Books
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Journeys of the Soul: Vernacular funeral paths in Upper Calderdale
John Billingsley
48pp
Funeral paths, popularly known as corpseways, became a familiar topic in neo-antiquarian research in the 1980s when they entered discussions about leys as spirit roads. The association with leys faded, but they are still recognised as spirit paths of a kind, and often interact with hauntings and other supernatural encounters. In this book, John Billingsley reviews the ley debate and subsequent understandings of corpseways and coffin roads, including the incidence of resting stones and related graffiti, and their importance to the communities they conveyed to their fina lresting place. The likely route of four corpseways in the mediaeaval and early modern parishes of Halifax and Heptonstall are retraced in today’s landscape.
UK Price £6.50 inc. p&p World £8.00 inc. p&p
Rushes and Ale: A Brief History of Rushbearing (with particular reference to Rushbearing in Calderdale)
Garry Stringfellow
57pp. £5.00
ISBN 978 0 948635 05 2
Garry Stringfellow is one of the team who revived the Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. It has taken place on the first weekend of September continuously since then (save for lockdowns) and attracts considerable crowds to the local settlements that the rushcart visits. The author looks at Sowerby Bridge in the context of the history of rushbearing in other parts of N England.
UK Price £
7.50 inc. p&pWorld
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The Day the Sun Went Out: Accounts of the 1927 Solar Eclipse
John Billingsley
The April 2024 solar eclipse brings to mind a booklet we did concerning the total solar eclipse of 1927, almost 100 years ago, which was visible in a swathe across the UK from N Wales to Tyneside. In 2024 there are people flying the American continent to watch this one; in 1927, they drove, and in doing so brought a new phenomenon to northern towns like Skipton – the traffic jam. The author collected contemporary accounts of this British eclipse fever, including psychic doom-sayers in Cornwall, a clairvoyant vicar in West Yorkshire, and wags all across the zone of totality.
Having recently we found we still have copies of this, published in 1999 to coincide with the last UK eclipse, we can now offer it at remainder prices.
UK price £2.00 inc. p&p Overseas price £3.50 inc. p&p
Dr. Thomas Gough & Peter Harris
76pp. £10.00
978 1 919648 40 8
Following up Harris and Stockdale’s previous NE publication (see below: now out of print), these authors have revised and expanded their researches on their discovery of a prehistoric unit of length which was used in the construction of many megalithic structures in Britain in the Neolithic. When the dimensions of true stone circles are converted to this ‘new’ length, the value is often a simple multiple of an important lunar time period. These time periods vary about a mean value and so finding the mean would have required many years of record keeping. The fact that these time periods were known in the Neolithic and that many stone circles were built with the accuracy required to record them shows that the knowledge and ability available in the Neolithic in Britain was much greater than is currently believed.
UK Price inc. p&p £12.50 EU price £14.00 RoW price £16.00
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Hidden Charms 2: Exploring the Magical Protection of Buildings.
Ed. John Billingsley, Brian Hoggard & Jeremy Harte
118pp. £9.00
ISBN 978 0 948635 12 0
Throughout the history of human settlement, people have sought to protect their living spaces both practically and magically. The Hidden Charms conference was inaugurated in 2016 in answer to a perceived need for a national forum – the first for thirty years – to focus public and scholarly attention towards the widespread use of magical protective customs in different cultures. This volume contains papers presented at the 2nd conference, held at the Medieval Hall in Salisbury, England, on April 21st 2018. Authors explore here some of the mysterious folk esoterica and paraphernalia reported from Britain, Romania, Albania and the United States, including marks, concealments and other customs. Published by Northern Earth Books in association with Apotropaios and The Folklore Society
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Charming Calderdale.
John Billingsley
76pp. £8.00 TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
ISBN 978 0 948635 13 7
The protection of houses and buildings from misfortune or ill-intent is a feature of cultures all over the world. Applications range from integral architectural features to graffiti, from items displayed on exteriors to concealed within recesses. Calderdale is a microcosm of wider traditions, and is rich in its preservation of folklore and traditions. Here John Billingsley has produced an in-depth local investigation and study of its wealth of folk magic traditions of protection.
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Astronomy & Measurement in Megalithic Architecture.
Peter Harris & Norman Stockdale
48pp. £3.75
978 0 948635 0 83
The great monuments of prehistoric Britain have been a constant source of curiosity and theory since their construction principles were first forgotten, millennia ago. It has long been argued that the megalith builders used a standard measurement which naturally enough is not the same as any we use today. A number of proposed measurements have been put forward, the best known of which is the Megalithic Yard of Alexander Thom. Thom’s measure has come under critical study in recent decades. Here, the authors suggest a new measurement, are fine ment not so far different from Thom’s Megalithic Yard, that more satisfactorily accounts for the layout of a greater number of our ancient sites. A selection of sites, from stone circles to Ilkley’s Swastika Stone, drawn from across the British Isles and Brittany, are presented to illustrate this new hypothesis.