Childe of Hale Cottage:
The plaque:
Tree Sculpture:
Grave:
Childe of Hale Cottage:
The plaque:
Tree Sculpture:
Grave:
It is Accomplished
I'm going back down to tomorrow, found where you get to the crop field and bbc says Tuesday morning weather Is sunny.
I went last Friday and dulled up after a hazy spell.
Can't wait to drive though, takes 40 minutes to cycle there from Smithdown to Ramsbrook lane.
Gididi Gididi Goo.
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.
Last edited by Max; 04-28-2008 at 04:29 PM.
Gididi Gididi Goo.
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.
Gididi Gididi Goo.
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?
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
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
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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
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