Maebh Howell

- The Ruins of a Temple, A poem by the Rev. Joseph Jefferson (1793) - A history of the ancient town and manor of Basingstoke (1889) (pages 161-170) archive.org/details/cu31... (18/18)

Apologies for the long and rambling thread but I just wanted to rave about this lovely little gem of history in an otherwise quite standard British town !!! Have linked my sources below (17/18)

He also records the existence of a mid thirteenth-century religious house, suggesting that the ruins were still visible in the late eighteenth century and stating that they were owned by Merton College, Oxford (I'd love to see if they still are!) (16/18)

I found a poem from 1793 which sort of sums up the sheer amount of history in this one place. Rev. Joesph Jefferson in the poem describes how 'Here Saxon Heptarchs met' for example. (15/18)

Basing House was the largest private house in Tudor England and was meant to have rivalled Hampton Court Palace in its opulence. It was sieged in 1645, with Oliver Cromwell arriving at the site himself with a heavy siege train (14/18)

I think what I love so much about this graveyard is just the sheer amount of history. It's recorded that the chapel's covering of lead was stripped to make 'ball for the use of the besiegers of Basing-house' during the Civil War. (13/18)

The town of Basingstoke was investigated, and although nobody was sentenced to death over this (with one physician saying he had checked to see if she was dead in the correct ways) the town was fined for neglect. This little plaque now commemorates her (12/18)

I find the passage about her husband especially tragic: ‘but having sudden and urgent business to London, and withal considering hisgrief at home would do his wife no more good than at a distance, he resolved on his journey’ (11/18)

Her husband was away for business in London and (rather sadly) didn't want to come back to Basingstoke to mourn his dead wife, and the rest of her family decided to bury her ASAP because the season was 'hot and the corpse fat' (10/18)

It seems that one night, in July 1674, she had ordered her maid to fetch her a quantity of 'poppy-water' from the town, and had drunk such a large amount of it that she fell into a 'deep sleep' and was presumed to be dead (9/18)

According to an 1889 history of Basingstoke which draws on a 1675 tract concerning this story, Alice Blunden was the wife of a maltster. She was described as 'a fat gross woman' who was known for drinking much brandy. (8/18)

She was found to have 'beaten herself far worse than before', having scratched herself several times and pulled off her winding sheet, but the Coroner found that 'her life was clearly thrown away' by this point. So who was this woman? (7/18)

Inside was the body of Alice Blunden which was found 'beaten and bruised in a lamentable manner' and which was still concluded to be a dead body, and she was therefore re-interred. The next day, cries and screams were heard again and she was again disinterred. (6/18)

They told their schoolmaster about these occurrences but nothing was done, presumably because their teachers thought they were making it up. But the next day the same thing happened and eventually they were able to dig up the grave (5/18)

In the summer of 1674, whilst schoolboys were playing amongst the gravestones they heard 'a kind of hollow voice, as it were under ground' and upon laying their ears to the ground they heard repeated shouts of 'Take me out of my Grave' as well as 'fearful groans' (4/18)

This is the other ruined chapel which also used to be a school-room too. Schoolboys would play in the grounds of the graveyard during their breaks, with a 1793 poem and history of the ruins suggesting that the chapel had been an ancient Saxon burial place (3/18)

This is one of the chapels that is still standing. The turret used to hold a staircase and you can look through a grate into it. This chapel was built in around 1516 in the reign of Henry VIII by one of his favourites, William Sandys, who is buried here (2/18)

Basingstoke is relatively boring but one of my absolute favourite places in the world is the Holy Ghost Cemetery, and the ruins of two chapels. I'm procrastinating so here is a thread about the chapels and the woman who was buried alive TWICE (1/18)

*proud of oops

Graduated yesterday from St Hugh's with a Distinction in the MSt English Literature (650-1550). Was such a fun and useful year and I'm so proud with all the research and writing I did :)

Hello! Thought I would quickly introduce myself.

I'm Maebh! I've just finished my masters at St Hugh's, Oxford in Medieval Literature, and I'm currently on a year out working and (hopefully!) travelling.

I love all things church and church history, relics, early Middle English and Anglo-Norman!