Perlustrations Across Norfolk, Part II
Perlustrations Across Norfolk
To
the North of Burnham Norton friary, we were taken to a private house
which was clearly once part of the friary's claustral range. Behind, and
to the East of this building, is a wooded dell and a most enchanting
spring which feeds the nearby river Bunn. A young woman present told me
that she and her friends would often play around it as children and
informed me that it ran throughout the seasons, even during periods of
drought. She said that the pool was currently about a foot below its
highest level and that the water usually covers the square stone basin,
which, on Saturday 26th May, was showing well above the water's surface.
I asked her if the water was chalybeate? (Namely, a mineral spring
containing iron salts.) She said that she didn't know, but obliged me by
stooping down before me, cupping her hands in the bubbling water, and
drinking it. I wondered then if the spring had magical or pagan
associations and could perhaps explain the presence of a friar on this
site. Certainly, I believe it is a possibility that if the cloisters lay
to the North, then the private house could be the old monastic
infirmary, which may well have made use of the spring. The architectural
historian, Stephen, mentioned something about a reference in
documentary sources to, "the dwelling of the the keeper of the spring",
which would seem to back this thesis up.
I
have described the dell and spring as 'enchanting' for good reason.
Even when this area on Saturday was a seething mass of straw hats and a
blur of English beige and prodding walking sticks, I could not help but
notice the impression I had that we were all being closely observed by
something we could not see. The famous case of the 'Cottingly Fairies'
springs to mind (if you will forgive the pun!). Perhaps the spring would
reward poo poos a few photographs taken by pre-pubescent girls? Who knows...
Reluctantly,
I left the friary and its spring knowing that there was so much more to
see and experience. But the charabanc was on its way once more; heaving
its way through the twisting be-decked lanes of North Norfolk to our
next destination, 'Bloodygate Hill' Iron Age fort.
The
size and extent of this 'fort' surprised me greatly, as its full
dimensions were made apparent on our approach: a great wide spectacle; a
complete puzzlement to me... But luckily we had the excellent Trevor
Ashwin present, who made the enormous space 'live' by his
interpretations and by the fact that he had utilized metal spikes in the
ground to clarify important features. Fort? Residence? Corale? Meeting
place? Religious site? Trevor admitted that no-one really knows.
Certainly, evidence for warfare is scant, and it intrigues me that one
of the first archaeological, monumental 'types' to attract the attention
of our earliest antiquarian forebears remains an enigma to this day.
[To be continued...]
I must know Aunty Gary - Why 'Bloodygate Hill'?
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