Explore Tree Myths and Superstitions

Are you a tree lover? Before there were so many people, before there was an industrial revolution and mass farming, the British Isles and most of Europe was covered with trees. Vast, dense forests covered hundreds of square miles and our ancient ancestors venerated some of these trees as gods, believed some of them could be used to heal their bodies and even that some of them were unlucky or evil and had to be appeased.  Even in our modern world, many of us find the idea of venturing alone into a deep, dark wood daunting and many horror films and books, such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’, centre around something dark and terrifying lurking in the shadows deep in the heart of the forest.  And who didn't listen to the fairy tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ when they were young, where the two little children laid a trail of breadcrumbs through the woods to find their way home again? So it is not perhaps surprising that there are many myths and superstitions about trees that have been passed down from our distant pagan past.  And when Christianity arrived and started spreading across Europe, the ancient beliefs about trees were not forgotten, but were incorporated into the new religion’s beliefs, and many trees came to be regarded as Christian symbols and had new myths attached to them.

Party Tree at Hobbiton, New Zealand

In Britain before the coming of Christ, the gods, spirits and elements were worshipped in groves of sacred trees by the Druids.  The three most sacred trees were thought to be the oak, the ash and thorn, and this triad was attributed with great powers and magical properties. It was thought that guardian spirits inhabited the trees, and our saying ‘touch wood’ comes from the old custom of gently touching a tree to show your respect for the spirit that dwelt within in it and to ask for healing, blessings and favours.  In ancient Greece, there was thought to be a type of nymph called a Hamadryad that was eternally bonded to their own tree.  If that tree was felled or destroyed, the tree’s resident Hamadryad was also thought to die, so the Greek gods severely punished any mere mortal who damaged a sacred tree.

Because they are very long-lived, trees were also regarded as a symbol of immortality, fertility and the never ending cycle of the seasons. Their longevity was a promise to our ancestors that life always renewed itself, and they would have known that many generations of their people would have met and worshipped under the shady branches of the same tree. This gave these leafy, shaded spaces a numinous quality, which allowed the echoes of the past to ripple into the present, providing continuity; a thread that bound them both to their ancestors and to the generations to come, so that wisdom and knowledge would never be lost. Trees were also an important source of fuel for their fires, building materials for their homes and provided fruit and berries for both food and medicine. When Christianity arrived in Europe, it seamlessly absorbed much of the mythology and the beliefs that surrounded pagan tree worship and turned it into Christian stories and legends.  Indeed, the very first story of this new religion involves the first man and woman, Adam and Eve plucking a forbidden apple from the Tree of Knowledge and the redeemer Jesus Christ being sacrificially slain on a cross made of wood.

So what are some of the myths and superstitions associated with certain trees?

Oak Trees

Oak trees were probably the most important, magical tree in European pagan mythology.  They were worshipped in sacred groves by the Druids and individual oaks were venerated. As they can make wailing, moaning noises when they are cut into or felled, they were thought to have human traits. Oaks possessed powerful magic that could cure you of your toothache if you drove a nail into the trunk, could stop you from ageing if you carried an acorn in your pocket and offered you protection from lightning strikes.  Oak was associated with Zeus and Thor, the powerful pagan male gods of storms and lightning, and, because of their shape, were regarded as symbols of male virility and power.  It is a good thing that oak trees offered protection from lightning, as they are more liable than other trees to be struck, partly because they are often the tallest object in the immediate landscape, but also because oak wood has low resistance to electricity. But being struck by lightning was also important to the oak tree, as sacred mistletoe was thought to have been left in the branches during lightning strikes. Oak leaves were used as symbols of power, conquest and military expertise, and Roman military leaders used to wear crowns woven from oak leaves during their victory parades.

Lone Tree in British Park

There are many famous, historic oaks in Britain that have had their own stories and legends woven around them.  Perhaps the most famous of them is the oak tree that stands in the grounds of Boscobel House in Staffordshire, where in 1651 the future King Charles II hid after the Battle of Worcester to escape from Oliver Cromwell’s men.  The day of his restoration to the throne, 29^th May, has ever since been celebrated with feasting, singing and dancing as ‘Royal Oak Day’ or ‘Oak Apple Day’.  It was traditional on this day to pin oak leaves or oak apples to your clothes and if you saw someone who was not wearing any then you were allowed to physically punish them with a sly pinch, slap or kick. There is also a legend that Elizabeth I first heard about the death of her sister Queen Mary and her accession to  the throne while she was standing under the oak that stands in the grounds of Hatfield House, which has ever since been called The Queen Elizabeth Oak.

Another famous oak stands in Windsor Great Park, where legend has it that one of the keepers, known as Herne the Hunter, hung himself from one of the branches.  Herne had rescued Richard II from being gored by a white hart, but sustained mortal wounds while he was doing it.  He was healed by having the white hart’s antlers attached to his head by a mysterious stranger called Philip Urswick. Unbeknownst to him Urswick had struck a deal with the other keepers in Windsor Great Park, and after he healed Herne lost his position.  In desperation he hung himself from a large branch of the oak, where his swinging, antlered corpse was spotted by a pedlar.  By the time the pedlar had returned with the other keepers, Herne’s body had disappeared and that night the great oak tree was struck by lightning.  When the keepers returned to the oak at midnight they were confronted by Herne’s ghost who compelled them to ride with him forever in his Wild Hunt.

Ash

Ash is another tree that was once thought to possess magical powers. If a child was suffering from a hernia or rickets, it would be taken before the sun rose to be passed naked through a split in the trunk of an ash tree. The split would then be bound back together, sealed with clay and left to heal.  As the trunk healed, the child would miraculously recover from its ailment.  Ash was also used to heal lame animals by carving a hole into the trunk and placing a live shrew inside it.  The hole would be sealed over and when the shrew died and the ash healed, the lame animal would come sound again.  Ash faggots were traditionally burned in hearths at Christmas.  They would be bound together with green twigs, and as the ash burned you could make a wish every time one of the twig bindings snapped open.  The single girls of the household would each choose one of the twig bindings, and if you had chosen the first one that burst open in the flames then you would be the first of the girls to get married.  

Ash trees were an important part of Norse myths, because Yggdrasil the World Tree was a mighty ash that grew in the centre of everything and spread out into everything, as its roots grew down into the dark mysteries of the underworld, its branches shaded every part of the world, and its trunk grew so tall that it penetrated heaven itself. Yggdrasil was the sacred place where the Norse gods would come to sit in council and where Odin hung himself in sacrifice, losing an eye when the ravens pecked it out.  Hanging from a sacred tree is a continuing theme in tree mythology and one that carries on into Christian belief, as Jesus was nailed and hung from a tree to make his ultimate sacrifice for the sake of humanity, enabling their redemption.  This symbolism is carried on into the modern tarot where the Hanged Man card drawn in a reading suggests sacrifice, limitations and a time of waiting.

British Trees in the Snow

Yggdrasil was also associated with nurturing and abundance, as a miraculous goat that grazed at the foot of the trunk produced mead from its udder rather than milk, and this potent alcoholic beverage was served at the great feasts held by the gods in their Great Hall.  Mead is made from honey and water, and this association with the ash tree may have come from the fact that some species of ash found in the mountains of Greece and in Northern Europe ooze a sticky, sweet substance that is a bit like honey.  Yggdrasil was also said to rain honey down from the skies for the sustenance of mankind below, so this miraculous ash could truly claim to be the tree of life.

Mountain ash is also known by the name rowan and is commonly found growing in Northern England, Scotland and Wales. It is another tree that offers you great protection for your household and can protect you and your family from witchcraft and evil spirits. It was used to protect and help farm livestock, as milkmaids used to tie rowan twigs to their buckets so that the milk would not sour and wreaths woven from rowan twigs were put around pig’s necks to fatten them up faster. Mares and cows would be fed rowan berries while they were giving birth, so that their labour would progress smoothly and the baby animal be born alive and healthy.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn with its glorious white blossom is the tree that is associated with the return of the sun after the winter and the month of May, so much so that it is also known as the May tree.  The traditional maypoles that were set up on village greens to help celebrate the first day of May were often made from hawthorn wood and it was also used to make the garland that was used to crown the chosen ‘Green Man’ of that summer.  In pagan times hawthorn was very much associated with fertility, passionate love and marriage.  But the rise of Christianity saw the symbolism change as the white colour of the flowers were linked to purity and the Virgin Mary, to whom the month of May was dedicated.  Probably the most famous thorn tree in Britain is the ancient one that grows in the Somerset town of Glastonbury.  The Glastonbury Thorn was said to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea after he stuck it in the ground and it only flowers once in May and once during the Christmas season. Joseph of Arimathea was said to have carried the Holy Grail with him as he travelled, and hid it away somewhere in the British Isles where it still lays waiting to be discovered. Tradition also has it that the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head was made from hawthorn wood.

Hawthorn could also be used to protect your home from ghosts, witches and storms, by having the branches placed across the rafters by a person who was not a member of your immediate family.  Bundles of hawthorn twigs were also hung outside cowsheds to ensure that the cows carried on giving an abundant supply of milk. However, it was thought to be very unlucky to bring hawthorn into the house, and if you decorated the interior of your house with it you could expect illness and death to swiftly follow. This could be because during medieval times people thought that hawthorn blossom smelled like London during the time of the Black Death.  In fact, May flowers do contain a compound called trimethylamine, which is one of the chemicals that is formed in decomposing animal flesh, so would have given off a whiff of rotting bodies which would not been appreciated in someone’s parlour.

Yew Trees

Ancient yew trees can be found growing in many of the churchyards of rural Britain. They are a very long living species and can live for up to 1,000 years. In fact, the Fortingall Yew that grows in the churchyard at Fortingall in Scotland is thought to be between 2,000 and 5,000 years old. The trunk of the tree has split off into different offshoots over the years, so the true age cannot be determined by examining the rings within the trunk.  Local legend has it that Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor that handed Jesus over to be crucified, once played under the Fortingall Yew as a child and archaeologists think that it used to be the focal point of a local Iron Age cult.

Because of their extreme longevity, it is therefore perhaps not surprising that yew trees symbolized immortality for our pagan forebears and that many Christian churches came to be built where sacred groves of yew used to stand.  The yew also has what would have been viewed as miraculous powers of regeneration, as when one of the branches droops so low that it hits the earth, that branch can grow roots and start forming new trunks. Because of this link to a promised eternal life, in medieval times they used to line newly dug graves with yew branches to help guarantee the resurrection of the recently deceased soul.  Yew is also one of the woods that traditionally have been thought to have been used to make the cross that Jesus was crucified on. This link with death may have come about as yew is also poisonous, and can easily kill a man if ingested in sufficient quantity. The yew was also believed to be able to protect churchyards from storms that had been conjured up by angry, vengeful witches.  In the middle ages, yew was a favoured wood for making long bows; that ultimate weapon of the fighting man that was so vital to the English for gaining victory in battles such as Agincourt in October 1415.  At that time archery practice with the longbow was enforced by law, and each man in England who was of an age to fight was compelled to spend time practising his technique and skills until they were deadly accurate.

British Woodland

There were myths and superstitions surrounding practically every species of tree and they varied from culture to culture, even from village to village.  It used to be thought that sawing up willow was very unlucky, so even very poor folk would not cut down the branches to use as firewood. But willow could also be very lucky if someone gave you a gift of willow branches on a morning in May. The poplar, also called the aspen, sometimes looks like it is shivering in the breeze.  This was thought to be because its wood had been used to make the cross for the crucifixion and that the poplar was so traumatised by this that it still shakes in horror. People used to believe that if they suffered from tremors or shivering while they were ill, that attaching a lock of their hair to a poplar and chanting an incantation could cure them.

The causes of disease were very poorly understood in years gone by, so folk thought that if they burned a fire of juniper wood during a plague epidemic that the resulting smoke would drive away the demons that were causing the terrible disease. If you dreamed of juniper berries you could expect the birth of a first male child, but dreaming of the juniper tree was a harbinger of bad luck. The elder was another tree that was a candidate for providing the wood that the cross of Jesus had been made from, so it also brought bad luck if it was brought into the house.  Its unfortunate reputation was further bolstered by another tradition that Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus at the Last Supper leading him to be universally reviled, had hung himself from an elder tree branch. Elder trees were also dangerous to approach during the hours of darkness, as witches gathered under them and if they caught you, then you could expect no mercy. 

Winter Trees in Oxford

So these are just a few of the myths and superstitions that are associated with trees. Across all cultures and in many different regions there are common themes of fertility, virility, the cycle of the seasons, protection, and great leaders sacrificing themselves by hanging themselves from their boughs to bring healing and renewal to their people.  Trees are companionable, shady places to sit and dream under on a hot, sunny day, so the next time that you are sitting propped up against the trunk of your favourite tree, why not say hello to the spirit that lives there and give thanks to the tree for the healing and protection it gives you.

What is Salt and Why Do We Sprinkle It on Our Food?

What is Salt and Why Do We Need It in Our Diet?

Luckily for us salt is one of the most common minerals on Earth and is formed mainly from sodium chloride. It is a crystalline solid and is white, light grey or pale pink in colour. It is an essential part of the diet for all humans and animals, as the sodium and chloride ions are necessary for our survival.

Sea Salt

It plays an important part in the regulation of the fluid balance of the body.  Salt cravings can be caused by a deficiency of sodium chloride or by a lack of other trace minerals.  What we use on our tables today is produced in several different forms, in unrefined forms like sea salt or refined like table and iodized salt.  It is also an important preservative and is used extensively to preserve food.  The flavour is one of the basic tastes, making it one of the oldest and most commonly used seasoning.  In the Western world traditionally there are four taste sensations: sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  We lose salt from our bodies through sweating and excretion, so we constantly need to replace what we lose, especially in very hot weather.

Health Problems Associated with Salt

However vital salt is to us, having too much in your diet can cause you to experience health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and an increased risk of stroke.  Having too much in your diet can also cause water retention. Fully grown adults should eat no more than 6g a day, which is approximately a teaspoonful. And in the UK alone, reducing the average daily intake by adults could prevent around 17500 premature deaths a year.  Children and babies need a lot less than this.  A baby only needs less than 1g a day up until it is around a year old.   Breast milk and infant formula contain the right levels, but it is important not to add it to baby’s food when they start eating solids and to not give them processed foods that are not specifically made for infants. Another benefit of reducing your salt intake is that you might begin to notice a broader range of flavours in your food.

Much of what we consume is hidden in the food that we eat, so it is not just the salt that we add to our food that is the problem.  Foods that have a high salt content are processed foods, bread, cereals, salty snacks and foods that have been canned in brine or preserved in salt.  They should be avoided or cut down on where possible and replaced with fresh, home-cooked meals.

Iodine is also commonly added to salt, especially in inland areas where there is little iodine in the soil for the crops to absorb.   A lack of iodine in the diet can lead to problems with the thyroid gland in the neck known as goitre.  In the United Kingdom this was commonly known as ‘Derbyshire Neck’ as it was a condition particularly prevalent among the poorer sections of society in Derbyshire, particularly young women of child bearing age, a century or so ago.

History of Salt

It is believed that we first started adding it to our food when our early ancestors started cultivating crops in about 10,000 BC and started to eat less meat.  Earlier, prehistoric hunter gatherers had derived all the sodium that they needed from the large amounts of meat and fish that they ate.  They also discovered that you could use it to preserve food, so that they could store it at times when food was plentiful to be used when the food supplies were running low.

Early civilisations learned that they could obtain it from dried out lakes, by boiling or evaporating sea water or mining in areas where solid salt forms in the ground.  However, supplies remained scarce until modern times and for most of recorded history it was regarded as a rare and valuable commodity, due to the expense of extracting it and then conveying it overland or by sea.  In Iran in 2005 a group of salt mummies were discovered in ancient salt mines.  These were bodies of workers who had perished in the mines around 1700 years ago and whose bodies had been naturally preserved by the salt.

Taxes on salt were introduced by the ancient Chinese and there were times when the revenues raised made up half of the Chinese Empire’s tax revenues.  The Great Wall of China would probably never have been built without this tax!  The Romans also taxed it and one of the famous Roman roads the ‘Via Salaria’ or salt road was built to transport it.  The infamous French salt tax known as the ‘Gabelle’ was hugely unpopular with the French people.  It was first imposed in 1286 by King Philip IV and was not repealed until 1790.  There was also a long history of taxing it in India and the huge increase of this tax by the British which led to it becoming unaffordable for a lot of Indians was one of the issues that flared up and helped pave the way to Indian Independence.

It is said that in ancient times, when an enemy was conquered, the victorious army would sow it into their fields so that they would not be able to grow their crops.  The most well known example is the Romans ploughing it into the soil after they conquered Carthage in 146 BC, although this is disputed as it is not mentioned in ancient texts but is mentioned by the 19^th century German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius.

We still commonly use the term ‘above the salt’, which originated in the Middle Ages when a salt cellar was placed on the dining table and the important people of the household were seated above it and the lesser folk and servants were seated on the other side.  The fact that it was expensive was shown by the fact that these salt cellars in prosperous households were often quite large, very ornate and made of precious metals.  Other phrases that we still use are ‘salt of the earth’ denoting a person who is very worthy which reflects how precious it used to be. “Taken with a pinch of salt’ means that what has been said should not be taken too seriously and ‘worth one’s salt’ harks back to the custom of Roman Legionnaires receiving some of their wages in the form of salt.

Spilling salt is still thought to signify bad luck and that it can only be countered by tossing some of what you have spilled over your left shoulder.  It has to be the left shoulder, because that is where the devil sits. Toss it over your right shoulder and you will be throwing it into the eyes of your guardian angel.  This belief may have come from the story that Judas overturned a salt cellar at the Last Supper and spilling some of the precious condiment over the table. It also used to be believed that salt, along with earth and fire could protect you from demons.  It used to be placed in baby’s cots to keep them safe and a plate of salt would be placed on the breast of someone who had just died to prevent the devil from taking their soul.

Dangers of Salt to the Environment

Too much is toxic to many plants and soil that contains too much salt is not suitable for agriculture and tends to be very unproductive.  Natural salt lakes tend to be very dry and arid areas.  Worryingly, salt sterilizing the soil in regions that are normally fertile is beginning to be a major environmental and economic issue in parts of the world.  In some parts of Australia, soil salinization is occurring in some regions partly due to sea salt being brought inland by wind and flooding and then being brought to the surface by modern farming practices such as irrigation and clearing the land.   The thin top-soil layers have become far too salty for successful agriculture and it is estimated that more than 2.5 million hectares of land has become unusable because of these modern farming practices

Salt Lake, Northern Territory Australia

Off The Beaten Salt Track

Finally, you would normally feel safe from a shark attack swimming in the fresh water of a river, right?  Sharks live in the salty waters of the oceans, don’t they? Wrong! Bull sharks are considered by experts to be one of the three species of shark most likely to be aggressive to humans, along with great whites and tiger sharks.  They generally live in shallow waters near the coast in tropical regions, but they are among the only sharks that can survive in brackish and fresh water.  They have been spotted thousands of miles up the Amazon River, been caught 900 miles up the Mississippi River and leap the river rapids in Nicaragua to reach Lake Nicaragua which is inland.  So that river you like to have a swim in might not be so safe at all!

Sea Salt Image PinPin Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Join the Guided Tour of Greek Mythology!

All aboard, all aboard!  Please take your seats and make yourselves comfortable as we take an incredible journey around some of he key sites and locations that feature in the Greek myths.  On this very special tour, not only will you get to relax and enjoy some amazing scenery as we travel through the Greek countryside, but you will also have some exclusive introductions to the gods, goddesses and heroes who played the crucial parts in these ancient legends.  So please make sure that you have your seat belts buckled and your tables in the upright position and we will travel back over two thousand years to our first destination.

Sparta

And see how fast we have arrived out our very first destination, Ancient Sparta.  During the classical period Greece was mainly comprised of independent city states, but what made Sparta stand out from the rest is that it was the only one that had a full time standing army and the Spartans gloried in war and physical fitness.  Young boys were sent off to the army barracks for training at the age of seven and even the little girls were made to participate in sport and feats of physical endurance so that they could go on to have many healthy Spartan children when they grew up.  In fact,  in our day and age the term ‘spartan’ has come to mean  harsh, austere conditions and living a life with few luxuries or comforts.  The Spartan army was a disciplined, awesome fighting machine and was regarded with respect and fear throughout the classical world.  Their most famous military engagement was the stand they took at Thermopylae in 480 BC.  Along with a small force of Thebans and Thespians, they stood their ground against a much larger army of invading Persians, inflicting a huge amount of casualties before they were finally overcome.

Ancient Theatre, Sparta

The founding of Sparta came about after the great god Zeus, King of Olympus indulged in one of his favourite pastimes and pursued a local nymph called Taygete, the result of which was a son called Lacedaemon.  When he grew to manhood he founded the city of Sparta and named it after his wife.  Probably the most famous citizen to have ever been born in Sparta was the legendary beauty Helen of Troy.  The girl that was destined to grow into ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ was another of the prolific progeny of the god Zeus, this time pursing the wife of the Spartan King Tyndareus, who was called Leda.  Now Greek myths tend to have several versions, but it was said that as Zeus pursued Leda she turned into a swan.  After he had made her succumb to him, she laid an egg out of which emerged the beautiful Helen.  In some versions of this myth there were two eggs laid, one of which produced Helen and Clytemnestra and the other the heavenly twins Castor and Pollux. One dark twin and one light twin emerging from each egg.

Garden of the Hesperides

Now we have to wave goodbye to the beautiful Helen of Troy and the mountains of Sparta, although we will meet her again later on in our journey.  It is time to take some refreshment and relax in the beautiful Garden of the Hesperides.  Now you might be tempted to pluck one of the exquisite golden apples growing on the many apple trees in the grove, but we would advise you against this and would encourage you to stick with the packed lunch that we have provided for your delectation.  Although the garden is tended by the beautiful nymphs, the Hesperides, the golden apples which confer immortality on those that eat from them, are guarded jealously by a fearsome dragon with a hundred heads called  Ladon.  Please note that your travel insurance does not cover any injuries sustained while trying to pat the dragon.

Garden of the Hesperides

The garden is owned by Zeus’s long suffering wife Hera, and we are hoping that she will pop in while we are there to have a cup of teas with us and tell us some more about this fantastic garden and the problems that she is always having with her husband.  One of the most famous stories is of the time when one of the golden apples was stolen and secreted out of the sacred grove.  It was taken by the goddess of discord, Eris, who then had engraved on it ‘for the fairest’.  Now the unpleasant events that were to follow the stealing of the golden apple, including the Trojan Wars, were all down to Eris’s nose being put out of joint because she had not been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.  She secretly snuck into the wedding reception and rolled the engraved golden apple in amongst the revellers.  On reading the inscription, three of the most powerful goddesses instantly claimed it as theirs.  A un-deity like fracas broke out which had to be mediated by the all powerful Zeus, who decided that a handsome youth called Paris, who was a prince of Troy,  would get to choose who was the most beautiful goddess.  The three contenders immediately got their kit off, had a quick bathe in the Spring of Ida and proceeded to bribe the judge just in case he was not impressed enough by their naked beauty.  Athena offered to teach him military skills and guarantee him prowess in war, Hera offered the young prince the chance to rule all of Europe and Asia, and the goddess of love Aphrodite tempted him with the possession of the most beautiful woman in the world.  Being a typical man, Paris rejected the more practical offers of Athena and Hera, and tossed the golden apple to Aphrodite, bagging for himself the pulchritudinous Helen of Troy (told you we would meet her again!) in the process.  Now there were a few little snags that he hadn’t taken into consideration when he made his choice, such as the fact that the gorgeous Helen was already married to King Menelaus and that it is never a good idea to get on the wrong side of two important goddesses. The Judgement of Paris was to prove another of the steps on the way to the Trojan War.

The Labyrinth of Crete

Now I am very aware that the tour so far has been a bit short on visitor attractions, so we are going to get some sea air and explore the legendary Labyrinth on the island of Crete.  The price of admission was included in the tour price and we will give you several hours to see if you can find your way into the centre and then get out again.  We have only lost seven tourists in the last three seasons, so we are very proud of our record.  The mythical Labyrinth was constructed for King Minos by Daedalus to house the half-bull and half-human monster that was the Minotaur.   Legend has it that the god of the seas, Poseidon, gave Minos a white bull to sacrifice. But Minos decided in his infinite wisdom to keep the white bull for himself, so to teach him a lesson Poseidon, with a little help from Aphrodite, fixed it so that Minos’s wife fell into lust with the white bull and several months later  gave birth to the Minotaur.  Now please note that the Labyrinth was built to a very complicated design and apparently even Daedalus had trouble finding his way out. 

Silver Coin from Knossos showing the Labyrinth

Now to keep the Minotaur fed and watered, Minos demanded a tribute of seven brave young men and seven beauteous young girls every seven years from the city state of Athens.  This was so that Athens could pay a suitably high price for assassinating King Minos’s eldest son Androgeus some years previously.  The Greek hero Theseus decided that enough was enough and took over from one of the doomed youths so that he could go and slay the monster.  Although he had been divested of all his weapons when he sailed for Crete he had managed to secrete his sword under his tunic, and fortunately for the dashing hero Minos’s daughter Ariadne slipped him a ball of twine before he was shoved into the Labyrinth.  He tied the end of the twine to the door post and managed to find his way through the dark to its very centre, where the Minotaur lay sleeping.  A tremendous fight ensued and Theseus eventually cut off the monster’s head.  He followed the twine back out into the Cretan sunshine and took off with the Athenian youngsters that he had saved and Ariadne and her sister Phaedra.  However, to show his gratitude to the Cretan princess he left Ariadne asleep on the beach on the island of Naxos one morning and then he forgot to change the sails of the ship to the white ones from the black ones as they approached Athens to signal that the youths were safe, so the poor old king committed suicide out of grief.

Cruise on the Argo

Now we have to leave the beautiful island of Crete behind us as we embark on the Argo for a cruise through the Mediterranean to the Black Sea with Jason and the Argonauts.  We are glad that in Crete you have had the chance to swim in Homer’s ‘wine dark sea’, but there will be many further opportunities for sea bathing as our cruise stops at the island of Lemnos,  then Samothrace, and then through the Bosphorous into the Black Sea. On this cruise you can join Jason and his Argonauts in their quest for the fabled Golden Fleece that Jason needs to find in order to claim his kingdom. Now the Argonauts are a pretty VIP bunch, so you will be priviledged to rub shoulders with the likes of the son of Zeus, Pollux, the Greek hero Perseus who rescued the fair Andromeda from the sea serpent, and chat with the legendary Hercules, another son of Zeus, about his twelve labours.  When the tour reaches the city of Aria in Colchis you will be given the chance to pan for gold using a sheep’s fleece, and will be given a souvenir grain of gold set in a tasteful plastic frame to take home with you as a treasured memory of your trip.

Troy

The next stop is one of the highlights of the tour as we travel overland by luxury coach to the fabulous city of Troy on the coast of Turkey.    Here you can choose which side you would rather be on, and join the siege of the city either on the side of the Greeks or the Trojans.  The fair Helen enters our story once more, as to gain possession of the most beautiful woman in the world, our hero Prince Paris had to steal her away from her husband King Menelaus’s palace at Mycenae.  With his pride and his honour severely dented, King Menelaus raised an army stuffed full of Greek heroes to go and reclaim his wife.   As it was a long and tiring siege that lasted ten years, there will be optional tours of Achilles’ tent, lessons in how to deliver prophecies that won’t be believed with Cassandra, and workshops on how to build a Trojan horse.  After a decade, you will be really looking forward to the grand finale when the great wooden horse is rolled through the gates of Troy and the Greek warriors leap out and fall upon the unsuspecting Trojans.  We have to tell you, however, that at this stage of the tour your travel insurance will not cover you if you accidentally get run through with a sword or are hit by an arrow through the heart.  And to show that all men are fools for love, when Menelaus reclaimed his wife after the death of Paris he fully intended to have her killed for her betrayal, but she somehow she managed to charm him all over again and he put off killing her until an unspecified later date.

 Hades                     

Now we had hoped to round off this tour with a very special, VIP trip to visit the gods on Mount Olympus. We even had Ares, Apollo, Hermes and Artemis lined up to give you exclusive audiences and photo opportunities with the deities.  However, all is not lost as the god of the underworld Pluto and his gorgeous young wife Persephone have invited us to visit with them in Hades.  You will get to enter Hades through the cavern at Avernus, and you will then be given a souvenir coin to put under your tongue to pay the ferryman Charon for the crossing of the river Acheron.  On the far side of the river you will be given a few minutes for a photo opportunity with the three headed guard dog Cerberus and then you will be given plenty of free time to chat with the shades of the dead and find out what the underworld is really like.  For a small extra fee, you can enjoy the whole abduction by Pluto experience, where we will leave you in a grassy meadow plucking flowers, and the dark lord of the underworld will spring out of the earth in his chariot and drag you down into Hades and feed you pomegranates.  Now unless your name is Orpheus, Theseus or Hercules, we have some unfortunate news for you.  Hades, like the Hotel California in the song by the Eagles, is somewhere you can check in but you can never leave, so make sure that you have packed enough for an extended stay.

We would like to thank you for joining us on our exciting trip around Greek mythology and we would be very grateful if you could fill in our feedback forms and hand them in to your representative.  As you are now a permanent resident of Hades, we have taken all the necessary steps to inform your relatives and wind up your earthly affairs.  If you ever manage to find a Greek hero who is willing to bust you out from the underworld, we would be very happy if you choose to travel with us again. Have a nice day and mind how you go.

Ancient Sparta Theatre image NicktheGreek82 Wikimedia Commons
Garden of the Hesperides Image Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Knossos Silver Coin image Almare Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The Ghosts of Haunted Rye

Have you heard of the ghosts of haunted Rye? The history of Britain is long and has frequently been bloody, so it has perhaps not surprising that there are so many stories of hauntings and the paranormal.  And Rye is one of the towns that is most famed for its ghosts and hauntings.  Rye was once one of England’s ancient Cinque Ports and is perhaps the quaintest and most picturesque old town in the whole of the United Kingdom.  The position of Rye, high on the hill, commands beautiful views across Romney Marshes and to the sea.  Rye was heavily fortified in medieval times although only the Landgate, Ypres Tower and a small part of the town wall still survive.  The centre of Rye is filled with sloping cobbled streets, 16^th century half-timbered houses, old inns and little shops.  The town used to be a thriving port before the harbour silted up and its colourful history contains many tales of smugglers, pirates and the revenue men who tried to catch them and stop their illicit trade.  Indeed during the 18^th century Rye’s prosperity was very heavily dependent on the smuggling trade, much to the dismay of the evangelical preacher John Wesley who visited the town in 1773.  It has also been home to many writers in its time, including Henry James, E F Benson, Joseph Conrad, G K Chesterton and H G Wells.

Mermaid Street, Rye

So where in this old town do you go to possibly see one of its famous ghosts?

Lamb House

This old house was built in the 1723 and is now owned by the National Trust.  Henry James moved into Lamb House in 1898 and his later novels were written there. Henry James claimed that a ghost of an old lady used to visit him and help him with his writing.  Poltergeist activity has also been recorded in Lamb and the house is also said to be haunted by a man called Allen Grebell who was murdered by a butcher.

Mermaid Inn

 

Reputed to be one of the most haunted pubs in the United Kingdom, the Mermaid Inn dates to the early 15^th century, though it is thought that parts of the cellars and the foundations may date as far back as 1150.  During the 18^th century the Mermaid Inn notorious for being a smuggler’s haunt, and the inn has concealed staircases, rooms with moving wall panels, an a concealed entrance to a ‘Priest’s Hole’.  Room 16 of the Mermaid Inn is known as the Elizabethan Chamber and during the 1930’s a guest sleeping in the room witness a pair of phantom duellers fighting with rapiers.  The ghost who won the duel is then said to have dragged the loser’s dead body through the Inn and dropped it through a trapdoor.  A grey lady is also said to haunt the upper floors of the building, with Room 5, which is known as the Nutcracker suite, being one of her regular locations to materialise.  She is seen drifting through the closed door and halts once at the foot of the bed before disappearing.  It is thought that she is the ghost of a girl who was murdered for being too indiscreet about her smuggler lover’s illicit activities and that she is now endlessly searching through Mermaid Inn to find her murderous beau.

The Mermaid Inn, Rye

  

In rooms 10 and 18 a man who fades away has been seen entering and leaving, and he is often seen disappearing through the wall. In room 1 a lady wearing pale garments has been seen sitting in a chair by the fireplace, and even guests who have not seen the apparition have complained that they have hung their clothes over the chair at night only to find them soaked with water the next morning.  One of the rocking chairs at the Mermaid Inn is has also been seen rocking of its own accord and the chair cushion was seen to squeeze down as though an invisible someone had sat down on it.

Monastery Hall

In Rye’s Monastery Hall during the 1940’s a line of monks was seen in the hall and gardens.  This may have been related to the digging up of several skeletons in the garden at that time and there was some evidence that they had been buried alive.

Needles Passage

In Needles Passage echoing footsteps can be heard by people walking through the passage although there nobody can be seen when they pass by.

Reysons Farm

In the 1930s loud footsteps were heard going up and down the stairs and the ghost of a man was also seen at night.

The Union Inn

The Union Inn is an old, medieval building and has been a pub since 1420.  The name of the Inn probably derives from the union of England and Scotland at the accession to the throne of King James I, who had previously been James VI of Scotland.  The inn boasts the ghost of a little girl who was often seen wandering through the kitchen and restaurant of this old inn in the mid 1990’s, many of the people spotting her believing her to be real.  It is also thought that the inn is haunted by the ghost of an unmarried mother who died when she fell down the cellar steps.

 

Rye Town Centre

In the town centre of Rye, two female ghosts have been observed walking down Mermaid Street wearing long dresses and a little girl dressed in blue has been seen crossing the street.  In Watchbell Street the ghost of a little boy wrapped in a white sheet has been seen and disembodied footsteps have also been heard.  In the Old Tuck Shoppe in Market Street there is said to be the ghost of a grey lady.

Turkey Cock Lane

Ghostly sounds like those of a turkey gobbling used to be heard in Turkey Cock Lane.  They apparently emanated from the ghost of a monk who broke his vows of chastity and went mad after he was bricked up alive after being caught trying to elope with a local girl that he had fallen in love with.  The shade of the monk is apparently still sometimes seen, but the spectral sounds are no longer heard

.

White Vine Hotel

From November 1995 the White Vine Hotel in Rye has been a focus of poltergeist activity.  The kitchen gets rearranged by unseen hands and food gets moved around and hidden.  Sometimes the poltergeist activity moves to the bedrooms, but always eventually comes back to the kitchen.

So could Rye be the most haunted town in Britain?  If you wanted to visit haunted Rye for yourself, there is a good range of accommodation available from self-catering through to hotels and old inns.  For a taste of the paranormal, try staying among the ghosts at the Mermaid Inn itself or Rye Heritage Centre runs a Ghost Tour Experience which you can book onto.  There is plenty to see in the old town, such as Rye Castle Museum, and some glorious walks in the surrounding countryside.  So have a happy ghost hunting break in ancient Rye!

Mermaid Street Image Ian Macnab Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 

Mermaid Inn Image Chris Whippet Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0

The Story of St Nicholas, Father Christmas and Santa Claus

Did you know that the origins of Father Christmas and Santa Claus lie with an early Christian Saint called Nicholas of Myra?  He came from the Lycian port of Myra in south west Turkey and lived in the fourth century AD.  He was an early Christian bishop and he probably died on 6^th December as this was celebrated as his feast day in the medieval calendar.  He was regarded as a patron of sailors and navigation. It is thought that he was a survivor of the persecutions of Diocletian, and that he had been exiled and imprisoned.  Later accounts state that he attended the Council of Nicaea and argued against the Arian heresy.

Old Father Christmas

There are several legends that surround St Nicholas.  One that is credited with being the legend that linked St Nicholas to gift giving is that he was told of a man who could not get the money together to provide dowries for his three daughters.  Because of this man’s pecuniary difficulties, he was planning to send them to work in a brothel.  St Nicholas reputedly saved them from this fate by throwing three bags of gold through their window one night.  This legend led to St Nicholas being regarded as a protector of marriage.

Another legend of St Nicholas is that he found out that the cook of an inn offered the meat of children that he killed to his patrons.  When he investigated, he found the bodies of three small boys pickled in a tub.  He blessed the bodies of the dead children, which instantly restored them to life.  Because of this legend, St Nicholas became a patron of children and it became a custom in some countries, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, to give children presents on his feast day of 6^th December.

He was buried in the cathedral church in Myra and a unique relic called manna was said to form in his grave.  This manna was a miraculous liquid that was purported to heal people. The bones of St Nicholas were brought to Bari in Italy in 1087 by a group of Greek merchants, after the Turks captured Myra, and buried under the altar of a new church, the Basilica San Nicola, inaugurated by Pope Urban II.  Some of the bones were taken to Port in France and others were taken to Worms in Germany.  Many churches in Europe were dedicated to St Nicholas, especially in the ports of the Hanseatic League.  The reformation in many parts of Europe, brought to an end the veneration of Catholic saints, but the old customs and legends of St Nicholas persisted and developed into modern times.

It came to be believed that St Nicholas judged whether or not children had been good or bad and in the Netherlands he was supposed to ride his white horse across the sky, dropping presents down the chimneys of the good children on the evening of 5^th/6^th December.   They would find these gifts the next morning, and they would often be hidden in shoes.  If the child had been bad during the year, it was believed that a small bag of salt would be left in place of the presents. Hiding the gifts in the shoes was a reflection of the older custom of putting money into poor people’s shoes on the feast of St Nicholas. He became known as Sinterklaas, and actors would dress up in bishop’s robes and visit children and tell them how to behave.  In Germany they developed the custom of electing a boy bishop on December 6^th.

Sinterklaas is said to have had a helper or helpers, known as ‘Black Pete’, and they carry a bag containing sweets for good children and a swatch of willow branches with which to spank naughty children.  This is linked to the legend of St Nicholas saving the lives of three small Moorish boys who had been condemned to death for a crime that they had not committed.  In gratitude they stayed with the Saint and helped him to deliver the gifts from the rooftops.  The dark colour of their skin is said to be linked to the Moorish origins of the three boys rescued by or because they are associated with chimney sweeps. Traditionally Sinterklaas and Black Pete arrive in the Netherlands and Belgium on a steamboat from Spain, and nowadays they are then paraded through the towns, cheered on by crowds and even broadcast on television.  Sweets and ginger biscuits are tossed to the children in the crowds and traditional Sinterklaas songs are sung.

Sinterklaas is the basis for the American figure of Santa Claus.  New York started life as an old Dutch colonial town called New Amsterdam which had been traded by the Dutch for other territories.  It is believed that during the American War of Independence, because the customs surrounding Sinterklaas were not of English origin, they were changed and incorporated into a figure called Santa Claus.  In 1835 the Saint Nicholas Society was formed by a group of New Yorkers, including Washington Irving, to celebrate the heritage of New York City, and in 1850 a teacher called Jan Schenkman published an illustrated children’s book called ‘St Nicholas and His Helper’ which introduced the concept of Christmas presents being delivered down the chimney.

The modern American Santa Claus is depicted as a rotund figure that is dressed in a red suit with white fur rather than a bishop’s robes and has a sleigh with flying reindeer rather than a flying horse.  Drawings by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Illustrated Weekly in 1863-66 encapsulated this modern vision of Santa, and this figure was used by several large advertisers such as Coca-Cola.  Santa Claus is believed to live for most of the year at the North Pole with his wife Mrs Claus, his myriad helper elves and the magical flying reindeer, where they make all the toys that they will need for the coming Christmas.  Children now write a letter to Santa just before Christmas that lists all the toys that they would like Santa to bring them and outlining how good they have been throughout the year.  In turn, Santa Claus is said to make a list of all the children who were ‘naughty or nice’ that he uses to calculate how many Christmas presents each child is to receive.  Especially naughty children are believed to be left a lump of coal on Christmas Eve by Santa rather than presents.  It has also become a tradition to leave out a glass of milk and a plate of cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and some carrots for the reindeer.

The English Father Christmas was initially represented as a Christmas visitor and the personification of the spirit of Christmas, rather than an entity that delivered presents at Christmastime.   In Saxon times, they had a ‘King Frost’ or ‘King Winter’, who was someone who was chosen, dressed in green and given a big hat or crown to wear. ‘King Winter’ was believed to be able to make the winter weather less harsh and help them get through to the spring.   In the Middle Ages in England the local parish would hire an actor or borrow a religious person from another parish to disguise themselves and go around the homes in the area to see which families had any problems.  They would then go back and report to the Parish Priest, who would then try to make sure that those families received help.

Father Christmas

 An archaic version of Father Christmas was mentioned in an old carol in the fifteenth century, and he became more popular with the publication of Ben Johnson’s ‘Captaine Christmas’ in the seventeenth century.  The Puritans tried to do away with all English Christmas traditions, including that of Father Christmas, but they were not successful and Father Christmas continued to make his Yuletide visits.  He was often depicted as a pagan figure with either ivy or icicles around his head. The whole concept of Christmas went through a great revival during the Victorian era in England, and by the 1870’s Father Christmas was delivering Christmas presents and hanging Christmas Stockings from the end of beds just like the American Santa Claus.

These days the English Father Christmas and the American Santa Claus are almost indistinguishable and a fat jolly old gentleman in a red suit with a white beard can be found in Santa’s Grotto in most major department stores in the towns of America and the United Kingdom.  He is surrounded by elves giving out candy canes, no longer admonishes naughty children and hands out presents.  He is now a totally benign figure that adorns our Christmas cards and decorations, and slides down our chimneys on Christmas Eve to stuff our stockings with gifts!

Who Was Mother Shipton?

Mother Shipton and Cardinal Wolsey

On a dark and stormy night in 1488 a young woman lay in a dark cave on the banks of the River Nidd in Knaresborough in North Yorkshire struggling to give birth to her illegitimate daughter.  As the rain lashed down and the lightning crackled across the sky, Agnes Sontheil laboured through the night until her baby was born.  The young mother called her infant daughter Ursula and the cave was to be their home for the next two years.  Eventually, after the Abbott of Beverley brought pressure to bear, the small child was removed from her mother and the cave, and placed in the care of a respectable local family. When Ursula Sontheil grew up she married a carpenter from the city of York called Tom Shipton in 1512.

Ursula Shipton, or Mother Shipton as she became known as, started a career of telling fortunes and creating prophetic poems.  The local people, who were very wary and superstitious, believed that she was a witch.  This belief was reinforced by her appearances, because by many accounts MotherShipton was disfigured and deformed, unable to walk without the aid of a stick and with a large hooked nose on her terrifyingly ugly face.  She was so taunted and bullied by her neighbours that she began spending most of her time back in the cave where she had been born, wandering in the local woods looking for the herbs and healing plants that she used in her remedies and potions.

Mother Shipton lived during the reign of the Tudor King Henry VIII, and she confirmed her reputation as an incredibly accurate soothsayer when she made a prediction concerning Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s powerful Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York.  Cardinal Wolsey’s influence over Henry VIII was on the wane when she made a prophecy that he would never get to see York in his lifetime, even though he was the appointed Archbishop of that city.  The mighty statesman was, not surprisingly, unimpressed with this prediction, and moved swiftly to prove Mother Shipton wrong.  He sent three Lords from his retinue to remonstrate with her and to get her to withdraw what she had said, but she merely laughed in their faces.  Even when they threatened to have her burned at the stake as a witch unless she kept her mouth shut, she did not back down and just repeated her prediction that the great Cardinal would never set his eyes on the city of York.

This intransigence so incensed Cardinal Wolsey that he immediately set out to travel to York.  He reached a place called Cawood Tower, some ten miles south of the city, when his travelling party was forced to stop for the night.  Determined to get his first sight of the city, the Cardinal made to climb the tower, but before he could do it he was arrested by the King’s men on a charge of high treason.  The accuracy of this prophecy struck fear into the hearts of many, and she was now feared as well as reviled.

Mother Shipton reputedly lived until 1561, which would have made her an elderly lady of 73 when she died. During her life she had spoken her predictions, not written them, and it wasn’t until around 1641 that the first book recording her prophecies was produced.  This book was put together by a lady called Joanne Waller who compiled it just before she died at the age of 94.  She claimed that she had heard the predictions directly from Mother Shipton herself, so she must have been talking to the famous soothsayer in the last few years of her life.

Since this first publication of Mother Shipton’s prophecies, there have been over fifty other editions of her sayings.  With many of these predictions, it is very questionable as to how many of them were ever uttered by Mother Shipton, or were made up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  One of the most famous was her supposed prediction about the end of the world coming in 1881, but as we are still here over a hundred years later this one, thankfully, did not come true.  Various other dates were quoted in different publications and in different countries, but probably none of them came from the lips of Mother Shipton.  Other famous predictions were the Civil War in England, the coming of iron ships and Samuel Pepys wrote in his famous diary that while they were surveying the damage wrought by the Great Fire of London that he had overheard people talking about Mother Shipton prophesying the fiery conflagration.

Of course the reality is that we do not even really know if Mother Shipton was an historical figure or just a local legend. The cave where she was born, and brewed her healing potions is now a major tourist attraction in Knaresborough called Mother Shipton’s Caves.  The caves also feature a local curiosity called the Petrifying Well.  Since the Middle Ages people have hung objects in the waters of the Petrifying Well and returned a couple of months later to find that they have been turned to stone.  In earlier times it would be dead animals and birds and things like wigs that would be left in the well, but these days teddy bears are hung in the water, and once they have petrified they are sold in the Gift Shop.  The Petrifying Well is fed from the waters of the Petrifying Well Spring, which in turn is fed through an aquifer from a natural underground lake.  As the water travels through the aquifer it dissolves a very high concentration of minerals from the surrounding rocks, and it is this high mineral concentration in the spring water that turns things into stone if they are left immersed long enough.  In past centuries people would bring the sick and infirm to the Petrifying Well to drink the waters and bathe so that they would be healed, but these days you cannot drink the water as the high mineral content renders it not suitable. Another feature of Mother Shipton’s Caves is the Wishing Well, where apparently many of the wishes made have really come true.

So do you believe that some people can see into the future and that the prophecies of Mother Shipton were true? If so, maybe you should visit Mother Shipton’s Cave, make a wish at the Wishing Well and buy a teddy that was turned to stone in the Petrifying Well.

Mother Shipton image Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Mother Shipton's Cave Chris Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

UK Invasive Species – War of the Grey and Black Squirrels

In the UK there are several very common and familiar animal, insect and plant species that are not actually native to our country.  They are species that have been introduced into our countryside in one way or another, and have often driven our native species from their habitats by out-competing them for food, passing on disease and taking over territory.  Invasive species can be very destructive to often fragile habitats, and can cost the economy millions of pounds a year. In fact, you may well have one of these alien animals in your garden right now, and you may have spent many happy hours watching their antics and admiring their aerial acrobatics in the trees.  This cute little invader is the grey squirrel, and although they seem so ubiquitous they have only been scampering around our gardens and woodlands for the last hundred years or so.

Our native squirrel species is the smaller red squirrel, and before the last quarter of the 19^th century they numbered in the millions and ranged across the whole country. Red squirrels are easily recognisable by their striking red coats, bushy tails and tufts of red fur on their ears. Their preferred habitat is conifer forest, where they live off pine cones, seeds, shoots and fruit.  The red squirrel tends to be a solitary animal  except during the mating season, when they build large nests called dreys in the forks of trees producing a litter of between 2-3 kittens in the spring.  However, it is now estimated that there are as few as 120,000 red squirrels left in the wild, and the major cause of their decline was the introduction of grey squirrels into the UK.

The grey squirrel is a North American species, which arrived in the UK between 1876 and 1929 when they were introduced into many parks and private animal collections.  Inevitably some of the animals escaped or were released into the wild, where they thrived and bred successfully.  Because they were so much bigger, stronger and ate a wider variety of food than the native reds, they started to drive them out of their territory, so that now the red squirrel is confined to parts of Scotland, northern England, Wales and the Isle of Wight.  The grey squirrels also passed on disease to the reds, which they had no natural immunity to.

But although the grey squirrels have been the victorious conquerors of our gardens and parks for decades now, they do have a new challenger that is beginning to drive them out of their territory and ironically this new invasive species is a member of their own family.  So don’t go and get your eyes tested if the squirrel running down your fence looks black and not grey, as the black squirrel is slowly but surely increasing its numbers in some parts of Britain.

Like its grey cousin, the black squirrel also arrived from the US in the late 19^th century, where they were kept as exotic pets in a private zoo in Bedfordshire.  Some of these animals escaped from captivity, and in 1912 the first wild black squirrel was spotted in the environs of Letchworth, Hertfordshire.  It is now estimated that there are more than 25,000 of them living in the UK, most of which are in the East Anglia region, and some scientists think that they could eventually become the dominant squirrel species in this country as there are more sightings of black squirrels being reported from other parts of the UK.

Grey and black squirrels are actually the same species, but a genetic mutation caused an excess of melanin to be produced in some squirrels that caused the black pigmentation of the fur.  It is thought that having black fur could help the squirrels to survive in colder climates, as it absorbs heat more readily.  Being so closely related, the grey and black squirrels can breed with each other, but when they do the black gene is dominant, which is another reason why they may eventually overtake the grey squirrels in numbers.  There has been a major research project undertaken on the spread of black squirrels by Anglia Ruskin University since 2004, where they have set up a website asking the public to report any black squirrel sightings they have made.  So a seemingly successful invasive species, can in its turn be overtaken by a more recently introduced species, so that in a few years time we could all be watching black squirrels in our parks, and the grey squirrels, just like the reds, might well have been pushed out and be only surviving in small colonies in the remoter, more inhospitable parts of the UK.


Black squirrel image Sujit kumar Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic