The Chained Oak

I've given a lot of talks for Staffordshire Libraries (you may have heard me at Cannock, Stafford, Eccleshall, Newcastle, Brewood, Stone, Burton on Trent, Uttoxeter, Codsall, Barton Under Needwood or Kinver) - over the past couple years, and have built a good knowledge and image bank of some weird Staffordshire places as a result. Hopefully many more talks to come in Staffordshire.

One of the best strange places in Staffordshire is the Chained Oak in a stretch of woodland not far from Alton Towers. Below is a two minute clip from one of my YouTube channels.




It is the inspiration for the Alton Towers ride "Hex"; the tree is said to be 1,000 years old and the significance of it is from a curse dating to 1821. Every time a limb falls from the tree a member of the Earl of Shrewsbury's family will die - hence the chains...

A lot more to follow on Staffordshire over time. A lot of weirdness in Staffordshire which probably helps to explain why I've come to love the county so much.

Book Review - Spirit of the Stones - "Visions of Sacred Britain"

The blurb on the back, and the foreword to this book, made me greatly anticipate getting to grips with it - a whole book on people's experiences of stones sites, and ancient monuments.

Uri Geller writes: "The greatest glory of the British Isles, and one of the most secret, is its network of ancient sites... These places can mould your soul. The stones and mounds of Britain are uniquely powerful." (Pages xi-xii.) As someone who feels Britain is a unique isle (not better - just unique), this book promised to be music to my ears; but unlike Uri Geller, I did not find myself compelled to read it in a single sitting.

The book's structure is based on Reverend Edward Duke's plan of the 'mundane system' - a geocentric concept of the solar system, where Silbury Hill equals the Earth, Avebury is the Sun and the Moon, other features denote Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, and Stonehenge is Saturn. This idea is just the vehicle for exploring the author's themes, and each chapter is built on the characteristics typically possessed by each planetary body, and correlating ancient site.

This is in no way an archaeology book; it is a compendium of the experiences of many folk, of many different spiritual persuasions. Many may not believe the encounters described, but generally it is a fascinating, albeit uncritical look at the body of belief that surrounds these sites.

What bored me most were the number and length of quotes; I understand the author may think them necessary to retain the context and intention of the source, however, on a few occasions I found myself skipping the text to find something more interesting.

What I found best was the debate it stimulated in my mind as to the nature of experiences people have. Are these experiences of other-worldly beings just the product of a fertile imagination? It is argued "while they will appear and communicate according to what is in our imagination, they are not products of the imagination... our own minds try to make sense of by making use of images from the realms of myth, legend and nature." (Page 209.)

The accounts of scary experiences (page 205) and of site guardians (pages 174-178) I felt compelling; but for all these descriptions, whether true in an external sense, or just internally, they suggest these sites can act as triggers for important personal experiences, placing something significant in the unconscious of those who are either receptive, needing, or wanting to encounter that which gives them a sense of interaction with other realities.

One question the book raises on page 162, and like philosophers and theologians over the centuries, it fails to answer is, "It is a curious thing, getting involved in the mysteries of the stone circles, barrows, sacred wells and the like, but even the finest of priestesses can rarely get from them a straight answer to the simple question: Why is life such a bitch?"

If you are interested in Forteana, Earth Mysteries, and folklore, or have the most minute modicum of mysticism, or a hint of romanticism in your world view, then there will be varying degrees of benefit in taking the journey with Alan Richardson's book.

Review by Tim Prevett

Spirit of the Stones
Subtitled "Visions of Sacred Britain"
Foreword by Uri Geller

ISBN 0753504146
270 Pages
Glossary by Mike Harris , Notes, Bibliography and Index
8 Pages of black & white photos
Published 2001 by Virgin Publishing Ltd, London