


To the right deep pond like depression ringed with a small bank

History of church

British History online.....

These vases resemble very closely those found in a rich grave in a barrow atBroomfield, Essex. (fn. 13) Next comes a bronze situla or bucket, 9 in. high, both in form and fabric totally unlike Saxonwork (Pl. XXVIII g). (fn. 14) It was evidently a treasured object, since it has been neatly patched across a crack just below the rim. It remained for Sir Martin (later Lord) Conway to appreciate the true nature and source of the vessel. (fn. 15) He demonstrated beyond question the Coptic workmanship of the piece, showing that the flange at the base was intended to fit into a stand (now, or even at the time of its deposition, wanting), and that it could thus be brought into line with other imported bronze vessels of Coptic origin, like those from Taplow barrow and graves in various Kentish cemeteries. The normal attribution of exotic objects like the above to the 7th century is corroborated by the last piece figured in the original account. This is a fragmentary object of gilt bronze, decorated with studs set with garnet carbuncles, and with plait-ornament, a decorative combination that can claim a similar dating in Anglo-Saxon style. At Broomfield, too, a pyramidal jewelled stud has an edging of pseudo-plait gold filigree that marks work of the same period.

WOOD BUCKET (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

IRON CAULDRON (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

WOOD COFFIN (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

WOOD DRINKING VESSEL (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

IRON LAMP (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

IRON SHIELD (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

IRON SPEAR (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

IRON SWORD (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

POTTERY VESSEL (Dated 600AD To 700AD) 

The Arts in Early England 1915

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/b/blue_glass_jar.aspx

Bank holidays and English fetes

Such a nostalgic trip back into English history are church fetes, they embody all that is good, kind and giving in people who are of the christian faith. So where did this fete take place? It was at Ingatestone in Essex, we had gone to look at the prehistoric stones , and the sight of stalls and a marquee in the church graveyard was a surprise. I bought a corn dolly from a man who was patiently weaving them in a corner, his wife sat at the front of the stall with baskets of them to sell. We sat in the marquee and drank tea and ate homemade cakes, one a little rice krispie chocolate cupcake that fell to pieces, a reminder of all those children's cakes I had baked in the past for parties. A gentle soul talked to us of circle dancing that evening and closing the marquee flaps. Up on the tower a man's head peered over as he let out a rope for a bucket mysteriously being pulled back and forth.
In the church great vases of flowers beautifully arranged, and local paintings on display for sale, the vicar happily walking amongst his flock, ordered a ploughman's lunch in the marquee. Genteel England in all its beautiful old English charm, slowly dying but never gone - for to lose this facet of our world would be like losing a great jewel of the past - a gentle muddle-headed way of past traditions enacted in a church, that once not so long ago, recorded our coming into the world, marriages for life and the final end as the dead were laid to rest in the earth. The small parochial way of life, community and certainty wrapped round the central hearth of the religious church - paganism still quietly lurking in the graveyard with a prehistoric stone that had never been removed.

an explanation about pagan corn dollies....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dolly

Windmill Hill

The above illustration is taken from Isobel Smith's leaflet for Windmill Hill and Avebury, a short 

account of Keiller's excavations carried out on the hill between 1925 and 1939.

As can be seen from this old text such finds are thought to be part of the ritual and magic of this Neolithic causewayed camp. They are a fascinating, though poignant, reminder of times long gone. Time moves on, archaeological thought may now see these objects from a different perspective, but the idea that the phallic objects found on site are fertility symbols is still with us.

Simple Quern

Ronald Hutton in his book "The Pagan Religions of the British Isles" lists the various objects that were found in the ditch, apart from animal bones he describes the other finds as

"mysterious cup-shaped chalk objects, puzzling chalk plaques with incised lines, stone discs with shaped edges, chalk phalluses, fifteen pairs of chalk balls, and pieces of shaped chalk with etched vertical lines" he says that these etched chalk objects may represent female forms, but he goes on to argue that the cult of a 'female goddess' is a recent manifestation, and perhaps a different interpretation can be given. The vertical lines could also of course been tally marks, the females, carelessly made statues.

Antler picks

The idea that excarnation may have taken place in these causewayed camps in Neolithic times rather than on platforms near to the great longbarrows is also put forward. Hutton takes his evidence from the fact that the body of a man was found underneath the enclosure, the man had been laid in an open grave apparently until the flesh dropped off.... The West Kennet longbarrow being the 'tomb-shrine' to which the bones were taken, some of the bones at the enclosure represent missing parts of the bones found at West Kennet longbarrow.

Windmill Hill is the great classic causewayed enclosure, with its three lines of bank and ditch, and later bronze age barrows in its centre, and yet not so far away Knap Hill enclosure camp can still be found with its equally dramatic banks.

A camp, a seasonal place for people to gather, have feasts, bring livestock, bring their dead, these camps were communal centres before the time of stone circles, and yet overlapping with the longbarrows.

Knap Hill Causewayed enclosure

Windmill Hill barrow

Windmill hill barrows

Strange pock marked stone

The Land

The Land is a magazine written by three people, who if my suspicions are correct are what I would describe as permaculturists, and have come through the hard graft of self-sufficiency and places like Tinkers Bubble. Yet lo and behold the Simon Fairlie of the magazine is being quoted on Radio 4 as the man who might have the answer to our food problems here in Great Britain.
Intrigued after listening to 'Our Food, Our Future' on Monday morning, made me think where is he and the other contributors on the programme are coming from. Are they going back to a medieval past of open common fields, with meat such as pig and sheep being the mainstay of our meat production and dairy products rich in butter, cheese and milk filling in the gap that would give us our energy. Now this diet of pastries, potatoes, roast meat and puddings is of course thought of as oldfashioned given the 'recieved wisdom' the nutritionists who speak out for vegetables and fruit diet, with a certain amount of carbohydrates in the form of pastas, rice and potatoes.
One argument in favour of a more grain based diet is given in the following article in the Independent as to why we should perhaps go back to a more traditional way of eating local food, well suited to our land and climate.
http://tinyurl.com/55c9yx

How will the diehard vegetarians and vegans take to such an argument, the point was raised that vegans are just as guilty of 'carbon miles' because of their need, or at least use, of different grains and nuts from other countries. In all I find it intriguing as new ideas are tossed round, one rich 'city banker' with plenty of farming land, (he did'nt farm it though) put forward the argument that we need to get rid of all 'recreational land' that our love affair with horse-riding takes up, though to be quite honest if we have less oil, maybe we'll need those selfsame horses, for pulling the plough, or trotting to market.
People are of course buying up farm land as the 'new gold' to invest in, this brazen disregard of ethics, land is after all there to produce food for everyone, will perhaps bring about some socialists reforms, which are long overdue as 'The City' seems to run our economy with little regard for the wellbeing of everyone, only that 'fatcats' can make more money, in a world market that is beginning to slide on a very slippery slope.
Whatever, as a person perfectly at home with the idea of 'self-sufficiency', the practise will be a great deal more difficult than a few words, but adaptability is a great human virtue.
The following comes from a book written by Dorothy Hartley's 'Food in England'... in which she describes how to cook the foods that were produced in England, and how seasonalty and preserving were the backbone of the economy of rural England, though not advocating that we should go back to such ways, it does at least show that people were able to exist without the use of fridges, freezers and electricity.


This on Preserving;
The womenfolk had no 'thermos' but used non-conducting wood hoggins for cold drinks taken to the harvest fields, or hot broth to the shepherd's night fold. Grease, salves, or ointments were stored in horns. Lanolin from the sheep, marking raddle (which was a mixture of tallow far and red earth), soft fats, such as the semi-liquid goose grease, could be pushed in at the large end of the horn, tied over with pliant bladder and the tip of the horn sawn off, making a primitive 'drop bottle', very useful for pushing along the shed lines of a sheep fleece, and leaving a trail of lubricant as it went along, or would release some oil on to some farm implement. The littlest lambs and babies were fed through shaped horns or thick quills.
Storing of lemons, oranges and pumpkins, onions etc were done in nets. Dried roots of all sorts were bundled in old linen - walnuts were husked by rolling up and down in a sack and were stored in wet salt........



http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ourfoodourfuture/

Reverend A.C.Smith

Today in Bath reference library I took down a map book by this Victorian gentleman, it was entitled if memory serves right A 100 Square Miles Round Avebury, written were all the local names of fields, red and yellow dots which I presume were barrows, but no reference with the map book, this came in the form of another book. Coloured in it was a rather naive but beautiful plan, much better than the Andrew and Dury which is always shown. Googling Reverend Smith I note that he lived very near to Silbury. With that marvellous job that only requires attendance on Sunday our vicar gave himself up to the pleasures of recording the area in which he lived for over 30 years.

By the Rev. A. C. SMITH, M.A.
Read before the Society at Avebury during the annual Meeting at Marlborouth,
September, 1859.

" Unchanged it stands :

it awes the lands

Beneath the clear dark sky ;

But at what time its head sublime

It heavenward reared, and why —

The gods that see all things that be

Can better tell than I."

* as I do, though not quite under its shadow, yet live within sight of Silbury, I feel in some degree locally constituted its guardian, and if I hear of any one impugning its purpose, or in any way speaking disrespectfully of the great mound, I have such a wholesome dread of incurring the wrath of the " genius loci," that I consider myself in duty bound to act in some sort as its champion, and rebut any such accusations to the best of my power. Moreover esteeming it as one of the most remarkable and interesting relics of antiquity in this or any other County, and entertaining a strong belief that it contains the remains of the mighty dead of a very early age, I am very desirous to rescue it from the imputation of having been raised for other than sepulchral purposes, under which it has lain since the year 1849, when Mr. Tucker, who drew up the report of its examination by the Archaeological Institute boldly concluded his paper by announcing the sepulchral theory to be henceforth exploded.......

http://tinyurl.com/5aoss7

The following was taken from his book, and gives an account of the Beckhampton Avenue that Stukeley drew on his plan, in the above article Rev.Smith says that the proposed avenue might have been "fanciful", yet in this book he seems quite happy with the idea...

Stukeley's account; "The Beckahampton Avenue goes out of Abury town on the west point, and proceeds by the south side of the church. Two stones lie by the parsonage gate on the right hand. Those opposite to them, on the left hand, in a pasture was taken away in 1702, as marked in the grand plan of Abury. Reuben Horsal remembers three standing in the pasture. One now lies in the floor of the house in the churchyard. A little further one lies in the corner of the next house on the right hand,by the lane turning off to the right of the bridge. Another was broken into pieces, to build that house with it in 1714. Two more lie on the left hand opposite. It then passes he beck south of the bridge. Most of the stones hereabouts have been made use of round the bridge, and the causeway leading to it" (Abury Described - Stukeley)


Rev.Smith says; there is no question that Stukeley is to be believed he most certainly saw, many sarsen stones lying in two, more or less apparent, lines west of the great circle of Abury, moreover he speaks of 10 stones standing in living? memory.....

http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/avebury/interim_draft2.pdf

http://www.kennet.gov.uk/environment/avebury-world-heritage-site/negotiating-avebury-project

Thistles and colour

I have walked past these beautiful purple thistles for several days without photographing them, but they stand as tall as me in some places a glorious defiant act of wildflowers showing their strength. Their rough steely buds and great jagged leaves a good defense, even Moss lifts his leg with delicate care against their roughness.
Its the purple colour that strikes the dyer's eye at first, a good soft natural colour, but it is the silver of the buds that sets the purple to an exquisite tone, dye with an artificial acid dye, and the colour becomes too strong. Elderberry which will also dye a soft purple, has the habit of fading from the wool after a few months.
The original purple dye, used from very early times was the murex snail, great vats of these creatures were left to rot, and the produced a deep blood red dye mixed if I have it right with another 'indigo' type snail to produce the empirical purple so loved by the romans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple









These August colours also make a beautiful palette, soft browns and greens, highlighted with the yellow of ragwort.

Stoney Littleton Longbarrow

This barrow situated not too far from Bath is approached along a small winding lane from Wellow, this time of the year nettles and brambles crowd into the narrow space, and it is a bit like driving down a narrow cool corridor with the dappled shade of the trees overhead.
Parking at the little parking space, you go over a small bridge that spans the Wellow Brook,the green weeds in the water stretch and swirl with the current.



Up into the steep sided fields that are normally full of sheep. Moss bounds ahead, freedom at last, though he is good around sheep and will walk sedately past them. We climb the hill in the hot sun, brown butterflies dance around purple thistle flowers. Through the gate, across the stony surface of the barrow's field, this year the farmer has sown wheat golden in the sun ready for harvest. We follow the path, to the place where Moss has to be lifted over the stile into the enclosure that protects the barrow.




It is such a tranquil spot, the fields stretch all around, and I try to envisage it painted as those painters who lived here years ago, and it is so, a toy landscape neatly defined by hedges and fields, trees that form cloud shapes of green. Overhead the sky is as blue as blue can be, scattered white fluffy clouds adding to the 'picturesque' - Little England in full glory.
The barrow itself, a great hump of untidy yellowing grass with ragwort adding a bright note of yellow to the green. Sit quietly, listen to the noise of the wind through the grasses, here dry and crisp on the barrow, with a low moan as it buffets round the corner. The green grass at your feet has a softer tone, and the wheat rustles its seed heads in anticipation of its final end as bread. Grasshoppers chirrup amongst the grasses, dead brown clover heads amongst the still living pink heads, and a scabious echoes the sky.





Death was once here but not today, the cool interior of the barrow, is highlighted by my camera flash, the stones forever stuck out of sight of the sun, elegantly shaped to form the chambers, a small natural prehistoric cathedral amongst the cultivated land that feeds us, nothing has really changed about us humans, we all still need the food of the earth, nourished as it were by the ashes of the dead.

That of course is not quite true, for once a year around the 21st December, the sun is supposed to enter the chamber and touch the back stone, there is, according to something I have read, a notch on the ridge above but at this time of year with everything in full growth nothing is discernable, though I did notice a slight dip in the land....

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St.Julian Church from the back;

This church is late and very much 'restored' but its name is interesting, and harks back to earlier saints with the name of Julian, which one I do not know, for there are several all with their stories, maybe it goes back to the Welsh Julian but who knows. No grave yard, just untidy unmown grass surrounds it. It stands high above the ground, and I have read in a history of Wellow, that it may date back to Saxon. On the oppposite hill to the Stoney Littleton barrow is a Roman villa, and there may be a very tenuous connection between the church and the roman period.

Wellow village with Fox and Badger pub;

Wellow is a charming village with pretty cottages, and probably the prices that go with them. A linear village, though modern encroaches from the Bath road, the Wellow Brook runs lower down to the right of the photo, and is crossed by a ford, in fact if you cross the ford and then take the right hand farm track further up the hill, you will eventually walk to the back of the barrow, though far away, it is the only way you can get a clear photo of the barrow in its position on the hill.

St. Anne - 1st century saint - July 26th

Saints are those strange creatures that belong in the rote of church festival days, they seem at first glance rather boring, but it is a good idea to look at their background, and see where they actually come from.
St. Anne is a first century saint, she belongs fully in the Celtic tradition, of transferred pagan goddess to christian cult saint. The early 'desert' monks will have taken the stories of the old pagan gods and moulded christian figureheads on them.
St. Anne is also remembered on Tan Hill, in the Pewsey Vale, Tan being corrupted into Anne, and it is here on this hill that up to the 19th century livestock fair was held on her date.
it challenges the assumption that Lugh was always bound up in the Lughnasa festival of August 1st, here we have St.Anne fair being held on a date very near to the harvest festival...
St.Ann may possibly derive from the Celtic goddess Anu, described in Cormac's Glossary as the Mother of the Irish Gods, and Anu's identification as an 'earth mother' is brought out more explicitly in the name of a Kerry mountain 'The Paps of Anu'(Da Chich Anann). There is of course another goddess that vies for attention here, this is Aine, seen also as a fertility goddess, though with a more varied background, and of course the two could be one goddess., with there stories interchangeable in Irish mythology.

Her christian counterpart is seen as the apocryphal mother of the virgin mary. There is an ancient carving at St.Anne's Well at Llanfihangel, the well here used to feature water spouting from her breasts, but her breasts were later smashed off.
There is a St.Anne's Well at Malvern Wells (formerly Welsh territory), and another famous votive well dedicated to her at Trellech in Monmouthshire. Trellech of course has three great megaliths - Harolds Stones, nine wells, and a tumulus, but her most famous shrine is in Buxton, Derbyshire, and many dedications can be found in Brittany.
ref; Book of Welsh Saints - T.D.Breverton.

There is another Anna - 5th to 6th, mother of the great saints Samson, Tydecho and Tathan, and her saints day also falls on the 26th July.

This link.... http://www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/tanhill.html talks of a small circle below Tan Hill, and also a White Horse, that no longer exists. When the circle was made is difficult to say, but there is the same pagan theme that seems to exist around the hills and valley of Pewsey, and of course why was a nearby hill called Milk Hill, a winding thread that leads back to the Goddess Aine patron of cattle......

Gold discs

Gold Disc found on Lansdown

Representation of Lansdown disc

Jugs grave gold disc


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Photo of Bathampton Downs as seen from Solsbury Hill, Iron age lynchetts and 'celtic fields' can just about be seen

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1913/bathampton_down.html

Notes

Letter from Gregory taken to England by Mellitus;
When almighty god has brought you to our most reverend brother Bishop Augustine, tell him what I have decided after long deliberation about the English people, namely that the idol temples (fana idolurum) of that race should by no means be destroyed, but the idols in them. Take holy water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars and place relics in the. For if the shrines are well built, it is essential that they should be changed from the worship of devils (cultu daemonum) to the service of the true god. When these people see that their shrines are not destroyed they will be able to banish error from their hearts and be more ready to come to the places thaey are familar with, but now recognizing and worshipping the true god.

Gregory's answer to a letter from Augustine which must have been outlining the English religious customs;

Because they (the English) are in the habit of slaughteringmuch cattle as sacrifices to devils, some solemnity ought to be given in exchange for this. So on the day of the dedication or the festivals of the holy martyrs, whose relics are deposited there, let them make themselves huts from the branches of trees around the churches which have been converted out of shrines, and let them celebrate the solemnity with religious feast.
Do not let them sacrifice animals to the devil, but let them slaughter animals for their own food to the praise of god, and let them give thanks to the giver of things for his bountiful provision.

Martin Biddle Widening Horizons - relationships between Celtic overlap into Roman period and also pagan Anglo-Saxon...

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cbaresrep/pdf/013/01305001.pdf

Roman evidence in christian churches have been found in a considerable numer eg....
St.Martin's church Ancaster 1831 record;

Sculpture of Romano -celtic Mother-goddesses in triple form
Was still standing upright, facing south and had been placed on top of a rough stone block at one end of a massive 6 x 4 foot stone slab. At the southern end of the slab was a small, elaborately carved stone altar....
"Reason for singling out a stone would be because it had be venerated in the past, This raises the question of whether churches were ever deliberately positioned in close topographical relation to megalithic monuments, or built from the debris of such structure"
quote from Churches in the landscape; Richard Morris

Evidence, mostly Brittany, some Cornish; Church of St.Michael Awliscombe (pagan stone at the threshold of the west door.

St.Tysilio at Llandysiliogogo ;
In 189o renovators of the church of uncovered a huge stone buried in the nave, they were unable to remove it.

Similar incident in Guernsey, 12 years later when a stone of unusual size was discovered beneath the chancel floor at Catel...

On Bernera in the Hebrides there is a pillar in the church which is said to be part of a stone circle. This is an Ogham stone
The scanty ruins of Kilchattan Church, behind the hotel, date from medieval times. In the kirkyard are some old grave slabs showing knights in armour. One is possibly of Malcolm MacNeill, Laird of Gigha, who died in 1493.
And behind the church, atop the Cnoc A’Charraidh (Hill of the Pillar) is the Ogham Stone dating from the time the island formed part of the kingdom of Dalriada. It carries a carving that reads Fiacal son of Coemgen, and probably marks a burial.

At Midmer Kirk Abd there is a stone circle in the churchyard (Burl 1976)

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=38618


Two large stones which lie in the churchyard at Bolsterstone may be the vestiges of a megalithic structure...
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/8621/dragons_well_bolsterstone.html


Ysbity Cynfyn (C.s.Briggs 1979)

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/119/ysbyty_cynfyn.html


Alton Barnes church: WANHM 68, 71-8;
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getconcise.php?id=5


This Nicker pool belongs to an earlier blog under Mildenhall.......

Nykerpole : here be dragons
Nykerpole is a very obscure well. Indeed, it is now not a well at all, but a mediaeval place-name, recorded first in 1272, indicating a well now lost, at Mildenhall near Marlborough. Nevertheless, I include Nykerpole here because, like Puckwell, the place-name recalls a legendary well-dwelling creature.
Mildenhall (pronounced Mine-all) was Roman Cunetio. Two Roman shaft-wells have been found in the area, one of which contained a Saxon burial, the remains of a female skeleton with a knife, pins, buckles and beads. Black Field is the site of the Roman settlement, and Roman ghosts have been seen here (Wiltshire 1984, pp. 25-6). Nickamoor Field lies just west of Black Field beside the River Kennet. A placename of the sixteenth century, Nicapooles Croft, may refer to this very field, or to another associated with it. Centuries have passed, and we will probably never know the exact location of Nykerpole, the nicor-pool of Anglo-Saxon times which gave its name to Nicapooles Croft and Nickamoor Field (Gover 1939, p. 499). The nicor was a great water-dwelling monster of the dragonish or sea-serpent type: two nicras are described in Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the early eighth century. Nowadays the nicor lingers most notably in the Knucker Holes of Sussex, great deep pools of water in whose bottomless depths lurked the Knucker itself (Simpson 1973, pp. 37-42). But it is clear that, centuries ago, Wiltshire too had its Knucker which perhaps, like its Sussex cousins, would come crawling up out of its pool to terrorise the people of the gentle Kennet valley.
Location: Nicamoor Field is at SU 214 694, Sheet 1186. Footpaths run either side of the River Kennet.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/ns6/ns6kmj1.htm



Berwick Bassett - no church before 1300 VCH il 155

WAM l 1XV11; Few traces of prehistoric activity have been found in the parish. 2 barrows in the N/E corner and a paelolithic axe found;

SU1198 7387 Bowl barrow 500 m N/W of Berwick Bassett camp;

Pewsey group of barrows S/E of Down farm (Roman?)



Winterbourne Bassett 580 SU 0980 7530



Winterbourne monkton Collection of R/B pottery fragments



Church of St.Nicholas; chancel 13th c; wooden tower in 1807 13th c font. Built between 1191 & 1221

St.Marys Church Bartlow

Rare round tower for Essex


There be dragons, St George has disappeared but his horses head can still be faintly seen

Another mythical beast stands below the saint and St.Mary trying to tug the balance used for weighing the souls of men.

5th Century Book of Beasts was the base line from which most of the mythical creatures found in medieval art is copied into our churches, the christian stories have been woven round these myths.

"The Bestiarius, De Bestiis, or Book of Beasts consists of descriptions and tales of animals, birds, fantastic creatures, and stones, real and imaginary, which are imbued with Christian symbolism or moral lessons. The rising of the phoenix from the pyre, for example, is related to Christ's Resurrection"

Taken from the British Library catalogue of books

Walking the dog

Today the weather has decided to be warm and sunny, up on the Downs, the fields have been cut for hay, and all that is left is a green stubble, but around the edges the wild grasses are still there. Interspersed amongst great patches of nettles, their delicate seed heads shine with the early morning light. The finest of them is a mist of brown and purple, even the spider cannot create such an intricate tapestry, taller grasses are golden coloured hanging heavy with their seeded heads. The sky is that incredible blue overhead and three balloons that must have been launched in Victoria Park below are strung out in a line hardly moving in a calm morning.
Walking round near the wood, under the old ash trees, the grasses here are filigreed silver-gray, moon-coloured because of the shade of the trees. There is a quiet peace, even the birds in the grasses, are talking softly amongst themselves.
I come to my ash tree, the one I have often stood by and wondered what to do, the dog will throw himself down in the grass impatient that we are stopping, but touching its branches gives strength, it is old, and new growths have started round its base, their branches curving low to the ground, its roots are embedded in a steep hill, strong against the winter gales. Below is a small valley leading eventually to a cottage tucked under the hill, through these woods you can often see deer as they make their way from one place to another always on the move.
The land is calm, cows pastured below, yet the human world is in another fever, food is short and so is oil, calamity looms in stock markets; what edifices, what pyramids do we build to prove we are the superior species and yet all of it is as nothing compared to the intricacies of the natural world around us, we could shed nine-tenths of our lives here in the west and still not miss much.

Dyes

Safflower
A dye I have'nt used yet, but its supposed to produce good yellows and oranges, mainly grown for oil, it needs to be grown in a warm dry climate such as southern Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mignonette_%28Reseda%29
Dyers Weld
This I have tried from dried plant material, mignonette does grow up on the downs, but there is not much, so I don't pick it. Again a yellow dye, my efforts came out a pale yellow, though used equal weight plant/silk. Alum mordant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_colors_of_Japan
http://www.planetbotanic.ca/fact_sheets/japanese_herbs/kihada.htm
Kihada
Again a yellow dye, the silk came out strongly dyed, in fact the dyewater can probably be used again. Alum mordant used.

Kihada contrasted against natural tussah silk



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithospermum_purpurocaeruleum;
Shikon
the last is a Japanese dye, which dyes purple. The wikipedia information tells me that it is a strong dye, but needs plenty of alum for the mordant. My effort came out a soft creamy pink.
Need to go back on this one.

Gobaishi dye

Another Japanese dye, oak galls, rather black and horrible, when simmered they become soft and snail-like but produce a very dark dye. This time iron mordant was used, and somewhere in the following link, the American student who has been studying dyes and felting in Japan says that she produced a 'heather' colour,. In the dyepot at the moment and a dark grey, but the purple is there.

Gobaishi dye- soft dark purple

http://feltcafe.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Some Japanese dyes and mordants

Coate Water

Wandering around this tranquil oasis, searching for the places that Richard Jefferies mentions in his book "Bevis", it suddenly strikes you how much smaller it is than in the book. I had read his other book "After London", in which Coate has become an inland sea, forested, mountains, people living in settlements,a whole adventure story wrapped round this magical place.
But "Bevis" was on a smaller scale, an adventure story about two boys camping in the wild on an island. The island is there though very small; The cliff is there, an old sand quarry, the place where his father taught him to swim because of the sandy beach at this particular spot; the swampy land "and so thick with sedges and grass and rushes that they walked in a forest of green up to their waists"
Its all there but you have to look for it, a magical retracing of a story.
Ducks and swans congregate to be fed under the ugly concrete diving tower, a dear old man with his leaflets for the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust, and his board of the latest threat to Coate Water, it is to be developed in one part, people wandering round with children and dogs, a quiet backwater to the hustle and bustle of the busy roads round Swindon.
An idyllic childhood? perhaps, or maybe he idolised a place he loved so much, when the harsh realities of being grown up and earning a living grated against his sensitive soul and he looked back with happy memories.

Monday, June 23, 2008
House builders submit revised plans

Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes have submitted a revised planning application to Swindon Borough Council for 1800 houses, 41 hectares of employment land, a university campus etc etc.

It is virtually the same at the application submitted in August 2007 and they still haven't found a university partner.

http://jefferiesland.blogspot.com/

Dyeing experiments

Two type of marigolds pot marigold ( calendula officinalis) and the hybrid 'Art shades'


The pot marigolds have just started to flower, their bright orange/yellow has been used as colourant since the middle ages, it can also be used instead of saffron or sprinkled over salads. But as a natural dye for wool or silk, it will be mordanted with alum, equal weight of flower to silk. First the flower must be soaked in hot water overnight and then gently simmered to release the colour, this done in soft/rain water. The silk will be mordanted, then when the colour is extracted will be simmered in the dyebath, hopefully to produce yellow.
The other plant to be used is dried weld, similar quantities of the rather woody material to the silk. The plant material will be soaked for several days. Again a mordant will be used, but different colours can be expected with using iron or copper sulphate this will produce greens.

Dyeing stuff

Pale green(better in real life) is weld/coppersulphate; yellow is weld/alum

reflections

Flicking idly through my photos I came across this one of West Kennet longbarrow, and was suddenly struck by the uneven line of the ridge of the barrow highlighted by the darkness of the ridge against the sky. There is the old track that was driven across, goodness knows when, it now stands higher than the surrounding field, showing how ploughing reduces the land surface. The rest of the hollows would presumably be because of quarrying of stone I suppose.
What does stand out however is the dramatic placing of the longbarrow on the brow of the hill, facing the Ridgeway, and of course facing the somewhat later? Sanctuary, another circle of stones, preceded by timber circles.

West Kennet Longbarrow from the Sanctuary

The great stones of West Kennet would have come into view to those travelling along the Ridgeway. Bare feet tramping along the chalky track, animals perhaps being herded along, WKLB is almost an engineered feat of dramatic surprise.
And again we have only to turn round from the stance of the person taking the photograph to see Silbury Hill, another engineered feat of dramatic surprise. There is a spatial awareness carried out in the landscape, the focussing of the key elements on the bare downs, East Kennet longbarrow seems to give the same message, as it overlooks the river Kennet at the bottom of the valley.
Waden Hill is of course the place to understand this overlooking both Silbury Hill and WKLB, what we see are 'statements of strong visuality', we may term it territorial but it is also visionary, though these two monuments are separated in time in their construction they both express an underlying creativity.

Silbury from Waden Hill

Twisted Yarns; A.S.Byatt

The Lady of Shalott by Burne-Jones

She left the web, she left the loom,

She made three paces through the room,

She saw the water-lily bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She look'd down to Camelot.

Out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror crack'd from side to side;

'The curse is come upon me,' cried

The Lady of Shalott."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

"We think of our lives - and of stories - as spun threads, extended and knitted or interwoven with others into the fabric of communities, or history, or texts. An intriguing exhibition at Compton Verney in Warwickshire, The Fabric of Myth, mixes ancient and modern - Penelope's shroud, unpicked nightly, with enterprising tapestries made in a maximum security prison out of unravelled socks. In an essay in the accompanying catalogue, Kathryn Sullivan Kruger collects words that connect weaving with storytelling: text, texture and textile, the fabric of society, words for disintegration - fraying, frazzling, unravelling, woolgathering, loose ends. A storyteller or a listener can lose the thread. The word "clue", Kruger tells us, derives from the Anglo-Saxon cliwen, meaning ball of yarn. The processes of cloth-making are knitted and knotted into our brains, though our houses no longer have spindles or looms.

The Greeks had the Moirae, the Fates, one to spin the yarn, one to draw out the thread, one to cut it. They are sometimes confused with the Graiae, three grey old women with one eye and one tooth between them, sisters of the Gorgons. There is a beautiful and surprising tapestry from a Henry Moore drawing in this exhibition, depicting the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, as grave swathed figures, with Atropos standing between her sisters, pointing the fatal shears at the life-thread moving between the two. Their faces are solemn and sad, the first two apprehensive, Atropos almost appalled. Milton confused her with the Furies, in "Lycidas", when he wrote: "Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears, / And slits the thin-spun life." This is unforgettable partly because of the way those thin-sounding words - "slits", "thin-spun", "life" - mimic the dangerously fine thread.
The Norse, too, had their three Fates - the Norns, who spun the thread of life at the roots of the World Ash, Yggdrasil. They are sometimes young, mature, old, and sometimes three crones. They sing wildly in Wagner's Götterdämmerung, as the plot of the world unravels. Their thread is a golden rope that was once attached to the destroyed World Ash and is now precariously anchored on other trees and sharp rocks. It rips apart; they wind themselves in it, and go under the earth; the Twilight of the Gods has come."

Taken from

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2286840,00
.html

Velazquez - Las Hilanderas 1644-1646

Taken from Wikipedia;.....

The spinning wheel, introduced into from India between the 13th and 14th centuries, improved the hand-spinning method. The spindle was set horizontally in a wheel turned by a foot pedal and produced a single thread. Spinning by hand is still the principal method used in many developing countries."The spinning wheel replaced the earlier method of hand spinning with a spindle The first stage in mechanizing the process was mounting the spindle horizontally so it could be rotated by a cord encircling a large, hand-driven wheel. The great wheel is an example of this type, where the fiber is held in the left hand and the wheel slowly turned with the right. Holding the fiber at a slight angle to the spindle produced the necessary twist The spun yarn was then wound onto the spindle by moving it so as to form a right angle with the spindle. This type of wheel, while known in Europe by the 14th century, was not in general use until later. It ultimately was used there to spin a variety of yarns until the beginning of the 19th century and the mechanization of spinning.