The simulation of local tornado wind conditions

Preamble

At the recent Bluff Body Aerodynamics Conference in Brimingham at the end of July / start of August 2024, there was considerable discussion concerning the simulation of tornado and downburst flow for the purposes of measuring structural loads. The current experimental methodology uses large scale tornado / downburst generators that have to be physically very large to have reasonable model scales, with either the whole downflow mechanism being moved across a model, or a model being moved beneath the generator. Such tests are complex and time consuming, the more so because to obtain reliable load statistics multiple tuns are required for each case considered with various tornado or downburst characteristics, building position and orientation relative to the core flow etc.

In the discussions of the various presentations, there was some talk of modelling local flow characteristics around building models, rather than modelling the complete flow field. After mulling over some possibilities for this, in this blog post I set out my preliminary thoughts on how such local simulations might be achieved. I have no access to labs or funding, so these ideas will be for someone else to take forward if they are thought to have merit.

The proposal

The basic idea is as follows.

The local wind field around a building should be simulated in a duct, where rapid changes in wind speed such as those found beneath tornadoes and downbursts can be simulated using active control of fans / screens etc. This has been attempted in the past and the technique is clearly possible. The near ground local shear and turbulence could be generated using spires and roughness in the usual way.
The rapid horizontal direction changes seen by a building as the flow structures pass over it should be simulated by rotating the model at the required speed.
Vertical direction changes (which it will be seen below are usually small) could be simulated in one of two ways – either by tilting the building model vertically (which would result in some ground plane distortion) or perhaps by rapid changes in duct roof profile to produce the appropriate upward or downward vertical velocity component.

In principle there seems to be no reason why it should not be possible to simulate the necessary velocity and direction changes, but there are two issues that need to be investigated. Firstly, what exactly are the local wind velocity and direction changes at a particular point when a tornado or downburst passes over them, and secondly how rapid are these changes – are they possible to achieve at reasonable model scales. We address these issues in what follows.

Specification of wind conditions

There are a number of ways in which wind conditions experienced by buildings as tornados or downbursts pass over them can be specified.

Through the use of full-scale data, although this is somewhat sparse, particularly close to the ground.
Through large scale LES simulations, a number of which are available, but are usually for certain specific situations and not easily generalized.
Through the use of simple analytical models which capture the main features of the flow, and by their nature can be generalized quite easily.

Here we use the latter method (which will come as no surprise to those who know me!). Specifically we use the methods of Baker and Sterling (2017) and Sterling et al (2023). These give the equations for the three components of velocity, relative to the tornado / downburst centre, shown in Box 1. It is then assumed that the building is stationary as the storm passes over it and the overall horizontal velocity and horizontal and vertical flow directions calculated from assuming a vector sum of a steady wind velocity in the storm direction of travel and the velocity induced by the tornado / downburst (figure 1).

Box 1 Tornado and downburst equations

Figure 1. Co-ordinate system

Clearly the model requires a number of parameters to be specified. These have been taken from the data collation of Baker and Sterling (2019) (which was compiled to assess the adequacy of tornado vortex generators) and four conditions specified – for small, medium and large tornados and for a downburst of similar size to a medium tornado. The parameters for these cases are shown in Table 1. I make no claim as to the overall adequacy or otherwise of this method – as it stands it is simply a convenient tool with which to investigate the broad parameters of the problem, and other methodologies could be used to determine the wind conditions relative to a building.

Table 1. Tornado and downburst parameters used in calculation

Wind speed and direction relative to a stationary building

Clearly the wind speed and wind direction changes experienced by a stationary building as a storm passes over them will depend upon the position of the building relative to the storm track. If the building is directly on the track, then some very rapid changes in speed and direction can be expected. This is shown in figures 2a to 2c for the large tornado case. The x axis is the time at full scale equivalent values as the storm passes over the building. The origin is at the point when the centre of the storm is directly over the building. As might be expected there is a very rapid change in the speed and horizontal direction as the vortex core passes over, and a very large change in vertical direction. Two points can be made, Firstly, in this region the model is at its least realistic as the sharp changes will be smoothed in reality by vortex wandering and viscous effects. However secondly, there will undoubtedly be large vertical flow direction changes as the core passes over, although perhaps not as high or as rapid as shown in figure 2, and the type of model simulation proposed here would be unable to simulate such changes and such simulations are probably not adequate close to the core. In what follows we thus confine our attention to two model positions, at one core radius either side of the vortex direction of travel where one would expect the simulation to be adequate..

Figure 2. Wind conditions experienced by building directly on the storm track as large tornado passes over

The results of this analysis are shown in figures 3a to 3d for the small, medium and large tornados and figures 4a to 4c for the downburst. The following points can be made.

The velocity magnitude variations are the same for both building positions, and all show a rapid rise then a fall as would be expected.
The vertical direction change is characterized by a sharp peak. For the tornado cases, this variation is always less than 1 degree, but for the downburst case it is considerably greater.
For the downburst, the horizontal direction variation differs in sign between the two positions but are otherwise identical. However, for the tornado cases the horizontal direction variation is different for the two building positions due to the asymmetry introduced by the rotation of the storm. For the case with the building to the top of the storm track in figure 1, there is a steady, if rapid, change of direction around the building and back to the starting point. For the bottom case, the flow directions move through 130 degrees and then back to the original position.

Figure 3. Wind conditions experienced by building one core radius away from the storm track as large, medium and small tornados passes over

Figure 4. Wind conditions experienced by building one core radius away from the storm track as downburst passes over

Can the velocity and direction variations be modelled?

The question then arises as to whether these predicted velocity and direction variations can be achieved in practice. As noted above the x axis on figures 3 and 4 is the full-scale time in seconds. If, say, a building model scale of 1:25 is adopted, which is broadly in line with current practice, and a velocity scale of 2:1 is used (ie the simulation velocities are half full-scale velocities, which seems practical), then the model time scale is 1:12.5 i.e. the model changes have to take place 12.5 times faster than the full-scale cases. If we take the modelling above as broadly correct in regard to the time scales of velocity and direction variations, then the horizontal direction and velocity variations for the large, medium and small tornados and the downburst takes place over periods of around 50, 30 and 10 seconds respectively, resulting in model times of 4, 2.5 and 0.8 seconds. For the direction changes, these time scales seem reasonable and should be achievable by a suitable mechanical system. However, for the velocity changes, that rely on moving air masses with significant inertia, the time scale required for the small tornado would represent a challenge. The vertical direction variations are over much smaller time scales in each case but could probably be achieved with a mechanical system to tilt the model, but probably not with a system that tries to deflect the moving air downwards or upwards.

Concluding remarks

Based on what has been set out above, it would appear that the type of local simulation described in this post has some potential. The use of such a simulation would be restricted however to medium and large storms, as the velocity changes for small storms would be difficult to achieve at model scale. Similarly, the conditions very close to the storm track, in particular the vertical velocity changes, are unlikely to be able to be adequately modelled.

However, I am now retired, with no access to either lab facilities or funding, so if such a simulation is to be further investigated, someone else will need to do it!

References

C J Baker, M Sterling (2017) Modelling wind fields and debris flight in tornadoes, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 168, 312-321 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2017.06.017

C Baker, M Sterling (2019) Are Tornado Vortex Generators fit for purpose? Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 190, 287-292, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2019.05.011

M Sterling, S Huo, C Baker (2023) “Using crop fall patterns to provide an insight into thunderstorm downbursts”, Journal of Wind engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics. 238, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2023 .105431

A Black Country poet – Jim William Jones

On November 9th 2024 as part of the Black Country History Day to be held the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, I will be presenting (with help from Emma Purshouse) some of the poetry of the Black Country poet Jim William Jones, to illustrate the industrial, social and built environment of the region in the second half of the 20th century. Jones was a sharp eyed observer of his beloved Black Country and his poems give a deep insight into the area and its people over that period. This is a rather different way of “doing” history, but hopefully one that will both entertain and inform. I write below to give some brief details of his life and work, since this information is not generally available elsewhere.

J W Jones by CLEBAK, From Black Country Society Calendar collection 1976

Jim William Jones was born in Coseley on February 15^th, 1923, and spent his childhood and school years there. After leaving school he began work with the engineering firm Joseph Sankey and Sons as a junior clerk. He was conscripted into the army at the age of 18 in 1941, taking part in the Normandy landing in 1944 and also serving in India and Ceylon, reaching the rank of Warrant Officer. After the war he returned to Sankey’s and was trained in works management, before leaving industry to join local government in 1955 where he worked in education administration, marrying Jesse Ralphs at Wednesbury in that year. He was a qualified teacher of speech and drama and a member of amateur dramatic societies, hosting a radio programme on Beacon Radio and working with the Black Country folk music group Giggetty. He had a strong Christian faith and was a gifted speaker and Methodist local preacher. He became a very well-known Black Country poet, both for his dialect poetry (Black Country ballads) and for his poetry in more conventional English. Some of these can be found in three small publications by the Black Country Society – “From under the smoke” from 1972, “Factory and Fireside” from 1974, and “Jim and Kate” from 1986, all sadly long out of print. He contributed numerous poems to the first 25 years of the Society magazine, the Blackcountryman from 1967 to 1992. He died in 1993.

Some of Jim Jones poems were included in a 1976 anthology “Widening circles” edited by Edward Lowbury. Following Jones’ death, Lowbury wrote an appreciation for the Blackcountryman (26.4, 1993). He acknowledged the humour and the pathos in the dialect ballads, which at the time of publication of “Widening Circles” he felt to be more successful than the poems in standard English. By 1992 however he had somewhat modified his views and concluded that his standard English poems were perhaps “nearer to the heart of poetry than the more immediately entertaining dialect ballads”.

In a much later Blackcountryman article (45.3, 2012) Trevor Brookes again writes in appreciation of Jim Jones, and in particular his dialect poetry, emphasising that as well as humour, they contained much that showed a profound understanding of people and their lives. He regretted that these were not easily available, being scattered across many newspapers and other publications, and not accessible to modern readers.

Personally, I first became aware of Jim Jones work in the early 1970s, when my mother gave me a copy of “From under the smoke” as a Birthday present. This little volume became a prized possession and has travelled around the country with me over the last 50 years, regularly read and re-read.

To enable others to either reacquaint themselves with his work, or to enjoy it for the first time, some of Jones’ poems have ben published in a short series of Black Country Society blog posts from 2022 that can be found at the links below.

The Blackcountryman poems of Jim William Jones Part 1

The Blackcountryman poems of Jim William Jones Part 2

The Blackcountryman poems of Jim William Jones Part 3

In addition, the Black Country Society has scanned “From under the smoke” and “Factory and Fireside” and these are available for members on the Society web site (password required). I have also produced a compilation of 33 of his poems that span the period from 1968 to 1992 – from “From under the Smoke”, “Factory and Fireside” and the Blackcountryman. This is again available to Society members on the web site. These three volumes will be available for purchase as pdfs from the Society online shop at some point in the near future.

Most, but not quite all, of the poems in the compilation are in standard English. Another volume could easily be produced containing a selection of his dialect poetry, but as Trevor Brookes noted, these are more scattered, and the collection of them would be a major task. Nonetheless it is perhaps something I will attempt in the future.

Tansey Green Anglican Mission Room.

As I sit down to write this post, I find it hard to believe that there is anyone out there who will be interested in the ramblings that follow. But perhaps there are some from Pensnett who are as historically nerdy as I am……

In researching the history of Pensnett over the last few years, and in particular the history of the clergy of St Mark’s Church, I have come across mentions of a mission chapel in the Tansey Green area, but haven’t been able to find any further details or to locate where it was situated. There was another mission chapel in the parish of course, in Bromley, that is much better documented and had a long history. However, I have recently come across a 1949 history of the church by A Sergeant and L U Smith, written to mark its centenary (Dudley Archives LS9582/4B/21) . In that booklet there is the following little bit of information about the Tansey Green Mission Church.

In 1849 the village of Pensnett was much smaller than now, consisting of a straggling line of houses and small shops along the south side of the main road, with a few short streets leading off it to the south, The parish, however, comprised a much larger area, and in it there were two other villages or hamlets. One of these was Tansey Green, where some time about the 1860’s a small mission room was founded. No records exist of this mission apart from some notes in the Services register of the number of communicants. In the year 1888 they numbered 17 in all. Some old residents of the parish still remember the tiny mission room standing on a site on Dreadnought Road which has. now been excavated as a marl-hole, The Mission room itself was demolished some years before the turn of the century.

This short extract gives enough information to determine the location of the church. The three maps below show the Ordnance Survey maps from 1880, 1900 and 1910. Dreadnaught Road (or Nailor’s Row as it was known in the mid 19th century) can be seen extending from the bottom left of the figures to the junction with Tansey Green at the top right. The building which I think must contain the chapel is circled in red – there seems to be no other option. It can be seen to be in existence in 1880 and 1900, but by 1910, its location was the centre of what was presumably a marl hole for the adjacent brick works. This isn’t quite consistent with the extract from the history above, as the building is still shown on the 1900 map and had not been demolished by then. This could be due to the unreliable oral memories on which the 1949 booklet extract was based. or simply that the map details were slightly out of date.

Two further points can be made. Firstly the mission chapel was very close to the Shut End Primitive Methodist church (shown by a green circle), which had a a large local congregation – so perhaps there was some level of competition there between the established church and the non-conformists. But note that the congregation abandoned that chapel in 1896 due to mining subsidence and moved to a new location on Commonside and the building became a picture house – one of the earliest in the Black Country. Secondly the building that I have identified can also be seen, with a very similar shape and ground plan in the Fowler maps of 1822 and 1840, and is listed in the Directories to those maps as “house and garden“, owned by John Hodgetts Hodgetts-Foley and occupied by John Colbourne in 1822, and owned by James Foster and occupied by Thomas Bradley in 1840. It would thus appear that the Mission Chapel was simply a converted house or part of a house.

But beyond that there is very little to say, although I find it satisfying that I have at last been able to locate where the chapel was actually situated. I am still left wandering if this is of interest to anyone else at all!

Lichfield – a pre-conversion pagan cultic centre?

First published on this site as a web page in April 2020, but format changed to post in August 2024 for consistency with other material

Introduction

It has been noted by a number of authors in the past that in the vicinity of Lichfield, the ecclesiastical centre of the Mercian kingdom, there are a number of place names with pagan religious associations, and puzzlement has been expressed that such names were allowed to survive by the ecclesiastical authorities (Horowitz, 2005, p32). In this article, we consider these names further and identify a small number of other sites in the locality that may also have pagan religious connections. In so doing we are led to the tentative conclusion that Lichfield may have been a centre for pagan religious activity in the pre-Christian era, and the echoes of this activity, remain in place names and church dedications in the area. This suggestion goes some way to explain the rather odd comment recorded in an early life of St Wilfred, that he gave Lichfield to Chad for the site of his cathedral in 669, as it was suitable place for an episcopal see – in that it was already an ancient cultic site (Colrave, 1927). We begin in the next section by briefly considering the work of North (North, 1997), who investigated in particular the deity known as “Ing-Freyr”, for reasons that will become obvious in what follows. We then move on to a consideration of place names and church dedications in the Lichfield area. An attempt is then made to synthesise the findings, and to draw out their implications. Finally, further possible indications of cultic activity in the Lichfield area in the Roman / British era and before are briefly mentioned.

Ing-Freyr

Through a detailed examination of the work of the Roman Historian Tacitus who described the worship of the Angles in southern Denmark in the first century AD; the much more recent Scandinavian myths recorded in Iceland around 12^thand 13^thcenturies; king lists from the early English kingdoms and a range of Old English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period, North arrives at the conclusion that the worship of the deity “Ing-Freyr” can be detected in England before the conversion. He argues that the cult of Ing-Freyr directly descends from that of Nerthus, who seems to have had the attributes of a sky god, in the early Roman era by the Angles in southern Denmark. Tacitus describes this as centring on a oxen hauled wagon procession of the god, either represented by an idol of by a nominee, around the tribal region, with the celebration of a marriage to the earth goddess Terra Mater, symbolised by copulation with local women or with a nominated female. This rite had obvious fertility aspects, and also seems to have involved the “death” of the God (either through the symbolic interring of the idol, or perhaps through human sacrifice) after the wagon tour, and his resurrection in the following spring. The suffix “Ing” can be found in a number of early Anglian king lists, indicating the persistence of the cult into the Anglo-Saxon era and can be traced through various Old English texts. Freyr simply means “Lord” and in the Nordic myths was the son of Njoror (the equivalent of Nerthus) and the brother of Freyja, who were all members of the Vanir, the old gods who were the losers of a cult war with the Aesir headed by Odin. The name Freyja simply means “Lady” and is widely regarded as a fertility deity, and also as a “psychopomp” who attended to the souls of the dead. In some myths she is identified with Frigg, the wife of Odin The concept of a dying and rising God has of course resonances with Christianity, and North, somewhat mischievously, writes

…the Angles, in particular, offered no resistance to Christianity and indeed failed to perceive the difference between the new religion and their own…. (North, 1997, 305)

However, whilst the cult of Ing-Freyr could clearly have played a part in the conversion of the Angles, ultimately for the Church there was the possibility of much confusion with the orthodox faith that was potentially very damaging. There is some evidence that the Church thus came to equate Ing-Freyr with the devil (North, 1997, 56-57, 325), and the cult was firmly suppressed. This was partly achieved through his replacement in king lists and names by Odin, an ambiguous figure, both a deity and a real or semi-mythical Swedish ancestor, but who was clearly not regarded as a threat to the church in the same way as Ing-Freyr^[vi]. One of the attributes of Odin himself was that of the psychopomp.

Whilst the arguments of North are based on widely diverse sources, both in terms of content and date of composition, they are nonetheless cogently argued and present a convincing case that, in the pre-conversion era, the cult of Ing-Freyr could be found amongst the Anglian peoples of Britain. The implications of this for the Lichfield area will become clear in the following sections.

Place names and Church Dedications

The name of Lichfield itself remains something of a mystery (Horowitz, 2005, p16). The early (medieval) understanding, based on the writings of Matthew Parris, a monk of St Albans, was that it carried the meaning “Field of the dead” and was the site of the martyrdom of Christians during the persecution of Diocletian from 284 to 305, with “Lich” being derived from the Old English word for body or corpse. Early spellings of the name however suggest that such an interpretation is at best debatable, and the accepted wisdom is that the name derives, through a complex system of intermediate forms, from the Celtic word that evolved into Letocetum (Wall) in the Roman era, and means the open place by the grey wood (Horowitz, 2005, p17). What the grey wood might be has however not been explained, although of itself it to some degree numinous, with perhaps some symbolic meaning and content relating to the dead or the supernatural.

If the name of Lichfield cannot be fully explained, other names in the vicinity are less ambiguous. There are two “Woden / Odin” names to the west – at Wednesfield (Horowitz, 2005, p566) and at Wednesbury (Horowitz, 2005, p565), with names that mean the open land dedicated to Woden, and Woden’s fortification respectively. A little way to the east, on Watling Street, we find Weeford – the ford of the idol or shrine (Horowitz, 2005, p29). Less certainly, in between Weeford and Lichfield, we find Freeford (Horowitz, 2005, p32) (Horowitz, 2005, 30), . Whilst this might simply mean free, or unrestricted, ford, a possible variant is Freyja’s ford, which, in view of the theories of North set out above, may well be of some significance. Weeford and Freeford were two of the five original (and quite possible pre-Domesday) prebends of Lichfield Cathedral, the others being Longdon and Handsacre to the west, and Stotfold or Statfold to the east.

However there are a small number of other sites that may have connections with pagan worship in the area. The first is the last of the five prebends just mentioned. Stotfold (Horowitz, 2005, p510) carried the meaning of (horse or oxen) stud fold. The horse itself had ritual significance in the Anglo-Saxon period, but it is the possible association with oxen that is clearly of significance to the current discussion. Also, just to the south of Freeford we find Ingle Hill (Horowitz, 2005, p336). Horowicz is not certain on the derivation of this, offering a rather tenuous connection with the Inge family who were apparently in the Lichfield area in the 18^thcentury. The root however is exactly the same as Ingham in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk (all regions of Anglian migration), which does seem to be connected to the deity Ing (Mill, 1991). We thus have the names Weeford, Freeford, Stotfold, and Ingle Hill all in close proximity, and whilst the derivations of all but the first are arguable, their geographical coincidence strongly suggests a connection with pagan ritual. All these places are also part of a large land unit that was eventually to become the Domesday manor of Lichfield, and then the large parish of St Michael’s Church on Greenville (James, 1998). Basset (1992) argues that this was actually a pre-Augustinian British Diocese, and whilst this may be possible, it may be simply a land unit that arose for different reasons. Finally, there is the possibility that one of the members of the Domesday Lichfield land unit, Tymmore (whose meaning has not been addressed by place name scholars) could refer to the god Tyr, the moor in question perhaps being Whittington Heath to the east of Lichfield (Morris, 1976). Place names thus suggest an unusual level of pagan activity or memory in the Lichfield area in the period from which the settlement names derive

Memorial plaque to Michael Lowe of Tymore in St Michael’s church, Lichfield

Within Lichfield, there are three parish churches and the cathedral. Bede tells us that the latter was originally dedicated to St Peter and St Mary (Kettle andJohnson, 1970), but at least by Domesday, the dedication was to St Chad and St Mary. Thus the dedication was to the “Lady” of the Christians and to the chief apostle, and latterly to the major local holy man. The three churches are dedicated to St Mary, St Chad and St Michael. The first was a medieval creation for the planned town of Bishop Roger de Clinton in the 12^thcentury. Of the latter two, the land unit evidence discussed by Basset suggests that St Michael’s is the older, and that St Chad’s parish was originally included within it (as were the parishes of St Mary’s and the Cathedral Close). In St Michael we have both the angel who threw the devil to earth from heaven, as well as the Christian psychopomp. The huge size of St Michael’s graveyard has frequently been pointed out, and whilst this size may be purely functional, it might nonetheless indicate early association of the area with the concerns of the dead (James, 1998).

Of the three prebends of Lichfield discussed above, Freeford and Stotfold have no chapels of their own and seem to have always looked to St Michael’s as the mother church. The church at Weeford is again dedicated to Mary. Away from Lichfield, there does not seem to have been an ancient church at Wednesfield, but at Wednesbury the hilltop church is dedicated to St Batholomew. Interestingly there are two other Bartholomew dedications in the vicinity – at Hints on Watling Street near Weeford to the east of Lichfield, and at Farewell to the west. Bartholomew is one of the lesser known of the disciples in biblical terms, but one of his traditions relates that he was martyred by being skinned alive. He is regarded as the patron saint of tanners, which is perhaps a tenuous connections with the ox wagon procession that is identified herein. He is also identified with Heracles, perhaps through a similarity of iconography, with Heracles holding the skin of the Nemean lion in a similar manner to Bartholomew holding his flayed skin (Crane and Lazzarotti, 2014), and through Heracles / Hercules to Balder, the dying / rising God of Norse myth, which is shown by North to be identified with Ing (North, 1997, 143).

Finally the church at Shenstone to the south of Lichfield, is dedicated to St John the Baptist, whose feast day is on midsummer eve. There is a long and proven European tradition of midsummer bonfires on hilltop sites (possibly where bones were burnt) that goes back to Roman times (Hutton, 1996), and the dedication to St John suggests that these occurred at Shenstone, and might go some way towards explaining the rather curious name (Horowitz, 2005, 488), which means “Shining Stone”. There are no obvious stones to which this could apply in the vicinity, but the name could conceivably apply to an idol illuminated by a bonfire.

Synthesis

At this point it would be easy to fall into wild speculation concerning the implications of all the above, and perhaps particularly on the route that might have been taken by an ox drawn idol bearing wagon. We resist that here and simply emphasise two major points. The first is that place name evidence strongly suggest that the region around Lichfield was the centre of a cult of Ing-Freyr, and perhaps Freyja, with some indications that the ancient wagon procession cult was at least remembered if not wholly practiced – the names of Freeford (Freyja’s ford), Ingle Hill (Ing- Hill), Weeford (Idol ford), Stotfold (Oxen or horse fold) and perhaps Shenstone (Shining Stone). This implies the early existence of both a fertility cult, with an annually dying and rising deity, and with a cult of the dead. The second point is that this cult seems to have been supressed in exactly the way that Pope Gregory recommended to St Augustine – to use and hallow the pagan shrines for Christian worship. The three pagan sites of Weeford, Freeford (which includes Ingle Hill) and Stotfold were eventually to become prebends of Lichfield Cathedral; the worship of the Lord Ing-Freyr and the Lady Freyja was replaced by the worship of Christ as mediated through the chief apostle Peter and the local holy man Chad, and “Our Lady”, the Virgin Mary. The pagan psychopomp Freyja was replaced by the Christian version, the Archangel Michael, who from the summit of Greenhill would proclaim the Christian victory over the Lord and Lady of the Vanir. Away from Lichfield itself, the fires at Shenstone, that perhaps used to illumine the travelling idol, became dedicated to St John, and whatever occurred at Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Hints and Farewell was neutered using the ambiguous name of Woden / Odin, and the rather dramatically martyred St Bartholomew. But the suppression was not wholly complete. Some of the names in the vicinity were too deeply ingrained in the local consciousness to be eliminated completely, and the association of Lichfield with both the cult of the dead and with fertility was to endure, through the long history of the graveyard at St Michaels, and through the Greenhill Bower respectively. Interestingly, and perhaps amusingly, as late as the 14^thcentury the incumbents of the (once pagan) prebends of Freeford, Weeford and Stotfold still appointed chaplains to the three (Christian) city churches of St Mary, St Chad and St Michael (Greenslade, 1990).

In the above no attempt has been made to give chronological depth to the above suggestions and give suggested dates other than the firm one of 669 for the beginning of Chad’s episcopate. Place names and church dedications simply do not allow a precise chronology of the interaction between pagan and Christian worship to be developed. So we have simply set out the evidence that suggests that, in the pre-conversion period, there was a significant and identifiable pagan activity in the Lichfield area, that had both fertility and mortuary aspects, and was ultimately supressed, albeit far from effectively, by the Christian church.

Earlier possibilities

We have concentrated above on the interface between Anglian pagan worship and Christian worship, potentially in the sixth and seventh centuries. However there’re a number of indications that the Lichfield area might have cultic past that goes back further than that. James (1999), based on the work of Morris (1989), argues that the church dedication to St Michael on Greenhill could have displaced an earlier cult of Mercury, who has many of the same attributes, including that of psychopomp. In turn this could be related to the cult of the Celtic / British deity Lugos, who again had the same attributes. Also, as noted above, Bassett (1992) argued that St Michael’s could have been the centre of a late Roman ecclesiastical diocese. How the various competing cultic sites of the Roman / British and Anglo-Saxon periods might have related to each other is not at all clear.

Going back still further, it is quite possible that Lichfield itself is part of a major solar alignment, with the Cathedral, St Chad’s Well, and the Bronze age site at Catholme all being on a midwinter sunset / midsummer sunrise alignment. The cultic implications of this are the subject of speculation is a related blog post.

References

Basset S (1992) “Church and diocese in the West Midlands; the transition from British to Anglo-Saxon control”, in Pastoral Care before the Parish, ed. J. Blair and R. Sharpe (Leicester University Press), pp13–40.

Colrave B (ed) (1927) “The Life of Bishop Wilfred by Eddius Stephanus”

Greenslade M W (1990) “Lichfield: Churches”, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, pp. 134-155 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp134-155

Crane T F, Lazzarotti M (2014), Ed. Tales From Italy: When Christianity Met Italy, M&J ISBN 9791195174942 p5

Horowitz D (2005) “The Place Names of Staffordshire”, published by D Horovitz, Berwood

Hutton R (1996) “The Stations of the Sun – a History of the Ritual Year in Britain”, Oxford University Press, 311-321

James T (1998) “The development of the parish of St Michael-on-Greenhll over 1500 years”, St Michael’s Papers; number 1, St. Michael’s PCC

James T (1999) “St Michael’s dedication, associations and imagery”, St Michael’s Papers; number 2, St. Michael’s PCC

Kettle A J, Johnson D A (1970) “A History of Lichfield Cathedral”, Victoria County History of Staffordshire, Volume III

Mill AD (1991) “Dictionary of English Place Names”, Oxford University Press, p187

Morris J (1976) Staffordshire Domesday, Phillimore, Chester

Morris R (1989) “Churches in the Landscape”, pp 54-55, Phoenix Giant

North R (1997) “Heathen Gods in Old English Literature”, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 22, Cambridge University Press

Oakham roofs

Introduction

This post concerns roofs¹ – specifically those on the High Street of Oakham in Rutland. I find the upper floors of urban streets quite fascinating in their form and variety. When walking through towns however, one rarely looks upwards – indeed most of the time you would risk colliding with other pedestrians or walking into the road if you did. It is the shop fronts and their contents on the lower floors that command attention of course. But above them, the buildings themselves are sometimes stylish, sometimes idiosyncratic, sometimes merely odd – and usually worth a look. In what follows I show two galleries of photographs, both looking at the upper floors of buildings on the north side of Oakham High Street, taken from the pavement on the south side. The first gallery is a series of photographs from east to west (the junction with Burley Street and the Market area to the Wetherspoons pub), and the second from west to east. I am not really in a position to comment on the buildings in architectural terms, so the photos are simply presented for the reader’s interest and enjoyment.

¹ I am fairly sure that when I was at school I was told that this was spelt “rooves”, but Google informs me that this is an archaic word, no longer used in practice. I fear I am thus labelled as archaic, which is probably true.

From east to west

From west to east

All the photos were taken by me, but I am happy for them to be used by others, with a proper acknowledgement.

St. Michael’s Churchyard, Lichfield through the year

A picture blog featuring the photographs of Maureen Brand – evocative pictures of the churchyard of St Michael in Lichfield through the changing seasons.

Nore information on the church and churchyard can be found using the buttons below.

St. Michael’s church history

St. Michael’s churchyard

Ghost signs

A new interest of mine – the old, faded painted signs on buildings whose function has changed. There are just a few photos for now, and I will add more as I come across them. For those interested there is a much greater selection at this Historic England site.

And from November 2024, the sign in Mill St, Oakham has been repainted or perhaps resurrected or re-embodied?

A walk around Oakham

The walk

This is a picture blog, that simply gives pictures of a walk around Oakham. This is not a walk that takes in the traditional historical highlights, although some of those are included, but is rather one in which I show the things that have caught my eye, mainly on my wonderings about the town with the dog. So it is a little idiosyncratic, but I hope will be of interest to some. Except where otherwise indicated, the pictures were all taken by me, and I am happy for them to be used by others, properly credited of course.

The map

The map below shows the approximate locations from which the photographs (A to R) were taken, superimposed on an up to date map from Open Street Map.

The pictures

The first picture is of the listed Midland Railway bridge and level crossing (Picture A) a source of endless frustration to drivers, and, as the location of the meeting of five roads, a horribly hazardous place for pedestrians. There must be a better way of doing traffic management here. Picture B is the Midland Railway Signal Box, which was the inspiration for the Hornby Railway model. Turning along Northgate, there are three pictures of rose bushes (Pictures C to E), some cultivated, some not. but in early summer their cumulative effect is striking. Picture F is of a house a little further along Northgate, with a wonderful display of creepers and climbing foliage.

The next six photos all figure All Saints Church in one way or another. Picture G is a photo taken from Northgate on a misty evening where all that can be seen of the tower is a small floodlight area. The thatched cottages on Northgate can be seen in the foreground. Picture H shows the spire of the church from the garden of the Wheatsheaf pub opposite on a pleasant summer afternoon. Picture I (from here) shows the Green Man stone capital within the church – one of a series of wonderful capital carvings I have blogged about elsewhere. Picture J shows a possible Anglo-Saxon Saxon cross built into the south porch of the church. The identification is very speculative, but the cross is very similar to other, demonstratively, Anglo-Saxon examples. Pictures K and L shows t wo views of the Castle Great Hall, Old School and Church, from Cutts Close and the Castle grounds. I have argued elsewhere that these might be an indication of an early church group in the area. Click on the pictures to see the full extent of the photographs.

Pictures M and N show two nice examples of ghost signs from Catmose Street and Mill Street – faded, painted signs indicating a former usages. Picture O shows the Old Drill Hall on Penn Street which is impressive despite looking as if it could do with a bit of TLC. Picture P, also on Penn Street shows row of houses with a pleasing skyline. South Street Railway Bridge (Picture Q) is hardly beautiful, but very functional ,offering a way over the railway for pedestrians old and young, cyclists, mobility scooters, prams, shopping trolleys etc. For obvious reasons it is know in my household as the “slow bridge”. Finally Picture R (from here) shows the chapel of St John and St Anne – a medieval foundation serving the sheltered housing around it. It is the only place I know where the minister presiding at communion can watch, through the west window, the tops of passenger and freight trains passing within a few yards of the outer wall.#

Further posts on aspects of Oakham can be found using the button below.

Midland History Blog Posts

A possible Anglo-Saxon church group at Oakham in Rutland

Amended on 8th May 2024 to include further details of Our Lady’s Well.

In her book describing the architecture and liturgy of the Anglo-Saxon church in England (1), Gittos describes, in some detail, the existence of what she calls “church groups”. By this she means the practice of constructing a number of churches close to each other in some sort of relationship, which can be demonstrated archaeologically at a number of sites around England, primarily from the early Anglo-Saxon period. These usually take the form of two or more churches aligned on one axis (usually approximately east / west), sometimes with other churches on a parallel axis a few hundred metres away. The alignments can also include crosses or other monuments. Typical examples can be found at St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, with the linear group of St Peter and St Paul, St Mary and St Pancras and the non-linear groups at Hexham and Ripon. These are of course from a monastic context. Gittos hypothesizes that these churches were used for different aspects of the liturgy, with processions between them. A similar linear arrangement can be shown to have existed at the secular Yeavering site.

Figure 1. All Saints Oakham (from the south)

Readers of my blogs will know that I recently moved to Oakham in Rutland and have become a member of the parish church of All Saints (Figure 1). In looking at the layout of the church and its environs, it seems to me that there are some topographical hints (and I would put it no stronger than that), that this was the site of an Anglo-Saxon church group. The oldest part of the current church, the south porch, visible at the left of the photograph of figure 1, dates from around 1190, but the church almost certainly stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon predecessor (2). In the wall of the south porch, there is what was thought to be a consecration cross, but it is visually very similar to the one shown in Gittos (p 239) from Earls Barton in Northamptonshire, that is demonstrably Anglo-Saxon (Figure 2). If the Oakham cross is Anglo-Saxon, it was presumably taken from the Anglo-Saxon church in the rebuilding of the late 12th century.

Figure 2. The crosses at Earls Barton (left) and All Saints Oakham (right)

All Saints now consists of a nave, transepts and chancel, with side chapels to either side of the chancel – dedicated to the Holy Trinity to the north, and to the Virgin Mary to the south. The original Norman church just consisted of the nave with the current transepts, the latter acting as side chapels (the communion niches, which would have been next to the altars, can still be seen). The earlier Anglo-Saxon church was probably of similar shape and dimensions.

The first hint that the church might once have been part of a group arises from the fact that it lies within a substantial enclosure that now contains the Hall, inner bailey and outer bailey of Oakham Castle, as well as the church and church yard. This can be seen in Figure 3. The interesting fact is that the Great Hall of the Castle, regarded as possibly the best surviving example of Norman Domestic Architecture (Figure 4) lies fairly precisely on the same axis as the church, and eighteenth century maps show a postern gate in the wall on the alignment, offering access between the Great Hall and the church.. There seems to be no reason for these features, other than whatever was on the site before the hall was built was in some way associated with the church. Interestingly, early sources indicate that there was a chapel within the Great Hall (3) to which specific individuals held right of appointment, which suggests that it was more than simply a domestic chapel. One can thus conjecture that there was a church / chapel on this site before the castle was built in 1190.

Figure 3. The church and castle enclosure (from 1900 Ordnance Survey Map)

Figure 4. The Great Hall of the Castle from the south

The second indication that there was a church group comes from extending this alignment to the west. This takes it through the medieval site of Northgate, shown in Speed (4) as a large open area with a small drawing of a cross on a plinth (Figure 6). Whilst the cross is somewhat south of the strict alignment (although due west of All Saints), its presence is again suggestive. Note that alignment of the church and the castle shown on the map is not accurate and does not represent the situation on the ground. The area around Northgate was bisected by the building of the Midland Railway in the 1840s and, if the Speed map is accurate, the location of the cross was at the position of the current signal box. This is itself a grade II listed building and the prototype for model railway signal box construction kits (Figure 6). Whether or not this is enough to make up for the loss of the cross must be left for the reader to decide.

Figure 5. The Speed map of Oakham (the cross can be see on the left of the picture)

Figure 6. Oakham signal box at the site of the Northgate Cross

The third hint is the building to the north of the church, but on a roughly parallel axis that can also be seen in Figure 3. This is the original Oakham Grammar School, dating from just after the Reformation. It is built on the site of two former Guild chapels – one dedicated to St Mary, and one to St Michael the Archangel (3). The former included a toft, possibly the Guild Hall, and the latter at least was quite substantial, having dimensions of 60 feet by 30 feet. (3). Their topographical relationship to All Saints echoes that at Hexham and Ripon, referred to above. Perhaps here we have survivors of other ancient chapels that were part of the overall church group. Figure 7 shows a modern (i.e. May 2024) photograph of the castle (on the left), the old school (in the centre) and the church of All Saints (on the right) from the north side of Cutts Close Park (once the outer bailey of the castle). Visually they form quite a striking arrangement.

It also seems that there were another two pre-Reformation guilds at All Saints – one dedicated to All Saints itself, and presumably centred on the high altar, and one to the Holy Trinity, presumably centred on the chapel of that name within the church itself. How the Guild chapel of St Mary relates to the chapel with the same dedication in the church itself is not clear.

Figure 7. The castle, old school and church

Reference (3) also indicates that there were pre-Reformation processions to a well dedicated to St Mary a “quarter of a mile to the north of the church”, and to an image of St. Michael, possibly within the chapel of that name – another of the characteristics of church groups identified by Gittos. The well still exists. It is shown on the 1880 and subsequent Ordnance Survey maps as “Our Lady’s Well”, actually almost half a mile north east of the church (Figure 8) with a straight path across Cutts Close and the Burley Road forming a direct and prominent link between the church and the well. It is not currently accessible being in an overgrown area managed for wildlife. Our Lady’s Well and All Saints church are on quite an accurate midwinter sunset / midsummer sunrise alignment. Whether or not this was intentional I will leave for others to judge. If it was then it suggests some sort of ritual activity at the site that predates the Anglo-Saxon era.

Figure 8. Our Lady’s Well and All Saints Church (from an 1880s OS map – the church is in the bottom left and the well in the top right).

At this point it is also worth noting that there is another surviving chapel in Oakham – that of the medieval Alms Houses of St. John and St Anne. This is however, not on the same alignment as the cross, church and castle and is some distance to the south west, and not likely to be part of any group. Neither is it in any sort of solar alignment with All Saints, being too far north to lie on the All Saints / Lady Well alignment. But the dedication is rather odd and perhaps hints at an earlier history.

So we can conjecture that we have here the surviving topography of a church group, with one church on the site of the current church in a linear alignment with one on the site of the Castle Great Hall and a cross at Northgate, and two on the Old School site where the guild chapels once stood. A church or chapel on the site of the current chancel of the church of All Saints is also a possibility. In making this suggestion we are of course making major assumptions that all the current buildings stand on the site of Anglo-Saxon originals, for which the evidence, such as it is, is very weak. There is also no evidence that there was ever monastic activity at Oakham, which seems to have been the context of many early church groups. So the suggestion that we have here the remains of a church group, attractive as it is, must only be regarded as very speculative.

References

Gittos H (2015) Liturgy, Architecture, and Sacred Places in Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press, 978-0198737056
Aston N (2003) All Saints’ Oakham. A guide and history. Friends of All Saints, Multum in Parvo Press.
Victoria county History (1935) A History of the County of Rutland: Volume 2, Oakham. From British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/rutland/vol2/pp5-27#h3-s7
Speed J (1611) Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Modern version by Nigel Nicolson (1998) The counties of Medieval Britain. A Tudor atlas by John Speed. Pavilion Books Ltd.

The timeline of the Crooked House Affair (from January 2024)

Updated February 7th 2025

This is the second of two blogs that set out a timeline of the destruction by fire and subsequent demolition of the Crooked House in Himley in early August 2023, through links to local and national press reports. It covers the period from January 2024 onwards. Earlier news items can be found in the first blog here.

In the days after the fire, there were many, very similar, press reports and thus there has been a need to be selective. In what follows, I thus use three main sources.

BBC local and national news websites, which was, and continues to be, the most comprehensive source.
The Express and Star website, which gives a local perspective. Note that many of the articles that are linked require free registration to be read.
The Guardian website – although many national newspapers reported the story in early August, the Guardian’s was probably the most comprehensive and, through its columnists, the most reflective.

I also include articles from other sources where they complement the above, including a few from overseas to demonstrate the reach of the story. I will update this list at intervals over the coming months.

In addition to the news links, there are two Facebook pages that contain news and (often robust) comments covering a range of opinion.

SAVE THE CROOKED HOUSE (LET’S GET IT RE-BUILT)

*Rebuild The Crooked House*

January 2024

10/1/2024 BBC Crooked House Pub: Company director steps down

10/1/2024 Express and Star Director of company that owned famous wonky pub The Crooked House resigns from post

11/1/2024 Daily Mail Glamorous owner of Britain’s ‘wonkiest’ pub The Crooked House who bought the boozer days before it was destroyed in blaze steps down as company boss – as detectives probe ‘arson’

February 2024

3/2/2024 Express and Star The Crooked House: Where things stand six months since destruction of Britain’s wonkiest pub

3/2/2024 Express and Star Poignant six month anniversary of Crooked House fire held by campaigners compiling memories of destroyed pub | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)

6/2/2024 ITV Future of fire-ravaged Crooked House pub remains unclear six months on

13/2/2024 Express and Star Dudley dad rebuilds The Crooked House out of LEGO – and it includes the ‘missing’ antique grandfather clock