Here be Altars

Introduction 

Hearg is the Old English word for altar this became Harrow- and all such sites are on hills.

Weoh and wig are common elements in place names and they are often compounded with OE dun “hill” or leah “woodland glade, clearing”, suggesting that favourite spots for this type of shrine were hill-tops or forest clearings.

Usually, weoh became Wee- and wig became Wy- or Wye-.

Here be altars

Hearg on hill top, Hearg in oak wood,

To worship where our, ancestors have stood.

Churches sitting on, such old sacred sites,

The new religion, with their Roman rites.

Harrow on the Hill, Hearg on the hill,

Heaving up high hill, Grove Road leads us still.

Ox heads about church, found buried in ground,

Sacred ancient rites, they still can be found.

Altar of pipers, on hill top to stand,

Was Peper Harow, Surrey’s promised land?

Thousand year spirit, church yard sacred yew,

Holy well close by, early morning dew.

Old English weoh, and wig were our shrines,

Magicians and priests, made their magick signs.

Saxon holy place, now no longer known,

Saxon shrine of wood, becomes church of stone.

Shrine in Weedon Beck, was altar on down?

Two saints two crashes, Northamptonshire town.

Two Doomsday entries, with two mills betwixt,

Royal Saxon palace, Wating Street affixed.

Wyfordby shrine near, settlement and ford,

Weedon is shrine hill, and still unexplored.

Weeley Old English, shrine near woodland glade,

On hill or on down, the altar was laid.

Churches sitting on, such sacred altars,

Singing their holy, new psalms and psalters.

Our sacred old oaks, art long since destroyed,

Their witness for oaths, no longer employed.

Copyright April 2012 Andrew Rea