Our series of self-guided walks continues with Gemini (May 22-June 21 approx.) You will need the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 South Pennines map. Please note that routes and their condition were accurate at their time of survey, 2018-2020; updates may be made at later dates. Please be alert to any other quasi-affirmations and correspondences of Gemini […]
Walking Myth into Place: The Gemini Giant Read More »
In the 1990s, a new magazine of forteana and related subjects, Beyond, was launched, ran for three issues, and ceased… NE’s editor John Billingsley supplied an earth mysteries column for this short-lived venture, and we reprint here in one file those three columns. John Billingsley, editor of ‘Northern Earth’, looks back on his ‘initiation’
Between a rock and a hard place: an Earth Mysteries perspective Read More »
We’ve just uploaded a batch of new articles from NE86 through to NE92, covering a range of topics such as astrological interpretations of a Minoan fresco, investigation of a Cheshire long barrow, time-slips, pennystones, round tables, folk medicine in Lancashire, spirit roads, the nature of place, the Curse of Carlisle, Mayburgh’s legends, and sites and
Many stones around Britain bear the name ‘pennystone’, and have often been explained as plague stones. John Billingsley (with a little help from Robin Hood) cures these stones of their ague Near Halifax in W Yorkshire, on Midgley Moor, and at one time on a hillside at Wainstalls, you could find large boulders called
An Unlawful Game: Robin Hood and Pennystone Read More »
King Arthur has made his mark on Britain’s landscape, and not surprisingly left his name on numerous ancient sites. Here, Dave Weldrake considers Arthur’s relationship with Round Tables and maidens… Arthurian place names A lot of time and effort has been spent on trying to site the battles of King Arthur. (See for instance
The mystery of the round table of Arthur Read More »
Mike Haigh summarises a fascinating story of the author’s earliest experience of the past The Alderley Edge shovel is really a dull, functional tool – but it has a remarkable story. It begins in the early 1940s at Alderley Edge Council School in Cheshire, where local lad Alan Garner was taught the rudiments of education
Alan Garner’s Shovel Read More »
Victoria and Paul Morgan help raise Cheshire’s prehistoric profile INTRODUCTION Cheshire is not a county famed for it its prehistory. At a push the megaraks can only really name The Bridestones (the remains of a Neolithic long cairn near the town of Congleton), but even that is often listed as belonging to Staffordshire. The
A Load of Old Bull? A Cheshire long barrow Read More »
With tales of oak and mistletoe, holy wells and miraculous images, John Palmer takes us to meet the Virgin Mary in the old wetlands of Flanders Many of the houses lining the Veertien Bunderslaan, in Blaasveld, have a miniature wooden chapel attached, each containing an image representing the Virgin Mary; the lane leads towards
The Little Chapel of the Fourteen Bunders, Netherlands Read More »
Arthur O’Neill recounts how a chance visit to an old church in the Leeds area led to an investigation into Tudor magic We are very fortunate to have ancient churches because they preserve much of historic interest. I enjoy visiting village churches whenever I pass through a place new to me. I was on
Whither we are led… Ledsham and Ledston in Leodis (Leeds) Read More »
Folk cures for humans as well as beasts involved the medical, the magical and sometimes the simply mystifying. Peter Watson reveals some of the techniques in traditional and historical medical practice The library of Chetham’s school in Manchester contains a remarkable if largely forgotten herbal, beautifully written and illuminated in a hand of the early
Folk Medicine and Magic in Lancashire Read More »