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Below is a copy of my comment on Andy B's History of Kit's Coty of 24 March 2006
Re: A short history of the Medway Megaliths (Score: 1)
by ryszard on Tuesday, 28 March 2006
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Very interesting. Stones, long barrow remains, a longhouse, and much later a Pilgrim's Way along this direction & all pointing to Canterbury
Also, if you click them up on the map, many wells in close proximity, "Holy" & other.
Pilgrims after Thomas a Becket's death probably "made do" with beer or wine, if they had any sense, but earlier, Neolithic pilgrims or travellers would need water from springs or wells, many old "wells" being in fact springs.
Has anyone done work on the association of holy wells with megaliths in the Canterbury area, comparable to the now perhaps dated, Holy Wells of Wales by Francis Jones? To put it briefly, he points out that Xtian churches were often built at pagan worship sites, many of them of great antiquity, and that many cathedrals were built over wells. He lists Carlisle, Glasgow, Winchester, York, & St David's.
He also states that he found 200 examples of churches or wayside chapels built over or near wells, 33 of those in Pembrokeshire.
Is there or was there a well/spring in Canterbury's case? Is there any evidence of Neolithic remains there?
In his book Jones points out the Pope's instructions to St Augustine to "convert pagan customs to a Xtian solemnity" and a letter to Mellitus stating "idols are to be destroyed but pagan temples to be purified with "holy water" to convert from devil worship to worship of true God".
Many of these sites probably reach into the Neolithic. What work has been done on that aspect of Cathedrals & other churches?
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Francis Jones pointed out in his book the frequent association of Holy Wells and the remains of megaliths, he called them dolmens. His 200 wells were all in Wales.
He noted the various words for "well":-
Wales---- FFYNNON or occasionally PISTYLL which stands for a "spout"
Scotland & Ireland --- TOBAR, meaning well, fountain, or spring.
Isle of Man ------ CHIBBYR or TOBBYR
Cornwall ------- FENTEN, FENTON, FUNTEN, FYNTAN, VENTON
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