Supply lines of the skin trade. Source: bottom of page

This page tests a conjecture about the British serpent folklore map in Ice Age Sites of Britain's Serpents:

1. The lines hint at the distribution routes through which southern England's manors, monasteries and nunneries supplied Oxford and London with humans for food, vellum and sex.

Noting the regular spacing between serpent folklore sites on the lines running into Oxford and London, we look into a few of the larger gaps.

We use the IHASFEMR model to examine sites near the centres of these gaps. We're looking for sites that seem to have farmed humans but which were not subsequently provided with a serpent folklore cover story.

So we're not expecting to find this:

Out-staring your opponent is proven to fail on the battlefield.

Though if we find it, we'll note it.

We are looking for one or more of these:

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm reference. (We don't expect to see evidence of serpents or serpent folklore in these locations but we'll score it if we see it.)
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [ ] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [ ] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [ ] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

We will ignore geographical and geological characteristics such as hills and river bends, alleged Ice Age sand and gravel deposits.

Gap 1. Oxford - Highclere, Hampshire:

Zooming in on the gap, we find:

Hagbourne Hill, Chilton, Oxfordshire

Key:

• Black marker: site with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity
• Yellow marker: noteworthy sites
• Orange marker: Grims' Ditch linear earthwork

We find Hagbourne Hill on the Icknield Way. Situated between Harwell and Upton, it is surrounded by lanes with names like 'Coffin Way' and 'Lynch Lane'. Near the hill top, crop marks suggest a former building. Just south are what appears to be the remains of a tumuli or barrow.

To the north east are the villages of West Hagbourne and East Hagbourne - once a single village. To the north of the Hagbournes are places with 'cote' in their name: Coscote and Didcote. To the east and south we find Churn Hill, Frying Pan Wood near Blewbury, Oxfordshire. And a little further east is Oven Bottom Wood.

The area has a Civil War battle rather than Vikings or Danes.

We specified and found witch-related placenames. We didn't specify - but did also find - a series of Devil-related placenames. The long Grim's Ditch earthwork that runs south of the Hagbournes east towards London.

We're not looking for one site; we're looking for areas that suggest farming, processing and consumption of humans. Have we found them?

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [x] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [x] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [ ] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [x] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

Gap 2. Hughenden, Buckinghamshire - London:

Zooming in on the gap, we find:

Mad Bess Wood, Ruislip, London

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity

Not much is written about Mad Bess, but her relationship to the land and her activities are typically associated with a witch. She is the gamekeeper's wife, raging against trespassers and poachers. However, this location needs more research for its other uses and manorial/ecclesiastic ownership.

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [?] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [ ] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [ ] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

Gap 3. Dartford, Kent and Wormshill, Kent:

Zooming in on the gap, we find:

Knight's Place, Kitchen Field in Ranscombe Park, Strood/Rochester, Kent

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity
• Yellow marker: noteworthy sites

There's even a hilltop mausoleum here: Darnley Mausoleum. The use of some mausoleums for converting humans into agricultural fertiliser and useful gasses was explored in Gas Stations of the Past - Part Two. So I'm including Darnley Mausoleum as meeting condition 5 - processing of humans.

The ruined gamekeeper's house is intriguing but we have no evidence its residents were considered witches so we have to ignore it.

This line of serpent folklore locations follows the North Downs pilgrimage route between London and Canterbury. It's why they find 'pilgrimage souvenirs' like this one:

Remnant of a pilgrim souvenir from Canterbury, Kent. Source: Blood as Food

Do you understand what the swordsmen really are?

If you don't, read Sheela Na Gig Clues to Retail of the Past and Ice Age Sites of Britain's Serpents.

Categorising Ranscombe Park:

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [x] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [ ] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [x] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [ ] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

Gap 4. Wherwell, Hampshire and Burley, Hampshire:

Zooming in on the gap, we find:

Manorial skin-farming complex west of Romsey Abbey, Hampshire

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity
• Yellow marker: noteworthy sites

This gap is filled with the large complex of manorial sites on the western side of the Test River valley near Mottisfont, Dunsbridge and Awbridge. These lands lie close to Romsey Abbey whose scandals - though minimised today - typify one of the revenue streams available to nunnery owners. They include many, many place names associated with skin processing. This is not surprising - Hampshire farmers provided parchment and vellum to Oxford until velleum was replaced by paper suitable for low-cost mechanical printing.

The Wellow Woods and Wellow Golf Clubs sites - with their ponds and brooks - near Sherfield English, are particularly interesting. A Wellow Abbey owned the 'Abbey Hill' shown at the head of Grimsby serpent mound in Rev W. Smith's 1825 plan:

Head of the serpent: Wellow Abbey Hill. Source: Grimsby Serpent Mound

Another clue is the presence of so much sand here and - just to the west - under the New Forest. Britain's serpent mysteries are often accompanied by inexplicable patches of sand. If you zoom in on the maps, you'll often find places near serpent folklore sites called 'Santon', 'Sandtown', 'Sandwell' or 'Sandy'. And golf courses. You can see that Lincolnshire's Dragonby - formerly Conesby Cliffe - is in a patch of sand so inexplicable, geologists write about it. And this site wrote about geologists writing about it in Desert Island of Eastern England.

In short, for this location, the presence of 'Wellow' plus inexplicable patches of sand equals 'serpent'.

1. [x] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [ ] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [x] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [x] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

Gap 5: Bretforton, Worcestershire - Highley, Shropshire:

Zooming in on the gap, we find:

Wychavon manorial complex, Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity
• Yellow marker: noteworthy sites

Droitwich Spa is in the district called Wychavon, formerly 'Hwicce'. Not a million miles away from wicca. It was famous for transporting that mainstay of food preservation - salt - until 1675. It was a major intersection for Roman roads. It's hot baths are apparently what gave it the reputation for being s leisure centre for Roman men, which may explain why locations around the town are associated with breeding of females. Note also Kidderminster is a few miles north.

The Lady Godiva story seems to involve a draper being discovered and punished for watching a naked female rider - Lady Godiva. Her long hair, nakedness and the tailor components of the Lady Godiva story hint that the Godiva tale may be a Romantic movement cover story for human leather being used by drapers and cordwainers.

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [x] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [x] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [x] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [x] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

We change tactic now. Can we fill two gaps in a network?

Gap 6a: London - Horsham, West Sussex:

First moving south from London towards Mitcham, Surrey:

Mitcham manorial complex

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity

Mitcham presents a great deal of evidence for processing of humans, including one of the largest Anglo Saxon graveyards discovered. Part of a very large complex of ecclesiastic and manorial farms, this map would be packed with red and yellow markers if we included them all.

Mitcham is also the location of Jack Cade's peasant rebellion. Note his name: 'Cade'.

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [ ] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [x] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [x] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

Gap 6b: London - Horsham, West Sussex:

Second, continuing south from London via Mitcham, Surrey towards Horsham, West Sussex:

Little Abbotts Farm and Knight's Gorse, Betchworth, Surrey

Key:

• Black marker: sites with serpent battle folklore
• Yellow marker: first interpolated Manimal Farm location at Mitcham, Surrey, determined above
• Red marker: second interpolated Manimal Farm activity

Both sites are on Gad Brook. 'Gad' placenames link with skin harvesting and processing. More skin processing clues are found nearby. A few hundred metres west of Little Abbotts Farm is Tanner's Meadow. Just north was Thorncroft, another placename linked to skin tanning. Thorncroft was next to Betchworth Castle and is now beneath Betchworth Park Golf Club.

Little Abbotts farm was part of a very large complex of manors and properties close to Reigate Priory. Placename evidence for the IHASFEMR model stretches to the north from here to Banstead.

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [x] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [ ] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [x] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

It's very easy to find evidence of human farming just north of Betchworth. Especially between Reigate and Banstead to Epsom.

Placename clues are highlighted on this map:

Human farming and skin processing sites around Banstead and Reigate. There were many more.

Key:

• Bright yellow marker: Human skin harvesting location
• Dull yellow marker: Human fat processing location
• Red marker: Human bone processing location
• Blue marker: Administrative and housing structures
• Orange marker: Storage and defensive structures destroyed during war

The placename 'Little Woodcote' at Lower Pilory Down, Carshalton indicates how 'cote' locations seem to coincide with pillory sites. That is, skin harvesting sites.

This area - Gatton - offers additional clues to a pre-18th century destruction event.

From Gatton, Surrey:

scarce a small village, though in times past it hath beene a famous towne

and:

the "freely draining slightly acid loamy soil" that provides the infill of the Downs and is seen for example in Kingswood and counterintuitively all of the southern developed parts of Reigate, Redhill, most of Dorking, much and all of central Croydon and all around the lowland commons, heaths and parks of south-west London.

It's the "counterintuitively" that tells you these soils are artifacts left by uncommon events.

We change tactic again. Instead of examining gaps, let's ask what would we find north east of Oxford if we continued from the line south west of Oxford and to the north east.

Gap 7: Oxford - continuing north-east:

Zooming in, we find:

Stowe House and Akeley-cum-Stockholt, Buckinghamshire

Key:

• Black marker: site with serpent battle folklore
• Red marker: possible Manimal Farm activity
• Yellow marker: other noteworthy sites

We can't begin to do justice to Stowe House and its surroundings. Physically, architecturally, in terms of ownership, in terms of history and missing history.

Do get a birds-eye view: Stowe House: (Google Maps), (Google Streetview), (OpenStreetMap), (Flickr images)

Placename evidence - 'cott' - suggests skin farming of human males to the south-west, and farming of females to the east on manors formerly owned by the Priory of Studley. The Victoria County HIstory entry for the Priory of Studley itself contains subtle hints of human skin processing. We know from histories of printing and printing materials that Oxford's huge demand for parchment and vellum was serviced all over central southern England - hence the large number of 'cote' placenames around Oxfordshire and the south midlands.

The witch condition may also be met. From Stowe House and Akeley (Akeley-cum-Stockholt):

In 1352 John Holt granted the manor, then first called Stockholt Barnes, to Adam le Lorymer of Leominster and Agnes his wife, (fn. 50) to whom in 1358 John son of Roger Giffard, kinsman and heir of the late canon, released all his right in the manor. (fn. 51) For more than a century the history of the manor is obscure.

'Obscure' is a funny word to use. What's known is known and what isn't known isn't. So what does 'obscure' mean? Known? Unknown? Or 'hidden'? As we know nothing about Agnes's activities, let's rule condition 3 - the witch condition - not met.

The near absence of data on the activities at Stowe before 1713 offers a clue that Stowe's real history has been erased. We have to make out what we can from what survives. The Victoria County History entry for Priory of Studley hints Studley was a Knights Templar holding that owned other properties around Oxford:

It possessed the church of Seacourt, Berkshire, in 1200, but for some reason lost it in 1208; the church of Ilmer, Buckinghamshire, was given by Thomas, son of Bernard, before 1205, and the church of Beckley by Robert, Count of Dreux, in 1226; but this latter was only obtained after a lawsuit with the king and the Templars.

The passage makes more sense when viewed as a series of manor farm ownership disputes following the first dissolution - that is: the dissolution of the Templars starting 1209. The Templar link continues to be hinted at in Stowe's subsequent history.

From Parishes: Stowe:

The greater part of Stowe is taken up by the grounds and park attached to Stowe House, which is approached from Buckingham by a public avenue of elm and beech nearly 2 miles in length, leading up to the entrance lodge known as the 'Corinthian Arch.' ...subject to many alterations and additions throughout the 18th century, Stowe House has preserved a unity and directness of plan which entitle it to a place among the foremost examples of the 'grand manner' of design in England. ...rebuilt by Sir Richard Temple in the last half of the 17th century The pavilions at the Boycott entrance, though altered by the same hand, remain as good examples of Vanbrugh's ponderous style. The Temple of Bacchus, a rusticated rectangular building coated with stucco, and the domed Rotunda with its circle of Ionic columns ...Boycott, which until 1844 (fn. 13) was in Oxfordshire, is another hamlet in the south-west of Stowe. Lysons speaks of it as depopulated and inclosed in the Marquess of Buckingham's grounds, (fn. 14) but it was detached from the park on the acquisition of Boycott Manor by Charles Higgens in the middle of the last century. On a slight eminence in Boycott overlooking a beautiful view of the park he built a house in the Elizabethan style, which is now the residence of Mr. Thomas Close Smith. At the present day there are also brickworks and a smithy in Boycott. A third hamlet, at one time of some importance, is that of Lamport, which gives its name to a few cottages in the east of the parish. The Dayrells had an ancient seat here now used as a farm-house.

1. [ ] Serpent, dragon or worm.
2. [ ] Serpent vanquisher or knight (who owns land beneath or near the fight).
3. [?] Witch-related. Especially witches called 'Hag', 'Agnes', 'Annis' or similar.
4. [ ] Indications of large scale cooking or catering.
5. [x] Indications of slaughterhouse, sacrifice or strong hints of human-processing, such as large numbers of human bodies or locations bearing any of the words associated with human skin processing: 'Kid', 'Cad/Gad', 'Coate', 'Thorn/Fern/Farn', 'Ton', 'Ten', etc.
6. [x] Sites of large manorial and ecclesiastic complexes, especially abbey grounds, nunneries, etc.

We won't use the next two as selectors but will treat them as additional evidence if we see them:

1. [ ] Site or legend of large scale battle, especially with Vikings or Danes.
2. [ ] Site of peasant rebellion (arguably a variant of 2. but let's be conservative about the conditions we must meet to fill a gap).

To test how these proposed new Manimal Farm sites fit in, we superimpose the newly-discovered sites on to the main serpent folklore map from Ice Age Sites of Britain's Serpents:

Mind the gap: human farms that escaped re-labelling as serpent folklore.

Key:

• Black marker: Serpent/dragon/worm battle location
• Bright yellow marker: Serpent/dragon/worm sleeping or guarding location
• Dull yellow marker: Serpent/dragon/worm landscape feature location
• Red marker: Suspected Manimal Farm location

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