The Dragon of Moston

I can't believe it has taken me so long to get back here on the blog, but what a lot of distractions in the meantime, all the more to write about though, so expect some more updates very soon!  Anyway, as I type it is the Thursday of National Storytelling Week so I thought I would share a tale from Cheshire which is one of the most popular ones with visitors and tale listeners at our events...

Well, if you were to go looking for Moston, you'd find it betwixt Sandbach and Middlewich.  It is only a little place now with a few folk living there, and when you hear this you'll see why that may be.  Now, the people of Moston were a happy and jolly lot who made most of their living from the fine apple trees in their orchard.  They bore the largest and juiciest apples in all of Cheshire, and in truth the rest of the county were more than a little jealous of this.  The apples of Moston were bigger than even your head.  And a fine head it is you have sir.  The people of the village didn't know why it was that their apples grew so large, but I do, and I'll tell you. 

The apples grew in an orchard which was beside a boggy marsh, full of dark, dank swamp water.  The trees reached out their roots through the soil and into that marsh and drew the water up along the roots, rising through the trunk, along the branches and caused those apples to swell. 

The people of Moston looked forward to those days at the end of summer with autumn beginning to make itself felt in the air, the days when the apples would be ripening and ready for the harvest and they eagerly awaited the day to go picking, dreaming of the juice trickling down chins, or the warm smell of the apples baking.  And now the day was here!  Each of the Moston folk headed out to whichever tree in the orchard which was their own, carrying baskets and buckets ready to be filled.  There was laughter and singing as the apples were gathered in.  And then someone shouted out, "Look, up there!"  And the crowd looked up through the leaves to see something flying high in the sky.  It was higher than any bird they knew, it didn't move like a bird and wasn't shaped like anything they'd seen before.  The excitement grew until it turned to horror when the people of Moston realised it was a dragon flying above them.

This dragon had flown out from Wales, you could tell because it was red, and was looking for a new home.  Now, you may have heard that dragons like to live in caves.  Well, that is true, but it's not their first choice.  Or perhaps you've heard that dragons like to live in burial mounds of an ancient king surrounded by treasure?  Well, that's true as well, but still not their preference.  Where dragons like to live, if they can really find it, is in a slimy, smelly swamp.  And the boggy marsh beside the orchard at Moston was the perfect place.  The dragon circled around for a while, then settled down in the middle of the swamp beside the orchard.

The people of Moston weren't fools.  They knew that if they ventured close to the dragon they would likely be eaten.  But then they looked at the trees, and saw their finest apples beside the marsh.  So one brave chap came up with a plan.  He would make his way to the apple trees, keeping his eye on the dragon all the while and should the dragon make the slightest move, he would be off!  He walked through the trees and set down his basket beside the apple tree closest to the boggy field, making sure to keep his eyes fixed on the dragon.  He took one apple from the tree, then another, but then the next apples were higher, he looked up to the branches for a moment and then... The dragon was upon him.  It opened its mouth and breathed upon the brave fellow.  Not fire as you might think, but the foulest, stinkiest breath you'd probably rather not imagine.  The poor chap was overcome and fell to the ground.  The dragon pulled him by the feet into the swamp where he lay asleep until the evening, when he awoke.  Just in time for dragon supper time and being eaten in one gulp! 

This happened again, and again.  And again.  Until half of the people of Moston had been eaten by the dragon.  As you'd imagine, those that were left went from being a happy and jolly bunch to being a sad and miserable lot.  Then one day, the local lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Venables was making his way around all of his lands to inspect them and came to the village of Moston.  "What's happened here?" said Sir Thomas, "Has there been a war?  For there are less of you than before, and you look miserable, and your fine trees have been left to wither."  The people of Moston explained how the dragon had come and, one by one, taken many of the folk from the village.  And what was worse, just this morning a young boy had been taken by the dragon, his poor mother had already lost her husband and was grieving for her son now sleeping in the swamp awaiting his fate at the dragon's supper time. 

Well, Sir Thomas, being a bold and brave knight, swore he would slay the dragon and save the boy.  Thinking to catch the dragon whilst it slept, he quickly put on his finest armour, took up his sword and dashed off through the orchard toward the marsh.  But the clanking and clattering of his armour awoke the dragon which began to make its way towards the knight. 

Sir Thomas fled.  But you must not think him a coward.  No, Sir Thomas had a plan.  In the days before he was a knight in his armour, he had been an archer, and being from Cheshire that made him one of the famed and feared Cheshire Archers, the finest bowmen in the land, better even than Robin Hood himself.  In fact, because of their skills with the bow, people round here say "Robin Hood? More like Robin No-Good!"  Sir Thomas made his way back to the orchard where he could just see the dragon in the marsh, snoring once more, and with the young boy asleep next to him.  Sir Thomas drew back his bowstring, then let loose his arrow which whistled through the air and found its target - right in the dragon's eye! 

The dragon roared and flew at Sir Thomas before he could ready another arrow.  But the arrow in its eye had so wounded and winded the dragon that it could not muster up its foul breath.  Sir Thomas did not waste a moment and struck the beast over the head a dozen times.  Just to be sure he cut off the head.  With the young boy under one arm and a dragon's head under the other, Sir Thomas returned to the village of Moston.

The people of the village were thrilled.  They insisted that this brave deed should be remembered for ever more, and that the Venables family should change their coat of arms to depict a dragon, with an arrow in its eye, about to eat a boy.  And so that is just what was done.  They even carved the scene in oak and set it on show in the church of St Michael and All Angels in Middlewich, where you can still see it today.

And that is the tale of the Dragon of Moston, the last dragon to be seen in England, so folks say, and here it was in our own fair county of Cheshire.

Life in the Medieval Castle

We recently organised an event at Chester Castle as part of the Discover Medieval Chester project.  It was the first time the castle had been open to the public for several years and probably the only living history event that has ever taken place there.  There were a good many Cestrians who didn't know there was a medieval part to the castle, and worryingly a few who didn't know there was a castle at all.  But hopefully the event has done something to address this.  We had excellent coverage in the local press and radio in advance and ended up with over 1000 visitors in the space of the five hour event.

As we opened the gates there were already twenty or so people waiting keenly to get in and it didn't let up through the day with people flocking in to find out more about this bit of Chester's history.  We're hoping to be able to do it all again, but in the meantime I though we would share some of the happenings here.

Chester's castle is one of the oldest in Britain, being founded in 1069/70 with the Norman motte still standing today.  The sturdy Agricola tower is the main surviving medieval element of the castle, and that's where we were based though visitors were also able to wander the wall walk past the medieval Flag Tower and Half Moon Tower.

With Chester being an important border city the castle has continued in use through the centuries and so changes have taken place, with some of the medieval defences being removed and replaced in the 18th and 19th century, especially with the Thomas Harrison's neoclassical redesign of the castle at the end of the 18th century.

But happily enough of the medieval structure remains, hidden behind the later sprawl of the castle, and along with a merry band we set up displays outside in the courtyard to reflect life in the castle in the 14th and 15th century.

Sue was exploring the food that might have been prepared in the castle kitchen, now sadly lost but which had been just feet from where she set up a table packed with spices, medieval gingerbread, a tart on ember day, hipocras, cherry pudding, different cheeses and girdle cakes and almond milk.

There was also a chance to find out about the work involved behind the scenes in a medieval castle including cleaning, keeping away pests and doing the laundry.

The monk Lucian, writing at the end of the 12th century in his work De Laude Cestriae, (In Praise of Chester) said that "the Castle was a nuisance, but the church was a consolation".  In keeping with his feelings the Reverend Mother was present to give the pious a chance to learn more about religion and relics.

Upstairs in the Agricola Tower, there is the chapel of St Mary de Castro with its remains of wall paintings from 1220.  Gerry Tighe, from Chester Guild of Guides, worked tirelessly throughout the day to reveal their story to the hundreds of visitors who ventured up the spiral stone steps to the chapel.

In the 14th century, the Chamberlain of Chester Castle was responsible for equipping the famed Cheshire Archers with their striking green-and-white livery and their arrows.  An archer was on hand to reveal the story of these soldiers and their role as royal bodyguard.

Fortunately no arrow injuries were sustained, but the surgeon was present just in case...

Many important visitors, including several monarchs, were entertained at Chester Castle in medieval times and so we felt that entertaining our visitors should be just as important.

I was charged with storytelling for the day, with tales of the castle, along with some Cheshire myths and legends and as usual I squeezed in some piper's tales.

But the real treat of the day were the performances by Piva.  From the blast of rauschfeifen which echoed off the castle walls and across the city through the beautifully played tunes in the atmosphere of the Agricola Tower chamber to their rousing finish of pipes and drum they were as inspiring as always.

All too soon it was time to wrap up for the day, but we'd had a great time introducing so many Cestrians and visitors to the city to a little known but still important part of our heritage.  I do hope we can bring the medieval castle to life again.

Bowmen of Cheshire

As the year closes, I'm getting things done to the blog that I've meant to for some time and moving some of the writings about local themes that feature on our old website over on to this one.  The idea was to have a range of simple articles that would answer some of the regular questions we get asked when we are at events, or by email.  So, here's the first one which looks at the renowned Cheshire Archers.

The bowmen of Cheshire are often renowned as the best, and most notorious, archers of medieval England. The powerful longbow had become the most important weapon in the many wars of the 14th and 15th centuries. The men of Cheshire had developed their skills further than many other Englishmen, perhaps because of the closeness to Wales and the frequent conflicts requiring Cheshiremen to keep well practiced with shooting their bows.

 

The Cheshire archers were paid more than bowmen from elsewhere and had been recruited as the royal bodyguard by 1334. They could be recognised by their green and white livery which was issued to them by the chamberlain of Chester castle. They were taken into France by Edward III, and later the Black Prince, and played important roles in the English victories at the battles of Crecy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356.

The earliest extant military leave pass was issued in 1355 to William Jauderel, (Jodrell), one of the Cheshire Archers. Translated it reads, Know all that we, the Prince of Wales, have given leave, on the date of this letter, to William Jauderel, one of our archers, to go to England.

Some of the Cheshire archers were richly rewarded for their skills and were even granted pardons for crimes they had committed, including murder. This led to their notoriety across the rest of England. The troubled King Richard II kept the Cheshiremen as his bodyguard and they guarded his bedchamber all night and on one occasion surrounded the new Westminster Hall during a trial of the king's enemies until the "right" result was reached.

King Richard II intended to leave from Chester for Ireland in 1399 to quell uprisings there. Eighty of the best archers were recruited from the Northwich area and mustered outside the Watergate in Chester to accompany him. However Henry Bolingbroke's return from exile caused Richard to abandon this plan and face Bolingbroke's challenge for the throne.

Richard II was eventually deposed, imprisoned and starved to death, but the Cheshiremen remained loyal and joined the rebellion of 1403 against the new king, Henry IV. The resulting battle at Shrewsbury saw Cheshire archers on both sides.

The battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 was the first occasion where English archers had fought each other. In the 1470s Jean de Waurin wrote of this battle, "the archers drew so fast and thick…that the sun lost its brightness so thick were the arrows".

Some Cheshire archers later fought with Henry V in France in 1415 and 1417, but they no longer enjoyed the same importance as in the previous century. The Cheshire archers formed part of the Lancastrian forces at Blore Heath in 1459, the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, but this time they were on the losing side and Cheshiremen formed the majority of the dead. A tale is told in Cheshire that there was once a song celebrating the archers, but that it was never sung again after the losses at Blore Heath.