LONDON – Lots of little bits of news of interest to our community coming out of England recently. Our correspondent, Liz Williams, unleashed the hounds (again) while we weren’t looking!
A Protective symbol found in a tea room
A daisy wheel hexafoil symbol has been found carved onto a beam in the 750-year-old Shoulder of Mutton tea room, formerly an inn, in Halstead Road, Colchester. According to Historic England, the hexafoil is the most common magical symbol found in the eastern part of the country, dating across several hundred years and located on a variety of buildings from farmhouses to churches – and pubs. They tend to be carved onto beams or walls, and are often found near entrances and openings such as doors or fireplaces, but are also represented in stained glass windows.
Hexfoil
This is an ancient symbol: examples have been found which date from the late Bronze Age and the symbol occurs across Europe, but it’s even more widespread than this. It appears in Russian artwork and it also seems to have traveled to Australia with British settlers. Explanations as to its origins vary – some see it as a sun symbol and some as a thunder wheel. Like the Marian marks commonly found throughout old buildings – symbols of the Virgin Mary – it is an apotropaic symbol (from the Greek “apotropaios,” “averting evil”).
In this particular case in Colchester, the symbol was mentioned in a post by the City Council:
“Woah a witchcraft symbol has been discovered in Colchester. 750-year-old tea room in Colchester ‘Shoulder of Mutton’ has uncovered a daisy wheel carved into the former pub’s wooden beams! It’s believed that the symbol protects from witchcraft and evil spirits.”
Uffington White Horse is ‘too thin’
The famous chalk figure of the White Horse at Uffington in Wiltshire is ‘too thin,’ according to experts. The National Trust and Oxford Archaeology team say that the head and neck of the image has shrunk since the 1980s and needs careful restoration to bring it back to its former configuration. Small trenches were dug when the annual scouring and re-chalking of the horse was conducted to ascertain how far it had changed.
Archaeologist Adrian Cox says: “The Uffington White Horse is set in a dramatic landscape, shaped by nature and by people through time, and this is a hugely important chalk figure, partly because it is the oldest scientifically-dated example in Britain, dating back to the late Bronze Age. Through the efforts of generations of local people, it has been cared for and has survived as an iconic feature of this amazing landscape.”
Mr Cox told the BBC that the team plan to “carefully reverse the recent shrinkage and restore its original outline, all under close archaeological supervision.”
Satellite view of the Uffington White Horse – USGS [Public Domain]
Shropshire carving ‘could be pagan deity’
A mysterious carving on a block of sandstone discovered in Shropshire is being investigated, with suggestions that it might represent a 4 horned pagan deity. The image was found in January, at the Iron Age hillfort site of Nesscliffe Hill, near Shrewsbury, and archaeologists say that it is extremely unusual to find carvings of this sort.
Images via Shropshire Council
The image appears as a stick figure with horns: horned gods are, of course, familiar to us all these days, and images of people with horns date back a long way, such as the enigmatic, shaman-like figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, dating from c. 100 BC – 1 AD and found in 1891 in a peat bog in Denmark. There is, of course, no indication as to who the Nessglyph figure might have been intended to represent, but the discovery is an intriguing one.
Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture and digital, added:
“I am blown away that the Nessglyph has ‘gone viral’ and has attracted so much interest from across the Atlantic. This has put Shropshire on the map and I am looking forward to the archaeologists returning again this summer.
“I hope we do get some definitive answers to the Nessglyph puzzle, and I hope the site will give up even more clues to our heritage.”
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