Knowlton Church

4th May 2008

Knowlton and its church.

The pagan village of knowlton was once a thriving hamlet. This little village even held its own annual fayre. It is thought around 1485 the villages suffered at the hands of the pubonic plague (black death) which all but wiped out the entire village. All that remains of the village itself is a few foundations of the buildings a few hundred yards away from the west of the church.

Knowlton Church

Knowlton Church was built sometime during the 12th century and during the 14th century it received further modifications. The now ruin of the church stands in the centre of a pagan earth circle built in the bronze age. This makes Knowlton Church truly unique.

Knowlton is part of ancient complex of rings that consist of 4 earth works, the north circle, church circle, southern circle and the old church yard. Also in addition to this site to the east of the church circle is the Great Barrow. This is the largest Barrow in Dorset and within a mile radius of Knowlton earth works are a large number of barrows and ring ditches.

The location of Knowlton Church is clearly the result of christianisation of pagan sites. This was common practice of early missionaries attempts to convert the locals to chrstianity. Many pagan sites where taken and churches built on them. Knowlton Church itself is thought to be built from the megaliths (standing stones) believed to of lined the henge that surround Knowlton Church.

The Bell of Knowlton

The bell of Knowlton Church and its where abouts are shrouded in mystery and legend. Some say its in nearby village of Shapwick's church others say its at Sturminster Marshall. The local legend even suggests that the devil himself threw the bell into the nearby river Allen and the villagers attempts to retrieve the bell failed. A more plausible theory is that thieves stole the bell with the attempt to sell it and make profit but in their attempt to flee with their prize they were forced to throw the bell in the river to prevent detection. Then with the villagers failed attempts to retrieve the bell they assumed it was the devils curse at play. This story even has its own rhyme. "Knowlton Bell is stole, and thrown into white mill hole, where all the devils in hell, could never pull up Knowlton bell.

4th May

As Knowlton Church ruin is built on a pagan site we thought to hold an investigation here at Beltane a pagan sabbat and to dress up and play pagan music may encourage the spirits to come and join us. A combination of Phoenix, Wessex and Twilight shadows made up the team.

We arrived at the site at around 9pm and the light was just beginning to fade. After we got our barrings Maria began to prepare the area for our Beltane ritual. The church looked lovely all light up with candles it took on a real ambient feel. It will be a memory I will cherish for a long time. We all participated in the ceremony that Maria very bravely lead and I felt the that the ceremony really calmed the air. The church had a beautiful atmosphere and we all seemed very serene after, I noticed that all present were very happy and laughter seemed to fill the air. A worrying aspect though was we did not have the love incense to burn at the ceremony but actually incense intended to invoke sexual attraction. I think all us ladies kept a close eye on the men present just in case on the quiet. We then extinguished the candles and set about trying to sense if there was anything unusual happening after our celebrations. We felt that the place did not have a threatening atmosphere at all though after a while the air did appear to get quite heavy and an unusual darkness seemed to descend. I did not know though whether this was because of the spirits coming closer or the fact there may of been a storm approaching. The weather was very unsettled. We stayed for quiet a while just chatting in the darkness (often things unusual start to happen when you are not paying attention) and taking lots of pictures. Though the atmosphere had changed we did not feel that the place was active so we decided to pack up and go home.

I would like to thank Maria for leading this brilliant investigation and talking us all through our roles in the Beltane ritual.