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Where would I want to be buried? Bitchfield!

May 26, 2009 By Cari

Cari outside Boothby Pagnell church
Me outside Boothby Pagnell church

Today was a Bank Holliday so the Goblin was off work. It was supposed to rain all day and Goblins hate rain so we weren’t going to go out, but around four the sun came out and he suggested we drive back to Boothby Pagnell to take pictures of the church. On our way there I was disconcerted to realise that the village I was really enchanted by was Bitchfield, the next village on. I somehow blurred them in my brain. Bitchfield is beyond charming, it’s Miss Marple, it’s magical! But we first went to Boothby Pagnell to photograph the church. Of course half way there we drove out of the sunshine and ended up under thick cloud, but at least it didn’t rain.

Boothby Pagnell church
Boothby Pagnell church

The rectory Isaac Newton stayed in while working on his Fluxions was next to the church, but from the road it’s screened by a number of trees. I thought I’d avoid being arrested for tresspassing and resisted the impulse to wander up the drive to take a photo. I took one from the back of the church yard. But first I had to take a photo of the church and the old door that has some of the lovliest iron work I’ve ever seen. The church itself was locked and we couldn’t be bothered to hunt down the key.

Boothby Pagnell church door
Boothby Pagnell church door
The rectory at Boothby Pagnell where Isaac Newton stayed
The rectory at Boothby Pagnell where Isaac Newton stayed

On the way back to the car I couldn’t resist the oportunity to have my photo taken in the old red phone booth. They’re becoming quite rare. What was really strange was this one still had a working phone in it along with a few hungry spiders.

Cari being sucked into an alternative dimension where phones rule the world...oh wait...that's the 21st century...take me away!
Me being sucked into an alternative dimension where phones rule the world...oh wait...that's the 21st century...take me away!

We tried talking to the shorn sheep in the village green, but they weren’t interested in amusing us so we got back in the car and headed for Bitchfield. I asked the Goblin if he thought they’d have a church and he thought they would…in Lower Bitchfield… He was right of course. Bitchfield itself is very small village. There are a few new ugly houses, but they’re thankfully tucked away mostly out of sight. We couldn’t afford to live in Bitchfield or Boothby Pagnell, but if we could Bitchfield or Lower Bitchfield would suit me. It would be like living in the Twighlight Zone…Lovely! There were several happy cats on the prowl and half a dozen villagers out working in their gardens. The church in Lower Bitchfield was even cuter than Boothby Pagnell. It’s smaller, and like the surrounding village, well taken care of.

Lower Bitchfield church
Lower Bitchfield church

I was expecting the usual musty smelling old English church with mouldy walls and dusty ancient pews. Not Lower Bitchfield! The walls were clean…they looked like all the stone work had been repointed in the not too distant past…everything had been lovingly restored, repaired. Instead of dusty pews there was a small congregation of chairs with cushions. This is a church people attend and love.

There were several things inside that made it quite unique. The belltower (with it’s three bells) had been boxed off, but the bell ropes were right there…I was so tempted…that would have been very naughty and all those gardening villagers probably would have come and thrown us out. I resisted, but I took a photo…

The boxed bell tower
The boxed bell tower

I love how next to the ropes is the numbered peal for the bells. What I didn’t notice until after getting home was that someone had carved their initials onto one of the stones underneath the instructions for the change-ringing peal. The next time I go back I’m taking tissue paper and a crayon! It was definately old and the wierd lettering matched one I later found in the porch.

The organ was this lovely old bellows organ that had been converted to electricity. The Goblin loves organs. I think he really enjoyed looking it over.

I loved the font.

the font
the font

It has a series of sheilds (or devices) decorating it’s sides. I assume these were the personal crests of the Normans who built the church. I’ve never seen a font like this. Of course it could be one family represented by different brothers and their individual coats of arms. If you know who they represent I’d love to know!

One of the coat of arms on the font.
One of the coat of arms on the font.
What is this? Angels wings with a cross forming a ship?
What is this? Angels wings with a cross forming a ship?
Have you ever seen this crest?
Have you ever seen this crest?

My favorite part of the church was on the ceiling, though it was too dark to take any decent shots. There were these 15th century wooden angels playing

musical instruments. If you’d stood them upright they would have appeared really squat. I’m assuming they were angels…they didn’t have wings, but they were all dressed in old fashion robes. They were lovely! And then on leaving the church I followed the Goblin out into the porch. He paused to tell me that he’d read inside that there were remains of an Anglo Saxon church nearby. As I stood there behind him as he looked around I realised the walls of the porch were covered in old grafitti. I LOVE old grafitti. There were people’s initials with various dates from the 17th and 18th century, but my favorite grafitti was this really strange one I’ll include. You can make out the first two are probably initials, but there is no date only weird symbols…so now I’m going to be going out of my head wondering what they are. If you have any idea what they are or what they mean do tell me! They might be Masonic. They might be Martian. I’ve no idea!

Have you ever seen these symbols or way of writing? Let me know!
Have you ever seen these symbols or way of writing? Let me know!

I find the above inscription utterly fascinating. Can you see the three round indents over the second line in the H? And why three round indents in what must be an I or a J? The third symbol looks like the modern symbold for female. An o with a cross coming out of the top at an angle.The fourth symbol might be an M, but again it’s straight across the top with three round indents. This is going to drive me nuts. Oh well…it’s weird and bizarre…I love it! I had a lovely adventure even if the sun mostly remained behind a solid wall of cloud. I can’t wait to go back! Though I should probably get some work done…never fear…I’ve been working on both Dancing the Maypole and a new short story at least I think it’s a short story. I’m writing…hopefully I’ll have something new to put on line soon! Don’t be surprised if in future one of my characters comes from Bitchfield.

Filed Under: History Notes, I've been taking photographs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AJenTooMany says

    May 26, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Oh, cruel Cari!! I keep thinking of things the symbols might be and rush off to the computer to do a quick search. “Nope, not alchemy. Not astrology. Hmmmmm…”

    Although the one that looks like and 8 to me – infinity symbol? The alchemical symbol for Mars was a circle with an arrow pointing from it.

    Thinking, thinking.

  2. Cari says

    May 26, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    @AJenTooMany
    I did find some interesting possibilities…somehow I ended up on this page selling fonts. One called The Malachim Alphabet and another called Celestial Alphabet(both used in magic apparently)look like they might shed some light on the symbols…except those wierd symbols in the middle so I kept looking and found…hold on to your chair…an alphabet called Illuminati Ciphers. Did you know that the German writer Goethe (who wrote Faust (published in 1808 -Regency lit)was supposedly a member of the German illuminati? This is the guy who wrote Werther…you know that story about a young man who falls in love with an engaged woman and then kills himself because she won’t break it off to marry him and real young men all over Europe read it and copy-catted Werther and killed themselvs! Anyway…back to the cypher…the first two letters might be L. M. (according to one Malachim Alphabet, but the letters themselves might stand for something else…the Roman numerals for L M are 50 and 1000…that doesn’t make any sense. Though the message could read from left to right!!! The last symbol right to left could be the Celestial alphabet letter called “Cheth” I assume it would make the “ch” sound. The third symbol was used by the Illuminati as a letter in their alphabet,but I don’t know which letter…it could be “F” or “L” or it could be a number. The three dots over the second symbold could be the number 1 according to the illuminati cipher…or it could be something completely different. I hadn’t thought of the fourth as an infinity symbol…frankly I’m stumped. I need to go back and trace over it to see if there are any parts less visible to the eye. I’ll send you a better photo. What is also weird; the grafitti that I noticed in the bell tower (a few bricks under the peal instrustions) is in this same weird alphabet. I’ll send you a photo. I didn’t noticed it until I was looking at the picture on the computer. My curiosity has been aroused…it will not rest until I find the answer!

  3. Self Voyeur says

    October 13, 2009 at 8:04 am

    any changes coming ?

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