non-Mega image outlets ? A cry from many hearts

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TomBo T
TomBo Apr 23, 2004 08:12:28
Replying to TomBo

"The Pennine Way takes a gentle walk up the side of Padon Hill following a fence. At the highest point of the path, I took a short detour rightwards to the 5 metre high Padon Hill currick - constructed in the 1920's by the Morrison-Bell family (who lived in the nearby Otterburn Hall) this appropriately bell-shaped monument commemorates the Scottish preacher Alexander Peden. He was a Nonconformist Presbyterian in the reign of Charles II and brought his practitioners to out of the way spots to avoid persecution. The currick is embedded in a platform of stones, many of which were brought to this lonely place by the worshippers. It is well worth a close look and also gives some good views of the surrounding countryside"

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~fiski/pw/pennin20.html

I was at three curricks called Church Bowers the other day (and there had possibly been a great deal of stone-smashing going on there, although I can't be sure). No clear enough prehistoric link to post it here, though. This Christian angle on curricks seems, to me, to parallel the well-known Christianisation of less controversial heathen sites.

F FourWinds
FourWinds Apr 23, 2004 08:46:15
Replying to TomBo

People, including myself every now and then, forget that there were penal times in England. And of course it swung about all over the place Catholic/Protestant/Catholic/Protestant in a very short space of time. A lot of priests knew which side their bread was buttered on and simply swapped faiths, holding High Mass one week and not the next and then four months later having to decide if they dumped the wife they had taken as a Protestant vicar when Catholicism returned.

Many didn't switch though and you get the wonderful Priest Holes (Harvington Hall is still one of my favourite places because of these!). People went to some extremes. Masses were held at the Garranes stone row in Cork. Just up the hill is a stone with a name carved upon it. This is the name of one of the priests. He's not actually buried there, but the stone was laid so that when the Black & Tans came looking for him the locals could say that he'd died and was buried up there.

Many cairns are known to have been built up by people making the pilgrimage to the spot. This may make the cairn fairly modern, but that does not make reverence in the location a modern one.