Searching For Myths & Monsters in the Peak District

all right we're rolling here in the peak district so we're here on stanton moore this is uh a truly ancient landscape earlier on we were looking at some walls left by farmers not long ago but as we look down here we can actually see a landscape that it's probably been here more or less in a similar sort of fashion for four five thousand years it's a very special mystical feeling to this place so we're here on stanton moore in the peak district it's been a long time since i've been out filming any sort of history so this is really really exciting three months of lockdown finally back at it this is it folks if you're watching this in the future please ignore my apparent lack of enthusiasm back in the summer of 2020 bleary-eyed and confused are just emerged from a quarter of a year spent away from the glorious delights of the great outdoors far away from history and beauty of archaeological landscapes [Music] it was a time spent watching the tiger king and getting smashed in the garden unfortunately not filming at any historical sites as 2021 dawns i now look back on this first excursion of 2020 as a time of innocence [Music] it couldn't get any worse they said well anyway let's go back in time a bit [Music] my name's pete kelly and this is my mate owen back in those heady days of mid-2020 during a brief lull between two national lockdowns we headed out into the wilds to find stone circles prehistoric monuments and ancient quarries [Music] today we're headed to a landscape that's changed little in 5 000 years it's a place coated with archaeological evidence and a rich corpus of stories and legends [Music] let's go [Music] so i'm here on the peaks this is darley dale and as you can see it's quite an incredible landscape these massive hewn rocks strewn all around this was once used by bronze age people to quarry out the stones that they used to make their monuments that litter this vast landscape many trees around they were all cleared in the neolithic times and uh after that this was a bronze age landscape so you had people crossing over the sea from mainland europe early primitive seafaring people bringing metallurgy with them across the sea and there's a good argument that it was those sorts of people who brought horses to britain for the first time people who had their roots out on the steps of inner asia many hundreds of years before before moving into europe to conquer the early neolithic farmers who had spread over from anatolia now for something completely different or is it [Music] in 1901 a new story was published in england today regarded as one of the most famous ever written [Music] sir arthur conan doyle's the hound of the baskervilles was an instant hit and like many of the great stories of england the lord of the rings harry potter either a good reason for this success [Music] alongside the excellent pros realistic characters and evocative intrigue the hound of the baskervilles tapped into something deeper lying dormant underneath the surface of conservative victorian society for beneath the whimsy of sherlock and watson the heart of the story the hound itself speaks of a much older time a rich folklore developed over thousands of years in every corner of the island it spoke of a primal fear long held in britain and elsewhere a legend that's been with humankind for as long as anyone can remember [Music] seen on scratch marks on church doors in east anglia on moors and wild places the island over even in a led zeppelin track it's the tale of the black dog [Music] the concept of a great beastial hound that once harried the dark roads of britain in pre-modern times all over the uk there are legends and tales of ghostly animals often appearing to solitary travelers on isolated roads the apparitions are almost always dark jet black and often of gigantic size they can take the form of pigs donkeys even a great black ram which may have given derbyshire its mascot still worn by the football club today but mostly they are hounds huge monstrous demonic creatures that speak of the time when magic still lived in the world and stanton moore is no exception [Music] one such story concerns the small village of bradwell on a cold winter's evening two brothers deep in their pints emerged from a local pub heading down through the long country road winding through hedgerows and grasping trees suddenly they're confronted by a huge black dog [Music] eyes glowing red mouth frothing padding up and down the path before them what are you but only one of the brothers can see the apparition what are you pal the two men both minors head off with very different conclusions you've had one too many bloody points mate topped you are the next day the one who'd seen the apparition convinced he'd received a warning stayed at home the other went to the mines later on that day he was killed in a terrible accident the concept of a portent of an impending disaster is a common theme for the legend of the black dog sometimes even acting as guides to help lost people find their way though the story also speaks of a real past [Music] when very genuine large predators still prowled the hidden forest depths outside the scattered villages people lived in [Music] for that was the time when wolves still roamed and not too much earlier bears [Music] it's possible that these legends remain as half-remembered reflections of that ancient time not too long ago when the forest and the wilderness between settlements was a fearful place still stalked by predators with a taste for human flesh indeed one story from worm hill near buxton not too far from the old domain of the wolf hunt family famed for their skill at hunting wolves in the royal forests it's often said to be concerned with one of those last wolves to live in england [Music] in legend seen running and leaping with unnatural speed along the local roads the last of its kind it said bearing a grudge against all humanity [Music] and of course stanton moore has its own black dog legend a great phantom beast said to stalk the desolate more [Music] in archaeology too this is an important place more than 70 ancient barrows stand fixed on the landscape [Music] mostly on the southern side of the moor and often difficult to discern [Music] in the world of tolkien it was places like this that inspired the barrow downs on the borderlands between the shire and rivendell resting place of the ancient kings of old very aware of the old legends of england tolkien's unfortunate hobbits aren't careful enough with their wanderings failing to heed the warning signs they approach one of the barrows from the wrong side and thus they awaken the spirits of the dead perhaps it was a similar feeling for the anglian tribe later known as the pakensete or peak landers when they first ventured into this region in the 5th and 6th centuries a.d finding ancient barrows there built by who knows who long before their own ancestors arrived on the island they knew the mounds were important though and a strange coincidence for the peak landers too were barrow builders one of the most famous being situated at benty grange excavated during the 19th century it was found to be the grave of a warrior containing one of the very few anglo-saxon helmets ever found long before sutton who this was the most important archaeological discovery from that age somewhat bringing the early middle ages out of the realm of myth and legend into reality [Music] it's probable that at least some of those stories told around hearthfire during that early anglo-saxon age still live on with us today on stanton moore the barrows were excavated slightly later between 1927 and the early 1950s by local archaeologist jc heathcote and his son their grave goods now exhibited in nearby birchover museum they did indeed contain the rulers of old for those barrows were the last resting places of bronze age beaker folk people who lived 2 500 years before the p glandus and there's more we don't know for sure the dating is still somewhat confused but the beaker folk apparently newcomers to britain may well have been some of the stone circle builders either inheriting the tradition from britain's neolithic farmers or building anew [Music] for stanton moore has four bronze age stone circles the most famous of all is one of the most visited in the whole country the nine ladies in legend a group of women turned to stone for daring to dance on the sabbath [Music] a tenth the king stone standing nearby is said to be the fiddler who played the music [Music] but that's a story for another time three other stone circles lie largely hidden and forgotten on the moor overgrown and unvisited amongst the heather not too far away yet another stone circle stands at dole tour the purpose for all of these well there are many theories but in reality no one knows for sure but it's not just ancient worshippers this landscape attracts [Music] today it's still an important place for modern pagans a wishing tree stands nearby decorated with offerings and prayers a number of modern cairns sit on the landscape too removed from their predecessors nearby by some four thousand years [Music] of course these days it's not very fashionable or credible to believe in a giant black dog but there are other more modern myths and legends here too that are more acceptable for those visiting at night particularly at the trig point the highest on the moor may catch a glimpse of a ufo and if not if they're lucky they will see an incredible view of the night sky for these are some of the darkest skies in the midlands an excellent spot for stargazing an activity that may well have been carried out here for thousands upon thousands of years [Music] my name's pete kelly don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video and let me know what you think in the comments there are so many more adventures on the way [Music] you

Channel: Pete Kelly

Views: 9,083

Rating: 4.9693875 out of 5

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Id: 8yUVZjqUL28

Length: 20min 1sec (1201 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021