Hello William, I have saved your web-site in my favourites. I will take a look as soon as I get a moment :)
Welcome to the forum.
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Hello William, I have saved your web-site in my favourites. I will take a look as soon as I get a moment :)
Welcome to the forum.
Many thanks lindylou..
I have on there a short video of the church yard at St Marys Church, showing the Childes grave along with the Ireland Blackburnes grave, taken this year around June-July I think.
There is still so much more I intend to put up on the site,, it's just finding the time and getting the right weather..
I understand from one of the guys who does voluntary work around the churchyard,, that the coins being thrown/placed onto the Childes grave are a kind of bring good luck or the type of thing why you throw coins into a wishing well, also may be as a lasting heartfelt remembrance of the Childe of Hale too.
The coins that are on the grave do get removed now and again by a member of the church-with no disrespect and all that to the Childe,, the money goes into the church coffers for maintaining the church yard.
I have some recent pictures of grave renovation going on by some of the volunteers. The graves are several hundred years of age as you may be aware of. The volunteers are removing weeds and overgrown grass from around the edges of the old graves which I must say,, do look better for it..
I'll get these pictures onto my pc and upload them here in the next 24 hours..
Hale should become part of Liverpool, It's closer to Speke than places like Runcorn and Widnes.
The Cannon on High Street though should be made operational.:PDT11
Here are a few pics of the voluntary work going on at the back of the church yard..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...0109.07120.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...0109.07032.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...0109.07001.jpg
They were taken at the start of September.
This video I made was done around June/July.. It starts off with the Childe Of Hales grave.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RP-9gAUwe-4
Article on the "The Childe of Hale" by John Reppion with photographs John Reppion and Elizabeth Boardman from The Fortean Times, September 2004. Enjoy!
Chris
When I'm next up the tower at St Mary's, I'll get some pictures from the top of the tower.
I was thinking of taking some visitors there. Does anybody know if the 'Childe of Hale' pub still lays on meals? I had many a good scoff there in the past. lol No wonder the Childe of Hale was 9 foot 3 inches.
Good work, John. :PDT11
Childe of Hale Cottage:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/...e56d00f586.jpg
The plaque:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/...015672de26.jpg
Tree Sculpture:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/...c02de69f68.jpg
Grave:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2144/...10c6542c49.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2127/...09142f8c53.jpg
I'm going back down to tomorrow, found where you get to the crop field and bbc says Tuesday morning weather Is sunny.:PDT_Aliboronz_24:
I went last Friday and dulled up after a hazy spell.:disgust:
Can't wait to drive though, takes 40 minutes to cycle there from Smithdown to Ramsbrook lane.
Good on you Maxie - watch out for the bog monster though.
Villages and shorelines at the moment are giving me the best Ideas for photos, Liverpool I'm struggling for a little for something stunning. Too much construction work and restricted space and I won't do north until I can drive except for Crosby since the roads are murder down there.
Plus Hale at the shoreline Is really relaxing and kills any negativity I have Inside, thats why I love going down there.
Take your bike on the train to Waterloo Max and cycle down South Road (the station's on South road, just turn left as you come up the stairs) to Marine Gardens at the very bottom. Do a right along Marine Crescent and Beach Lawn and beyond to Burbo Bank - it's very relaxing down there. Grassendale-esque but with the beach view - you'll enjoy it - don't delay.
Childe of Hale pub :PDT_Aliboronz_24:
Gonna wait till I can drive for the north, I can get the Northern line trains from St Michael's In Aigburth but It takes too long.
I like Grassendale, 10 minutes from my house through Sefton Park and Aigburth Vale.:PDT_Aliboronz_24:
Still trying to compose a decent shot of It though.
Vine Cottage, in Hale Village does not exist anymore.
It was sited adjacent to the Childe of Hale's cottage, opposite Parsonage Green [the hub of the village]. Despite no evidence of the cottage existing today, it does however survive on record, and happily adds more flavour to the mystery of Hale, home of giants!
Writing in 1851, edward Pye, recounts a local legend, of an ancient vine tree said to be over 300 years old! That would place it, and possibly the cottage, in the 1550's. Whether you believe him or not is for you to decide? Just think for a moment. The giant of Hale's shadow would have been cast across it's walls, as he walked through the jigger. He may have even drunk the wine made from the vintage crop? Maybe, that was the secret of his great height?
"Near the house is an antique vine, said to be above three hundred years old. The stem is above a foot in diameter, and, although rugged and perforated through in several places, still spreads its branches luxuriantly over the adjoinign cottages, and produces a yearly vintage of grapes."
Extract from The Village of Hale - A Rural Sketch, by Edward M. Pye. 1851
I like the idea of a vine tree being more famous [and possibly older] than the cottage? It has something of Jack and the Beanstalk about it?
http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/a...ineCottage.jpg
Very interesting, thanks, dazza. My grandfather had a black grape vine in his greenhouse in Mossley Hill. It's a bit hard to conceive of a grape vine lasting through the frosts of a British winter but perhaps the building kept it from feeling the worst of the cold. I am assuming that rather than gain his size from eating the grapes, John Middleton had that rare pituitary disorder known as acromegaly that made him grow to such a size. This disorder is what the Forties actor Rondo Hatton suffered from. He appeared as the Creeper in a Sherlock Holmes film with Basil Rathbone. See "Rondo Hatton -- The Creeper" at http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=850
Chris
My mother is buried in the same graveyard as John Middleton.
I couldn't resist putting a slight Tom Slemen top-spin to the story! Hale is one of the few places of my childhood imagination that enjoyed a kind of mythical status. The place of giant's and tall story's, in a village that looks like it hasn't changed too much over the centuries. It still has some of that appeal and charm to it.
A 300 year old vine![I'm still getting used to the idea of drinking a wine made in Britain...Yuck!!! I guess it's local myth, though probably the vine is of some great age, we may never know the exact date? It adds a little to the mythos of Hale, in the same way as the Childe story does. The 1851 article [as reported] is real, as is the cottage and location. Though I think you're right, John Middleton was born 400 years too early, he could've been in the movies?
its halton i think i am sure
My Uncle's Great Grandfather's grave is across from the Childe's Grave - the only one with a skull and crossbones on!
Attachment 13017