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

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for sharing all this. Usually, ghost stories don't do too terribly much for me, but this is fascinating. I should love to see the well he mentions.

One puzzling question is why no one in the archaeologicl community seems interested in Thursbitch, if Garner's discoveries have the significance he believes them to have.

I found another article about Garner and his work:

http://www.common-ground.org.uk/2010/03/unriddling-the-world/

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a good article.

I believe the answer to most things in archaeology- in particular why one site gets dug and another doesn't- is funding.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I had thought funding might be the answer. Thanks again.