I was in the United Kingdom from the 9th of
November 2011 to September 26th 2012. A few days after I got into
Yorkshire to Marsden on the 21st November 2011, I went to the
Village of Uppermill, which is over the Pennines, right on the border of
Yorkshire and Lancashire, or Greater Manchester, right near Saddleworth. In
fact, I think it USED to be in Yorkshire, but now is in Saddleworth, which is a
civil-parish. Stan, Caitlin's husband, told me about a stone face in a bridge
in Uppermill, and he wanted to show it to me.
We first drove up Manchester Road out of Marsden past a few pubs on the top of
the Pennines. There were two pubs near each other up there. One of them is
called The Carriage House and our morris team danced there near Midsummer 2012.
The other is named the Great Western. The Great Western was pointed out to me
for a reason. Back at the Fortean Times Unconvention (Nov 2011) in London, Andy
Roberts’ son Kai was there - I never got introduced at the time, but Caitlin
knew him as she had taken photos of the Huddersfield area for his book - which
is about local
folklore and stuff- like what his father Andy writes. Kai lives on the
other side of Huddersfield from where I was, and I later met Kai just before I
went home to Australia in September 2012. Caitlin revealed that Kai's book mentions
hauntings of a couple of boggarts - and one of them was at the Great Western.
Found that rather interesting.
At Uppermill, we saw not only the stone head in the bridge, but a few other
stones that had some mystery to them.
 |
| The Stone head on the bridge |
 |
A carved stone said the bridge was re-built in 1986
but I'm not sure of the age of the head |
 |
The 'ravenstone' in the park next to the library has
even more mystery |
The day before New Years Eve, I went with my Uncle Gareth to Ilkley to do the Cup and Ring
tour. I had brought with me the book Twilight
of the Celtic Gods by Andy Roberts and David Clarke) again to the UK to
read again, and see what I could mentioned in the book (last time I brought it,
I got Dave and Andy to sign it for me). I had brought the book with me to my Aunt
and Uncles place for Xmas, because I knew my Uncle Gareth would have liked to
read it - I even left it with him to finish reading – for 9 months! We happened
to look through it for any local stones and found in Ilkley that there was a
Goddess on a stone in the Ilkley Parish Church. The Goddess 'Verbeia'
(according to Andy and David's book) was apparently an altar stone that was
Roman in the church. What would make more sense was that the stone was found in
the river.
 |
| Verbeia, a River Goddess? |
'She of the Cattle' - was the Goddess of the River Wharfe in
North Yorkshire (one of two Roman altars found in the north-west corner of the
church - probably Demeter, Goddess of the fields or her daughter Libera
(Persephone) or a local Celtic deity similar to Demeter.
So in we went to the Parish Church. What was more of a
touristy thing were the Church’s three Celtic Crosses that have been in the
churchyard for years and eventually moved inside for protection and saved from
pollution.
 |
| All about the Church, nothing of the pagan idols in it. |
It does not amaze me that some of the literature that you can get on these
kinds of historical relics is very Christian in the way of thinking - there are
never any cited dates of possible creation or who made them. An academic would
cite everything if they wrote the brochures on these things. It was the same
with the Shoreditch Church brochure back in London - uncited Christian tripe
made the writings completely dull and unbelievable. No dates or years were ever
cited on the Shoreditch brochure. It felt the same here - the Christians who
write this stuff that tell you nothing about an objects true history, tells me
that it might not have been even a Christian creation - many brochures written
up do not seem to want to acknowledge the ancient pre-Christian past. I'll bet
any money that there was a Celtic or even Roman religious site in the same
spot, thus trampled on.
If Christian worship began there in 627 AD then clearly NOTHING else would have
been worshipped there before then at all (note sarcasm). There was
probably 'no such thing.'
 |
| I am amazed the Church indulges in such acknowledgments |
 |
| It's an Earth Goddess! Not an earth goddess |
Anyway, we then drove up to the Panorama Rocks that were put in a park next to another Ilkley church. This is right on the edge of the Moor.
 |
Achtung! Caged Rocks for your safety.
Cup and Ring stones bite! |
I am not sure where the original placement of these rocks were on the moors –
as it was a wet day, I did not make time to read the information board.
We got even wetter going up along the edge of the moor walking to the Swastika
Stone - which was carved on a rock overlooking the valley towards Addingham. The carving is worn away and on a stone next to it is a Victorian
reproduction that is clearer to look at.
 |
The original Swastika Stone - thousands of years old?
(Some of these symbols have been carved on mammoth tusks) |
 |
| The 19th century reproduction that is next to it |
Gareth
and I got quite wet today - and were only going to get wetter. We were on a mission
to get to the Badger
Stone. He also wanted to go to the Twelve
Apostles stone circle but there was no way we were going to make it - we
would have been too wet by then, and it was getting dark.
 |
| Looks nothing like a Badger |
 |
| ...But a lovely example of Cup and Ring carvings.. |
A late start to the day, water, dark clouds, moorlands of any kind, and a winter's day a week after midwinter do not mix well.
We were drenched! And beginning to get cold. It was
best we headed back home and not further into the misty droll Ilkley Moor or Burley Moor, as it
was getting dark and we were not well equipped for a jaunt over boggy moorland
and sphagnum moss...
Back in Marsden, a couple of weeks later in January, I was invited out to the pub with my friend Angela
for a drink after we had spent the day at the Marsden Infant and Nursery School
helping the young kiddies make their Imbolc masks. It was then when I told her
about the Great Western boggart, and she told me about the Green Man in Marsden
Park.
She said that nobody knows how old it is, but that it was concreted there years
ago. I did not see it till about month later when Ang and I went for
a walk around behind the primary school to look for her stolen compost bin (a
kid had said he'd seen it there). Just as I walked toward the rotunda, I asked
where the Green Man was and she said 'there' and pointed right behind me -
below a monument was the green man. Lovely!
 |
| The mysterious Marsden Green Man |
This year, a friend of mine got into carving on slate, and as I loved the
Swastika Stone, got him to carve this for me…
 |
| My own swastika stone! |
A little bit of Ilkley Moor and Yorkshire in my world….
Earlier, all the fire swingers and performers, in their
layers of black clothing, had gathered in the Visitor Centre where it was warm
with heaters and a variety of hot soups. The Standedge Visitor Centre is on the
canal, by a man made tunnel - a canal
tunnel that runs through the hills and is the largest and longest in the UK. The performance is held on a slope by
the visitor centre. Along with the fire performance is a lot of fireworks and a
battle between two giants – Jack Frost and the Green Man – and being Imbolc,
you know the outcome – the Green Man always wins. 
