St Anne’s celebration and naming the dragon!
On Sunday 26th July, Friends of Brislington Brook invited our local community along to celebrate St Anne’s Day. And what a day it was!
St Anne’s Wood has long been a site of pilgrimage. In 1276, Roger de Warr founded the Chapel of St-Anne-in-the-Wood, a daughter chapel of Keynsham Abbey, which rose to great prominence as a pilgrimage site. Historic documents reveal that de Warr chose St Anne’s Wood because a local person reported a sighting of St Anne visiting the Holy Well. How they recognised the woman as St Anne, I do not know! In the Catholic faith, St Anne is revered as the mother of the Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Jesus. She’s the patron saint of grandmothers, mothers, pregnant women and women in labour.
St Anne’s Holy Well has older pre-Christian roots. Venerated as a sacred water spring, it was fed by local groundwater and renowned for never drying up. That is, until it was capped by the Bristol Corporation (Bristol City Council) in 1924. In addition to aiding women with problems relating to conception, childbirth and raising children, the Holy Well was famed for curing weak eyes, rheumatism, and blood impurities. Historians note that dedications like St Anne often overlay ancient pre-Christian veneration of mother figures or water spirits, such as the Celtic goddess Anu.
Since visits to holy shrines were at their peak in the middle-ages, we asked our local community to don medieval clothing. Some did, but many chose tabards to wear (a medieval outer garment) from our dressing-up box. FoBB volunteers certainly got into the swing of things with their medieval costumes! King Henry VII, who visited the Chapel of St-Anne-in-the-Wood and the Holy Well in 1485, would not have felt out of place. By all accounts, Henry VII was accompanied by his queen, Elizabeth of York, who was with child. Queen Elizabeth prayed at the Chapel and the Holy Well that her child would live well and long. Sadly, Arthur, died in 1502 when he was just 21 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Henry VIII. The rest is history!
Back to the St Anne’s Day Celebration. The festivities started at 3pm when we switched on the boombox and started playing bardcore (contemporary pop or rock rearranged using historical-sounding instruments such as lutes, flutes, and harps). We were joined by a vast array of people from our local community, including pupils from Wicklea Academy, longstanding members of FoBB and local councillors. We were also joined by a group of druids, one of whom was a druid priest!
Earlier, we had placed a veil over the sculpture to conceal the name that our talented Sculptor, Andy O’Neill, had carved into it. FoBB volunteer, Claire Dowling, who was Sculpture Project Lead, had asked the Headmistress of Wicklea Academy to arrange a dragon naming competition. In total, 162 pupils came up with some ingenious names. Dragon McDragonface was not among them. Claire and I whittled the names down to five and put it to the vote on our FoBB WhatsApp group.
At 4pm, Acting Lord Mayor Jos Clark (local councillor and Alderman of the City) and Alfie, the competition winner, unveiled the sculpture. To a round of applause from a happy crowd, the dragon’s name was revealed: ‘Mossfang’. A fitting name for a dragon who resides in a dark, leafy valley. Jos then presented Alfie with his prize. Naturally, the prize was a dragon model. We were honoured that Andy, the Sculptor, was there to witness the spectacle.
We then formed a procession from Mossfang to St Anne’s Holy Well, a short pilgrimage, but a pilgrimage none the less. It was headed up by Steve Dowling and Baz Gray, who carried the FoBB pilgrimage banner. They carried the banner in 2016 when FoBB organised a St Anne’s Day Pilgrimage from the Pilgrim Pub, Brislington Village, to St Anne’s Holy Well.
We then formed a procession from Mossfang to St Anne’s Holy Well, a short pilgrimage, but a pilgrimage none the less. It was headed up by Steve Dowling and Baz Gray, who carried the FoBB pilgrimage banner. They carried the banner in 2016 when FoBB organised a St Anne’s Day Pilgrimage from the Pilgrim Pub, Brislington Village, to St Anne’s Holy Well.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Councillor Jos Clark for standing in for the Lord Mayor who was abroad. Jos had already accepted our invitation to attend as a local resident and valued member of our community. It was even better that she attended in ceremonial robes. In addition, we’d like to thank Councillors Katya Hornchen and Andrew Varney who live locally and have the community’s best interests at heart.
Thank you to the Headmistress of Wicklea Academy who oversaw the dragon naming competition and to the pupils who participated, especially to Alfie who came up with the winning name.
Thank you to Claire, Dragon Sculpture Lead and Chief Dragon Naming Competition Organiser, who worked hard to bring the dragon project to fruition. Mossfang is Claire’s legacy.
Thank you to Gavin Brockis who kindly stepped up to take the photographs. Thank you also to the FoBB volunteers who helped make the day a success. And thank you to all those who came along to celebrate St Anne’s Day and the dragon unveiling and naming with us. It would’ve been a flop without you!
However, the star of the show has to be our Sculptor, Andy of Wild Wood Carving, for creating such a magnificent sculpture. Andy had the rare skill of giving form to a dragon that had been entombed within the fallen English oak for two-hundred years. We trusted Andy’s instinct and left him to get on with it. He did us proud. Mossfang will be protector of the woods for many years to come.
All in all, the St Anne’s Day Celebration was a successful event, when success is measured in terms of smiling faces, laughter, playfulness and good conversation. It was a joy to bring our community together.
Jackie Friel – Acting Chair
