I'm a great believer in working and getting to know the land you actually live on... although I confess I'm having a few wee problems finding things out about my own area - I take consolation that I'm still fairly new to the area

But anyway, what interesting titbits have you learnt about your home area?

That the graveyard in a local church has ghost dogs, or at least the remanants of several there. So maybe this year I'll head over there with the rest of the local 'oddballs' as my group is termed to check it out

Any idea why they are there?

Not sure if this is the kind of thing you mean...

If you swim in a place called 'Bluewaters', Granny Greenteeth will come and get you.
There is an oak tree where a spring comes out of that is sacred and people used to take their kids there at candlemass for a form of unofficial baptism thing.
There are Landvaettir at the tree at Spen cob
People steer clear of 'Old Rachel's' ruins on the moors because during life she was said to terrify people and was able to hex. After death - she apparently haunts her ruin.
There's a boggart story around the Headless cross in Adlington. (why lad, tha's sin't boggart!)
There's supposed to be a white lady of Winter Hill and every good friday, people traditionally walk up to Rivington Pike.
There's a scarecrow festival in Charnock Richard every year
Between Chorley and Coppull, on the way past Birkakre, there's supposedly the ghost of a man on a horse that appears at a certain time of year.
The A666 near Turton is said to have a phantom hitchhiker.
Astley hall has an old exercise chair that moves around on its own.

Ann probably knows some more of these because she's from Chorley too.

Usually ghost dogs in graveyards come from the old custom of killing a dog to be the first thing buried in the graveyard because traditionally, the first thing buried is supposed to remain as the guardian of the graveyard with special powers to keep the Devil out. I suppose not many people wanted that job after death so dogs were used instead.

Ohhh Scarecrow festival that sounds fun! Aye that type of thing, but also stuff that you may have discovered about the area you live in that has helped you along your path.




And I'm clearly in a daft mood this afternoon (I should be typing up minutes) because now I'm quietly chuckling to myslf with visions of the devil dancing around a graveyard with his arse hanging out of his red longjohns and a phantom dog hanging on for dear life.........

Oh the imagery!!!

The scarecrow festival was actually quite creepy. You'd see something that looked a bit like an old woman on a bench from a distance. The closer you got, you realised that it was actually a scarecrow. Now try explaining that to people with learning disabilities who were trying to converse with them and calling them fatbums Definitely one of my more surreal shifts...well, relatively speaking that is. Most of my shifts at work are surreal in one way or another.

Er as for the stuff I discovered that helped me along my path, well I've been roaming the moors since I was a kid and I always knew things instinctively about places.
I'd say I've learned a lot about things from just being outside, reading weather, what kind of land is safe to walk on (boggy moors), places that 'change' and 'shift', I learned lessons from watching birds and animals going about things, I learned about 'reading' the land - about figuring out what was 'off'. I learned what things you can take from a dead animal and how it can be used 'magically', when I'm being 'given gifts'. What can be ate, what grows around here. Feeling the seasons and smelling them too. Then there's the spirits that you come across too and not just the ghosty ones but the spirits of place. Somewhere mingled in are the echos of the past and the people that had passed there before - the men trudging for miles to work at the lead mines and getting permission to relieve themselves between two stone slabs - the germanic hill farmers and their barns - the stone age people that built the chambered cairns. A lot of it seems really mundane but it's all stuff you need to know. I'd say that when you really know the place where you live, it's not just a place where you live, it's alive in ways that most people don't see and experience. But I think the legends and folklore serve as a reminder to people that don't see them that there is much more than just a tree or just an old ruin or a road. They also serve as warnings about stuff people have known for years like places you should steer clear of and places that should be treated with respect.

I probably make no sense here.

No that's great.

I feel a deep afinity for the moors where I grew up, like you roamed from a very young age, learnt a lot about the land around me; it was bascially my friend.

Where I am now, I'm finding it difficult to connect, so I'm trying to find out about local customs, folklores, myths etc to try and get a sense of what has gone on before. I'm not sure if my own disgust at the amount of rubbish and illtreatment visible of trees etc is blocking me, although, I have to say I find being out in the woods here a little uncomfortable and it's because as kooky as it sounds, the land and trees are scared... and it's not nice to think you're scaring something.

I get what you mean. You're looking at the local lore to sort of get your bearings because of your difficulty connecting.

Hun, I've lived in quite a few places and in some places, I've had to 'dig for it' but in others, I've just not vibed with a place at all. We've been like chalk and cheese. The places I've personally found most difficult have been the more urban places (and I really dont' want to get into a rural vs urban pagan debate because we all find our niche in different places), places where I feel very little 'wild'.

Have you thought about picking an area near to you, physically cleaning it up (that might have to wait until after the birth - how far are you gone now?) and just leaving offerings to sort of encourage the spirits back? If there's been a lot of neglect, they might just be hiding away or they may have deserted the place full stop.

That's a good idea, I have when out taken a bag with me and picked up rubbish, although not since becoming pregnant as it's not really advised (and I hate wearing gloves)... picking an area to loook after tho sounds a nice idea.

(nearly 29 weeks gone now..eek..lol)

Before movin back to Middlesbrough I lived in the Isle of Man and one of their customs is to acknowledge the fairies who are known to live at the Fairy Bridge in Santon and it's considered bad luck not to make this acknowledgement. There are too many people on the island who have been in an accident after crossing the bridge and did not say 'hello' to the fairies! Some people write little messages and wishes on paper and tie them to the trees next to the bridge also.




When I first visted the island it was a strange feeling, like I had arrived at my home, hard to describe but it felt like I belonged there. I will move back there one day and it will always be part of my life.

Oh I love stuff like that DebZeb and I can see why you prefer the Isle of Man to M'boro

Very - probably better to wait until after you've given birth and had a few months with buggalug.

However if after a few months of trying to clean up the place and trying to encourage them out/back and nothing happens - you might have to just give it up as them being gone.

Hope not :-( Would be a shame, the area is lovely with all the trees - heck I even saw Lords and Ladies growing the other week in the woods.. haven't seen them for ages!

But of course there is a plethora of stupid teenagers who think it's amusing to start a fire at the base of a tree's trunk and then sit around drinking cheap cider / lager and then leaving the cans thrown all over the place! And they've done this to some really big gorgeous oaks too - so peeved me off when I saw the damage.

Maybe you need to encourage some handy thickets of brambles on the more obvious paths in. The ones with the nice thick stems would do the job nicely. Might persuade the teenies to bugger off and get pissed somewhere else.

Or go to their bedrooms and read an uplifting book.

OK old git rant over now...

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

im right on the edge of offas dyke near knighton

http://www.aboutbritain.com/towns/knighton.asp

theres something interesting which ever way you go.
The local yobs here tend to do their damage in town. its the out in the countryside for the day city pagans that tend to set fire to things, they dont leave cans and bottles lying about but its still rather annoying.

Our beloved Andred...goddess o the south downs, she fill the heart o her witches down this neck o woods with fire an death afore dis-honour.

Rain

We're still finding out about our local area, havign lived here for a year. We now know there have been settlements here since well before the romans, and there are pre-historic pathways and cattle roads all around the area.

I like tracing the local rivers and streams- there are dozens of them around here, and each has its own particular personality. I get a strong sense of there being 'other people' in the woods and fields near my house.

The local library's often a good place to start, there were a hell of a lot of good local folklore studies and collections done in the 19th century. Start with some of the more recent studies and see what they reference in the footnotes and bibliography, there's fascinating stuff tucked away in library archives and backrooms and librarians are usually delighted to help you do that sort of research.

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

My local library is ah...... somewhat sparse.. seems the truck load of cash they recieved recently was used on computers rather than putting in say windows instead of the holes being boarded up and oh... gosh novelty for a library........ books!

I'll just have to see if I can get anything ordered in. I normally love libraries and could spend hours in one......... not this one, it's the most uninviting, uninspiring library I've ever had the misfortune to step foot inside!

In Surrey, my home county, there is a legend about Yew trees. They were planted as windbreaks for country houses, to protect against the prevailing southwesterly gales.

Over the years the belief grew that the Yews were also home to the Guardian Spirit of the house, and occasionally a homeowner would cut one down for spoiling his view across his acres. Nearly always, disaster to the house quickly followed until the trees were replanted.

Even today, especially in the areas surrounding the Devil's Punchbowl, if you are walking you may find a solitary, old Yew. If you search to the Northeast of the tree you can sometimes find traces of the ruins of the house that once stood there.


Cheers, Midori

Well oddly enough on a bridleway that is now a public footpath in Humford woods (local) there is a Yew growing , its a fairly young tree by Yew standards, it is surrounded by water , the mysterious thing is, it is the only evergreen in the whole of that particular area

The yews with ruins would be several centuries old, not young ones. It is possible that it is an 'accidental', seed dropped by a bird some distance from it's origin.


Cheers, Midori

Yes wyrd maybe !