Flixton Lane
Headdress from Star Carr in the Rotunda Museum Scarborough
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Headdress from Star Carr in the British Museum, London
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The Star Carr Pendant
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The Flixton Werewolf
Flixton with its ancient history and its particular landscape makes a fertile place for stories and legends to grow.
Werewolf legends in Britain are rare but Flixton has one. Mesolithic sites are rare in Britain, but Flixton has one. Mesolithic sites that contain shamanic antler head-dresses are rare anywhere in the world, but Flixton has twenty seven..
Accounts of the Flixton werewolf date back 1,000 years and sightings have appeared every few hundred years.
A Ghost Hunter's Road Book, published by John Harries in 1974, states: “A fearsome beast, equipped with abnormally large eyes and exuding a terrible stench, the animal is supposed to fell nocturnal wayfarers with its tail, which is almost as long as its body. The eyes are crimson and dart fire” … “historical records mention that in the year 940AD, a hostel was built in the village of Flixton to shelter wayfarers in wintertime from attacks by these kind of wolves”.
The book also tells us that, “a wizard with dark powers to shape-shift roams the area of Flixton”.
The marks we leave on the landscape are like the marks on a palimpsest, and as the generations pass can the places we live in store memories as we leave little pieces of our memories behind for others to find?
A recent sighting of the Flixton Werewolf came in 1985, by local lad Richard Perkins. He describes how “me and me mates were out raking about with matches and space raiders when we saw what we thought was a dog in the field above. We couldn't go any further cos Brian had just spread liquid pig-swill all over the field and Tim never had his wellies on (we all did). So Chris went to his nan’s to get some binoculars. He took ages but we kept watching the beast until he got back. We saw a big dog-like thing but it didn't look like a dog, it looked like a cat, a 'dog cat' we thought. I asked me dad about this and he said that when keeping weird exotic pets became illegal, people chucked them out into the wild. We thought this is what it could be, a 'chucked-out big cat'! I was really scared”.
Flixton, Folkton and Staxton all sit in the peat bogs of the Vale of Pickering. Once the great proglacial Lake Pickering, the waters are now sunk and drained, creating the low-lying carr lands that are farmed today. Peat is formed from the layering up of semi-decayed organic matter.
It is these peat bogs that have preserved Star Carr, the most famous Mesolithic site in Britain, named after the farm land under which it was found. These and the finds at Flixton Island, a raised area of land that was once a small island on Lake Flixton, gave a precious insight into life in Britain 11,000 years ago.
Twenty-seven antler headdresses have been excavated from the peat at Star Carr. In his new book, eminent archaeologist Francis Prior states: “most archaeologists, myself included, see them as some sort of strange headdresses worn by shamans during pre- or post-hunting rituals and dances’.
A 'shaman' is an academic way of describing a witch doctor or a 'wizard'. Later excavations found post holes and a sunken floor, which established itself as the remains of the earliest permanent house in Britain. Did a wizard or shaman with his or her collection of headdresses live in the house by the lake at Star Carr? Is it the memory of this eminent individual, stored in the peat, that has given rise to the wandering, shape-shifting werewolf described in the accounts at Flixton?
Flixton, Folkton and Staxton are Anglo-Saxon / Old Norse place names, the result of Scandinavian settlers making their homes here. In his book Crossing the Borderlines: Guising, Masks and Ritual Animal Disguises in the European Tradition, Nigel Pennick explains: “At the start of each month, certain Norse (north) men underwent a form of madness that made them into wolfs and dogs, who spent the night roving around. Perhaps the legend of the werewolf also originates in such ceremonial madness?
Norse warrior tradition describes the cult of the Berserkers associated with using wolf or bear skin as armour, transforming soldiers into powerful beasts in battle. Going berserk is a term used when someone flies into a rage. In Old Norse it means to go into battle wearing a bear-skin shirt’. Take care that the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace wear bearskin hats.
Harold Hardrada, the king of Norway who burnt Scarborough to the ground on his way to Riccall for the great battle at Stamford Bridge in 1066, had the Berserkers as his personal bodyguard. The legend of the Battle of Stamford Bridge tells us that a huge berserker warrior stood alone on the bridge taking on the opposing army himself until his prospects were ruined from beneath the bridge by a group of men with pikes.
In his book about Guising, Nigel Pennick continues: “The old Norse stories of shape-shifting individuals give an insight into the beliefs people held when in disguise. A person had 'hamr' - a shape which could mean an animal skin. One who never changed shape was a 'hamrammr', 'shape strong' and one who did change shape was called 'hamhleypa', meaning the 'leaper out of skin’.”
A hammer (hamr), the blacksmith’s tool used for changing an object’s shape, now takes on different connotations. A blacksmith is an ancient profession. The ability to transform objects with hammer and furnace is a valuable skill closely linked to animals and especially horses.
Over the years, the people on the Carrs have reported cattle and horses that were lost in the peat bogs. A Spitfire that crash-landed in a field during the war was soon swallowed up by the bogs. A Flixton resident recalls her mum telling her of the ghost of a horse at the end of Flixton Lane around Flixton Island area.
The Flixton Island excavations unearthed remains of a horse butchery site, used in the Mesolithic era. Peat bogs can give rise to the combustion of rotting organic matter that ignites when oxidised to make fox-fire or bog-lights. Apparently cold to the touch, it gave rise to tales of will o’ the wisps.
Bog lands have always been places of mystery, neither water nor land, neither here nor there, difficult to farm and often classed as waste land. Does peat store the memory of a place? Houses aren't just bricks and mortar.
German artist Joseph Beuys explained that: “Bogs are the liveliest elements in the European landscape, not just from the point of view of flora and fauna, birds and animals, but as storing places of life, and of mystery and chemical change, as well as preservers of ancient history”.
Incidentally just a little way up the river where the Derwent passes Brompton Bridge runs 'Howling Dyke'.
The Antiquarian Thomas Hinderwell in his book 'The History and Antiquities of Scarborough and the Vicinity' describes, "Flixton, at the foot of the wolds, was founded in the reign of Athelstan...The Charter of the 25th Henry VI, shows that one Achorne built a hospital at Flixton for the preservation people travelling that way, that they might not be devoured by wolves". He goes on to say that, " there is a certain parcel of land in this vicinity distinguished by the name 'Wolf-land' and on this spot where the Hospital anciently stood, is now a Farm house called 'Spital' ". According to ancient custom, the vicar of Folkton should say a solemn mass in the Hospital chapel on the feast of St Andrew. The Feast of St Andrew is on the 30th of November and in many parts of Europe St Andrew is invoked at blessings and prayer to ward off wolves who are thought to has special privilege on this night.
(In the title 'Fear and Loathing in Las Flixton' is a nod towards Hunter S Thompson and 'Gonzo Journalism'. The phrase 'Gonzo' is thought either to mean, 'the last man standing' or the 'shining path'. )
Save our wetlands.
Flixton with its ancient history and its particular landscape makes a fertile place for stories and legends to grow.
Werewolf legends in Britain are rare but Flixton has one. Mesolithic sites are rare in Britain, but Flixton has one. Mesolithic sites that contain shamanic antler head-dresses are rare anywhere in the world, but Flixton has twenty seven..
Accounts of the Flixton werewolf date back 1,000 years and sightings have appeared every few hundred years.
A Ghost Hunter's Road Book, published by John Harries in 1974, states: “A fearsome beast, equipped with abnormally large eyes and exuding a terrible stench, the animal is supposed to fell nocturnal wayfarers with its tail, which is almost as long as its body. The eyes are crimson and dart fire” … “historical records mention that in the year 940AD, a hostel was built in the village of Flixton to shelter wayfarers in wintertime from attacks by these kind of wolves”.
The book also tells us that, “a wizard with dark powers to shape-shift roams the area of Flixton”.
The marks we leave on the landscape are like the marks on a palimpsest, and as the generations pass can the places we live in store memories as we leave little pieces of our memories behind for others to find?
A recent sighting of the Flixton Werewolf came in 1985, by local lad Richard Perkins. He describes how “me and me mates were out raking about with matches and space raiders when we saw what we thought was a dog in the field above. We couldn't go any further cos Brian had just spread liquid pig-swill all over the field and Tim never had his wellies on (we all did). So Chris went to his nan’s to get some binoculars. He took ages but we kept watching the beast until he got back. We saw a big dog-like thing but it didn't look like a dog, it looked like a cat, a 'dog cat' we thought. I asked me dad about this and he said that when keeping weird exotic pets became illegal, people chucked them out into the wild. We thought this is what it could be, a 'chucked-out big cat'! I was really scared”.
Flixton, Folkton and Staxton all sit in the peat bogs of the Vale of Pickering. Once the great proglacial Lake Pickering, the waters are now sunk and drained, creating the low-lying carr lands that are farmed today. Peat is formed from the layering up of semi-decayed organic matter.
It is these peat bogs that have preserved Star Carr, the most famous Mesolithic site in Britain, named after the farm land under which it was found. These and the finds at Flixton Island, a raised area of land that was once a small island on Lake Flixton, gave a precious insight into life in Britain 11,000 years ago.
Twenty-seven antler headdresses have been excavated from the peat at Star Carr. In his new book, eminent archaeologist Francis Prior states: “most archaeologists, myself included, see them as some sort of strange headdresses worn by shamans during pre- or post-hunting rituals and dances’.
A 'shaman' is an academic way of describing a witch doctor or a 'wizard'. Later excavations found post holes and a sunken floor, which established itself as the remains of the earliest permanent house in Britain. Did a wizard or shaman with his or her collection of headdresses live in the house by the lake at Star Carr? Is it the memory of this eminent individual, stored in the peat, that has given rise to the wandering, shape-shifting werewolf described in the accounts at Flixton?
Flixton, Folkton and Staxton are Anglo-Saxon / Old Norse place names, the result of Scandinavian settlers making their homes here. In his book Crossing the Borderlines: Guising, Masks and Ritual Animal Disguises in the European Tradition, Nigel Pennick explains: “At the start of each month, certain Norse (north) men underwent a form of madness that made them into wolfs and dogs, who spent the night roving around. Perhaps the legend of the werewolf also originates in such ceremonial madness?
Norse warrior tradition describes the cult of the Berserkers associated with using wolf or bear skin as armour, transforming soldiers into powerful beasts in battle. Going berserk is a term used when someone flies into a rage. In Old Norse it means to go into battle wearing a bear-skin shirt’. Take care that the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace wear bearskin hats.
Harold Hardrada, the king of Norway who burnt Scarborough to the ground on his way to Riccall for the great battle at Stamford Bridge in 1066, had the Berserkers as his personal bodyguard. The legend of the Battle of Stamford Bridge tells us that a huge berserker warrior stood alone on the bridge taking on the opposing army himself until his prospects were ruined from beneath the bridge by a group of men with pikes.
In his book about Guising, Nigel Pennick continues: “The old Norse stories of shape-shifting individuals give an insight into the beliefs people held when in disguise. A person had 'hamr' - a shape which could mean an animal skin. One who never changed shape was a 'hamrammr', 'shape strong' and one who did change shape was called 'hamhleypa', meaning the 'leaper out of skin’.”
A hammer (hamr), the blacksmith’s tool used for changing an object’s shape, now takes on different connotations. A blacksmith is an ancient profession. The ability to transform objects with hammer and furnace is a valuable skill closely linked to animals and especially horses.
Over the years, the people on the Carrs have reported cattle and horses that were lost in the peat bogs. A Spitfire that crash-landed in a field during the war was soon swallowed up by the bogs. A Flixton resident recalls her mum telling her of the ghost of a horse at the end of Flixton Lane around Flixton Island area.
The Flixton Island excavations unearthed remains of a horse butchery site, used in the Mesolithic era. Peat bogs can give rise to the combustion of rotting organic matter that ignites when oxidised to make fox-fire or bog-lights. Apparently cold to the touch, it gave rise to tales of will o’ the wisps.
Bog lands have always been places of mystery, neither water nor land, neither here nor there, difficult to farm and often classed as waste land. Does peat store the memory of a place? Houses aren't just bricks and mortar.
German artist Joseph Beuys explained that: “Bogs are the liveliest elements in the European landscape, not just from the point of view of flora and fauna, birds and animals, but as storing places of life, and of mystery and chemical change, as well as preservers of ancient history”.
Incidentally just a little way up the river where the Derwent passes Brompton Bridge runs 'Howling Dyke'.
The Antiquarian Thomas Hinderwell in his book 'The History and Antiquities of Scarborough and the Vicinity' describes, "Flixton, at the foot of the wolds, was founded in the reign of Athelstan...The Charter of the 25th Henry VI, shows that one Achorne built a hospital at Flixton for the preservation people travelling that way, that they might not be devoured by wolves". He goes on to say that, " there is a certain parcel of land in this vicinity distinguished by the name 'Wolf-land' and on this spot where the Hospital anciently stood, is now a Farm house called 'Spital' ". According to ancient custom, the vicar of Folkton should say a solemn mass in the Hospital chapel on the feast of St Andrew. The Feast of St Andrew is on the 30th of November and in many parts of Europe St Andrew is invoked at blessings and prayer to ward off wolves who are thought to has special privilege on this night.
(In the title 'Fear and Loathing in Las Flixton' is a nod towards Hunter S Thompson and 'Gonzo Journalism'. The phrase 'Gonzo' is thought either to mean, 'the last man standing' or the 'shining path'. )
Save our wetlands.
Faoladh (werewolf) recruited by kings in times of war.
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Howling Dyke
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Flixton Carr Peat Bogs
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