The Black Meadow Archive Volume 1

“Some artists create a distinctive sound, others magic up an accompanying persona and backstory. Kev Oyston and Chris Lambert have gone one further: their Black Meadow project has seized control of an area of the North York Moors and used it as the backdrop for a deliberately confusing, unsettling multimedia mix of disturbing folklore and Cold War paranoia.
“…the story is set out in the shadow of an early warning ballistic missile station at RAF Fylingdales where a mysterious village, trapped in a pre-industrialised web of sinister superstition, appears sporadically from the mist. “The Village Under The Lake” is a sweeping orchestral overture with banks of synthetic, otherworldly choirs, impressively echoing the cinema work of John Williams. Meanwhile, “Ghost Planes” reverts to haunted type with the crackle of analog MOD communications and the rumble of discontented synths soundtracking investigations into a mysterious aircraft seemingly spiralling backwards through time. “Song Of The Meadow Bird” is a disquieting pastoral delight, all ersatz harpsichords and flutes, the half forgotten theme to some spooky 1970s BBC children’s drama.”

Bob Fischer, Electronic Sound Issue 61, January 2020

Release date 31.01.2020. Available for pre-order here

Croglin – A Cumbrian Vampire Tale

I read this tale on Bob Fischer’s BBC Tees show last night

There was a house in the village called Croglin Low Hall, the house belonged to a family called Fisher.  For reasons of business the Fishers moved to Essex and let the house out to two brothers and a sister. The new tenants got on well with the villagers and were well liked.  There stay at the hall was uneventful until the second summer of their tenancy.

One particular evening the brother and their sister had sat outside and watched the sun set and the moon rise and had then retired to bed. The sister sat in bed looking out into the Cumbrian summer night. As she looked she became aware of two lights in the graveyard next to the house. As she gazed at the lights she became aware that they we attached to a figure that was gradually making its way towards the house.

A feeling of uncontrollable horror seized the sister. As the figure got closer she longed to scream for help but the voice was paralysed as if her tongue had been glued to the roof of her mouth.  She jumped out of bed and tried to unlock her bedroom door, as she was fumbling with the lock she heard a scratch noise upon the window followed by a pecking noise as the figure picked away at the lead of the window. A pane of glass fell from the window then a long bony finger turned the handle of the window, opening it.  A tall, thin hideous creature then climbed into the room through the window. The woman was so terrified that she could not scream, the creature twisted its bony fingers around he hair and dragged her head down to the side of the bed and then bit her violently in the throat.

As the creature bit her she found her voice and screamed. Her brothers rushed to her room but found a door locked, y the time they had broken the door down the creature had escaped. One brother attended to his sister’s wounds while the other pursued the creature into the night. The creature appeared to take giant strides and eventually seemed to disappear over the wall into the churchyard.

The next day the doctor attended the sister and the attacker was thought to have been an inmate who had escaped from an asylum. Over the next few weeks the sister seemed to be recovering well but the doctor thought that a change of scenery might be good for her so her brothers took her to Switzerland.

After a few weeks the sister said that she would like to return to Croglin and carry on with her life so her brothers took her home.The winter passed peacefully until one night at the end of march the sister heard the a familiar scratch sound at her window, looking at the window she saw the same hideous shrivelled face and glaring eyes that she had seem on that terrible night during the previous summer.This time she screamed as loud as she could and her brothers rushed into the room, pistols drawn.

The creature scuttled across the lawn with the bothers in pursuit. A shot was fired and the creature was hit in the leg but still it ran. When it got to the churchyard in vanished into a vault, which belonged to a family who were no longer living in the area.

The next day the brothers summoned the villagers and in their presence the vault was opened. On looking in a horrible scene revealed itself, the vault was full of coffins which had been broken open, their contents mangled and scattered all over the floor. A single coffin remained intact however its lid was loose. On raising the lid they found the same hideous withered, shrivelled, mummified figure that they had seen the previous night, the creature also had a bullet wound on it s leg. The brothers then did they only thing you can do to lay a vampire, they burnt it

Littoral

Bran sands

Wæs þu hæl

Something festive

Up until recently the only xmas album played in our house was Phil Spector’s Christmas Album, that has now changed. This collection is rather wonderful.

Chasing the Solstice Sun

On an overcast Solstice day, I go looking for one of Frank Elgees prehistoric settlement sites in the Commondale Beck valley

Limekilns are few and far between on the northern moors

Tall solitary pines are also a rarity.

Sunlight briefly breaks through, a moment of joy

The sound of the train fills the valley

The settlement site sits on a terrace overlooking the Commondale Beck. Elgee found other sites on located on the same terrace on both sides of the river.

An old hollow way leads to one of the many rocky outcrops on the valley side, a quarry for field walls and butts.

Clouds are moving rapidly westwards across the moors, I catch a glimpse of the sun.

An alignment of grouse butts runs across the moor, tops covered with fresh turfs.

The moor is sodden, there is a possible alignment of standing stones on the moor top

I return to the road, blue skies can be seen through a break in the clouds above the Kildale Gap, I head west.

On the edge of the escarpment I encounter the sun, I drink tea and bask in its warmth.

Solstice the Shaman

Today is the eve of the winter solstice, turn off the lights and enjoy

Thanks to Joud Lee

Frosterley Marble & Henry Moore

Seated Woman: Thin Neck by Henry Moore. Laing Art Galley, Newcastle.

Durham Dales – The Castles

Graham and I headed over to Hamsterley to have a look at a strange site called The Castles. Graham told me that despite modern archaeological investigations, including a visit by the Time Team Archaeologists, no one has been able to fully explained this strange site.

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Channel 4’s Time Team at The Castles, a Scheduled Monument at West Shipley Farm, Hamsterley, believed to be the remains of a fortified site of Late Iron Age, Romano-British or post-Roman date. The investigation included evaluation trenching and geophysical and standing remains surveys, the results of which are briefly summarised in this article. Although clearly constructed by a substantial workforce as a defensive fortification, there is little evidence to indicate what the site was used for or its date.

Abstract from McKinley, J. I., (2014). ‘The Castles’, West Shipley Farm, Hamsterley, Co. Durham. Durham Archaeological Journal (19). Vol 19, pp. 105-106.

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The monument remains enigmatic both in terms of date and function. Though clearly constructed by a substantial work force as a defensive fortification, there is little evidence to support by whom and for what it was used. It may have served as a demonstration of power, its use may have proved unnecessary by change of circumstances, or occupation may only have been temporary or seasonal. The date of  the original construction seems most likely to be Late Iron Age, with possibly post-Roman reuse of parts of the structure 

Summary detail from ‘The Castles’, West Shipley Farm, Hamsterley, Co. Durham

Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment Results. Wessex Archaeology. Report reference: 65303.01. May 2007

 

We drove along the narrow lanes to the farm entrance and walked along the public footpath to the farmyard. The friendly farmer was busy unloading a feed tanker but stopped to point out the right of way across his land. We walked down the extremely sodden fields towards the copse of woods that enclosed the site.

The site is located on a hillside midway between the ridge top and the valley bottom. It has views along the valley to wards to confluence of the Harthope and Bedburn Becks and then further east to the Wear Valley.

Wessex Archaeology / Time Team report here

Map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

LIDAR  Image from here