Wraysbury meadows footpath.

I didn't want to write about this over the New Year (I have enough troubles already without adding any more) but I got a nasty shock on my New Year's walk.

 

Wraysbury parish church has been there over a thousand years in this form and longer before that.

Even before then this was a sacred site for the ancient Britons.

For all that time there has been a footpath along the meadows.

After the floods in 2014 I found a bottle from the 1930's, thrown away along the walk by someone having a summer stroll through the meadows and washed up by the flood.

Then, very recently, someone has erected this fence - worthy only of a prison yard or a detention centre;

 

 



Of course it's 'his' land - even though his tenure will only be one paltry little lifetime amongst the endless millennia of time.

But the 'landowner's' action has spoilt an ancient view for everyone and for all time.

And where someone builds a fence it won't be long before he tries to get permission to build on the ancient meadows.

Of course, the rest of us have little chance to do anything about this ugly monstrosity because someone 'owns' it. 

As you can see, the path is now a mud bath because we have such little space to walk on.

It does give me another chance to publish the lyrics of 'The World turned upside down' written by Leon Rosselson but made famous in the version sung by Billy Bragg.

In 1649 to St. George's Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people's will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs

 

 

We come in peace they said
To dig and sow

We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all

 

The sin of property
We do disdainNo man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Though everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command

 

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich
While poor folk starve

 

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free men
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

 

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

 

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down

Well, it always gets me going!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The Wraysbury Magna Carta Flower festival.

 

 

 

 Here's St. Andrew's church in Wraysbury and, no, I haven't suddenly got religion. We're here partly because there you don't get too many chances to see inside these days - it's 11th century.

 

The bells were ringing out for us in a great peal on a gloriously sunny day.

 

It was perfect.

 

But most of all the church is the villiage centre piece for Wraysbury's Magna Carta celebrations. In 1215, the Magna Carta was signed in Wraysbury between 25 barons and the king.

 

Effectively it was a peace treaty between two opposing armies camped across the river in Runnymede.

 

 We went in to see 'The Wraysbury Magna Carta Flower Festival' and it was very impressive, not least because all the skills on display wouldn't have been too out of place back in 1215.

 

So, the path through the churchyard was lined with flower pots made by local schoolchildren and playgroups.

 

Inside, the church was transformed with flower arrangements;

 

 

 

The shield made of yellow and red flowers in chevrons is the coat of arms of Robert de Montfitchet, one of the 25 barons and also (before the king took away his lands) the owner of Runnymede, Ankerwycke and Wraysbury.

 

The shields of all the barons were up on the walls;

And a crown for the king (boo!);

And there was even a display sent by a school in Florida;

It's a really nice thing to do although they have got a bit carried away. Robert de Montfitchet not only owned all the lands around here but also the serfs as well; every man women and child.

That meant that he had the right to buy and sell them, to conscript them as soldiers. In short he held their lives in his hands.

None of them could own property or take advantage of the 'rights' set out in the Magna Carta - those were rights for Barons. It took a thousand years of battles before the likes of us won the few rights and freedoms we now have.

Anyway, a couple of years ago about twenty ladies in the village got together and started work on 'The Wraysbury Wall Hanging' to commemorate The Magna Carta; 

It's something really impressive and while the beautiful flowers will wilt, I rather like to think this will be around in another hundred years or even more.

And if you don't believe me how about this banner from 1969;

 

 

Made by the evening Women's Institute (my mum used to go to the afternoon W.I. back then) it's lasted 47 years, so a hundred?

 

Easy.

 

 

 

Embroidery, scenes, flower arrangements - everything in that church would have had it's place there 800 years ago when the original celebrations wouldn't have been that different.

 

It was very impressive.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com