Arthur's Castles - Sepia Saturday

As some of you may know I am taking part in the annual April A-Z Challenge again this year. Last year my theme was Castles and, where possible, haunted ones. This year I had intended to cover the legendary King Arthur and places associated with him. I abandoned that theme as my draft posts were far too long and the A-Z sequence makes the stories about him too disjointed. However I’m pleased to say that I have adapted some for this week’s Sepia post.

There are many sites associated with Arthurian legends. Tintagel in Cornwall is the king’s traditional birthplace.

Tintagel Castle 2002

 Arthur’s father was King Uther Pendragon. Arthur was conceived at Tintagel when Uther had Merlin smuggle him, in disguise, into the Castle to enable him to lie with Igraine, the wife of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall. Uther had besieged the Duke in another castle shortly before.

The ruined castle of today was built long after the Arthur lived. The medieval castle built in 1141 by Reginald of Cornwall, the illegitimate son of Henry I, had little strategic importance and the site proved a difficult building place. At one time owned by the Black Prince, by 1540 it was a ruin, In the echoing chamber of Merlin’s Cave the wizard’s ghost is said to wander, It’s also said that Arthur lives on in the form of the Cornish chough, a bird to be seen perched on the storm lashed ledges of the cliffs.

 

Pendragon Castle

Pendragon Castle in Cumbria is said to be built on the site of a fifth-century fortress constructed by King Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon. He supposedly settled there after killing a dragon-serpent that was terrorising the region. He also tried unsuccessfully to divert the River Eden to make a moat. A local rhyme goes, “Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, Eden will run where Eden ran.” In his old age he took up arms against the Angles; and was to die at the castle from a water supply poisoned by his enemies.

The castle ruins we see are those of a later castle built in 1173 by Hugh de Morville, one of Thomas Becket’s murderers, in the 12^th century. It was destroyed by fire twice, but eventually rebuilt by in the 17^th century by Lady Anne Clifford. After her death it was left to fall into ruins. With Arthurian links and stories of Merlin living there and visiting Castlerigg Stone Circle there are many accounts of supernatural phenomena. When the moon cloaks the ruins in an eerie glow a ghostly horseman gallops soundlessly towards the castle. We will never know whether the horseman is the mortally sick Uther Pendragon returning from battle, or a messenger or a warrior of the Clifford Clan.

Stories abound about King Arthur and his knights. One of these is associated with a castle within 30 miles of where I live.

 

Richmond Castle - Curtain Wall from the southern bank of the River Swale

Built by the Normans the Castle overlooks the River Swale in Yorkshire. Richmond Castle shares a similar folk tale with other places. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table slumber in a cave below the castle, waiting to be called to England’s aid. There are many such legends that he and his knights are not dead but merely sleeping somewhere.

Potter Thompson was a man married to a harridan of a wife. To escape her constant carping he took a walk and eventually finished up below the castle. When pausing for a rest he noticed a gap in the rocky escarpment which appeared to be the entrance to a cave. He looked in and saw a faint light glowing at one end of a long passage. Following the light Peter Thompson found himself in a large cavern where, fast asleep, were a king and knights in full armour.

He recognised King Arthur because on a table in the centre of the cavern were a horn and famous sword Excalibur. Excited that he had found King Arthur’s resting place, Peter decide to take Excalibur to prove his story was true. When he started to take the sword from its scabbard, the knights stirred. Terrified, Thompson ran but not before a sorrowful voice had intoned:

Peter Thompson, Peter Thompson,

If thou hadst either drawn

The sword, or blown the horn,

Thou wouldst have been the luckiest man

That ever yet was born.

Thompson began to feel better and braver once he was outside. If he went back for the sword or the horn all his troubles would be over. He turned back but the entrance to the cave had gone. Despite a frantic search all over the rocky banks of the castle the secret tunnel was never revealed to him again.

Finally we come to the castle that ultimately led to Arthur’s death.

Dover Castle 1887

 

 

 (By David MacGibbon & Thomas Ross)

Dover is associated with the conflict towards the end of Arthur’s life between the King and his son (or nephew) Mordred. During Arthur’s absence in a French war Mordred seized the crown and garrisoned an army at Dover to prevent his father’s return. Fierce fighting ensued before Mordred was driven back. At the end of the battle Sir Gawaine was discovered badly wounded. Before he died Sir Gawaine wrote to Sir Lancelot who was overseas, calling him back to Arthurs’s aid.

Sir Lancelot assembled a huge army and landed at Dover – too late to help Arthur who had been slain at the Battle of Camlann.

For more on castles and monuments cross over to the links at Sepia-Saturday-171.

Photos:

• Tintagel - Alan Simkins - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection
• Pndragon - David Medcalf -  CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection
• Richmond - David Dunford - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection    

Nights at the Round Table - Sepia Saturday

My first thought on seeing this week's prompt of the Round Table at the 1945 Potsdam Conference was of...

... King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. According to Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur Arthur was given the table by King Leodegrance on Arthur's wedding to his daughter Guinevere. Leodegrance had been keeping the table for Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father.

King Arthur's Knights gathered at the Round Table to celebrate Pentecost see a vision of the Holy Grail

 (15th century manuscript of Lancelot and the Holy Grail)

The Round Table has become a symbol for equality and just government.
Geoffrey of Monmouth (1135) made no mention of a Round Table in his history of Arthur.  A French monk Robert Wace, writing around 1155,  was the first to mention it. There are a number of supposed Round Tables sites in Britain including Caerleon, Penrith, Stirling and Winchester.

According to Wace Arthur's knights sat at a round table while Arthur sat on a dais, above the Round Table. The idea here was that the knights were all equal but Arthur was still the king. Wace didn't how many knights sat around the table.

A few years later, an Englishman named Layamon in his chronicle places Arthur's court in London. The Round Table is portrayed the result of a chance meeting between Arthur and a Cornish carpenter, who offers to make for the king a table that could seat 1,600 men and be folded up and taken anywhere.

Robert de Boron tells us Merlin ordered Uther Pendragon to construct the table based on his vision of the Last Supper Table and Joseph of Arimathea's Grail Table. Merlin instructed Uther to have the table accommodate 50 chairs.

Painted table in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle representing the Round Table of King Arthur

 ( By Martin Croft CC BY-SA 3.0)

The large wooden table in the Great Hall at Winchester dates from no earlier than the thirteenth century, when it may have been made at the command of King Edward III, who was considering a revival of the Round Table as an order of chivalry. In the end, he dropped the idea and created the Order of Garter instead. The oak table is 18 feet across and nearly 3 inches thick. It weighs nearly 1.25 tons. 

If you prefer to be in the open air then this is where you should go.

King Arthur's Round Table - a neolithic henge - Eamont Bridge, Cumbria (By David Berry)

90m in diameter. only one of the original entrances survives. The external bank is 1.5m wide, the internal quarry ditch 9m; two standing stones outside the northern entrance are no longer visible.

Of course it is not only a legendary king that had a round table, nature has its own.

Mermaid Tables - Ravenscar Beach, Yorkshire

 

(By Andrew Curtis -  21 Feb 2004 - CC BY-SA 2.0)

These strange round formations on the rock shore are apparently formed and preserved from erosion by the capping of resistant rocks.

It has been a long time since Arthur's time at the end of the 6th century but today's politicians use the round table format at those 'perennial' G8 Summits.

G8 working session - May 2012

(Official White House photo - Pete Souza)

Certainly they are are a a lot more informal than that Potsdam lot who take your attention away from the 'star' of the show.

Round Table - Potsdam Conference, Cecilienhof Palace

(Presidental Libraries - Harry S Truman)

I hope Alan has reached this point because I'm sure that he will appreciate a night or two at a table like this - 

Round Table, Covent Garden

  (Ewan Munroe - 2008 - CC BY-SA 2.0)

I'm told this is at 20-27 St Martin's Court near Leicester Square tube station. However to see where others have been you should weave your way across to Sepia-Saturday-168.

Uffington Castle

A-Z Challenge 2012 - U

 Uffington Castle

Uffington Castle sits on the northern face of the Berkshire Downs in Oxfordshire just to the south of the famous White Horse cut in the hillside. Its is designated as an ‘Iron Age Hillfort’ but archaeological finds suggest that it dates from the Bronze Age around 800 – 700 BC. The fort’s shape is defined by a single rampart as a rough pentagon; its importance to the early Celtic tribes was its position commanding the Ridgeway, the ancient track that runs across England from the coast near Dover to Illchester in Somerset.

Uffington Castle - 2009

It has been said that Uffington was Mount Badon where King Arthur defeated the Saxons in c AD518 and suggested that the White Horse is actually an effigy of the dragon slain by St George on the nearby natural chalk outcrop of Dragon Hill.

Uffington Castle - ditch and bank on south-east side - 2006

Uffington Castle does not appear to have been ever densely populated; despite evidence of buildings inside it wasn’t permanently occupied either. The fort may even have been a spiritual centre rather than a defensive structure. Wayland’s Smithy, a Neolithic burial chamber is a mere 1.1/4miles away along the Ridgeway and contributes to the area’s mystical and spiritual significance.

Hilary Melton-Butcher’s ‘T’ castle yesterday was Tintagel Castle, Cornwall.

Attributions:

• Uffington Castle Uffington Castle on Whitehorse Hill viewed from the west 2009; author Philip Halling; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
• Uffington Castle The ditch and bank on the southeast side. – 2006; author Andrew Smith; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
• Video: Uffington Hill Fort by Graeme Field

Ghostly Jaunts in June

Phantom trains, Cavalier lovers, King Arthur and his knights, a spectral black dog and even a schoolboy ghost are on jaunts in June.

In 1944 an ammunition train with 51 wagons and hundreds of 500lb bombs caught fire and exploded at Soham in Cambridgeshire; every window in Soham was shattered and the station destroyed. Bert Ginbert, the driver survived but the twenty-two year-old fireman, James Knightall and Frank Briggs the signalman were killed instantly. The day before the explosion Knightall is believed to have told the driver that he did not think he had long to live.

On 2^nd June a phantom train is said to run on the tracks at Soham railway station.

***

  

The Civil War has given rise to ghostly cavaliers in more than one location.

Goodrich Castle

(Michael Eccles - CC A-S A 2.0 generic license)

Today Goodrich Castle is a majestic ruin near the River Wye in Herefordshire. A Norman Keep surrounded by a red sandstone square castle with drum towers on the corners it has a natural dry moat. Built in 1806, major upgrades occurred when Edward I was king. By the 16^th century it was unoccupied.

In 1646 during the Civil War it was besieged by the Roundheads led by Colonel John Birch. His niece, Alice, took refuge in the castle with her Royalist lover, Charles Clifford. When attempting to escape the couple died together in the river.

On or near to June 14^th, particularly if it’s stormy, it’s said their cries came be heard and their wraiths be seen, urging a phantom horse into the swollen waters of the Wye. On other occasions, passersby late at night have seen their poignant specters staring sadly from the ruined ramparts.

 ***

In 1980 the caretaker at Hitchin Priory in Hertfordshire was doing his rounds when he sensed that he was no longer alone. He turned round and saw the figure of a woman floating above the stairs at the end of the corridor. He said that the woman was dressed in grey and a short sleeved blouse with a pearl around her neck. The caretaker was so frightened that he refused to go back to the corridor on his own.

One theory has it that the grey lady is the ghost of the sweetheart of a Cavalier named Goring who met his end in the park. At the time of the Civil War Goring was hiding in nearby Highdown House where his betrothed was staying in an attempt to avoid capture by the Roundheads. Goring was forced to flee when the enemy searched the house. He did not get very far and was executed on the spot while his sweetheart witnessed the whole event from an upstairs window.

Now on 15th June every year, the anniversary of his execution Goring’s headless ghost is seen riding on a white horse towards Hitchin Priory. Is the grey lady the ghost of his sweetheart?

Cadbury Castle from Corton Ridge

(Joe D, modified by Jim Campion: CC A-S A 2.5 generic license)

 Between the North and South Barrow, near Castle Cary in Somerset there was an ancient causeway. On 20^th June (Midsummer’s Eve) King Arthur, with a ghostly escort of mounted knights and teams of foot soldiers, follows this route supposedly from nearby Cadbury Castle to Glastonbury. (Cadbury is thought to be Arthur’s Camelot.)

Another legend says that every seven years a door opens in the hillside so that Arthur and his company can leave to feed their horses.

West Kennet Long Barrow entrance

 (Gazimoff: CC A-S A 3.0 unported license)

West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire is one of the many prehistoric monuments that are part of the Avebury complex of Neolithic sites. It is one of the most impressive and well-preserved burial chambers in Britain, as well as being one of the most visited.

On 21^st June, Midsummer’s Day, a spectral black dog is said to appear. Black dogs are a particular feature of English folklore; they were the guardians of graveyards. This claim could be the ghost of such a guardian.

Other sources recount the appearance at sunrise of a priest dressed in white, accompanied by a dog with red ears.

***

St Mary's Church Beaminster

 (Mike Searle; Geograph Project Collection  CC A-S A 2.0 generic license)

St Mary’s Church, Beaminster, Dorset is the place to be on 27^th June to see the ghost of the schoolboy John Daniel, who was murdered there in 1728. He was buried without an inquest as his mother had testified that he suffered from fits.

An account of the Beaminster Ghost Story first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1774. The apparition appeared in broad daylight and was seen by five children, one of whom never even knew John when he was alive.

The Beaminster School used to be held in a gallery of the church to which there was an entrance from the churchyard. On Saturday 27^th June 1728 twelve children had stayed to play ball in the churchyard after school. Four boys returned to the school to search for old pens when they heard a noise in the church – they concluded that someone was hiding in order to frighten them. A search by all the boys found nothing but as they returned to their sport they heard a second noise in the school. Running round the church they heard the sound of preaching and the singing of psalms – these noises only lasted a short time.

Later one of the boys returned to the school for a book where he saw a coffin on one of the benches. He fetched the others and they thronged the school-door. Five of the twelve saw the apparition of John Daniel, who had been dead for more than seven weeks, sitting some distance from the coffin further in the school. John’s half-brother recognised the apparition and threw a stone at it, whereupon the apparition disappeared.

The lads were examined by Colonel Broadrepp, the magistrate, and based on their descriptions of the apparition and the coffin, the body was disinterred. At a coroner’s inquest a verdict was returned that John Daniel had been strangled. No steps appear to have been taken to bring anyone to justice for his murder.