TC Lethbridge | The Sons of TC-Lethbridge

Notes From The Wild Wood

22nd Sep 2009

The latest posting in TEKH's Journal is Wild Wood an essay about the great forest that once covered much of Britain. The essay was inspired by a recent visit to Sherwood Forest.

Click on the cover for an enlarged view.

Echoes of the Goddess - a book I have collaborated on with my friend Simon Brighton is scheduled for publication by Ian Allen Ltd on 21 January 2010.

The cover picture was taken in the Watts Memorial Chapel, Compton, Surrey. Mary Seton Watts (nee Mary Seton Fraser Tytler) designed the chapel which has affiliations to the goddess. The chapel incorporates a wonderful fusion of art nouveau, Celtic, Romanesque and Egyptian influences. The paintings of her husband G.F. Watts - who also designed the Tennyson statue beside Lincoln Cathedral - can be viewed at the Watts Gallery by the chapel.

In pre-Christian Britain the Great Goddess was worshipped either as an equal to the Gods or as an individual deity. From the Palaeolithic 'Earth Mother' to the Celtic goddesses of Boadicea and the Brigantes, this land once revered the divine feminine. Investigations into the history of the Great Goddess presents many questions: what happened to the goddess under the patriarchal Judeo-Christian tradition; how was it that the old earth-revering religions became synonymous with evil and the sky became heaven and the earth became Hell as Christianity took hold; why are so many Christian churches built on pre-Christian sacred sites; and, why do numerous Christian churches contain pagan imagery. Over the past five years Simon Brighton and Terry Welbourn set out to discover what happened to the Goddess after she was evicted from her elevated position. Travelling throughout Britain, they have uncovered traces of the divine feminine: from holy wells and shrines, lost underground chambers to folklore, legends and fairy tales. Between them they have researched and photographed hundreds of sites. They present a case that suggests that even after centuries of marginalisation, the goddess has remained with us - she has just found new ways of asserting herself. This unique book provides a rare glimpse through the sands of time to an era before modernisation and secularisation took hold, a time when pagan ritual and nature ruled the land. The authors take us on a journey to uncover the secret clues hidden beneath our feet, as they expose the dualism of Christianity and paganism amongst many fascinating sites, ruins, churches and the very landscape itself. Perfect for anyone with an interest in British history and theology, as well as for tourists and locals who wish to uncover the real truth behind these seemingly innocuous sights.

'A "Splendid Idiosyncrasy": Prehistory at Cambridge 1915-50' written by Pamela Jane Smith - with a foreword by Colin Renfrew - has recently been published by British Archaeological Reports (BAR) British Series 485: 2009 and distributed by Archaeopress. The study may be of interest to all those wishing to understand the academic environment that T.C. Lethbridge entered into as an undergraduate at Cambridge University in 1919. This, and all other BAR titles, are available from Hadrian Books Ltd. 122 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7BP England.

Click on the cover for an enlarged view.

The cover photo was taken at Professor John Hutton\'s retirement party with members of the Cambridge Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology dressed in museum artefacts, 1950. The picture was presented to the author by the Tom Lethbridge\'s wife - the late Mina Lethbridge.

Terry Welbourn - Grantham - September 2009.