Only two days to go before Los Sánchez abandon Brexit Britain and head for the sun soaked sierras of southern Spain, a little paler, a little poorer (£1.00=1.19€) but content in the knowledge that British people have now 'got control back'. Indeed, it's been a delight during the last couple of months to see the happy, smiling faces of all the newly enfranchised and empowered islanders as they skip gaily down Kings Heath High Street to sign on or pop into Cash Converters to pawn the odd gold ring or mobile phone. Meanwhile Sir Philip Green smiles benignly from his new £100 billion yacht somewhere in the Adriatic as he opens another bottle of Krug and toasts all the unemployed staff and penniless pensioners of British Home Stores. It's nice to be in control.
I expect that by the time we come back to 'post Brexit Britain' they will have built the wall between Northern and Southern Ireland, patched up Hadrian's Wall and the British fleet will be patrolling the beaches of the south coast 24/7.
Mrs.Sánchez and I have have just returned from an archaeological expedition in the far south west of Britain on The Isles of Scilly, a group of low lying islands and rocks populated by Scillonians and rare seabirds such as the Manx Shearwater and the mythical Puffin. For hundreds of years Scillonians, a hardy race, have survived by eating barnacles, wrecking ships( allegedly) and providing B&B for passing pirates.
These days the islands are very prosperous. The B&Bs have improved, there are several posh hotels and lots of shops selling expensive clothes, mugs with puffins on them, original paintings, pottery and Cornish pasties. I am told that during the peak holiday period over 10,000 pasties are sold every day, most of them imported frozen from the mainland. (for the lowdown on Cornish pasties the reader is referred to a previous blog 'Home is where the Pies Are' 7/4/2015.).
The Hunt for Billy Idol
A long long time ago all the Isles of Scilly were joined up and what remains today are the tops of the hills. If you are thinking of visiting Scilly, I should get a move on and book now because at the rate the oceans are rising there won't be anything to see at all in a few years. The people who lived here 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, well before pasties were invented, used to bury bodies or their ashes on the hills in graves called barrows or cists. There are hundreds of them on the Islands, so many that if you don't keep to the paths you could very well fall into one or bump into one and get a nasty bruise. There are more of these graves on Scilly than in the whole of Cornwall.
(a lucky escape)
These ancient people put up 'standing stones'(menhirs) here and there too.
Nobody knows what they were for, but I was fascinated to read in 'The Fortunate Isles' by R.L. Bowley that there is an actual pagan statue on the island St. Martin's which is 'Britain's earliest known statue.' It was found on S. Martin's in 1989 by a holidaymaker looking for puffins and 'consists of a human face - nose, mouth, eyes and neck all faintly discernable'
Naturally, Mrs. S. and I were on the first available 'tripper boat' to St. Martin's, but not before asking the nice lady at the Isles of Scilly Museum . where the statue could be found. She wasn't able to tell me, which was a bit surprising seeing that it's supposed to be the oldest statue in the whole of Great Britain!
She told me to ask 'Keith Lowe' who lives on St Martin's.
.
Off we went on the Seahorse (a boat) and after picking up a couple of 'locally made' pasties we went off in search of Keith Lowe. There are only 136 people living on St. Martin´s so finding him wasn't likely to be difficult, if he was in. I knocked on the first cottage door we came across and enquired after Keith Lowe.
'Good morning. I wonder if you could tell me where I might find Keith Lowe.'
'You don't want to buy a pasty?'
'Not today thankyou.I'm looking for Keith Lowe.'
'He's upstairs listening to the radio'.
Pause for uncomfortable silence.
'Do you want to speak to him?'
'Yes please. It's about the ancient statue'.
(5-10 minutes later there is a shuffling sound on the stairs.)
'Hello. Are you Keith Lowe? It's about the ancient statue'.
He was a man of indeterminate age with long straggly hair and wearing two pairs of glasses. Obviously a local sage.
'Ah. Billy Idol'. What about her? We call her Billy Idol cos she's a pagan idol.'
'What a witty and inventive name!.' I ventured, 'Can you tell me were to find her, er, it?
Maps came out and Mr. Lowe, who appeared to have recently risen, described a route to 'Billy' involving paths, a day mark,a menhir, lots of heather and cliffs.
'It it easy to find?'
'Ah. That depends. Some times it's easy. Sometimes she just don't want to be found.'
Off we headed, into a freshening easterly ( a sign of bad weather to come in these parts.)
And we found her.
It's not a very big statue. It's not in the guide books and the are no signs for it, but it's supposed to be the oldest statue in Great Britain. I wondered who had really 'discovered' it. Probably Keith Lowe. With a little imagination you can make out a neck. We weren't convinced. Apparently someone pinched it a few years ago to fill a hole in a wall but now it is cemented firmly to the ground.
It turned out that we'd been trying to make out facial features on the wrong side. On the other side, facing the sea and with the sun at the right elevation it's just possible to make out a human face.
Disturbing news from Alora!
When in Álora we get our drinking water from La Fuente de la Canca.It's a natural spring which has flowed continuously for a least 2000 years when the Romans incorporated it into a villa. The water is a bit limey but it's free. Now, suddenly it's dried up. Not a drop from either of the pipes.
The Ayuntamiento, headed by the popular and now bearded José Sánchez Moreno (no relation) is on the case and big diggers have been brought in to find out where the water is going. No success so far.
The latest theory is that someone has dug a well nearby and diverted the stream. All they need to do is go up in a helicopter and look for a big green patch. There's been no rain for two months. East Peasy. I hope they get it sorted by the time we get there next week.
Juanito Sánchez September 3rd. 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment