Reweirding: Lost Landscape and Found Lore

A packed Amersham Arms in New Cross last month for the first of a series of 'Reweirding' events there. The theme for March was for 'Reweirding London: Authors on the Secret City', with interesting talks from Caitlin Davies on female crime,  Lara Maiklem on mudlarking on the Thames shore and Tom Chivers on  'London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City' (pictured below left holding his underground London map with host Scott Wood).

The next event,  'Reweirding: Lost Landscape and Found Lore', takes place on Thursday 28 April 2022, 7 pm:

'Discover what remains of south London’s Great North Wood and revel in the revival of the Deptford Jack in the Green mayday celebration. Complementary verdant short films from Video Strolls.

C.J. Schüler, author of The Wood That Built London, charts the fortunes of the North Wood from its earliest times: its ecology, ownership, management, and the gradual encroachment of the metropolis.

The Fowlers Troop Jack in the Green was revived by members of Blackheath Morris Men and friends in the early 1980s. It is a revival of a Jack in the Green from the late 19th/early 20th century which was taken out around Deptford, South East London on May Day by the original Fowlers Troop.

Sarah Crofts tells the tale of the Deptford Jack-in-the-Green and presents David Aylward’s film of the 2006 procession. Artist Sarah Sparkes demonstrates, with some help, with shadow puppets'.

(further details and tickets here).

David Aylward with the Deptford Jack in the Green

And Did Those Hooves in Ancient Times

An interesting talk coming up at South East London Folklore Society this week - Thursday 10th August 2017 - looking at all kinds of magickal and folkloric aspects of the goat. No less than 'a journey through goatish manifestations by way of Snowdonia, Avebury and Crouch End: Alexander Keiller's Pan worship, daimonic encounters, haunted abandoned rail lines, and cough syrup hallucinations'.

The speaker is the erudite and quietly influential Gyrus, 'a writer based in south London, obsessed with animism, altered states, depth psychology and archaic revivals. Creator of the journals Towards 2012 and Dreamflesh, and author of North, an epic cosmological history.'

The talk takes place in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head, just down the road from London Bridge, across which Cilla Black and Cherie Blair walked goats for charity not so long ago. Also only five minutes away from Queen Elizabeth Street SE1 where in July 1944, a Nazi rocket destroyed The Goat Public House, killing 18 people. I am sure there must be lots of other local goat connections... any ideas?

Entrance is £3/1.50 concs, in King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, SE1 1NA (facebook event details here)

Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks dressed up for the Pagan goat dance in Dragnet (1987)

Beating the Bounds in Penge and Lee

On this day in 1881, a 'beating the bounds' procession took place in Penge. As reported in The Beckenham Journal and Penge and Sydenham Advertiser, Wednesday, June 1, 1881:

'The ancient custom of beating the bounds was observed with all due ceremony in Penge on Thursday the 26th being Ascension Day. Some 18 boys from various schools in the Hamlet, with willow wands, to which were attached ribbons and bells, started from the Vestry Hall shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning, under the direction of Mr C.W. Dommett, the vestry Clark, and Mr A. Wilson, assistant overseer, many of the vestry men being also present and joining in the procession. The party was followed by a wagonettte containing ladders etc required to surmount some of the obstacles which were encountered. At important points of the boundary the custom of "bumping" was duly observed, to the great delight of the boys, if not of some of the elders. During the journey the party availed themselves of refreshments kindly provided for them at the residences of Dr Gibbes and Messrs T. Bugler and W. Matthews. Fortunately the weather was fine, or the day would have been far from pleasant for those concerned. A number of the overseers, vestry men, and others interested in the hamlet met at the vestry Hall in the evening and partook of an excellent dinner'.

 

Beating the bounds processions took place in many parishes until the 19th century. According to folklorist Steve Roud they involved 'walking around the boundaries of the parish both to check that there had been no encroachments or illegal building, and to make sure that everyone knew the extent of the parish in detail... In the days before accurate maps, it was essential that the knowledge of boundaries was passed on to younger generations... The participants often carried flexible wands, and when they reached a particular boundary marker they would literally beat it with their sticks. In many cases, boys were whipped with the wands at each stone, or bumped on them, or even held upside down. Sometimes they were encouraged to run on ahead to find the next marker and the first one there was rewarded. It was also thought important, even perhaps legally binding, that the whole of the boundary be followed, at least by a representative. Boys were therefore useful to scale walls, crawl through hedges, wade through ponds – wherever the official boundary took them' (Steve Roud, London Lore, 2008).

 

Roud also mentions that Penge was 'for centuries a detached part of Battersea parish given to them in the year 957'. The parish records of St Mary's Church, Battersea, record officials 'agoeing the bownds of the parish at Penge' in 1661 and on other occasions.

 

Beating the Bounds processions have been revived in a number of places in recent years as a way of celebrating local history and geography. In Penge, there is a  Beating the Bounds walk on Sunday 4 June starting at 2.30 pm from  Alexandra Nurseries, 56B Parish Lane, SE20 7LJ. In recent years there have also been Beating the Bounds processions in Nunhead, and in Lee where last month (April 22) Dacre Morris and Blackheath Morris beat the bounds of the old Dacre estate.

 

Dacre Morris beating the bounds April 2017

(photo from Dacre Morris facebook page)

 

 

 

 

 

Lucifer Over Lancashire - the Pendle Witch Trials

This Thursday night (March 9th 2017), South East London Folklore Society will be examining The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 - some of the best recorded and famous witch trials of the 17th century.

SELFS host Nigel Hoyle has a rather fine folk music project, The Cunning Folk, and they have written a song about the Pendle trials entitled Lancashire, God's Country.  So I wouldn't be surprized to hear a tune or two on Thursday.

SELFS meets in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head off Borough High Street SE1, from 8 pm. £3/1.50 concs -walk-ups are very welcome however you may wish to email cunningfolkmusic@gmail.com to book a place.

All of which reminds me that the very first post on Transpontine, back in October 2004, was for a SELFS talk (then at the Spanish Galleon in Greenwich), with Kathleen Blackmore talking about one of the last witch trials in England. In 1701 Sarah Morduck was accused of causing a neighbour's illness at Bankside (near the site of the Tate Modern). Even though she was found not guilty, she was beaten up and left for dead.



Oh and happy 60th birthday to Mr Lucifer Over Lancashire himself

Wicca talk at Old Kings Head SE1,

Tomorrow night (Thursday 14 July) at the always interesting South East London Folklore Society, at the Old Kings Head off Borough High Street SE1, a talk on contemporary Wicca:

'The past century has borne witness to a growing interest in the belief systems of ancient Europe, with an array of contemporary Pagan groups claiming to revive these old ways for the needs of the modern world. By far the largest and best known of these Paganisms has been Wicca, a new religious movement that can now count hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide. In this talk, Ethan Doyle White will provide a historical outline of this faith, in doing so examining its beliefs, practices, and the community of practitioners that has developed around it.

Ethan Doyle White is a PhD researcher at University College London (UCL) and is the author of Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Sussex Academic Press, 2016) as well as various other publications on the subjects of modern Paganism and related forms of occultism, and the religious beliefs and practices of early medieval England.

The talk is in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head & commences at 8pm. £3/1.50 concs. email georgehoylefolkmusic@gmail.com to book a place or chance your arm & roll up on the night'

Doreen Valiente (1922-1999 ), one of the founders of modern witchcraft pictured in 1962. She was born at 1 High Street, Colliers Wood.

May Day 2016: Jack in the Green in Deptford and Greenwich

 

Another May Day, another procession through the streets of Deptford and Greenwich with the Fowlers Troop, featuring the Deptford Jack in the Green.

 

As in previous years it all started at the Dog and  Bell pub  in Deptford, before heading eastward down to the Cutty Sark, Greenwich Park and various pubs.

 

Of course the area is changing, as it always has, some old pubs and bars have been and gone, others have sprung up in new riverside developments. In a way this procession represents something of a beating of the bounds, the enveloping of new spaces within a story of an older South East London (the current Jack in the Green dates back to the early 1980s, reviving a tradition recorded at the start of the 20th century). So on Sunday for instance, the procession visited the new Sail Loft pub overlooking the Thames between Deptford and Greenwich town centre.

 

 

Hilly Fields Wassail

Wassailing is an old custom of drinking to the health of  fruit trees to ensure a good harvest, most commonly associated with cider apples producing trees in the West Country. Tomorrow (Sunday 7th February) there's a Hilly Fields Wassail with music and refreshments at the orchard by the park's stone circle. It starts at 4 pm, but if you can help with orchard maintenance come along from 2 pm

Organised by the Friends of Hilly Fields with Transition Brockley.

Blur once recorded a version of The Wassailing Song and gave it away as a limited edition 7 inch single to the 500 people at a 1992 gig at the Hibernian Club in Fulham. If you have a copy they sell for around £300.

The Devil of Deptford - a poltergeist tale from 1699

For Halloween here's a spooky story from late 17th century Deptford. 'The Devil of Deptford' is a pamphlet by the clergyman Edward Fowler.  According to the historian Peter Elmer,  the 'haunted' house in question 'almost certainly' belonged to 'Henry Godman (d.1702) who combined preaching with medical practice and had resided at Deptford since at least 1672' (The Miraculous Conformist: Valentine Greatrakes, the Body Politic, and the Politics of Healing in Restoration Britain, OUP, 2013). Looking at old maps I believe that Back Lane was near to Deptford Green about where Gilbert House now stands.

'The Devil of Deptford... being a true relation of the strange disturbances, ludicrous feats and malicious pranks of an evil spirit in the house of Mr G. living in Back Lane at Deptford near London, in April and May 1699. The truth whereof is known, and can be attested to by a great number of the inhabitants of that town...

there are evil spirits or devils, which do infest this lower world, and of which we have a fresh convincing argument in the following instance: all the particulars whereof were acted, not in the dark, or at midnight, but at Noon-day in the face of the sun, in the sight of a great many persons, and the effects thereof were felt by divers of the family

Upon Saturday April 25 1699... about Twelve a Clock at Noon, a stone was thrown against the parlour window next to the street, which breaking the glass came into the room.The boys that were in the street were charged with doing it, but they all denyed it; when instantly another stone was thrown, which broke the glass likewise... Soon after for many days together a great number of stones were thrown against the back and side windows next to the garden, seeming to come from the fields behind... At length they nailed strong deal board on the outside of the broken windows, after which the disturbance ceased from without, but began within the house. One time all the china cups and glasses were removed from the mantel-piece in the parlour, and set on the floor... Several pewter plates were seen to come out of the kitchen below stairs into the parlour of themselves... A candle and candlestick being left in the dining room, which was locked, was thrown upstairs, and their looking out at the noise found it there, and yet the door continued locked as before'.

(the full text may be available at Early English Books online,
if anyone has a login)

The Tarot Tour of London

The Wheel of Fortune card from the Rider Waite Tarot Deck -
co-designed by A.E.Waite who has an interesting connection with the Horniman Museum

Coming up next week (Thursday October 8th) at South East London Folklore Society:

'The Tarot Tour of London uses 22 of the major historical sites as the basis of the tour as they correspond with the major Arcana. There are obvious ones like the Wheel of Fortune being represented by the London Eye and the Tower card by the Tower of London. Others are not so easy to presume as it is their history, myth, legend and folklore that makes them complement the meaning of a card.

Geraldine Beskin of The Atlantis Bookshop is a Londoner and occultist and is delighted to combine the two as she presents the capital from a fresh, new angle.

The talk will start at 8pm in the upstairs room of the Old King’s Head, off Borough High Street SE1. Entrance is £3/1.50 concs.

To avoid disappointment in event of a full house you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book in advance'

Three Feathers & The Old Witch: Two Deptford Fairy Tales

More English Fairy Tales  by Joseph Jacobs (1894) includes a tale called 'Three Feathers' which the author states was 'Collected by Mrs Gomme from some hop-pickers near Deptford' (presumably the folklorist Alice Gomme).

'Once upon a time there was a girl who was married to a husband that she never saw. And the way this was, was that he was only at home at night, and would never have any light in the house. The girl thought that was funny, and all her friends told her there must be something wrong with her husband, some great deformity that made him want not to be seen.

Well, one night when he came home she suddenly lit a candle and saw him. He was handsome enough to make all the women of the world fall in love with him. But scarcely had she seen him when he began to change into a bird, and then he said: 'Now you have seen me, you shall see me no more, unless you are willing to serve seven years and a day for me, so that I may become a man once more.' Then he told her to take three feathers from under his side, and whatever she wished through them would come to pass'.

She uses the feathers to wish for her work as a laundress to be done, and to trick various men out of  their money before the bird man reappears and the live happily ever after.

Another story in the same collection, The Old Witch is also described as 'Collected by Mrs Gomme at Deptford'

'Once upon a time there were two girls who lived with their mother and father. Their father had no work, and the girls wanted to go away and seek their fortunes. Now one girl wanted to go to service, and her mother said she might if she could find a place. So she started for the town. Well, she went all about the town, but no one wanted a girl like her. So she went on farther into the country, and she came to the place where there was an oven where there was lots of bread baking. And the bread said, 'Little girl, little girl, take us out, take us out. We have been baking seven years, and no one has come to take us out.' So the girl took out the bread, laid it on the ground and went on her way. Then she met a cow, and the cow said, 'Little girl, little girl, milk me, milk me! Seven years have I been waiting, and no one has come to milk me.' The girl milked the cow into the pails that stood by. As she was thirsty she drank some, and left the rest in the pails by the cow. Then she went on a little farther, and came to an apple-tree, so loaded with fruit that its branches were breaking down, and the tree said, 'Little girl, little girl, help me shake my fruit. My branches are breaking, it is so heavy.' And the girl said, 'Of course I will, you poor tree.' So she shook the fruit all off, propped up the branches, and left the fruit on the ground under the tree. Then she went on again till she came to a house. Now in this house there lived a witch, and this witch took girls into her house as servants. And when she heard that this girl had left her home to seek service, she said that she would try her, and give her good wages. The witch told the girl what work she was to do. 'You must keep the house clean and tidy, sweep the floor and the fireplace; but there is one thing you must never do. You must never look up the chimney, or something bad will befall you.'

So the girl promised to do as she was told, but one morning as she was cleaning, and the witch was out, she forgot what the witch said, and looked up the chimney. When she did this a great bag of money fell down in her lap. This happened again and again. So the girl started to go off home. When she had gone some way she heard the witch coming after her. So she ran to the apple-tree and cried:

'Apple-tree, apple-tree, hide me,
So the old witch can't find me;
If she does she'll pick my bones,
And bury me under the marble stones.'

So the apple-tree hid her. When the witch came up she said:

'Tree of mine, tree of mine,
Have you seen a girl
With a willy-willy wag, and a long-tailed bag,
Who's stole my money, all I had?'


And the apple-tree said, 'No, mother; not for seven year.'

She outwits the witch, but when her sister tries to do the same without being so helpful along the way she is caught and punished.

London Urban Legends at Brockley Max

Brockley Max Festival starts tomorrow, lots of  arts and music coming up over next couple of weeks, starting with the usual opening night music event by Brockley station. You can check the programme for full list of events, for now just want to highlight an event next Monday June 1st (8 pm) at the Ladywell Gallery behind the Ladywell Tavern.

Former Transpontine contributor and London Forteanist Scott Wood will be giving a talk on 'London Urban Legends: The Hidden Insult and Other Stories'. Ladywell-based Scott is the author of 'London Urban Legends: the corpse on the tube' (History Press). Admission is free.

Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods

Coming up at South East London Folklore Society next month, a talk by writer Thomas Bolton - 'Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods':

'London is in a state of constant transformation, layer upon layer built up over centuries of destruction and reconstruction. There is so much change all around us that we scarcely notice it, but among the areas now vanished and forgotten are some of the city’s most famous, and infamous, neighbourhoods.

These include the most feared neighbourhood in the Western world, London’s first Olympic Park, its first port, the original Grub Street, a high society spa resort, an occult square, a landscape of ancient, mythical kings, a notorious slum, and the streets stalked by the first London serial killer. Through these streets crowd the Earl of Essex, Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens, Alexander Pope, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Aleister Crowley, Greta Garbo, Fu Manchu, the Ancients of Norton Folgate and the possessors of 8,000 unidentified corpses'.

Tom Bolton is the author of London's Lost Rivers, A Walker's Guide (2011).

The talk is on Thursday, February 12 at 8:00pm upstairs in the Old King’s Head Pub, The King’s Yard, 45 Borough High Street SE1 1NA.  Entrance is £3/1.50 concs. To avoid disappointment you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book in advance.

(facebook details here)

Faeries of the Minesweeper

Planning to go to this on Friday 22 August, London Dreamtime in collaboration with designer Lucy Williams present 'Faeries of the Minesweeper'- 'music and supernatural tales of ships, waters and the beautiful Others' in Deptford Creek where the Minesweeper is moored. Email neckingernell@yahoo.com to reserve a place.

Feast of Nuestra Senora del Cisne in Nunhead

Came across this procession in Kimberley Avenue, Nunhead this afternoon, with several hundred people marching behind an image of the Virgin Mary, saying prayers and and throwing rose petals over the statue.

Apparently it was a procession of Ecuadorians from St Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Evelina Road SE15 to mark the Feast of Nuestra Senora del Cisne (Our Lady of the Swan), a major religious festival in Ecuador to commemorate the supposed appearance of the Virgin Mary in the town of Loja in southern Ecuador in the late 16th century.

Service sheet from the Mass/procession -
'Es Maria la blanca paloma, que ha venido a Londres a traer la paz. En el centro de una blanca nube, se vino volando desde Ecuador'  ('Mary is the white dove, who has come to London, to bring peace. In the centre of a white cloud, she came flying from Ecuador')

May Day events next week

Next Monday April 28, Haunt London presents:

May Day in South London and the Jack-in-the-Green Day in South London and the Jack-in-the-Gr
'The first day of May has long been a time of riots, revelry, ribaldry and the Jack-in-the-Green, a dancing leafy green giant once seen all over London and revived in Deptford thirty years ago this year by the Fowlers Troop.

Come hear of London customs and celebrations and protest from Sarah Crofts of the Fowlers Troop, Dave Aylward of Fowlers Troop and Blurt and Neil Transpontine, south London blogger and historian. It will be a night with talks and film that will include chimney-sweep celebrations, possible neo-paganism, anarchists and the story of David Bowie and the Bromley May Queens.

The Miller Pub, 96 Snowfields, SE1 3SS, 8 pm (£3/£2 concessions)

(facebook event details)

Deptford Jack in the Green

Meanwhile on May Day itself, the Deptford Jack in the Green/Fowlers Troop will be parading through Greenwich and Deptford, details as follows:

Thursday 1st May 2014

11.30 meet: Dog and Bell, 116 Prince St  London, London SE8 3JD, leave at 12.00,
12.15: Duke, 125 Creek Rd, London SE8 3BU, leave at 12.30,
12.45: Old Loyal Britons, 62 Thames St, London SE10 9BX [lunch stop], leave at 13.30, via Old Royal Naval College*,
14.00: Star and Garter, 60 Old Woolwich Rd, Greenwich, London SE10 9NY, leave at 14.35,
14.50: Plume of Feathers, 19 Park Vista  London, London SE10 9LZ, leave at 15.20, via Greenwich Park*,
16.00: Greenwich Union, 56, Royal Hill, Greenwich, London, SE10 8RT, leave at 16.30,
17.00: Ashburnham Arms, 25 Ashburnham Grove,  Greenwich, London SE10 8UH.

All times approximate.

Dressing the Jack will take place from 20.00 on Wednesday 30th April at the Dog and Bell, any flowers you have will be very welcome. Further details here

Deptford Jack in the Green on Creek Road in 2013

London's Myths & Legends at South East London Folklore Society

Coming up at South East London Folklore Society on Thursday 10th April:

Robert Stephenson: London's Myths & Legends.

In legend London was inaugurated by the fabled Trojan leader Brutus with the construction of a temple dedicated to Diana on the spot now occupied by St Paul's Cathedral. Hear about the city’s legends and founding myths, and their locations.

Robert Stephenson is an expert on London, he is giving a series of fascinating talks at the Guildhall Library on London history and myth. He is a qualified City of London guide and a tour leader at Kensal Green and Brompton cemeteries. He has taught on London for twenty years

Talk starts at 8pm in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head, 45 Borough High Street, SE1 1NA
£2.50/£1.50 concessions

email nigelofbermondsey@gmail to book a place

Incidentally, the interesting Ruin Lust exhibition currently on at Tate Britain includes a photo by Henry Dixon from the 1880s of King's Head Yard, where the current pub now sits off Borough High Street.

King's Head Inn Yard c.1881, photographed by Henry Dixon

Seriously Staked: A Vampire Convention in New Cross

Coming up at Goldsmiths in New Cross next month, ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena) present the 'Seriously Staked Vampire Symposium' Look beyond the Twilight and True Blood frenzy and there is, and always has been, a serious study of vampires. Seriously Staked on March 8th  brings together a wide variety of subject experts and academics to talk about a range of questions concerning vampires. These include:

-Can science explain vampires?

- Do real vampire hunting kits exist?

- How have vampires impacted western culture?

- What is the crossover between vampires and other anomalous phenomena?

- Was Transylvania vampirism a communist trick to attract tourists?

- What is the London vampire community today?

- Do real vampires exist?

Line up includes:

- Maria Mellinns, author of 'Vampire Culture' (2013)

- Stacey Abbott, author of 'Celluloid Vampires: Life after Death in the Modern World (2007), 'Angel: TV Milestone[ (2009), and the co-author, with Lorna Jowett, of 'TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen' (2013_

- Scott Wood, author of ‘London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube' (2013).

Sadly though it seems that New Cross's most famous vampire will not be appearing:

Gary Oldman in 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (1992)
Los Angeles-based Oldman told the Metro this week:
' I still think I’m Gary from New Cross and look around and think: ‘How the hell did I get here?’.
He grew up in Hatcham Park Road.

Chinese New Year in Deptford + Deptford High Street Song

 Chinese New Year was marked in Deptford in Saturday with a lion dance procession from the Deptford Lounge to the Albany, where the Yam, Yam! East and South East Asian Arts and Food Festival is now on until March 15th.

There was a classic Deptford Market moment where the lion got in a face off with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier which took offence to the lion being up in his grill.

Reverend Casy - Deptford High Street

Meanwhile Reverend Casy have written a song celebrating Deptford High Street, with a film to match. There's an interview with Chris Boddington from the band at Deptford High Street. Chris is helping put on a gig this Friday 7th February at his own Cafe Crema (306 New Cross Road). It's a Syria benefit for MSF/Doctors without Borders, with Americana & Bluegrass from Union Electric + The Union Canal String Band. 8pm. £5

Bine ati venit la Londra de Sud - Romanian Eggs in Lewisham

Bine ati venit la Londra de Sud  - that's 'Welcome to South London' in Romanian (according to Google translate anyway).

The press/politician scaremongering about a Romanian invasion of the UK on 1 January 2014 has not been matched by reality has it? But a collection of Romanian painted eggs have made it into Lewisham library. The eggs, decorated as part of an Easter custom, have been loaned to the library by the Horniman Museum. They are currently on display at Lewisham, and will be moving on to Downham library on 4th February.

Next Saturday 25 January  there will be a Romanian eggs day of activities from 12 noon to 4pm at Lewisham Library (199 Lewisham High Street, SE13 6LG), with family reading sessions, craft, object handling and curator talks. Admission Free.

The Fairies of Deptford Creek

London Dreamtime put on site-specific storytelling and song events in London places, with story teller Vanessa Woolf being accompanied musically by Nigel of Bermondsey. Past locations have included the Heygate Estate and West Norwood Cemetery. Later this month, on Friday January 24th (8 pm), they will be putting on a nightime event 'in a secret location near Deptford Bridge...  Dress very warm and bring a torch'.

The cost is £3 per person. Email neckingernell@yahoo.com to book your place. Facebook event details.