Crazy Town.....

Or as others know it - Glastonbury - a place of pilgrimage since the earliest christian times.

Christian legend dictates, that Jesus's (so-called) uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, came to Britain after the crucifixion some 2,000 years ago, bearing the Holy Grail - the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, or so the legend goes. I have always had doubts about the holy grail since even Monty Python couldn't find it.

Joseph of Arimathea became notorious in Glastonbury for thrusting his staff into Wearyall Hill, just below the top of Glastonbury Tor.
Lo and behold, the next day, his staff had grown into a thorn bush, (as you would expect), although Joe was no doubt a little pissed off that his best staff was ruined.

Roundheads were said to have felled the original thorn tree during the English Civil War. However, locals salvaged the roots of the original tree, hiding it in secret locations around Glastonbury. The locations were apparently so secret that the roots couldn't be found until after the second World War when the thorn roots were then replanted on the Tor in 1951, (a mere 300 years after the original was destroyed). The new thorn was hacked down by vandals a couple of years ago, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth and articles in the Daily Mail! 
Other cuttings had also been taken though, grown and placed around the town - including in the famous Glastonbury Abbey, where two of these thorn trees survive now.

There are also a couple of natural springs, one of which, the Chalice Well, is also associated with Joseph of Arimathea, who, when he wasn't growing thorn bushes, dipped the holy grail, (and about the same time managed to lose it), into the well and caused the waters to run red and so resemble Christ's blood!!! By this time Joe must have been feeling a bit like King Midas, except that everything he touched turned to crap, rather than Gold.

This miracle of the spring of course provided more inspiration for the locals, who presumably hadn't noticed the spring's natural red colour before, but they understood a  marketing opportunity when they saw one - its not everywhere you can buy a pint of Christ's blood. And of course the spring is now holy, miracles occur regularly, and people from all over the shop, queue up to guzzle it down or splash around in it.

These aqueous habits used to be restricted to those of the christian faith but all sorts now join in and there are buddhists, druids and new age people of all sorts of inclination, who take inspiration from Glastonbury's natural or unnatural wonders and now get in on the scams that form various "businesses" in and around the town.
The best I can say, is that these many and varied enterprises provide a bit of harmless colour to the town. The worst, is that they may shamelessly exploit the gullibility of the vulnerable.

The main street, full of shops selling lots of "stuff" relating to alternative cures, lifestyles, materials, philosophies and literature. If you have a weird belief of any sort, you'll find something to buy here.

There were some nice people on the streets though, and the general rule appeared to be, that the weirder the dress or the person's appearance, the nicer they seemed.  One happy soul with dreads and rasta dress greeted us with a big smile and a "Hi, how are you, alright"? "Got any weed?" At this point, I should have mentioned that Glastonbury was famous for planting stuff in the ground and it being grown by the time you wake up next day, but we had a chuckle and left him to it.

After having lunch in a small cafe, where the proprietor lectured Iris about the correct way to make a "Flat White", (i.e the way he made it), we went on to the Abbey.

The Abbey has been in existence since the dark ages and the first stone church was built in the early 8th century. This was destroyed by fire in 1184 and the medieval Abbey was then built. It was at this time, that the connection with Joseph of Arimathea appears to have been discovered, (i.e. invented), together with connections with King Arthur who mysteriously and suddenly was determined to have been buried in the old Abbey. A small plaque now marks his ex-grave, (as King Edward I had him transferred to a fancier grave, that was destroyed together with most of the abbey later). Arthur's re-interment was accompanied by much pomp and ceremony and the King and Queen  attended..

The Abbey was taken over by Henry VIII's men during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. The Abbot at the time was fairly unhappy about having to surrender his enormous sinecure and refused to do so. Silly man! Henry's men tried him for treason and he was hanged, drawn and quartered on Glastonbury Tor, (the hill behind the town). After the dissolution, the Abbey was gradually dismantled, demolished and plundered in various ways. The only intact building that survived was the cookhouse.

The Abbot's Cookhouse.

 



The Tor. We camped just over the other side but couldn't find the energy to climb it.

The Abbey ruins are located in a large park of about 300 acres in the centre of the town and although few intact buildings remain, it was still possible to get an idea of the scale of the original buildings. The main Abbey was about 100 metres long and 50 metres wide and was the richest church in the land, after Westminster Abbey.

The picture shows how the Abbey stretches right up to the top of the grass and also continued behind us in the Lady Chapel.

This part of the Abbey was known as the Lady Chapel that was originally attached to the main Abbey. This chapel was behind where we took the previous photo. The walls of this chapel are still pretty much intact and have some remains of medieval colour visible. In the crypt at the bottom, (the bridge is at the original floor level with the crypt below), we saw a well that was supplied with water from the Chalice Well. This was obviously to save the Abbot having a 200 metre walk to get his daily dose of holy water.

What the chapel used to look like in its heyday.

The grounds of the Abbey are studded with mature trees and in keeping with the spirit of the town you can adopt a tree should you wish to.

This tree diagram shows the locations of the various trees, plus a contact number, should you be foolish enough inspired by your visit enough to adopt a tree. I don't think there are the same kinds of stringent rules on tree adoption as human adoption, although you may have to provide some sort of evidence of being unable to think rationally, to qualify as an adoptive parent of your selected tree. Its probably another miracle that Prince Charles hasn't adopted a couple of dozen.

There is one surviving church on the Abbey site and it is a small chapel dedicated to Saint Patrick.

The tiny church of St Patrick
 

With a pic of the man himself, complete with Irish wolfhound.

There was a book in the chapel containing the names of people who had recently had funeral ceremonies at the church. I'm not sure if someone called Odin should have received a christian burial.

Charlie "Odin"Amergin Ellick lived, died and is buried in these parts.

 

The visit to Glastonbury Town over, we returned to camp and planned our next days. Salisbury got the nod and the following morning, away we went. See our next gripping episode coming soon........