Harold's Times - April 2009

Harold’s Times Two new Vice Chairmen Two Vice Chairmen of the King Harold Day Society have been appointed. They are Isabelle Perrichon and Dave Giles, both of whom have been involved since the beginning. Dave is Site Manager and Isabelle handles design and printing and is our liaison with Bayeux.

Art Competition Winners Results of the 2008 KHD Schools’ Art Competition:Key Stage 1 Interpretation of theme - Leverton Infant & Nursery School Involvement of students - Hillhouse School Key Stage 2 Interpretation of theme - Upshire School Involvement of students - Hillhouse School ______________________________

Tidings from Edith Swan-Neck

Rumour has it that Garth the Guilty will once again be put in the stocks on King Harold Day, after an absence for the last couple of years when he has been keeping the king’s laws. So have your wet sponges ready. This time, though, Garth is determined to have a change of clothes with him. I hear tidings that the Grinnigogs and Sweete Harmonie will be with us again at King Harold Day 2009. So their lovely music will again echo through the Gardens. Isabelle has long wanted us to have a Norman re-enactment group, and this year we have found one. The Household will set up their camp, and will take part in combat in the Arena. Chingford Morris Men will be at King Harold Day for the first time, and will perform their Mummers’ Play, one of the few entertainments we had in the 11th century.

King Harold Day 2009 will be on Saturday 17th October 10.00am to 4.00pm in the Abbey Gardens, Waltham Abbey.

Last year’s KHD huge success “Better than ever” - that was the comment that appeared in the newspapers and was on everyone’s lips after KHD 2008. For the fifth year the weather was kind to us, the sun shone, and there was a really happy atmosphere as over 5,000 people enjoyed a great day out. The attractions included a living history group, the Company of Saint Joseph; two bowmen from Feudal Archers; PL Falconry’s eagles, hawks and owls; Epping Archers with long queues all day to take part in have-ago archery; Sweete Harmonie, a group of female medieval singers; and The Grinnigogs, four medieval musicians. The English Companions were there to tell people about Anglo Saxon life. There were lots of new stalls in the Craft Fair. There were bees in an observation hive from Pebadale Apiaries, and small animals from Lee Valley Park Farms. Annette Banks displayed her embroidery of the Bayeux Tapestry, and John Sothcott his replica musical instruments. There were exhibitions from Epping Forest District Museum, Waltham Abbey Historical Society and the Ray Sears Photographic Collection. There were many hands-on activities for children, including a painting and drawing competition run by Lee Valley Regional Park’s education team. As in previous years, the Abbey Church tower was open for visits; the art on a 1066 theme produced by local schools was on display in the Lady Chapel; and Barbara Utting was demonstrating bread making. An outstanding concert, part of the Church’s Music for Lunch series, saw the Byron Consort from Harrow School perform a selection of music by Thomas Tallis, Director of Music at Waltham Abbey from 1538 to 1540. For the first time, there was a procession of all the costumed performers and traders through the Abbey Gardens to the Harold Memorial Stone, where the usual ceremony of placing flowers on the stone took place. White Roses of York were laid on behalf of Stamford Bridge, and Steve Pollington gave a speech in Old English. The guard of honour was provided by Waltham Cross Detachment, Army Cadet Force. The King Harold Day Society is grateful to all who took part, helped in any way, or gave financial donations, particularly the great support from Lee Valley Regional Park and Waltham Abbey Town Council.

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WAHS ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG 2008 In the summer of 2008 Waltham Abbey Historical Society started an archaeological dig in the Abbey Gardens to try to find more evidence of the Great Abbey’s infirmary and its chapel. Though it’s hard to believe, looking back at our wet, chilly summer, the diggers were stopped in their tracks because it was just too hot. They started again in the autumn, and managed to have the dig open on KHD so they could show visitors their findings, and tell them all about the dig. It certainly proved one of the highlights of the day. The dig, led by Peter Huggins, took place in the Abbey Mead, to the north of the church by the Ancestor statue. The Abbey Mead is one of the least explored parts of the Abbey Gardens, and WAHS wanted to find out how it fitted into the overall monastic site. It was known that the infirmary was located there, and a chapel had been found next to it. The infirmary was first excavated in 1972, and then again in 1978 and 2003, as an emergency measure, when workmen digging trenches hit stonework. These two digs uncovered the remains of a timber-framed infirmary, running north to south, with a central aisle and side aisles, and a roof supported by two rows of pillars, each with its own stone foundation. The aisles and part of the nave were found to be divided up to form small rooms, each with its own fireplace and space for a bed. The 1978 dig just to the south of the infirmary discovered an apsidal-ended chapel. It was known from records that it was dedicated in 1188, which puts the infirmary in the initial phase of the abbey’s construction. One of the aims of the 2008 dig was to find out if the infirmary connected directly with its chapel, as is normal at other monastic sites. In order for them to connect, the infirmary would need to be one bay longer than was thought, and the chapel would need a northern aisle next to its central area. But these latest investigations have shown that the infirmary and chapel did not connect directly. The infirmary does end one bay shorter, and a chapel northern aisle has not been found. Peter says, though, that a “connecting compartment” was found inside the northern element of the chapel, which would have linked the chapel to the infirmary. Objects found during the dig included a penny dated 1699, part of a decorated monastic floor tile (pictured), and a chevronned voussoir, or part of an arch from one of the Abbey’s arcades that were destroyed at the Dissolution. The design shows that these arches would have matched those we see today in the Abbey Church. The picture shows the inverted V carved into the face of the stone, which would be part of the arch’s distinctive zig-zag decoration. (pictured) It was also found that the south-east corner of the infirmary had been rebuilt after having been damaged by fire. The original ground wall of mortared stone and chalk had been re-built using the large “Waltham Great Bricks”, which can be seen in many places in the Abbey Garden walls. These bricks are only a little younger than Coggeshall bricks, which they strongly resemble in dimension, and which are widely believed to be the earliest post-Roman bricks made in this country. It is recorded in old documents that the infirmary was hit by lightning. WAHS members wonder whether that could have caused the fire. Peter Huggins goes on to say quite a lot remains to be done. The west end of the chapel needs to be found and the form of the east end of the new 'northern element' of the chapel needs to be determined. Read about the dig in more detail on the Historical Society’s website http://www.walthamabbeyhistoricalsociety.org.uk/

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Pictures this page ©Lawrence Greenall Picture front page ©Jonathan Foster

Exciting new development for King Harold Day When the Society was invited to attend the Bayeux festival last year, our two 23 Wa5RE. Tel: 01375Perrichon 374786 and representatives, Isabelle Tony O’Connor, were very impressed with its Book Fair. We decided a Book Fair would add to King Harold Day, and we are to start in a small way this year. We are negotiating with several authors who we hope will attend, and are delighted to confirm that Paul Doherty has accepted. Paul has written a number of books on historical subjects, many of them medieval, both fiction and non-fiction. Waltham Abbey Library is also interested in taking part. So come and enjoy the Book Fair on 17th October, and buy one of Paul’s exciting mysteries.

Statue of Harold and Edith Swanneck at St Leonards-on-Sea Thanks to new member, Sherifa Rashidally, (see below), we have learnt of a statue of King Harold and Edith Swan-neck located on the seafront at St Leonards-on-Sea. Our Treasurer, Paul Fury, got searching on the internet and found a website called Public Sculptures of Sussex http://www.publicsculpturesofsussex.co.uk/object?id=43 which gives quite a lot of information about the statue.

Paul Doherty author of medieval mysteries will give a lecture about the era of King Harold on Saturday 10th October at 7.30pm in the Abbey Church Centre, Waltham Abbey Gardens. Further details soon, but book the date in your diary now.

Join the Friends of King Harold Day Show your support for Waltham Abbey’s medieval festival by becoming a Friend of King Harold Day. The subscription is £10 per annum, which also gives you free entry to King Harold Day, and we will keep you informed of what the Society is arranging. King Harold Day is losing two good friends this year. At the end of February, Eric Wilton left LVRPA for a new job in Durham. Eric, Senior Ranger, Lee Valley Park South, had worked with KHD since the second year. In June, Richard James, Town Clerk of Waltham Abbey, is to retire. Richard has been with us right from the start. We thank both of them for the great help they have always given us, and wish them well for the future.

Sadly, as you will see from this picture, the statue has seen better days. Its seafront position has exposed it to salt, sand and bad weather, and it is beginning to crumble. Still worth a visit if you’re in that part of the world, though.

Friends’ member sends us Harold poem. Sherifa Rashidally, a new member of the Friends of King Harold Day, has sent us a poem she wrote last year about the last Saxon King. “For where you lie beneath the heavens Upon these pastures green Hath time no mercy to stop for just a while And show us where you have been. For near a thousand years Where you have slept beneath the mossy ground And those from near and far have searched And yet your tomb has not been found. O was it taken from the briny shore And taken to a hallowed spot Or was it left to look across the Sussex shore To perish in the centuries past and for the sea to claim and rot. And thou Harold from thy throne that you were torn To battle on that fateful day When Norman lords did fell you down Such a cruel and wasted price you had to pay. Yet on this day upon your birth We ponder yet in silence to your name And let our thoughts go yonder to an age gone by When thou Harold to the English throne thou came.”

King Harold Day, Waltham Abbey’s Medieval Festival commemorating3 Harold II, The last Saxon King of England, who was killed at the Battle of