Was This Really Opposite The Church?

Very good, but we are here to investigate a mystery in that church behind me. Now this may look like any other English church, there are thousands like this aren't there, in this country, but just inside that window there is something which makes this one extraordinary because it hints as an antiquity of Christianity on this site going back a long time before the 13th century fabric of this church implies. There's a real air that kills blowing through this autumnal churchyard here today in Great Urzik. This is the church of Saint Mary and Saint Michael, a bit greedy. Discoveries made here over 100 years ago over which debates still rumble, we've even got a whiff of 21st century scandal for you, but regardless the existence of a deeply Christian community here makes the second half of this video all the more surprising because up until the early 1800s in a field opposite this church called Kirk Flat, wicker man style ancient fertility rites were performed by cavorting ladies dancing around seven foot tall stone phallus opposite the Christian church. A couple of points for pedants in the corner, the village name is something like Git Osik in the local dialect and whilst all churches were originally Christian they're not now, see Scientology and clearly this opposite the Christian church was said for dramatic effect, see art of documentary making. It all started in 1909 when a small chunk of inscribed stone was discovered and over here we've got Collingwood's picture of it showing how it was once part of an Anglo-Saxon cross and there it actually is just under the font there, very faint now, the red sandstone is sort of crumbling away. Third take, I've just filmed it all in slow motion, so reading at Barrow-in-Furness in 1909 Collingwood advised that in his view this was Anglo-Scandinavian in style and he went so far as to say it was the first ever example of Anglo-Saxon stonework, a relic from the Anglo-Saxon period, found anywhere on the Furness Peninsula. Now he subscribed that it was part of a wheel head cross as illustrated in his picture which hangs in the church to this day. A few years later things took another exciting turn and Collingwood found himself being summoned back to the church by Apostle Thwaites, the then Reverend here. Some of the names in this are going to sound like they're characters from an M. R. James ghost story for Christmas which I'm not entirely sure is a good idea when I'm here alone in this church on a spooky autumnal day. Anyhow, Apostle Thwaites informed Collingwood that his builder, Mr Affleck, had discovered another subscribed inscribed stone, this time acting as a lintel above a window. Collingwood was very excited, he didn't delay in setting off and coming to have a look at it along with his son and here it is. This is where it lives today in this window and this was actually recommended to us by our very own Phil Barrett who normally does the LiDAR. So thanks Phil, I'm really pleased that you did. What a marvellous thing it is. Back in 1911 Collingwood and his son wasted no time in removing it from its function as a window lintel, presumably providing some sort of reassurance to Affleck and Apostle Thwaites. They took it home, cleaned it up and Collingwood decided that this was purely Anglian in style, i.e. no Scandinavian. Okay, before we get into the long and complicated series of arguments about the origin, the age of this thing, which is actually really fascinating, don't be put off by that and also don't forget we've got a seven foot stone phallus coming up later on. I'll just read to you, you've seen the runes on the side of this, I'll read Collingwood's translation of the same to you. So the cross of a monument to his lord, prayer for his soul. So Tunwini, Collingwood believed, was a person's name and a Tunwini was subscribed at Hexham around about the time that Collingwood was looking at this. Here's Collingwood's usual excellent recreation of the cross reassembled and he came down on a date of 850 to 870 AD, so literally just before the Vikings arrived, invaded in his non-PC worldview of the early 20th century, which is probably also mine. You know it's interesting to me that Collingwood is sort of not sure about who these figures depict. Is this the baptism of Christ? John the Baptist? Who is it? But what do you think about these? They're amazing aren't they? It's very interesting about the sort of cowl here and then are these collars? They've got collars on but they also, I think they're both men, I don't think there's a Mary in there is there? I mean maybe there's some Pictish in there but there's also something slightly sort of, it's ridiculous isn't there, but there's something almost slightly sort of African about it. And then what about these on the other side? So Collingwood thought they might be Adam and Eve. He described them as an infantile attempt at Adam and Eve, semi-nude. Now cavorting pagans outside would probably like those. Semi-nude? Pagans? I like that sort of thing don't they? Later in the 20th century Kendrick, favoured by Pevsner, dated it as 11th century, so over 100 years later and well into the Norse period, he saw the baptism of Christ. Well it certainly is interesting isn't it? I'm not too sure about the Scandinavian thing but I definitely can see Celtic. You'll have to scribe down below what you think you can see. Roll forward to the space age 21st century, dot com bubble and the advent of Davina McCall aside, there was a mood of positivity in the air and this extended to archaeological projects. Steve Dickinson introduces an archaeological and discovery coordination project to understand the origins of Ossic. He believed the church sat in a large Roman fort as evidenced by tooled imported stone in both church fabric and local field walls. He dated the cross shaft to 690 to 700 AD. He thought it had been resubscribed, carved in effect with new work crossing older borders. The named individuals were a Columban prior from Iona and Theodore the 7th Archbishop of Canterbury who died in 690. The prior found sanctuary at a place called Sinas Fari which Dickinson said was here and not Whitby. He also had it as Bede's Candida Casa, a focal point for western seaways in the early development of Christianity. Oh and it was also the birthplace of St Patrick himself. Unfortunately Dickinson was never able to prove his Roman fort and it all fizzled out in unpaid bills and bankruptcy as was the way with all early 21st century hope. And if you're wondering what the church's position on all of this now is, in the little booklet next to the cross itself, it's very much based on Collingwood, whereas over here on these panels it now says it is possible that important parts of the inscription of the cross were recut around 690 to 700 so they're picking up on Dickinson's idea there. And they go on to say that it would provide a powerful evidence for the early Christian community here and connections to Christian saints such as St Ninian and St Columba. I enjoyed reading Dickinson's ideas although they are somewhat Langdon-esque in places. Now this is not public knowledge yet but a significant Roman hoard has been found nearby recently. Now regardless of whether it's Collingwood, Kendrick or Dickinson for you, these cross shaft fragments do indicate an important early Christian site. Let us know what you think in the comments and can I stress it was Dickinson who claimed St Patrick was born here. That remains raven glass in my book. Unfortunately Mr Affleck's view was not recorded. I think the two figures aren't biblical by the way, it's Tunwini and Tortred. And that brings us on to the moment that I'm sure some of you have been waiting for. It's time to get lewd outside. So do you know about the god Priapus, beloved of the ancient Greeks and the Romans? Have you heard of him? He was the one that got kicked by a donkey. Do you remember that? He got kicked by a donkey and lost his... No? He was a god of fertility in fruit, vegetables and animals. Possibly the son of Aphrodite and Dionysus? No? He's the one who used his massive phallus, he put it in the scales to weigh vegetables. Ah, you've got it now. Right, it is time for me to put up a warning. If you are of a nervous disposition when it comes to phalli, please look away now because I'm going to display some classical representations of Priapus and you will look at those and you will ask yourself, what is he doing in this tiny village in Lancashire north of the sands, over the sands? Would you subscribe to this? It is claimed that up until the early 19th century, villagers here held fertility rites in this field opposite the church called Kirk Flat, to this enormously endowed god. William Fleming's diary of 1801 was republished in the late 1950s and the committee promptly appointed, as I say it's the 1950s, to investigate the incredible revelation that a potentially prehistoric megalith once stood in the Kirk Flat field, to be annually smeared with sheep saliva, butter, dyed rags and crowned with flowers. And this is AI attempting to visualise that. Look, there's the butter. But by the 1950s, the stone was no longer in the field and there was no memory of the pagan fertility ritual in the village, at least that anybody would admit to. The megalith was not the only thing to have gone missing from Kirk Flat. Looking at the earliest ordinance survey maps, we see a tarn. I think you can just about see the shadow of that in the field today. There's the church of St Mary and St Michael, there's the Kirk Flat field and then here, embedded in the wall, is what the committee searching in 1957 found and claimed to be the Priapus stone. And according to an octogenarian farmer called Mr Stable, he claimed it had been moved out of the field into this wall in 1927. Stable advised that it had been an animal rub in that field and it was moved out to safeguard it. I'm wondering about nervous vicars at this point, to be honest. The investigation team recorded the Priapus stone as being seven foot long, one and a quarter ton in weight, 12 inches thick, which I struggled to verify. It seemed thin to me and it is certainly not visible on the other side in the field. Incidentally, whoever it was that put that glass shard in there, you are dead mate, if ever I get hold of you. Do you think it looks phallic? I'm not convinced to be honest and the LiDAR and older maps hint at some quarrying in the field to me, which this could relate to. I don't even feel that confident about matching this to the photo in the 1950s report. But stone botherers love this. There are cup marks apparently, I couldn't find them, but I did find these peculiar finger holes at one end and have read that ladies used to put their fingers in there in order to become fertile, apparently. If this is some ancient fertility phallus, it could date back to pagan times and then credence to Dickinson's arguments that this was an important place during the Roman period and if megalithic way before that. This is a fascinating area with much to debate about its history and you might like to check these videos out if you found this interesting. Links in description. Just having a quick break in the car, if you're an LTV, long-term viewer, you'll know that I personally don't subscribe to the belief systems behind these churches but I don't like to take the mickey and it feels a bit cheeky to sit in there and eat my cheese and onion sandwich. I do enjoy making these, they make a nice change and these fragments of crosses in these tiny churches in the middle of nowhere are really fascinating because they tell us that once upon a time this was a really important place and also if you're a LTV, long-term viewer, you'll remember when I started these I had the foolish notion that I needed celebrity endorsement but fortunately I've long since moved away from that. Although the celebrities haven't necessarily moved away from me, you can imagine who I've heard from since the last one of these I made. Master Chef. Oh darling, you know you asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I'll tell you what I want. I want 20,000 subscribers. I've had to duck back into the church and it's interesting in this lovely little sort of kitchen area that they supply, churches are great nowadays, aren't they? Tea making facilities, the lot. There's this really good display about the history of Urzik and it's very thorough. They've even got Langdao axes on there and yet as far as I can see there's absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Priapus stone. I've had such difficulty filming in the rain today. So it does make you wonder if the event in the 1920s was a vicar incumbent in this church at that time not liking the idea of there being a seven foot stone phallus that young ladies used to dance around and smear with butter and sheep's saliva in the field named after the church opposite the church. Maybe it was less a regard for the preservation of a prehistoric megalith that led to it being put in the wall and more the disdain of a vicar. I did another odd little twist given the fertility aspect. Whilst I've been filming here in this kitchen area of the church a young mum came in with her baby. She thought I was the vicar and she wanted to book it in for a christening. Obviously I wasn't able to help. I tried to tell her a little bit about the cross shaft but unfortunately she had to dash. She had other things to attend to. Incidentally another inscribed stone was found here in the early 2000s but unfortunately it was resealed in the floor beneath the new central heating before anybody could have a proper look at it. I hope you enjoyed that as much as me and I'm enjoying having this sort of professional backdrop. I had a point of the other week now I've got a professional backdrop. Thank you very much for what oh excuse me one second. Hello? The YouTube creative hub whatever that is. Yeah I've been trying to subliminally make people subscribe. Oh hang on a second creative hub I've got another call coming in. I'm gonna have to put you on hold I'm afraid. I've got John Torode on the other line. Hello John? I'm sure you do love Anglo-Saxon crosses John but it's non-celebrity Anglo-Saxon crosses all the way now with this series. Yep. Lawyers? Oh yeah yeah. Anyhow John I've got the YouTube creative hub on the other line. This is going to take a while. See you next week. Right so messaging subliminal messaging. Lawyers? Yeah yeah yeah I know who I'm speaking to. Oh you will will you? Yeah