London Bridge to Bermondsey 11am Sun 8th Feb 26 To book
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 2.15pm Feb 8th 26 To book
The Rebirth Of Saxon London Archaeology Walk 11am Sun 22nd Feb 26 To book
Jane Austen’s London Walk 2.15pm Sun 22nd Feb 26 To book
London Before London – Prehistoric London Virtual Walk 7:30pm Mon 23rd Feb26 To book
London. 1066 and All That Walk 11.30am Sun 8th March 2026 To book
Tudor London – The City of Wolf Hall 2.30 8th March 2026 Barbican Underground Station To book
The Spring Equinox London Virtual Tour 7.30pm Fri 20th March26 To book
The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk 11.30 Sat 21st March26 To book
The London Equinox and Solstice Walk 2:30pm Sat 21st March26 To book
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 11.15pm Sun April 5th 2026 To book
Samuel Pepys’ London – Bloody, Flaming, Poxy London 2:15pm Sun 5th April 26 To book
Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk 11.00am Sat 18th April 2026 To book
Chaucer’s London To Canterbury Virtual Pilgrimage 7.45pm Sat 18th April 26 To book
Jane Austen’s London Walk 11.00am Sun 19th April 26 To book
Myths, Legends, Archaeology, and the Origins of London 11:15am Sat 2nd May 26 to Book
For a complete list of my guided walks for London Walks in 2025 look here
Archive of Guided Walks/Events for 2025
Every year I keep a list of my guided walks, and tours on my blog the ‘Almanac of the Past’. Here are the walks I have so far done in 2025.
Here is my ‘Almost Complete List of Guided Walks, Study Tours, Lectures’
Ring in the New Year Virtual Guided Walk
Monday 1st January 2025 7.00 pm
On this Virtual Walk we look at how London has celebrated the New Year over the past 2000 years.
The New Year has been a time of review, renewal, and anticipation of the future from time immemorial. The Ancient Britons saw the Solstice as a symbol of a promise of renewal as the Sun was reborn. As the weather turns to bleak mid winter, a festival or reflection and renewal cheers everyone up. This idea of renewal was followed by the Romans, and presided over by a two headed God called Janus who looked both backwards and forwards. Dickens Christmas Carol was based on redemption and his second great Christmas Book ‘The Chimes’ on the renewal that the New Year encouraged.
We look at London’s past to see where and how the New Year was celebrated. We also explore the different New Years we use and their associated Calendars – the Pagan year, the Christian year, the Roman year, the Jewish year, the Financial year, the Academic year and we reveal how these began. We look at folk traditions, Medieval Christmas Festivals, Boy Bishops, Distaff Sunday and Plough Monday, and other Winter Festival and New Year London traditions and folklore.
At the end, we use ancient methods to divine what is in store for us in 2023.
The virtual walk finds interesting and historic places in the City of London to link to our stories of Past New Year’s Days. We begin, virtually, at the Barbican Underground and continue to the Museum of London, the Roman Fort; Noble Street, Goldsmiths Hall, Foster Lane, St Pauls, Doctors Commons, St. Nicholas Colechurch and on towards the River Thames.
The Civil War, Restoration and the Great Fire of London Virtual Tour
7:30pm Fri 30th January 2025
January 30th is the Anniversary of the execution of Charles I and to commemorate it we explore the events and the aftermath of the Civil War in London.
Along with the Norman Conquest of 1066 and winning the World Cup in 1966 the Great Fire in 1666 are the only dates the British can remember!
And we remember the Great Fire because it destroyed one of the great medieval Cities in an epic conflagration that shocked the world.
But it wasn’t just the Great Fire that made the 17th Century an epic period in English History. There was a Civil War, beheading of the King, a Republic, a peaceful Restoration of the Monarch, the last great plague outbreak in the UK, the Glorious Revolution and the Great Wind.
The Virtual Walk puts the Great Fire in the context of the time – Civil War, anti-catholicism, plague, and the commercial development of London.
The walk brings to life 17th Century London. It starts with the events that lead up to the Civil War concentrating on Westminster and ends with a vivid recreation of the drama of the Fire as experienced by eye-witnesses. Route includes: Westminster, Fish Street Hill, Pudding Lane, Monument, Royal Exchange, Guildhall, Cheapside, St Pauls, Amen Corner, Newgate Street, Smithfield.
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk
11.30 am Sun 9th Feb 2025 Monument Underground Station
also on 11.30am Sun 27th Apr 25 but starting from Moorgate
This is a walking tour features the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and looks at life in the provincial Roman capital of Londinium.
This is a walking tour that features the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and looks at life in the provincial Roman capital of Londinium.
Our Guides will be Publius Ovidius Naso and Marcus Valerius Martialis who will be helped by Kevin Flude, former Museum of London Archaeologist, Museum Curator and Lecturer.
We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and then explore the lives of the citizens as we walk up to the site of the Roman Town Hall, and discuss Roman politics. We proceed through the streets of Roman London, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life via the Temple of Mithras to finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.
Zinger Read: Talk about a high-quality one-two punch. This walk investigates the groundbreaking archaeological discoveries of Roman London. And then it reconstructs life in a provincial Roman capital using archaeological and literary sources. Discoveries – insights – like flashes of lightning in a cloud. We begin at the site of the Roman bridge. We might be decent young Roman citizens in togas, having this and that bit of
explained to us as we make our way towards the Roman Town Hall. From there we head to the site of the excavation called ‘the Pompeii of the North.’ Followed by the Temple of Mithras. We finish with a walk along the Roman High Street in order to end at the site of the Roman Amphitheatre. So, yes, welcome to London as it was 2,000, 1,900, 1,800, 1,700 and 1,600 years ago. And, yes, the walk’s guided by a real expert, the distinguished emeritus Museum of London archaeologist Kevin Flude. That means you’ll see things other people don’t get to see, delve into London via fissures that aren’t visible, let alone accessible, to non-specialists.
REVIEWS
“Kevin, I just wanted to drop you a quick email to thank you ever so much for your archaeological tours of London! I am so thrilled to have stumbled upon your tours! I look forward to them more than you can imagine! They’re the best 2 hours of my week! 🙂 Best, Sue
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Guided Walk
2.30 pm Sunday 9th Feb 2025
Green Park underground station, Green Park exit, by the fountain To book
| Also | |||||
| 9 February 2025 | Sunday | 2.30 pm | 4.30 pm | ||
| 8 March 2025 | Saturday | 2.30 pm | 4.30 pm | ||
| 6 April 2025 | Sunday | 11.30 am | 1.30 pm |
2025 is the 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s Birth in Steventon, Hampshire. We celebrate her fictional and real life visits to Mayfair, the centre of the London section of Sense & Sensibility and where Jane came to visit her brother
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Jane Austen devotee in possession of the good fortune of a couple of free hours today must be in want of this walk.”
People associate Jane Austen and her characters with a rural setting. But London is central to both Jane Austen’s real life and her literary life. So, this tour will explore Jane’s connections with London and give the background to Sense and Sensibility, a good part of which is based in this very area. We begin with the place Jane’s coach would arrive from Hampshire, and then walk the streets haunted by Willougby; past shops visited by the Palmers, the Ferrars; visit the location of Jane Austen’s brother’s bank and see the publisher of Jane’s Books. The area around Old Bond Street was the home of the Regency elite and many buildings and a surprising number of the shops remain as they were in Jane Austen’s day.
Jane Austen’s ‘A Picture of London’ in 1809 Virtual Walk
7.30 27th January 2025
With the help of a contemporary Guide Book, Jane Austen’s letters, and works we explore London in 1809.
‘The Picture of London for 1809 Being a CORRECT GUIDE to all the Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments, and Remarkable Objects in and near London.’
This Guide Book to London might have been on Henry Austen’s shelf when his sister, Jane, came to visit him in London. But it enables us to tour the London that Jane Austen knew in some detail. We will look at the Curiosities as well as the shopping, residential, theatres areas as well as the Port, the Parks and the Palaces.
The guided walk is a thank you to Alix Gronau, who, having been to one of my lectures in 1994, wanted the book to come to me. I have had the book restored and am using it to explore London in 1809.
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30 pm Sunday 9th February 25 To book
A Virtual Tour of Jane Austen’s Bath
7.30pm 10th February 2025
Tudor London – The City of Wolf Hall 11.30am Sat 22nd Feb 25
Myths, Legends, Archaeology and the Origins of London
2.30pm Sat 22nd February 2025 Tower Hill Underground
The walk tells the stories of our changing ideas about the origins of London during the Prehistoric, Roman and Saxon periods.
The walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London, who has an interest both in myths, legends and London’s Archaeology.
The walk will tell the story of the legendary origins of London which record that it was founded in the Bronze Age by an exiled Trojan and was called New Troy, which became corrupted to Trinovantum. This name was recorded in the words of Julius Caesar; and, then, according to Legend, the town was renamed after King Ludd and called Lud’s Dun. Antiquarians and Archaeologists have taken centuries to demolish this idea, and became convinced London was founded by the Romans. Recently, dramatic evidence of a Bronze Age presence in London was found.
When the Roman system broke down in 410 AD, historical records were almost non-existent, until the Venerable Bede recorded the building of St Pauls Cathedral in 604 AD. The two hundred year gap, has another rich selection of legends. which the paucity of archaeological remains struggles to debunk.
The walk will explore these stories and compare the myths and legends with Archaeological discoveries.
The route starts at Tower Hill, then down to the River at Billingsgate, London Bridge, and into the centre of Roman London.
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 11.30am Sat Mar 8th 25
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30pm Sat 8th Mar 25
The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk 11.30 Sat 22nd March 2025
London. 1066 and All That Walk Sat 2.30pm 22nd March 2025
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 11.30am Sun 6th Apr 25
Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk 2:30pm Sun 6th Apr 25
and
Chaucer’s London To Canterbury Virtual Pilgrimage 7.30pm Friday 18th April 25 To book
A Walk around Medieval London following in the footsteps of its resident medieval poet – Geoffrey Chaucer
One of the spectators at the Peasants Revolt was Geoffrey Chaucer, born in the Vintry area of London, who rose to be a diplomat, a Courtier and London’s Customs Officer. He lived with his wife in the Chamber above the Gate in the City Wall at Aldgate. His poetry shows a rugged, joyous medieval England including many scenes reflecting life in London. His stories document the ending of the feudal system, growing dissatisfaction with the corruption in the Church, and shows the robust independence with which the English led their lives.
His work helped change the fashion from poetry in French or Latin to acceptance of the English language as suitable literary language. This was helped by the growth of literacy in London as its Merchants and Guildsmen became increasingly successful. In 1422, for example, the Brewers decided to keep their records in English ‘as there are many of our craft who have the knowledge of reading and writing in the English idiom.’
Chaucer and other poets such as Langland give a vivid portrait of Medieval London which was dynamic, successful but also torn by crisis such as the Lollard challenge to Catholic hegemony, and the Peasants who revolted against oppression as the ruling classes struggled to resist the increased independence of the working people following the Black Death.
A walk which explores London in the Middle Ages, We begin at Aldgate, and follow Chaucer from his home to his place of work at the Customs House, and then to St Thomas Chapel on London Bridge, and across the River to where the Canterbury Tales start – at the Tabard Inn.
This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 11.30am Sun 27th Apr 25
Tudor London – The City of Wolf Hall 3:00pm Sun 27th Apr 25
The Walk creates a portrait of London in the early 16th Century, with particular emphasis on the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More during the Anne Boleyn years.
More and Cromwell had much in common, both lawyers, commoners, who rose to be Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII, and ended their careers on the block at Tower Hill.
The walk starts with an exploration of Smithfield – site of the stake where heretics were burnt alive and of St Bartholomew’s Monastery – given to Richard Rich after his decisive role in the downfall of Thomas More. We continue to St Paul where Martin Luther’s books were burnt, and later, where Puritans preached against dancing round the Maypole.
We walk along the main markets streets of London, to Thomas More’s birthplace, and to the site of More’s and Cromwell’s townhouses before, if time allows, finishing at the site of the Scaffold where More and Cromwell met their ends, overlooking where Anne Boleyn was incarcerated in the Tower of London
To Book:
https://www.walks.com/our-walks/tudor-london-the-city-of-wolf-hall/
A Boy From Haggerston before the War. 6pm 1st May 2025 Shoreditch Library.
Myths, Legends, Archaeology and the Origins of London 11.30am Sun 25th May 25 To book
The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk 3pm Sun May 25 To book
The Peasants Revolt Anniversary Guided Walk
6.30pm Wed 11th June 2025 Aldgate Underground To book
An Anniversary Walk tracking the progress of the Peasants as they take control of London in June of 1381
Short read: The Summer of Blood
Long read: The Peasants’ Revolt. The greatest popular rising in English history. This is the anniversary walk. The London Walk that heads back to 1381, back to the Peasants’ Revolt. You want a metaphor, think stations of the cross. This is the stations of the Peasants’ Revolt walk. We go over the ground, literally and metaphorically. Where it took place. Why it took place. Why it took place at these places. What happened. The walk is guided by the distinguished Museum of London Archaeologist
His expertise means you’ll see the invisible. And understand the inscrutable.
On the anniversary of the Peasants Revolt we reconstruct the events that shook the medieval world. In June 1381, following the introduction of the iniquitous Poll Tax, England’s government nearly fell, shaken to the core by a revolt led by working men. This dramatic tour follows the events of the Revolt as the Peasants move through London in June 1381.
We met up with the Peasants at Aldgate, force our way into the City. We march on the Tower of London as the King makes concessions by ending serfdom, at Mile End. But the leaders take the mighty Tower of London and behead the leaders of Richard’s government. Attacks follow on the lawyers in the Temple, the Prior at St. John’s of Jerusalem, Flemish Londoners, and on Lambeth and Savoy Palaces.
The climax of the Revolt comes at Smithfield where a small Royal party confront the 30,000 peasants.
Tudor London – The City of Wolf Hall 11.30am 13th July 2025 To Book
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 3pm Sunday 13th July 25 To book
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 11.30 am Sat 2nd Aug 2025 ToBook
Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk 2:30pm Sat 2nd Aug 2025 To Book
Myths, Legends, Archaeology and the Origins of London 11.00am Sat 16th Aug25 to Book
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 6:30pm Wed 24th Sept 2025 To book
The Archaeology of London Walk 6.30pm Fri 3rd October 2025 To Book
Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk 11:30pm Sat 4th Oct 25 To book
The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk 11.30pm Sat 8th Nov 25 To book
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.00pm Sat 23rd Nov25 To book
Rebirth of Saxon London 23rd Nov 25
Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk sat 11am 6th Dec 2025 To book
Cromwell’s and More’s Tudor London Walk 2pm 7th Dec25 To book
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30pm Sun 14 Dec25 To book
Christmas With Jane Austen Virtual London Tour 7.30pmTues 16 Dec25 To book
The London Equinox and Solstice Walk 11:30pm Sun 21st Dec 25To book
The London Winter Solstice Virtual Tour 7.30pm Sun 21 Dec 25 To book
Previous Years Archives
Here are previous archive of guided walks and events
Archive of Events/Walks 2024
Archive of events/Walks 2023
Archive of Events/Walks 2022
Archive of Recent Walks (2021)
Archive of Resent Walks (2019-2020)
Birthday Of The Sun December 25th
The First Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
On the 25th December were born Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Saturn, Apollo, and the Invincible Sun.
The Sun Gods have quite a complicated interrelationship. Zeus, and Apollo are both also considered to be Sun Gods. Apollo is particularly interrelated to Helios, the Greek God who drives the Chariot that carries the Sun across the skies every day. The Romans had a God called Sol who some say was a deity but who declined to be of minor importance. Then Sol was championed by the transexual Emperor Elagabalas. Aurelian revived the cult in 274 AD. Sol Invictus was the focus of Constantine the Great. Sol has been suggested as a response of the Romans to a trend towards monotheism in the later Roman period. Sol for Constantine was a gateway God to Christianity.
It is also notable that early worship of Jesus is full of solar metaphors, Jesus being, for example, the light of the world. Churches are also virtually all orientated East West, aligned with the rising and setting suns. The Altar is always at the East End, and effigies on tombs face the rising sun.
Celtic Sun Gods?
The Golden Wheel from Haute Marne in France, (Public Domain, Wikipedia)
Did the Celts have a sun-god? Belenos is a contender, but linguists are proposing his name does not come from words meaning bright but from strong. The God Lugh’s name is suggested to mean ‘shining’ but his attributes are more of a warrior than a sun god. Taranis is probably the best candidate, but he is more of a sky or thunder god than specifically a sun god. However, his symbol is a 8 spoked wheel is said to be symbolic of the Sun. It also represents the division of the year by the 4 quarterly sun festivals (Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox) and the 4 cross-quarter festivals, (Samhain or Halloween, Imbolc or Candlemas, Beltane or May Day, Lughnasa or Harvest Festival).
December 25th is a few days after our reckoning of the Solstice. But, as we have previously seen, Christians believed the world was created on the Spring Equinox, and humans on the 4th day, so Adam was created on March 25th. Mary conceived on the same day, and therefore Jesus, after a perfect labour was born 9 Months later on December 25th. (See my post on March 25th and the Creation)
Christmas Cake
Today, you might be tucking into a Christmas Cake (originally eaten on Twelfth Night). Now, I know many Americans have a bizarre belief that fruit cake is the cake of the devil. Something you receive as a gift and give away to someone else, as most Americans hate it. More fool them for missing out on one of the delights of the Christmas period, that and cold turkey sandwiches. Christmas Cake is made on stir up Sunday, the last Sunday in November, to let the ingredients develop their flavour. They are then covered with marzipan and decorative icing.
In Germany, they also eat a fruit bread called Stollen or Weihnachtsstollen. The tradition is said to have been started in the 15th Century, when the Pope gave dispensation to allow the use of butter in the fasting period of Advent. Previously, the Germans had to use oil to replace the banned butter, but they could only make oil from turnips, so eventually the Pope allowed the use of butter, with which they made bread with added dried fruits.
In Italy, they eat Panettone, a fruit bread/cake. It is a sourdough, and a cross between a brioche and a cake. It often comes in a beautiful decorative tin, and is delicious. The centre of panettone production is Milan. Last year was the 200th Anniversary of Milan’s famous Marchesi 1824 which makes artisanal Panettone. It used ‘fine ingredients such as six-crown sultan as, naturally candied fruit, Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, Italian honey and eggs from free-range hens, blended in a slow-rising dough with the exclusive use of Marchesi 1824 sourdough starter‘. Thank you, Mara from Milan, for the heads-up.
Which is best? The only way to find out is to eat several slices of each. America, you don’t know what you are missing.
For stir up sunday see the second half of this post of mine.
First Published 24th December 2022, Republished 25th December 2023, 2024, 2025
Grecian Winter – Hesiod’s Works & Days December 15th
Hesiod is a contemporary of Homer, and therefore one of the first European poets, writing about 700BC. One of the first commentators on Greek life, thought, religion, mythology, farming and time keeping. Hesiod’s Works & Days ‘ is his Farmers Almanac and therefore long overdue an appearance on my Almanac of the Past.
Hesiod’s poems also introduce the idea of the epoch. Past glorious epochs of Gold and Bronze with a further descent to his own epoch which was of the base metal age of Iron. His so-called Myth of Five Ages, starts with a Golden Age, in which Humans don’t need to work. Followed by a Silver Age where they live to one hundred years, but live a life of strife. The Bronze Age follows which is an even tougher age as the bronze armoured men are thoroughly violent. The Age of Heroes follows which is the age of the Trojan War. There follows the Iron Age which is Hesiod’s age a time of toil and misery!
.In the 19th Century, European antiquarians, imbued with a humanist belief in Progress, developed the idea of Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, an almost direct opposite of Hesiod’s, downhill-all-the-way to the present day idea.
Hesiod also brings in early references to Prometheus and Pandora, two of the great myths of the flaws of humanity.
Hesiod and Winter
This is what he says of Winter. It is from a translation by Christopher Kelk, available to download here (I have added line breaks after full stops, just for ease of reading.)
Excerpt from Hesiod’s Works & Days
…. you should make
A detour during winter when the cold
Keeps men from work, for then a busy man
May serve his house. Let hardship not take hold,
Nor helplessness, through cruel winter’s span,
Nor rub your swollen foot with scrawny hand.An idle man will often, while in vain
He hopes, lacking a living from his land,
Consider crime. A needy man will gain
Nothing from hope while sitting in the street
And gossiping, no livelihood in sight.Say to your slaves in the midsummer heat:
“There won’t always be summer, shining bright –
Build barns.” Lenaion’s evil days, which gall
The oxen, guard yourself against. Beware
Of hoar-frosts, too, which bring distress to all
When the North Wind blows, which blasts upon the air
In horse-rich Thrace and rouses the broad sea,
Making the earth and woods resound with wails.He falls on many a lofty-leafed oak-tree
And on thick pines along the mountain-vales
And fecund earth, the vast woods bellowing.
The wild beasts, tails between their legs, all shake.Although their shaggy hair is covering
Their hides, yet still the cold will always make
Their way straight through the hairiest beast.Straight through
An ox’s hide the North Wind blows and drills
Through long-haired goats. His strength, though, cannot do
Great harm to sheep who keep away all chills
With ample fleece. He makes old men stoop low
But soft-skinned maids he never will go through –
They stay indoors, who as yet do not know
Gold Aphrodite’s work, a comfort to
Their darling mothers, and their tender skin
They wash and smear with oil in winter’s space
And slumber in a bedroom far within
The house, when in his cold and dreadful place
The Boneless gnaws his foot (the sun won’t show
Him pastures but rotate around the land
Of black men and for all the Greeks is slow
To brighten).That’s the time the hornèd and
The unhorned beasts of the wood flee to the brush,
Teeth all a-chatter, with one thought in mind –
To find some thick-packed shelter, p’raps a bush
Or hollow rock. Like one with head inclined
Towards the ground, spine shattered, with a stick
To hold him up, they wander as they try
To circumvent the snow.As I ordain,
Shelter your body, too, when snow is nigh –
A fleecy coat and, reaching to the floor,
A tunic. Both the warp and woof must you
Entwine but of the woof there must be more
Than of the warp. Don this, for, if you do,
Your hair stays still, not shaking everywhere.Be stoutly shod with ox-hide boots which you
Must line with felt. In winter have a care
To sew two young kids’ hides to the sinew
Of an ox to keep the downpour from your back,
A knit cap for your head to keep your ears
From getting wet.It’s freezing at the crack
Of dawn, which from the starry sky appears
When Boreas drops down: then is there spread
A fruitful mist upon the land which falls
Upon the blessed fields and which is fed
By endless rivers, raised on high by squalls.Sometimes it rains at evening, then again,
When the thickly-compressed clouds are animated
By Thracian Boreas, it blows hard. Then
It is the time, having anticipated
All this, to finish and go home lest you
Should be enwrapped by some dark cloud, heaven-sent,
Your flesh all wet, your clothing drenched right through.This is the harshest month, both violent
And harsh to beast and man – so you have need
To be alert. Give to your men more fare
Than usual but halve your oxen’s feed.
The helpful nights are long, and so take care.Keep at this till the year’s end when the days
And nights are equal and a diverse cropKeep at this till the year’s end when the days
Hesiod’s Works and Days: Translation Christopher Kelk
And nights are equal and a diverse crop
Springs from our mother earth and winter’s phase
Is two months old and from pure Ocean’s top
Arcturus rises, shining, at twilight.
Acturus is not seen in winter, and in the Northern Hemisphere its rising (50 days after the winter solstice) and has always been associated with the advent of spring.
Boreas was the winged God of the North wind, which bore down from the cold Mountains of Thrace (north of Macedonia). One of his daughters, Khione, was the Goddess of Snow. Lenaion was associated with January one of the festivals of Dionysus, and a theatrical season in Athens particularly for comedy.
To see more of Hesiod see my post hesiod-and-a-grecian-spring/
First published 15th December 2022, republished December 2023, 2024,2025
Robin Redbreast – the Oak King of the New Sun December 9th
Robins brought water to relieve tormented souls in Hell and, so, got their breasts scorched; their breasts were stained with Jesus’ blood; they fanned, with their wings, the flames of a fire to keep baby Jesus warm and got scorched. All these associations with Jesus make their association with Christmas and Christmas cards perfect sense.
They are the Celtic Oak King of the New Sun. The Wren is the bird of the Old Sun. The Robin is the son of the Wren. The Robin kills his father. So the New Sun takes over from the Old Sun at the Winter Solstice. And the Robin takes over from the Wren.
The blood of the father Wren stains the Robin’s breast. In Celtic Folklore, Robins are said to shelter in Holly trees. Robins appear when loved ones are near. If a Robin comes into your house, a death will follow.
Perhaps this gives a context for Shakespeare’s mention of a robin (a ruddock he called it) which he grants the power of censure. In the play Cymberline, Innogen has been found dead, and amidst the floral tributes mentioned is the following (cors is corpse):
the ruddock would with charitable bill (Oh bill sore shaming those rich-left-heirs, that let their Father’s lie without a Monument) – bring thee all this; Yea, and furr’d Mosse besides. When Flowres are none To winter-ground thy cors
(Cymbeline, Act 4 scene 2)
Robin’s Habits
They are one of the few birds to be seen all year round, and they sing all year too. But they have different songs for autumn and spring. Robins sing from concealed spaces in trees or bushes. They are the first to sing in the morning, the last to stop at night, and can be triggered by street lights turning on. A Robin can sing all the notes on the scale and can sing for half an hour without repeating a melody.
They eat worms, seeds, fruits, insects and other invertebrates. Robins are aggressively territorial, and are our favourite birds. (RSPB)
On this Day
1554 – ‘the same day at after-noon was a bear bitten on the Bank side, and broke loose and in running away he caught a serving man by the calf of the leg, and bit a great piece away and after by the ‘hokyl-bone’ within 3 days after he died.’
Henry Machyn’s Diary quoted in ‘A London Year’ complied by Travis Elborough & Nick Rennison.
Hokyl-bone might be the holbourne stream inn what we now call holborn. Or it might be another name for the tarsus bone, the heel bone. But it doesn’t really make sense if it’s a bone. But the bear dying 3 days later by the steam makes some sort of sense.
Written December 9th 2024, revised and the Bank side incident with the Bear added 2025
Winter December 2nd
This is the second day of Winter. Winter is hiems in Latin; Gaeaf in Welsh. Geimhreadh in Old Irish; Wintar in Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxons counted years by winters, so a child might be said to be 4 winters old.
Winter, meteorologically speaking, is described in the Northern Hemisphere as being December, January, and February, which is, of course, a convention rather than a fact. There is nothing about December 1st that makes it more ‘wintery’ than November 30th or December 2nd. Astronomically, winter starts with the Winter Solstice when the sun is at its lowest and so stretches from around December 21st to the Equinox around March 21st.
Logically, the solstice, when the Sun is at its weakest, should be the coldest day, and a midpoint of winter rather than the beginning of it. With 6 weeks of winter on either side of it. This is roughly what the Celtic year does, winter starts at dusk on 31st October (Halloween/Samhain) and continues to the evening of 31st January (Candlemas/Imbolc). So a Celtic Winter is November, December, and January.
As far as the Sun goes, this is logically correct. In fact, because of the presence of the oceans (and to a lesser extent) the earth, the coldest time is not the Solstice when the Sun is at its weakest. But a few weeks later in January. Heat is retained by oceans (and the landmass), and so the coldest (and the warmest) periods are offset. Therefore, January 13th is probably the coldest day, not December 21st.
My Own Winter
My personal calendar suggests that winter begins on November 5th because this is the day I generally notice how cold it has suddenly become. The house smart meter also identifies the week of November 4th being the day when the heating bill goes through the roof. However, this was not true this year, where in the London area we had a warm spell.
A final thought about Winter. Isn’t it strange that a small change in the axis of the planet should create such opposites? Cold and little growth, then hot and an explosion of flowers. Opposites just with a little tilt of the Globe towards the Sun. This, in the vastness of space, with unimaginably cold and unbelievable hot places and spaces. These make tiny the little difference between Summer and Winter seem insignificant. And yet to us, they are opposites and central facts to our existence as a species. In places, temperature ‘extremes’ make it hard to survive in. Some think this is because God made the Universe just for us. But, just think, we are completely adapted to our lives on our very own, blue planet.
A Roman View of Winter
Ovid, the great Roman poet wrote this poem on his exile from Rome to Tomis, on the Black Sea in what is now Romania. We don’t know why he was exiled, but he felt it bitterly. And winter is used to effect to show his pain.
Winter in Tomis
Harsh lands lie before him
As he struggles to keep his wit
Malicious thoughts infecting-
Crippling the morale of his spirit
Shattered visions of the fallen begin to transpire..
An awful nostalgia consumes him.
A crooked smile forms..exalting the dead
So began the fall of a mastermind.
Realizing as his mind falls to pieces
They are but catalysts – parts of a puzzle to a different plan
As the images surfaced, his virtue descends
Living amongst those barbarians
Though a fierce complication
Their tact was that of a wounded creature
And they were overrun
“I remain in exile
My bones grow weak like the sun
Descending into the trees
To end this daily affliction
As winter shows its pallid face
And the earth veiled with marbled frost
Forsaken – this gradual madness consumes my mind
Perdition in Tomis
Undead armies of Tomis
Commanded only by the presence of my absense
Brought to life by the death of myself
Risen to ease this torment
Sacrilege; The second chance to formulate a reason
The relapse crucifixion forthwith to go into effect
Casting him away; instead insuring their demise.
I remain in exile
My bones grow weak like the sun
Descending into the trees
To end this daily affliction
As winter shows its pallid face
And the earth veiled with marbled frost
Forsaken – this gradual madness consumes my mind
Perdition in Tomis
Each day passing now I beg for some remorse
Desperately grasping at what I feel to be my last bit of life
But unlike the cycle of the attic
I feel as though there is no recourse
I’ve withered to nothing.”
“Save me from drowning, and death will be a blessing.”
Hope for his designed tomb
“Rescue my weary spirit from annihilation
If one already lost may be un-lost”
Ovid abandoned writing his almanac poem because of his exile, so it never got beyond the Summer. To read about this see my post here or search for Ovid from the menu.
On this day
1859 – John Brown was hanged, following his raid on Harpers Ferry, violently opposing slavery.
1954 – Joseph McCarthy was formally censured by the Senate for the methods used in his anti-communist campaigns.
Published in 2024, and revised adding Ovid in 2025
Halloween October 31st
I began my perpetual Almanac of the Past four years ago on the 31st October 2021. This was the first line:
‘This blog is to celebrate the Year. I will post, hopefully, once a day, so we can follow the seasons, as they happen naturally, and as people in Britain and Ireland have responded to the changes in the year.’
It was inspired by Charles Kightly’s book, which is a pot-pourri of folklore taken mostly from old Almanacs. I haven’t managed, yet to create a post for every day of the year, nearly managed it in the winter but falling behind in the Summer when I take Road Scholar groups around the UK. My plan is to fill in the gaps, improve posts and get rid of typos. Another aim is to add more London-specific content.
I started on Halloween because Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) was the beginning of the year for the Celtic world. It may mean Summer’s End. In Wales, it is Calan Gaeaf (first day of winter) and Kala Goafiv (beginning of November in Brittany).
Why did the Celts start their year at such an unlikely time? A clue is that they began the next day at dusk. The Sun dies at dusk so it is the end of the day, and the next day begins with the death of the old day.
So the New Year begins with the Death of the Old Year. Now that might suggest the Winter Solstice as the best time to start the year as this celebrates the death of the old Sun. (see my winter solstice post here :) But, the end of October has, perhaps a better claim. The harvest is in, the fruits in the trees and the nuts are harvested, all the growth of the Summer is over and collected. Plants are mostly dead or dormant, except some evergreens. It is the end of the growing year. The seeds have fallen from the trees and shrubs and are nestling in the soil, ready to begin their cycle again. All is over and all is ready for the new year. Makes sense?
The Celtic way also explains eves; Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, May Eve, All Hallow’s Eve. They are not the night before the day, they are the beginning of the day. This is when you begin the celebration.
For the Romans, today is the day that Adonis is injured hunting a wild boar. Against his lover’s (Venus) advice, he descends to the underworld. Nature withers and dies until he returns from the underworld. His blood stains a flower and was transformed into the Crimson Anemone. There is a similar story in Babylon of Ishtar and Tammuz.
Binyon 1898-1907 / Catalogue of drawings by British artists, and artists of foreign origin working in Great Britain (5(c))
Adonis comes back on May Day when he meets Venus again, so the world flourishes and is bright and warm.
Julius Caesar says the Gauls venerated the God Dis Pater on this day – an aspect of Pluto, the God of the Underworld, ruler of the Dead. There was a Roman Festival on the Kalends of November dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of the fruit of trees. This may influence the use of Apples, which are prominent in Halloween festivities.
For more about the origins of Halloween, please look at my post on All Hallows Day here:
First written in 2021, and revised 2023, 4 and 5.
The Archaeology of London Walk
This is Kevin Flude’s Walk for London Walks. It normally starts in the early evening and from Exit 3 Bank Underground Station To See if the walk is running soon follow this link.
Legend says that London was founded as New Troy. Historians believed it was founded as Londinium after the Bridge was built by the legionaries of the Emperor Claudius in AD 43. Archaeologists in the 1970s and 1980s discovered that London was refounded as Lundenwic in the 7th Century and again in the 9th Century when it was called Lundeburg.
This walk tells the epic tale of the uncovering of London’s past by Archaeologists. And provides an insight into the dramatic history of the Capital of Britannia, and how it survived revolts, fires, plagues, and reacted to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It became the foremost English City but with periods under Viking and Norman control.
We tell the story in the streets of the City of London, beginning in the valley of the River Walbrook by the Temple of Mithras, and visit many sites where important archaeological discoveries were made.
See my Roman London
Updated 7th October
Hardy’s Henge Given Protected Status August 19th
Author of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ Thomas Hardy was an architect and designed his own house. During the work on Max Gate, the builders came across a large block of sandstone. The stone is of a type called ‘Sarsen’ at Stonehenge. it is ‘a type of silcrete, a rock formed when sand is cemented by silica (quartz)‘. It is a hard sandstone.
Hardy, who loved history, had it relocated into his garden and called it his ‘druid stone’. This recalls one of the most famous scenes in ‘Tess’. She is sleeping on the Altar Stone at Stonehenge as the Police move in to arrest her for murder. Angel, her lover, persuades the Police to let her enjoy a few more minutes of peaceful sleep. After which they arrest her, try her, find her guilty and hang her at Winchester. Spoiler alert?
The Altar Stone at Stonehenge, by the way, has very recently been discovered to be from Scotland. A discovery that confirms that Stonehenge was an immensely important site in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Hardy loved history. How glad he would have been to know his house was in the middle of an important Henge. Hardy’s Henge (aka Flagstones) turns out to be older than Stonehenge. In the 1982. a geophysical survey in advance of the Dorchester Bypass was undertaken. It found evidence of a circular enclosure outside Hardy’s house. This was followed by an excavation in 1987-8. This discovered a large circular bank 100m in diameter, from the Neolithic period.
Half of Flagstones, is largely preserved beneath Max Gate, and has now been officially listed and protected. The excavations suggested a date of construction of 3,000 BC, about the time of Stonehenge’s first construction. But it has just been redated to 3,200BC making Flagstones older than Stonehenge!
In 2022, targeted excavation designed to explore the other half of the circle revealed further dating evidence. This suggests it was built 500 years before Stonehenge, earlier than 3,500BC. The suggested date of 3650BC makes it one of the earliest in the South West. It was giving listed protection on the August 19th, 2024. (redated to 3650BC)
The enclosure consists of a single ring of unevenly spaced pits, forming an interrupted ditch system roughly circular. The dating evidence does not prove that this circuit was built before 3,500 BC. But it does show there was a neolithic presence on the site at this early date. Burials were found in the bottom of the pits forming the enclosure. Four of these pits were had markings on the lower pit walls. These were cut by flint forming pictograms of varying forms from curvilinear, to linear. There was little activity in the Late Neolithic. The site seems to have been reused for funerary and ‘other practices’ during the Bronze, Iron Ages and Roman period.
These recent finds make Hardy’s Henge an important precursor to Stonehenge. The site is built on a ridge parallel with the River Frome. Dorchester, a couple of miles from Max Gate, is another ‘ritual landscape’ like Stonehenge. Here are a cluster of important Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. In the centre of the Town, was found evidence of a massive wooden circle. The postholes are found marked on the floor of the town centre car-park as shown below. The Great Henge is a massive 360m in diameter, covering much of the much later Town Centre. It was built in around 2100 BC.
Just outside of Dorchester is a Roman Amphitheatre. This is where Hardy sets the reunion of the Mayor of Casterbridge and Susan Newson. She was the wife he sold at a county fair, years ago when he was a young man. But it began life as another Neolithic circular enclosure. This had an external bank, and an inner Ditch in which were dug 44 tapering pits, up to 10m in depth. Antler picks, chalk objects, including chalk phalluses, were found. The disused amphitheatre was used for executions in the early modern period.
A few miles away, at the Iron Age Hill Fort of Maiden Castle, is a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure. Hardy also wrote about Maiden Castle, and an excavation.
These ritual landscapes, such as Dorchester, Stonehenge, Avebury, Heathrow and elsewhere shows a clustering of ritual places in important landscapes. It suggests evidence of regional organisation. Stonehenge, however, continues to lead the way for evidence of not only regional but international importance. It drew people, and objects from not only England, Scotland and Wales, but also from the continent.
For further details of the Flagstones listing and excavation, here is the official listing document:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1489792?section=official-list-entry
For more of Thomas Hardy on my Almanac of the Past see:
Revised 19th August 2025
August – Octavian’s Month
The Roman month
August was originally ‘sextilis’ or the 6th Month of the ten-month Roman Calendar. It became the 8th Month when January and February were added to the calendar to make a 12 month year. By tradition, this happened during the reign of King Numa Pompilius. Originally set as a 29-day month but changed to a 31-day month in the reforms of Julius Caesar. It was subsequently renamed August by a sycophantic Senate trying to flatter the divine Octavian, Emperor Augustus. (more of my posts about the Roman Calendar here and here)
The Celtic August
In modern Irish, it is Lúnasa, which means the month of the festival of Lughnasa. It is a harvest festival, celebrating the ripening of wheat, barley, rye, and potatoes. In Ireland, it is the festival of the God Lugh, celebrated with games, fairs, and ceremonies. Lughnasa is 6 months after Imbolc. It marks the ending of lactation of lambs and the beginning of the tupping season. (impregnation of the ewes). It can be celebrated by climbing hills, visiting springs, wells, lakes and eating bilberries. (Myths and Legends of the Celts. James MacKillop).
In Welsh, it is Awst which comes from the Latin. Called Calan Awst in Wales, it is the festival of August. In Gaelic Scotland it is called Lunasuinn, and Laa Luanistyn in the Isle of Man.
Lughnasa is one of the Celtic quarter days,. They are halfway between the Solstices and Equinoxes. They are: Samhain (1 Nov) Imbolc (1 Feb), Beltane (1 May) and Lughnasa (1 Aug). All are, or can be seen to be, a turning point in the farming year.
The Gallic Coligny ‘Celtic’ Calendar records August as a ‘great festival month’. The stone-carved Calendar was found near Lyon, whose Roman name was Lugodunum. The town is named after the Gaulish God Lugos. It is thought he is related to the Irish God, Lugh and the Welsh Llew Llaw Gyffes. He has an unstoppable fiery spear, a sling stone, and a hound called Failinis. The Romans associate Lugos with Mercury, and the Church associated Lugh with St Michael.
Lughnasa was founded by Lugh himself to honour his foster mother Tailtiu at Brega Co. Meath. Tailtiu became one of Ireland’s greatest festivals, springing from the horse races and marital contests set up by Lugh.
Anglo Saxon August
In Anglo-Saxon: the Venerable Bede, writing in the 8th Century, says August is Wēodmōnaþ or the Weed Month. Named because of the proliferation of weeds. Why does that seem such an unsatisfactory name for August? An early Kentish source calls the month Rugern – perhaps the month of the harvest of Rye? (Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker).
Lammas
For the Anglo-Saxons, August brings in the harvest period. This is the most important months of the year. The Harvest brings in the bounty of the earth. It needs to be carefully collected, enjoyed but not wasted. It begins with the festival of Lammas, which derives from the English words for bread and mass. The Bread Mass when bread made from the first fruits of the harvest is blessed.
Kalendar of Shepherds
The 15th Century illustration in the Kalendar of Shepherds, above, shows that the Harvest is the main attribute of the Month, and the star signs, Leo and Virgo.
The 16th/17th Century text in the Kalendar of Shepherds gives an evocative insight into the month.
(For more about the Kalendar)
First Published in 2024, revised in August 2025