Thursbitch

[poliphilo]

Thursbitch is a novel by Alan Garner. It's also a place- an isolated valley in the Cheshire Peak district - with a ruined farmhouse in it- and one or two other things. It has an evil reputation. Thursbitch is old English and means Valley of the Demon.  I walked in there this afternoon. 

There are a lot of monoliths lying around- some of them built into walls or re-used as gateposts. A number seem to have been carved to look like phalluses. They could possibly be neolithic.

To find out more about the mythos read this fascinating article- and to find out even more read the book.







As I left the valley a heron rose from the stream below me and wheeled off overhead.

This church- Jenkin Chapel- built in 1733- also features in the bookl.



And so does this stone, which marks the death, by exposure, of the jagger (or pedlar) John Turner.



On one side it reads: Here John Turner was cast away in a heavy snow storm in the night in or about the year 1756

 

On the other side it reads: The print of a woman's shoe was found by his side in the snow where he lay dead.

Comments

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

...Is this the Alan Garner of The Owl Service and Elidor fame? Because if so, you might be able, very faintly, to hear my transatlantic squee even now. I've never HEARD of this book, but must now go and find it at once!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's the same guy. Thursbitch came out in 2003.