Stairway to Heaven!

Northants: Kirby Hall – [1570] Elizabethan Home of Nobility! (1.8.2025)

This building reminded us in structure of Hampton Court (not far from where we live in London) – and Berry Pomeroy in Totnes, South Devon (not far from where my parents live). This is not surprising, as I believe from reading the available “English Heritage” literature that the same architects and engineers were used by the Court of Queen Elizabeth I and the nobility that served her. The front of the Hall faces North – with the back of house facing South (built on a North-South orientation). Local serfs (landless or homeless peasants) and peasants (land-occupying peasants) were employed by the nobility when large-scale building projects were initiated. Indeed, with the development of Guilds (primitive unions) – certain groups of peasants became highly skilled in specific construction and maintenance skills. Whether any such labour was employed from nearly Kirby Village, (situated to the South-West of what became the ornate rear garden of the complex), is open to debate.

Ancient Document - 1060 CE - St Peter's Church - Deene

Deene & Deenethorpe: St Peter’s Church [c. 1060 CE] Historically Significant Building! (31.7.2025)

Even a committed atheist will be at one with the deepest aspects of the mind and nature whilst sat quietly in these hallowed halls. On the way out, whilst walking back to the car, we met a man with a dog who used to live in Leicester – and even in Barclay Street, where my father and his parents lived! He has relatives in St Helena – and although an English gentleman – we got the impression that his White relatives had mixed with the Black population (former slaves) who lived on that famous British colonial island that once housed the Great Emperor Napoleon during one of his exiles!

Rockingham Castle - Battlements!

Rutland: Visiting Rockingham Castle! (29.7.2025)

Despite visiting Duddington (in Northants) regularly since 2009, we had never seen any signs for “Rockingham” – and wondered where this place was. Furthermore, whereas King Henry VIII used to frequent “Nonsuch” (in Sutton and Cheam – where we live) – I am told that King John (1166-1216) of Magna Carta fame, used to spend his leisure time staying at Rockingham Castle – which is near Rockingham village. He used to hunt in the local woods. Apparently, Henry VIII granted the castle (the Norman version of which is currently over 950-years old) to the Watson family (it was leased to Edward Watson in 1544). Prior to this, the general area the castle is now constructed upon possessed a Roman (a coin production industry) – and then a Saxon (Lord Bovi) – presence. The locale of Rockingham (probably the nearby village) is mentioned in the 1066 Doomsday Book – with the castle proper being built between 1066-1071.

British Scarecrows - Linked to Pagan Gods!

UK: Are Scarecrows Linked to Pagan Fertility Gods? (22.6.2025)

This may be due to the Celtic traditions developing within heavily forested areas prior to the arrival of the Romans – who cleared trees to build their straight roads. Romans also cleared forested areas to create farming fields – so open fields were “foreign” to the British Celts. The Druids are reported as detesting the Roman habit of destroying the sacred woods (the Druids and their Celtic Army were finally beaten by the Romans at the Battle of Anglesey circa 60 CE – the last time “magic” was known to have been used on a British battlefield). During these times, crops were planted within the safety of the forested-canopy – where the Gods of Fertility operated more or less unaffected by the wild birds. Wide, open fields were not yet accepted as “British”. It might have even been the case that Celtic farmers came to some arrangement with the wild birds – setting aside some food for them so that everyone got on without conflict. There was 800-years between the Romans (5th century CE) leaving and the plague creating the conditions that led to the development of the modern British Scarecrow (14th century CE). 

A Beautiful Lodge!

Sutton & Cheam: Family Outing in Nonsuch Park! (13.6.2025)

There is an irony to it all. Although Henry was acting to empower his own position, and in so doing strengthen the English crown, by creating a capitalist economy premised upon trade, profit, and individualistic employment, (we are forced to earn profit to “pay” to keep the inequalities and injustices of the capitalist system at a distance) – he inadvertently and simultaneously generated the conditions that led to enriched peasants who specialised in the “trade” of linking the aristocracy to the rare and precious goods they craved and desired. These “merchants” (burghers) were wealthy citizens living in towns and cities who could mimmick the aristocracy by dressing like them, sending their children to the same schools, and standing for Parliament. Eventually, so many were elected and empowered in this way (forming a new “middle class” termed the “bourgeoise”) that they raised an army, defeated and beheaded the King (Charles I) – and abolished the very institute of absolute monarchy that Henry thought he was saving.

white van man

UK: Dozens Injured After Car Drove into Crowd at Liverpool Parade! (27.5.2025)

The UK far-right started its usual (imagined) victimhood – falsely stating that if the perpetrator was “non-White” his race and ethnicity would not have been mentioned by the media. Really? Millions of White people currently walking the streets of the UK who are far more “foreign” to British people than many others who possess a different skin-tone or hue. It is not pigmentation that unites humanity (the skin-hue of distinctive cultural groups varies in time through natural evolutionary processes – and science teaches us that there is NO fixed concept of “race”) – but rather the depth and strength of character which defining. The British people have shared hundreds of years of cultural entanglement with people of different skin-hue and distinctive culture – but virtually “none” with many of these “foreign” White people the far-right is currently eulogising. Just being “pink” is not a unifier of humanity and all such people are separated by linguistic and cultural practices that have led to world wars in the past!

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