Salford: Death Monuments - 10 September 2002

Salford: Death Monuments
10 September 2002

Location	Salford, Oxfordshire, OS Explorer, 191 (west). I walked from Salford through Little Rollright to the Whispering Knights part of the Rollright Ancient Monument. Soon after the monument I turned right and took a more easterly route back to Salford. When I got back to the car, there was still some daylight left, so I drove over to the King's Stone part of the Rollright complex. While I hadn't been in Salford before, I've been to the Rollright monument twice before. Once in February 2000 and once in January 2001. You can read more about the Rollrights and their history at the Rollright Trust site.

Weather	Sunny with a distinct autumn scent in the air.

Click on the images to see larger versions.


	Let's start with something colourful, a dahlia. Dahlias have been bred for the show bench for a long time and there are many different colours and flower shapes. This particular shape is called "spider". I think you can guess why.

Completely innocent and cheerful, this is a pot marigold, Calendula officinalis. With its relentlessly happy colour and ease of growing it's one of those flowers that show up in seed packets for children. The petals can be used in salads.

	Less cheerful is this disused postbox. It's part of recently renovated house that I guess contained the post office of Salford.

Here is its modern replacement. In fact it's probably no more than a year or two. If you didn't guess it from the fact that it only seems to have one coat of paint, you would have known because it says "Royal Mail" rather than "Post Office". The piece of paper that shows the collection times seems to have been made for another type of box. It's smaller than the window and has an unexplained cutout at the top right. Maybe it was just moved from the old box.

	Most of the walk was through open, arable land but there were some groves on the way from Salford to Little Rollright. This is a poplar leaf that I found on the ground. The smell from the poplars was very strong.

Looking back we see that it was a beautiful day with sun and cloudshadows racing over the ground.

	A gap in the hedge lit this patch of rapeseed flowers on fire.

In Little Rollright I walked past these farm buildings. I'm not sure what it is about this picture but the peacefulness is almost palpable.

	I made a detour to the church and took a picture of this venerable apple tree on the way. I doubt that it gives a good harvest, it's too old and overgrown and the fruit at the top would be hard to reach. But it has an aesthetic, picturesque value instead.

This is the church in Little Rollright. On the map there are 6 houses marked in Little Rollright so one can wonder why they had a church.

	I've often wondered about the little curved rabbits ears at the top of the upright on these lead windows. Are they there for decoration only?

Here is the reason why little Little Rollright has a church - the Dixon family. The inscription on the slate plaque is hard to make out but the year is 1647 and it's about Cecill Whitelocke (1607- 1647). She married Edward Dixon (1602-1655) in 1632. So it seems that the monument was erected for her. Presumably Edward then married another woman, who is the other female figure in the monument. It could also be Miss Dixon, the daughter of Edward and Cecill. But if it is, it's strange that their son, Thomas, isn't in the monument.

	I'm afraid that the inscriptions were illegible because of a damp problem in the church. Presumably this is another Dixon. Still, it's an interesting monument. I'm doing a bit of research and will update this page when/if I find out any more about our mysterious knight.

A detail from the knight's monument. While this is an obvious reference to the fact that our days are numbered, so is in fact the corresponding panel on the other side. Not just bat-winged hour glasses and skulls but also cut flowers were used to convey the fact. In a time when the common cold could quickly become life-threatening, I'm sure the sentiment was much more appreciated.

	One last look at the little church from the footpath.

Here is another monument over dead people. This is the Whispering Knights part of the Rollright ancient site. The Whispering Knights monument was originally a long barrow, much like West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire. Unfortunately the grave has been plundered, the soil has been stripped away to expose the stone structure which has then collapsed.

	The view from the Whispering Knights is beautiful in the autumn sun.

To return to Salford I had to cross a small stream on these stones. It was a bit precarious but with GoreTex boots, that's not such a big issue. The stream eventually joins the river Evenlode.

	The sun was low in the sky and casting long shadows. These are the shadows of a mixed hedge on a stubble field. It's kind of hard to tell if you don't know it. I like the abstract quality of it.

Here, on the other hand, there is no ambiguity. These are hawthorn berries, ripening in the sun.

	More berries. These are elder berries. You can tell that they're ripe when the clusters hang down like this. The berries are much heavier than the flowers. The flower clusters actually face upwards.

When I got back to the car in Salford, there was still some daylight left, so I raced over to the King's Stone, another part of the Rollright ancient monument. The King's Stone is another monument to dead people. There are a number of different bronze age burial sites within yards of it.

	Be that as it may, in the gathering dusk, the stone itself is a magical sight.

As the sun set, the fog came creeping into the valley of Long Compton.

	In this picture, facing due south, we can appreciate the hues of the sunset even better.

The last picture of the day, is the new moon, promising new beginnings after the dark.