Friday 19 January 2018

The Quiet Secret Of The Forest

Not all of England's heritage and history is well-known, well-publicised and commercialised. Some things are quiet, hidden, unobtrusive and largely ignored. Lets  go and search one out.


We're in the Breckland, close to Santon Downham. There's a good wide path along here which co-incides with the route of two modern-day long-distance paths, The Hereward Way and St Edmund's Way. But this site is older than either Hereward the Wake (1035-1072 AD) or St Edmund (841 - 870 AD).


And here it is! Not too impressive I know, but this is the site of a lost church known as St Helen's Oratory. The church has been abandoned since the mid fourteenth century and the stones taken for other buildings. In its day it must have been an impressive sight as the foundations suggest a church measuring 90 ft long by 25 ft wide (27.5 metres x 8 metres) and there was probably a tower at the west end.


Moreover it occupied a commanding site above the river valley in what was then open country. The church only dates from the Norman period but other artefacts were found that suggest continuous occupation through the Bronze Age, Iron Age as well as Roman, Viking and Saxon periods.


Even at the time of the Domesday Book there were not many people around here; it lists only one villager and a plough. That probably means one family owning a farm but even so it seems strange that what was a very impressive church for its time would be built in this remote place.


Now I know I have some readers who have an interest in Celtic mythology and folklore, and perhaps they are already on the scent of the reason why this site had significance for early peoples. The clue is in the dedication of the old church to St Helen.


We need to make our way down into a thickly wooded dell beside the church site. You see, the place had even more ancient significance as the site of a holy well. These pre-Christian sites were supposed to be helpful in curing all kinds of ailments and as a result they were still important well into the Christian era - and still are important to many modern pagans. 


The early Christian church tried to take over these earlier holy sites and the name St Helen may be a nod to Elen, the Celtic water spirit. Many wells across the country are associated with Helen's and Ellen's. One belief is that pieces of rag or cloth should be tied to nearby trees and when these rot away any disease will die too. These are known as "cloutie trees" and can be found near many wells. Here there was a single strip of yellow cloth and a plastic sunflower - even New Age Celts seem to have largely ignored this site.


There are a couple reasons why the well is so forgotten. In summer when most people visit it can become hidden by an impenetrable tangle of briars and bushes. Also the original well was largely destroyed by later flint quarrying which took place to supply flints for flintlock guns for the army, though the waters of the spring still run pure.


Time to climb the steep path, thick with decaying oak leaves, back up to the church site, then make our way through the trees, across the railway line and back to the twenty-first century.



Take care.



26 comments:

  1. John I love the way you have of ferreting out bits of interesting information.

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  2. Beautiful and filled with so much history!
    You put so much work into your posts. I do appreciate them!

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  3. I've just come up from reading yesterday's post to read all about this ancient site and I absolutely agree with comment above, you take us on the most incroyable walks John. The rag or cloth tied to a tree by the well as a treatment for disease was interesting. I wouldn't like to have lived in those ancient times but they do fascinate me hugely!

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  4. That was fascinating, a really interesting site and info to go with it

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  5. Beautiful and interesting.
    Your winter looks very much like the one I experienced in Northern Italy, and your photos make me (almost) feel the fresh winter air and the smell of decaying leaves.

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  6. Always interesting to find out about places like that and their history. Only come across one well near a ruined church in Nothamptonshire.

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  7. You are a veritable fount of knowledge! The climb was worth it for the view!

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  8. Such a great journey back in time, John!

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  9. Thanks for taking us along. Some very nice photos, here. I imagine all the people that stood right THERE where you are standing; their religious practices and rituals. Ancient earth.

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  10. The English landscape has so many interesting places that turn out to be centuries older than we expect! Fascinating.

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  11. Wonderful pictures – quite magical!

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  12. merci pour cette ballade historique !

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  13. You made another interesting walk. I've enjoyed watching with you.

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  14. Thank you so much for sharing about the church, and the ancient ones who used the well before the church was built. Our ancestors were among those who lived and died around wells such as this. Without doctors, the wise women who knew the use of herbs and the tying of clouties at wells must have been the sources of healing then.

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  15. After you have written bout this holy well and the site of the church, I wonder if more people may pay a visit. I would hate the tradition and the history to be lost.

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  16. Wonderful countryside, so colorful and sunny. How I miss the sun. We have had rains and now here is snow, but no sunlight like seldom. The bright days are still too short.

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  17. What an interesting history! Never heard of "cloutie trees" and interesting to think about the old church and the holy well and the impact it had back in its time.

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  18. Wonderful to live in a countryside that has so much history, and thank you for sharing it John. I look forward to your posts, and your beautiful photos.

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  19. It's interesting that so many facts could still be found. I love the winter textures revealed in the landscape, especially the moss and the twisted trees. And what a lovely sunny day for a walk!

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  20. I so enjoy my visits to your blog.
    Great post, photographs and information.

    All the best Jan

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  21. You missed your calling, John. You should have been a historian, an anthropologist . . . or at least a storyteller.

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  22. Well that is certainly different John. Looks like a nice place to walk.

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  23. It's good to know there are still wonderful places that haven't been turned touristy. These are fabulous scenes that you shared. Thanks for the narration, too!

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  24. You're a fount of knowledge, John!

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  25. I always wonder do you just know all these things, or do you know enough to know what to look up? Always so interesting.

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