The village of Meare is about four miles S. of Wedmore, and reached by a road across the “Moors”. It is on the S.W. border of Meare Pool, to which Camden assigns an area of 500 acres, and Leland an average circumference of 3 miles. The place has three buildings of much interest—church, manor-house, and abbot’s fish-house.
But apart from these, the renown of Meare has been spread far during recent years as the result of the thrilling excavation of Celtic lake-dwellings by Dr Bulleid of Glastonbury and his helpers. The site, now famous in Europe, must be an object of legitimate curiosity, but it is hard to find. In the village, a road W. of the church and running S., is marked “Meare Way” on a signpost. Turn down this for 100 yards or so along the level. On the “Moor side” is the stump of a notice board nearly opposite a red-ochred cottage. About 50 yards back in the marsh is a hut standing on a big mound in the angle between two ditches. Other mounds whose tops are about 3 feet above the general level, are on the W. side of the ditch.
There are two distinct groups of dwellings separated by about 150 yards of level ground, and each group comprised about 50 huts: the combined groups occupy parts of about seven fields. These little artificial islands were made well over two thousand years ago some 200 yards from the shore of the Meare lake. Within recent years Great Britain, through Dr Arthur Bulleid, has made a remarkable contribution to the lore of lake-dwellings known in the world, though those of Meare are comparatively late, having been occupied during the prehistoric (early) iron age. The dwellings were built on artificial mounds made in shallow water near the lake shore with trunks of trees, brushwood, earth, and stone, the little islands being connected with the mainland by a raised causeway. Dr Bulleid discovered the Glastonbury (or Godney) site in 1892, and excavation followed from 1892-98, and from 1904-07, with the skilled assistance of Mr H. St George Gray, the well-known excavator and curator of Taunton Museum.
Then the village at Meare was discovered in 1895, and systematic investigation followed in 1908, 1911-14, and 1921 and following years. The quest is still proceeding. The Glastonbury site is on the Brue levels something more than a mile N. of Glastonbury on the way to the village of Godney. The site is triangular and covers about j I acres. It comprises some 80-90 hemispherical mounds, with diameters ranging from 15 to 40 feet, each being the site of a dwelling. In each case on the underlying peat was laid a platform, of wood and this was bordered by a palisading of posts. On the wood was laid a floor of clay, and as in time this sank, a new one would be superimposed—a process repeated several times. A house was built of upright posts and walls of wattle and daub; a thatched roof was supported by a central post; and on the floor a clay hearth was set, of an average diameter of about 4 feet. The causeway was of clay rammed tight, to a depth of about feet on top of timbers. The occupation of these settlements was evidently continuous during the third and second centuries B.C., and certainly came to an end before or very soon after the civilization of Rome reached so far west as Somerset. The culture of the inhabitants is thoroughly shown by the objects to be seen in the museum. They include objects of bronze, tin, lead, and iron— a bronze bowl set round with bosses is the piece de resistance—of amber, glass, jet, and bone. The pottery is of the type we associate with the pre-Roman Celts, especially vessels with ornament of cordons round the shoulder. The human remains show that the people were of oval-headed Iberian type, men and women of shorter stature and slighter build than the long-heads (dolicho-cephalic). Their pottery and woodwork is that of late-Celtic art, just such as has been found at Wookey Hole, Ham Hill, and Worlebury Camp in Somerset, and on Mount Caburn and in other sites in Sussex and elsewhere. Here then stood the island dwellings of Celts who ploughed, spun and wove in the second and first centuries before Christ, and vanished when the Romans came. Whither? Possibly to some extent into the more inaccessible caves of Mendip, though some would seem to have simply transferred to the shores of their lakes. For, truly, these moor folk whom you may see between April and July cutting and stacking peat to dry on the marshes, might well be their descendants. They are an individual and somewhat retrograde race. Few have been off the moor, and those few very rarely. (The Godney site is, as was said above, about ij miles from Glastonbury, on the right-hand side of the road, where the words “British Village” are marked very faintly on a white gate-post.)
(Read The Lake-villages of Somerset, by Arthur Bulleid, L.R.C.P., F.S.A. Price 2s., Folk Press, London, S.W.)
But Meare has yet other things to show. The abbots of Glastonbury used to own the lake and exploit its fish. Here they were en compagne, and no doubt the Manor House (immediately E. of the church, i.e. on the Glastonbury side) was a “week-end” establishment. The striking features outside are the tall porch with a curved gable and a crude figure a-top, and the three buttresses on the E. side of the front. There is a dining hall 60 feet long on the first floor, with fireplace and windows. This house seems to have been built in the time of Adam de Sodbury (1322-35). The Fish House (1335) is next (E.) to the Manor House and on the edge of the old mere, and is now under the care of the Office of Works, and has been re-roofed since a fire destroyed the original timber roof some years back. When built, it contained a ground floor and storey, the latter reached by outside steps, the former being in two halves with communication by two pointed doorways. The living room was upstairs, the fishing tackle below. The church has a chancel of the fourteenth century, and nave, aisles, and a stone pulpit of the fifteenth. On the charming parapet of the S. aisle is the monogram of Abbot Selwood, last-but-one abbot of Glastonbury. The tracery of the E. window is uncommon.
While near Meare I had an opportunity of seeing something of the peat industry. Three strong young fellows were down in a trench six-foot deep, the sides of which were cut as straight as a brick wall. About 31 feet down began, perfectly level and perfectly distinct, the stratum which it is worth digging. All the loose top-soil has to be cleared off, and then the desirable seam is cut out from above into 6-inch cubes, and left out to dry till fit for carting, when they are sold by the thousand.
By miles of ditch-guarded roads, shaded by long rows of pollard willows—roads which, by a not unpleasant change, you have all to yourself—you come to Glastonbury.
GLASTONBURY (716 Glestingaburg. D.,
Glasting-berie: Glessenbyri {Leiand); the fort of the Glas tings).—
The ground on which rises Glastonbury Tor and on whicb the township and abbey of Glastonbury were built, was called in ancient days the Isle of Avalon.
To realize its insular character it is necessary to go up the Tor or some of the neighbouring high places; but a glance at the map is far more satisfactory.
Roughly, a great arm of the sea came in from the Bristol Channel between Mendip and Quantock, and
Standing proudly on the side of an English hill, its religious roots go back 2,000 years.
Holy Thorn tree on Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury as stunned locals look on.
The tree in all its glory before it was hacked apart. Legend says it sprang from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who helped Jesus off the cross. To the right of the tree, in the distance, is Glastonbury Tor
According to legend, Saint Joseph travelled to the spot after Christ was crucified, taking with him the Holy Grail of Arthurian folklore.
He is said to have stuck his wooden staff – which had belonged to Jesus – into the ground on Wearyall Hill before he went to sleep. When he awoke it had sprouted into a thorn tree, which became a natural shrine for Christians across Europe.
To add to its sacred status, the tree ‘miraculously’ flowered twice a year – once at Christmas and once at Easter. It survived for hundreds of years before it was chopped down by puritans in the Civil War, but secret cuttings of the original were taken and planted around the town.
It is from one of the new plants that a replacement tree was planted in the original spot over 50 years ago.
Yesterday residents of Glastonbury wept as they surveyed the damage done to the tree on Wednesday night. Katherine Gorbing, curator of the town’s abbey, said: ‘The mindless vandals who have hacked down this tree have struck at the heart of Christianity.
A member of the public gathers sprigs from the chopped branches while (right) onlookers cry and say prayers
BROUGHT TO LIFE BY JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, CHOPPED DOWN BY CROMWELL'S ROUNDHEADS, REBORN THANKS TO LOCALS
Christian legend dictates that Jesus's great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain after the crucifixion 2,000 years ago bearing the Holy Grail - the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.
He visited Glastonbury and thrust his staff into Wearyall Hill, just below the Tor, planting a seed for the original thorn tree.
Roundheads felled the tree during the English Civil War, when forces led by Oliver Cromwell waged a vicious battle against the Crown.
However, locals salvaged the roots of the original tree, hiding it in secret locations around Glastonbury.
It was then replanted on the hill in 1951. Other cuttings were also grown and placed around the town - including its famous Glastonbury Abbey.
Experts had verified that the tree - known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora - originated from the Middle East.
A sprig of holy thorns was taken from the Thorn tree by Glastonbury's St Johns Church on Wednesday and sent to the Queen
The 100-year-old tradition will see the thorns sit on Her Majesty's dinner table on Christmas Day
‘It is the most significant of all the trees planted here and can be linked back to the origins of Christianity.
‘When I arrived at the Abbey this morning you could look over to the hill and see it was not there.
‘It’s a great shock to everyone in Glastonbury – the landscape of the town has changed overnight.’
Every winter a sprig of thorns from one of the town’s trees is sent to the Queen to be used as a table decoration on Christmas Day.
Glastonbury mayor John Coles, 66, took part in the annual cutting ceremony last week using the tree at St John’s Church.
Yesterday he recalled watching a tree being planted on Wearyall Hill in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. Although that specimen died, it was replaced the following year and stood firm until this week. Mr Coles said: ‘It’s the saddest thing I’ve seen in Glastonbury. Some of the main trunk is there but the branches have been sawn away. I am absolutely lost for words.’
Experts had verified that the tree – known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora – originated from the Middle East.
Avon and Somerset police have begun an investigation but because there was no tree preservation order on the Holy Thorn, it means the vandals are unlikely to be prosecuted. The land on which the Holy Thorn stood is owned by Edward James, who was arrested this week in connection with an investigation into failed currency exchange firm Crown Currency Exchange, of which he is a director.
According to the administrator’s report, Crown Currency collapsed owing £16million with little more than £3million in the bank. Last night there was speculation that the attack on the Holy Thorn may have been part of a vendetta against him.
Leland's material provides invaluable evidence for reconstructing the lost "tomb" of Arthur (a twelfth-century fabrication) at Glastonbury Abbey.
On his itinerary of 1542, Leland was the first to record the tradition (possibly influenced by the proximity of the villages of Queen Camel and West Camel) identifying the hillfort of Cadbury Castle in Somerset as Arthur's Camelot:
"At the very south ende of the chirch of South-Cadbyri standeth Camallate, sumtyme a famose toun or castelle, apon a very torre or hille, wunderfully enstregnthenid of nature. . .The people can telle nothing ther but that they have hard say that Arture much resortid to Camalat.
MOTORING
xxxii
Palace Eye, on the east side of the Market Place. The Palace (the grounds are usually open to visitors on Wednesdays and Saturdays in summer from 3-4.45 p.m.) is surrounded by an embattled wall, and further protected by a wide moat, well known as the home of some highly intelligent swans.
Glastonbury.
Motor Park.—Market-place, beyond the Museum.
In comparison with Wells, Glastonbury is a place of memories, for the once flourishing Abbey is represented by a few ruined walls (the ruins are open weekdays only), and even those who climb the Tor will find difficulty in visualizing the day when St. Joseph of Arimathea, sent by St. Philip the Apostle, came with a band of missionaries to preach the Gospel in Britain. They sailed up the Bristol Channel until they came in sight of a hill “ most like to Tabor’s holy mount,” for which St. Joseph—so the interesting old story goes—had been instructed in a dream to look.
This hill, which we know as Glastonbury Tor, was an islandlike elevation amid the marshes. As Avalon, it is known in ancient romances and in Tennyson’s Morte D'Arthur.
Close to Glastonbury, on the road to Bridgwater, is Weary- all-Hill, or Wirral, the spot where St. Joseph and his companions, “ weary-all ” with their journey, are said to have landed, having steered their vessel up the river which then flowed at the foot of the slight eminence. Here St. Joseph, we read in the fascinating tradition, planted his pilgrim’s staff, which at once took root, sent forth branches, and made a practice of celebrating every Christmas Day by bursting into flower. It is certain that for many centuries there flourished here a tree famed through Christendom as the Glastonbury Thorn. It was regarded as of such sanctity that sailors carried sprigs from it for luck in their voyages, and dying men desired that some of its leaves should be buried with them. Visitors who make their way to the hill may find the cracked paving-stone marking the place where the tree flourished, and roughly inscribed " I.A.” (Joseph of Arimathea) " Ann. D. xxxi.”
For a full description of the ruins and of Glastonbury, we must refer readers to our Guide to Wells, Glastonbury and Cheddar.
HARMSWORTH POPULAR SCIENCE
only possible among a nation with a knowledge of the sun’s apparent movements against the starry sphere ; and it is possible that the Babylonians accomplished it. It is only at the North and the South Poles that a stick stuck upright in the ground will indicate by its shadow the regular passage of the daylight hours. In lower latitudes the shadow cast by the upright rod or style of a sun-dial would so alter its position at the same hour, at various seasons of the year, that the instrument would be useless. For instance, at nine o’clock on a midsummer morning the shadow would fall a good distance away from the spot it would occupy at nine o’clock on a midwinter morning. So the marks on the dial would be very misleading. To make a proper sun-dial, it is necessary to calculate the different paths that the sun takes in its high summer course through the sky and in its low winter journey. It is easity done by giving the rod or style of a sun-dial the same direction as the axis of the earth. This sounds very abstruse and difficult, but in practice it only means that the style should point to the Polar Star. The position of its shadow in the sunlight will pot then alter with the varying path of the sun. The shadow at nine oTlock on a sunny winter morning will fall upon the same line as the shadow falls on a bright summer morning. The task of drawing the hour-marks on a dial is more difficult, as these occur at irregular intervals, instead of being evenly spaced round the dial. very ancient instrument of time measurement. It consists . of four stones, placed north, south, east, and west, and embedded in the solid rock. A leaning stone crosses in a diagonal manner the space formed by the outer stones. The structure is so built as to mark the turning points in the sun’s annual path; but its most interesting feature is the way in which the hours are indicated at certain times in the year by shadows falling on prominent points or edges of the monument. The north stone is really a sun-dial, and the south stone a style, while the east and diagonal stones fulfil both purposes. The structure thus appears to have been a sacred instrument used for measuring the time at certain
critical periods of the year, some of religious
and some of agricultural importance. Dr. McAldowie has lately uncovered several other burial mounds, and found beneath them other big, rough stone dials. He thinks they were the sacred places or temples of a very early race, and that they were converted into burial mounds by some alien invaders, who took over, as is often the case among ancient races, the traditions of sanctity attaching to the monuments.
It scarcely seems possible that these buried structures should all by mere chance be admirable sun-dials. The real question is whether they are later in date than Dr. McAldowie supposes. Our own opinion of the matter is that many so-called Druidical remains in our islands were in existence before the Celtic peoples and their medicine-men, the Druids, invaded the country. The Druids, no doubt, took over the traditions of sanctity attaching to Stonehenge and Avebury, and other similar prehistoric monuments ;. and it is quite likely that in some cases they may have continued, and improved upon, the work of the earlier builders. But on the whole we think that most of these strange monuments were the work of a native, non-Celtic people of the
THE CLOCK THAT WENT FOR 500 YEARS AT GLASTONBURY ABBEY
But the savages who lived in prehistoric times in Great Britain seem to have worked out part of the difficult art of making a sun-dial. A few months ago there was published in " Nature ” an abstract of some results of the excavations that Dr. McAl-dowie recently made in prehistoric burial mounds in Staffordshire and Gloucestershire. Near his own home, at Camp, the doctor has uncovered a huge, rough stone monument,
