TC Lethbridge | The Sons of TC-Lethbridge

Life at Whits’ End

15th Mar 2005

Stop Press: Check out this month’s posting in Tekh’s Journal The Quest for Molly Grime.

Mayday! Mayday!
Several months ago, I mentioned that we had been down to visit the writer Stan Gooch in his caravan home in Swansea. In my essay ‘My Friend Stan’, I reported how Stan now lives pretty much as a ‘down-and-out’ who is totally disillusioned with the world. Since our visit, it has always been our intention to re-motivate Stan to get him to write one final book. Stan claims to no longer have the desire to write, but even so, he has contrived a totally far-out title should he choose to proceed; ‘Mayday! Mayday! Fifty percent of our history is missing, or should that be fifty percent of our psychology is missing. NO… maybe its both’! If he ever does put pen to paper, it will surely be the craziest titled book ever and lets hope that any interested publisher will have the assertion to stick with the full title(1). Since our visit, it has always been our intention to put out a CD dedicated to Stan and one that will capture and put into context his ideas.

Recently, Doggen, Kevlar, Templar and myself spent a day in our Mouse House studios in Nottingham, recording backing tracks that would be suitable to accompany spoken word, in a similar vein as Phase Two of ‘A Giant’. By engaging the production skills of Computer Coalwood, our psychedelic musings have been contrived into six backing tracks that span approximately thirty minutes. The recordings we made with Stan, although interesting, weren’t entirely suitable for the spoken word medium, so we once again asked Colin Wilson if he would be interested in contributing to our recordings. Colin agreed, and last week Templar, Jon-ak and myself visited him at his home in Gorran Haven to record his input.

The task in hand is to now ‘weave’ the spoken word into the backing tracks to complete our Stan Gooch CD. This we hope to complete in the coming weeks. It is then our intention to release the CD entitled, ‘Mayday! Mayday! The Stan Gooch EP’ - The ARC Collective featuring Colin Wilson’ on our own ARC label in the summer. Hopefully, the release of our CD will compliment Stan’s appearance alongside Colin at the Nexus conference in London in November. Further good news, is that there are plans afoot to republish Stan’s ‘Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom’ in the not too distant future.

Waden
On the way down to Cornwall, I stopped off at Avebury and undertook one of my favourite walks. I first visited Avebury in the summer of 1988, but it wasn’t until nearly a decade later did I perceive Silbury from atop of Waden Hill.

Diary Note : Waden Hill, 31st May 1997
Today I undertook a walk that involved breaching Waden Hill from half-way along the West Kennett Avenue and then down into the Silbury vale. The experience was unexpected and magnificent. As I ascended the track, the grass rippled wildly around me in the wind, like a field of demented snakes. As the West Kennett Avenue departed behind me, Silbury rose in front of me, reminiscent of a scene from ‘Close Encounters’. You know, the bit when they climb the Devil’s Tower and look down onto the landing base below. As I reached the western-side of the hill, Waden broke the easterly breeze behind me and everything was still and silent. The sun was low in the sky to the west and Silbury just glowed in the golden, evening light. I tried to imagine what the valley would have looked like before the hill was built. People have always asked the question why was it built and why was it specifically situated there, but today the answer was right there in front of me. The landscape surrounding Silbury is as significant as the hill itself. The picture is multi-dimensional. The people who built it were aware of the whole scene - the bigger picture. Today, we sometimes look but we don’t always perceive. Sometimes there is no need to ask questions, when something is so right - so perfect. The hill scowled upon the men who dug into it looking for its treasure for they did not realising that the treasure they sought was right in front of their eyes.

A farm gate halfway along the existing section of the West Kennett Avenue accesses a path that leads to the summit of Waden and it is from the crest of this sensual hill that Silbury is beautifully observed. Even in the hussle and bussle of this modern age, I am always amazed at the stillness one always experiences from this vantage point. One can only imagine the intensity of this stillness back in the Neolithic. From Waden, the Avebury complex falls into place and Silbury is placed into the perspective of the wider Neolithic landscape. I would recommend that you undertake this walk unaccompanied to fully comprehend the power of the Waden Hill experience.

Removing the Block
The drive down to Cornwall is indeed a lengthy one from my home in Lincoln, but the journey was interspersed with visits to sites both new and familiar. One of the most interesting being; a discovery in the church of St. Andrew at Mortonhampstead in Devonshire - on the edge of Dartmoor. We visited the church, as part of our research into the life of Tom Lethbridge’s wife Mina, whose father Mathew Leadbitter, was rector there from August 24th 1927 until his retirement on January 30th 1956. Once inside the church, we encountered three large stone carvings, which were discovered on the underside of flagstones. One quite clearly depicted ‘a tree of life’ and the second, although described in the church notes as a pelican(2) it quite clearly isn’t.

Could it possibly be a Shelia-na-gig or possibly an Abraxi? If anyone has any thoughts on this I would be interested in hearing them. The third stone is less distinguishable and no description is provided. It is interesting that the flagstones were discovered face down, indicating that their presence was tolerated in the church rather than celebrated. This is an occurrence that appears frequently in many church relics(3) and one that is in keeping with this month’s posting in Tekh’s Journal – The Quest for Molly Grime.

With regard to our ongoing Lethbridge research, we have now received kind permission from the owner of the Lethbridge copyright Mr. Andrew David, to include Lethbridge’s un-published autobiography ‘The Ivory Tower’ within our proposed T.C Lethbridge publication ‘Removing the Block’. The task of assembling the autobiography, plus the associated essays is now almost complete and our next step will be to seek a publisher for our Lethbridge companion.

Right, that’s all for this month, must press on with next month’s essay which is a study of Lethbridge’s first journey to the arctic island of Jan Mayen. The essays is sourced from not only Lethbridge’s own accounts, but from ‘A Book of Islands’ written by his friend and companion W.S. Bristowe and Michael Smith’s wonderful biography of James Wordie, recommended to me through this site by Daniel Martin. Smith’s book features wonderful, unseen pictures of Lethbridge as a young man(4).

welbourn TEKH – Linden, ‘the people of the pool’ March 2005

Notes:
1. Stan’s book title made me recall a Shakti track from 1975, entitled; ‘What need have I for this, what need have I for that, I am dancing at the feet of the lord all is bliss, all is bliss’. Crikey!

2. Moretonhampstead church guide: "Miss Cresswell states that "grave stones of the greatest interest were thrown into the churchyard" and that probably the oldest relics are two carved stones erected to face the West Gate leading to Greenhill. These may be Norman or 13th Century. One has a quaint bird upon it, possible a pelican.... the other has "the Tree of Life" upon it. These were on the floor of the Tower..."

3. See The Crowle Stone in Lincolnshire and The Braunceston-in-Rutland Goddess.

4. Smith M. (2004) ‘James Wordie Polar Crusader’ Birlinn Ltd.

Photographs by Templar Brighton - Click on the picture to obtain an enlarged view.