Friary Park, located to the East of the Great North Road close to Tally-Ho, was originally owned by the Knights of St. John Hospitaller, keeping our connection with the patron saint of this borough.
The formal layout was arranged by the Edwardians maintaining parkland, ancient trees, a formal garden, Friary House and a monument to the ‘peacemaker’, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, Edward VII, who managed to keep his belligerent cousins from war for a few years prior to WWI. The family Christmas must have been dire!
My trip on Sunday, governed by that belligerent archangel St. Michael, saw nothing more warlike than dog walkers, joggers and parents corralling small children on a sunny and warm May weekend.
The trees are in bloom and I was greeted with bright colours and a small breeze as I said my prayers to the Blessed Trinity, calling on St. Cyprian of Antioch to make visible something of the spirit world of this place.
A standing stone marks Blackett’s brook near a bridge. This tributary of Pymme’s brook runs into the River Lea which joins Old Father Thames east of the Isle of Dogs.
I can find no information on on this monolith and therefore cannot think it of any great antiquity.
However, whether by design or not this standing stone does share one thing in common with its more ancient forebears. Standing stones and tumuli are not uncommon where a river bends. For some reason our pre-historic ancestors considered such changes of direction worthy of note and as ‘hotspots’, entryways to the otherworld. The tumulus that marked the bend in the River Effra in Kennington Park, springs to mind as well as the standing stone in the churchyard of Rudston in North Yorkshire which marks the bend in the river known as the Gypsy Race.
The strata of the stone face showed human effort to make a hole but seems as if there was a change of heart part way through the endeavour. Holes through stones also being indicative of seeing through to the other world.
This is an example from Vorau in Austria, which has a number of examples from 7,000 BCE, these ‘holy’ stones are considered to show places of power when peered through. In fiction there is that strange ITV offering from the 70s from the pen of Alan Garner, The Owl Service which also uses the stone for remote viewing in its story line.
There was a children’s sports day in full flow during my visit so I escaped the flurry and shouts of parental encouragement when I caught sight of the Church of St. James the Great. Entering into this small 12th century church on Friary Park Lane; I realised that it was no longer C of E but Greek Orthodox. According to the Eastern calendar I missed St. James’ feast day by one week.
Old ladies in black lit candles to icons. There were offerings of bread and food as the saints get hungry too.
An offering was also visible on the War memorial in the churchyard - in memory of the dead - we assuage the guilt of survival and debt by praying for them.
Before leaving the park I made my own offering to one of the older trees taking a small piece of loose bark. This mummia was used to manifest the tree spirit via the method known as the menstruum of undines first used for the project called ‘An interview with Austin Spare’.
Both Celtic and Greek tree spirits were generally considered female - dryads. However the Greek version do allow for male tree spirits called Drius.
This one is clearly sporting a full beard.
Ready for the close-up!
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