Naquada

Today was a short trip down the road to Glastonbury. I’ve only ever been there once before, at the height of summer when it was full of the great unwashed, and people trying to bless me with something or another..

Since it was much quieter, it was a lot more enjoyable. I took quite a few more photos and some more HDR’s again, they turned out much better than the ones yesterday in the caves, probably due to the light, but again I think a mono or tripod would have helped big time.

We spent a lot of the time in the abbey, partly taking photos for Dad, he’s still working on his re-construction of Reading Abbey, a complete computer modelled and rendered view of the abbey ruins as they once were, and textured and the odd floor tile here and there always helps..

I’m thinking of putting one or two of the photos in for the Glastonbury Abbey Photographic Competition, although there are only a few I’d class as Life and Wildlife at the Glastonbury Abbey, possibly this main image with the daffodils might be nice after a bit of colour balancing, or even the original normal exposure photo..

We moved on from the Abbey to Chalice Well and gardens. The Chalice Well is one of the oldest continuously used holy wells in Britain. Archaeology has shown that the Spring was used by prehistoric tribes who inhabited the area, and for the last 2000 years the site has been in constant use.

The Chalice Well is actually a spring that naturally rises from the earth at Glastonbury (The word “Well” comes from the Anglo Saxon word “Wella” meaning spring). The spring itself is capped, to ensure its purity, and the water rises up in a stone well shaft, that is believed to over 800 years old. At the time of its construction it probably stood above ground at a height of 10 feet. Since that time it has been covered by subsidence and landslide’s from Chalice Hill and the Tor.

You can actually drink the water from the spring as it comes out of the the Lion’s head, further down the garden. The spring produces about 25,000 gallons (112,000 litres) and is constant even in times of great drought. In dry period’s in the past the Chalice Well has been the only remaining decent water source in Glastonbury, and it’s temperature is a constant 11 degrees. It tastes ok, slightly metallic, but I didn’t seem to kill me…

There’s lot of myth and legend around the Chalice Well, apparently having settled in Ynys Witrin (Glastonbury) and founded the first religious community in Britain, St. Joseph of Arimathea buried the Holy Grail deep in the hillside of Glastonbury Tor in order to safe-guard it from thieves and robbers. A miraculous spring welled up from that spot and the water runs through the grail before reaching the surface stained red with the blood of Christ. Looking at it from a more logical form (less romantic I know but..) although St. Joseph is said to have brought the Grail to Britain, it is rarely connected with his monastery of Glastonbury except in purely local legend. The water in the Chalice Well Gardens, below the Tor, certainly runs red, but that is more likely explained by the red Iron Oxide minerals in the Glastonbury soil.

Talking of spooky, in the shop there were a lot books on various ‘alternative’ subjects, for some reason a huge thick book caught my eye, standing out and proud from the bookshelf.. almost toppling out.. I picked it up.. read it.. and pushed it back again..

Since we were at the bottom of the Glastonbury Tor, we thought we might as well climb it.. It’s a tough climb, but the view from the top was amazing..

Technorati Tags: abbey, glastonbury, HDR, holy grail, king arthur, legends, photography, public places, chalice well

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Doing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.