Glenmore

The following letter published in Hallmark in 1972 was written by Frances E Wallace of 'Glenmore' Darvills Hill :-

Dear sir,

I thought that some of your readers might be interested in a fragment of carved stone which I found in our garden at Darvills Hill, and indeed in some of the history of our district as given to me by an archaeologist. His report reads as follows :-

"I have been looking into the place name, folk lore and mythical connections with the carved stone found at Darvills Hill.

Firstly this is the main entrance to the vast rectangular earthworks about Great Hampden. The design of the stone looks as if it of Dark Age or early medieval origin and at that time the three Buckinghamshire Chiltern Hundreds of Desborough, Burnham and Stoke were still in fact, if not officially, ruled by the three families of the Hampdens, Penns and Bulstrodes, descendants of the British Chiefs.

Darvilles Hill is surrounded by Grims Ditches. Darville derives from the Cornish Deverel, meaning to build or raise up. The Hill was in fact raised up to form the defences called Grims Dykes, which derive from Grym Deges, i.e. "the enclosure of power". Nearby is Turnip-end, derived from Yh Dynow-Pen, i.e. "within the chief earthworks (or hill fort)", which it is.

On the stone the crosses are of the Celtic type, of which pre Christian examples have been found in Cornwall and elsewhere. The little figure is most interesting, as this is in the form of the Lamda (Greek L shaped) form of the Ansate cross, which originated in the Middle East as "the breath of life" of the great goddess.

In the Celtic Ogam Calendar Alphabet 'T' is the Holly, associated with Christmas and the male saviour and 'L' with the Rowan, protection from evil and symbol of the month that covers Candlemas 2nd February the feast of St. Bride, the pagan goddess Briget, mother of the pagan Lord born in a manger. She was locally known as Anne or Anner, as her symbol was a red (i.e. nubicle) heifer (Anner in Welsh). She had a very ancient shrine at Oxford, where there is still a St. Brides Well and they still use her red heifer, now an ox, in the city's arms.

The cross is the symbol of Bride or Briget, the goddess of Spring and increase, four is the Pythagorean number of increase. The fragment could therefore be pagan not Christian and even pre Roman, though it is probably Dark Age, half Christian, half pagan."

Note The position of the figure is similar to that of the figures on Hitcham Church files, reputed 1100-1200

Yours sincerely Frances E. Wallace.