Sunday November 4th 2018
Not exactly 'ghost-related', but certainly an aspect of local, historical 'lore' that might interest many of our visitors....?
As most will know, the name Wednesbury comes from the Saxon God 'Woden' and the term 'BURY' derives from the Anglo-Saxon BURH or BYRIG..... meaning a fortification or fortified settlement. Of the many thousands of name places in Britain, less than ten have the name of Woden associated with them and, of course, WE happen to have 2 such names within a very few miles of one another... Wednesbury / Wodensbury and Wednesfield / Wodensfield.
Unlike Wednesfield, however, Wednesbury has always seemed to maintain at least tentative links with it's Pagan heritage, mainly in the form of - albeit small - tantalising references and tributes to such matters: 'The Woden' public house, for example, with it's ceramic plaque on one of the walls showing 'Sleipnir', Odins 8 legged mount; an immense, metal sculpture of 'Sleipnir' again, erected on a hillock overlooking the town in the late 1990's, and even a stained-glass window in the Parish Church of Saint Bartholomew, depicting the hill-top, 'Pagan fortress' that once occupied the same site........
As a previous Vicar of St Bartholomews mentioned about the latter a few years ago:
"On the lofty hill, raised above all the surrounding country, rest our Parish Church, the glory, the ornament and the beauty of the town. It stands as a beacon visible for many miles around it, its spire pointing towards the heavens, thus teaching, by mute but significant sign, where our thoughts and final hopes should tend.
This hill, with its spire crowned Church, was not always the teacher of heavenly things. There was a time when Woden, the fierce and sanguinary idol of the Danes and Norwegians, stained this hill with the blood of human beings offered in sacrifice to him. This Woden is supposed to be the same as Odin, on whom our poet Gray has composed a wild and beautiful ode, entitled The Descent of Odin.
This 'devil worship' passed away as the light of Christianity arose and spread on our island; but the foundations of the material building were not yet to be laid".
Some readers may well recall the furore concerning the erection of the aforementioned statue, back in 1998, most of which boiled down to church-related moaning about 'being reminded of our Heathen past' and so on!! Rolls eyes!!
As most will know, the name Wednesbury comes from the Saxon God 'Woden' and the term 'BURY' derives from the Anglo-Saxon BURH or BYRIG..... meaning a fortification or fortified settlement. Of the many thousands of name places in Britain, less than ten have the name of Woden associated with them and, of course, WE happen to have 2 such names within a very few miles of one another... Wednesbury / Wodensbury and Wednesfield / Wodensfield.
Unlike Wednesfield, however, Wednesbury has always seemed to maintain at least tentative links with it's Pagan heritage, mainly in the form of - albeit small - tantalising references and tributes to such matters: 'The Woden' public house, for example, with it's ceramic plaque on one of the walls showing 'Sleipnir', Odins 8 legged mount; an immense, metal sculpture of 'Sleipnir' again, erected on a hillock overlooking the town in the late 1990's, and even a stained-glass window in the Parish Church of Saint Bartholomew, depicting the hill-top, 'Pagan fortress' that once occupied the same site........
As a previous Vicar of St Bartholomews mentioned about the latter a few years ago:
"On the lofty hill, raised above all the surrounding country, rest our Parish Church, the glory, the ornament and the beauty of the town. It stands as a beacon visible for many miles around it, its spire pointing towards the heavens, thus teaching, by mute but significant sign, where our thoughts and final hopes should tend.
This hill, with its spire crowned Church, was not always the teacher of heavenly things. There was a time when Woden, the fierce and sanguinary idol of the Danes and Norwegians, stained this hill with the blood of human beings offered in sacrifice to him. This Woden is supposed to be the same as Odin, on whom our poet Gray has composed a wild and beautiful ode, entitled The Descent of Odin.
This 'devil worship' passed away as the light of Christianity arose and spread on our island; but the foundations of the material building were not yet to be laid".
Some readers may well recall the furore concerning the erection of the aforementioned statue, back in 1998, most of which boiled down to church-related moaning about 'being reminded of our Heathen past' and so on!! Rolls eyes!!
While not a practicing Pagan myself - I'm not a 'spiritual' person at all and find that I cannot invest 'faith' in any form of religious belief - I have held 'sympathies' for certain, related subjects and systems for many years now... and find a strong affinity with certain motifs and symbolism. As a result of the latter - and basically cutting a long story short - I had been meaning to go along and actually 'visit' the 'Sleipnir statue' for a very long time now..... but, for a variety of different reasons, had just never got round to it!
Frequenting Heathen-related pages on social media, I had seen that, in the past, a great many followers of such beliefs had indeed taken the time to visit the site.... as had some friends of mine who, while not actually holding any interest in such quasi-religious topics, had merely 'spent some time at the spot', due to it being a local landmark and slightly 'out of the way' for such a busy, little town! I must admit that one of the reasons I'd dragged my feet about going there over the years was that I'd long though - simply given its location - the statue would have been tightly and safely 'fenced off from the public'.... but it isn't, apparently!?!
Anyway - a few weeks ago - I finally took the time to make the (albeit relatively small) ascent up to the statue.... and what an absolute bloody disgrace the site actually is currently!! Rolls eyes!!
First of all, any romantic notions that old Sleipnir was basically 'watching over Wodensborough from his lofty position' - the actual 'meaning' of the statue, I've always presumed - were immediately dispelled, as, with all of the industrialisation of that part of the town over recent years, you can barely even 'see' the poor bugger from literally anywhere in the region now.... because of the multitude of factories and office complexes that surround the site! From anywhere within a few hundred yards of the spot, the statue is almost invisible and could simply be 'missed' or 'over-looked', if you're not specifically keeping an eye open for it! Having not attempted to get close to the site before, I had a hell of a time keeping it in sight and ended up doing a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in an endeavour to even find it at relatively close quarters, amid the surrounding properties..... Rolls eyes!! The overall situation - visually speaking - is made all the worse by the simple fact that the local Council presumably haven't been bothered to visit the spot for a long time now, meaning that the shrubbery surrounding the structure itself is, literally, almost as tall as the statue these days!! Seemingly some - though I'd hazard to suggest a 'bare minimum' - of maintenance has possibly been given to the location, so that Sleipnir is still 'slightly' visible from the direction of Wednesbury itself.... though I'm quite open to the thought that this is actually just a 'happy coincidence', given the otherwise disgusting state of the overall location?
Actually coming to get 'up close and personal' to the statue was not only a terrible anti-climax, but was also... well.... basically an 'unsavoury' experience!! After trudging along an overgrown, barely visible trackway - strewn with everything from the expected beer cans, to discarded items of clothing, to copious amounts of excrement - you finally reach the statue to see that the surrounding foliage is right up to its base on 3 sides.... making the only point you can even get close to it these days from the 'rear end'!! (I did, however, find this quite fitting, given the overall experience!! Laugh!!) To add to the delight, even this - less than salubrious - approach is completely strewn with general 'crap' left by the local drunks and junkies!! Being modern Britain, the former opportunities afforded by a nice, quiet, 'remote spot' clearly hinge entirely around 'getting out of your tree' currently.... and the resident ne'er-do-wells certainly haven't missed an opportunity here!! There are clear and copious signs of 'revelry' of different kinds at the base of the statue, including 'druggy paraphernalia', literally tons of 'beer cans' - more excrement, that I'm presuming isn't 'canine' in origin - and camp fires!!
Having said the latter, I was musing elsewhere that I didn't suppose the 'Old Gods' would actually be bothered by a bit of 'partying' - in fact, they might actually appreciate or even encourage such things? - but the remnants from such revelries are, basically, not at all nice for people interested in just visiting the statue, of course!! Personally speaking - as a by-product of all of the above - I had been recently wondering exactly 'who' would need to be contacted re. suggesting a 'move' for the statue... perhaps 'into' the town centre, or, at least 'nearer' the town, so that people could actually 'see it' again!? There is a sizeable, open 'green' area - grass and park-like land - at the base of the hill that holds the aformentioned St. Bartholomews Church and Woden public house. The area concerned is more than suitable in size and historic location to perhaps play host to a re-sited 'Sleipnir'....?
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