Mounds marked a final journey

I have never paid a visit but believe it is not far from the Captain Cook monument to the north or north-east east of Kildale on Coate Moor.

It seems reputedly named after a witch of that name.

She was the wife of Stephen Howe and it is said that Nanny Howe attended the infamous Devil’s Court at this place but her name lives on in local history, even if we do not know much about her.

The moors of that region boast lots of howes. Not long ago, I counted more than eighty on a local Ordnance Survey map with names like Flat Howe, High Moor Howe, Loose Howe, Pye Rigg Howe, Silhowe, Three Howes, Rudd’s Houe, Beacon Howe and many more.

The word also appears as a suffix to local place names including Sexhow, Stanghow, Carlin How and even Silpho.

The spelling can differ, eg, howe, how or houe, although in some areas the dialect pronunciation sounds like hoo.

The word appears in my Concise Oxford Dictionary where it is spelt as howe and derives from the Old English meaning a mound, barrow or tumulus.

Although the word can signify a natural mound or small hill, it can also suggest a place of burial or a sepulchral barrow especially in the North of England.

There are literally thousands dotted across the moors with some rising above the surrounding mass of bracken or heather.

Quite often, they appear to have been built of stones and earth even if, down the ages, the sites of such stones have changed due to ground movements, the effects of harsh weather or the activities of people and animals.

Lots of these mounds have been excavated, often by people with little or no expert knowledge, and they have been found to contain objects used during the owners’ lifetime such as drinking vessels, ornaments, jewellery, tools and religious artefacts.

In many cases, those objects have been removed for personal gain and have not found their way into museums or laboratories where they rightly belong so they could be examined and assessed as each generation produced clever new means of revealing their secrets.

A few remains of skeletons have been discovered too but it is true that much history has been lost due to interference by unauthorised or amateurish searchers.

The discovery of domestic utensils, tools, jewellery and such is a reminder that our ancestors liked to take their precious belongings with them when they were embarking on their final journey.

Passing bells

Some years ago a York church re-instated its curfew bell whilst several others continue the ancient custom of ringing the curfew.

No-one is quite sure when the notion of a curfew arose but it is widely thought to have begun in England in 1068 during the reign of William the Conqueror.

The custom was widespread in Europe long before it became common here which explains how the Conqueror came up with his idea.

Its purpose was to prevent public disorder. When the curfew bell rang it was the signal for everyone to go indoors between certain hours of the night.

Those who broke the curfew were punished, but the hours in question varied from place to place. In some towns and villages, the curfew included all the hours of darkness whilst others stipulated a particular time, say 10pm until 6am or 8pm until 8am.

However, the original purpose was not to prevent public disorder but to protect people from their own carelessness because it was originally an order to smother the flames of one’s own fire. The word curfew comes from the old French couvre-feu that meant “cover fire.”

At the time, the people lived in very flimsy houses with wooden or turf walls and thatched roofs. In medieval times, the domestic fire burnt on the earth floor in the centre of the house with smoke filtering through the thatch.

The problem was that many people went to bed and left the fire ablaze and so roofs and walls often caught fire, sometimes resulting in injuries and deaths.

The authorities tried to persuade people to take more care but it is doubtful whether the curfew meant fires should be extinguished because they were vital to the welfare of the household.

It is feasible they had to be covered with earth to damp down the flames whilst a quick stir with a poker next morning would revive the blaze.

Certainly no-one wanted their fire to die out because it was needed for heat, light and cooking. And in winter, it was not easy to re-ignite a dead fire if the kindling and logs were damp.

The idea of a curfew being imposed by law without a bell sounding has been widely used down the centuries and is practised today.

For example, it may be deployed when an invading army enters a country; the sound of curfew bells or other forms of notification may order citizens to go indoors and remain there, sometimes under pain of death.

Over the centuries, church bells have been used for a variety of purposes in addition to curfews and announcing times of Mass.

For example, the passing bell was rung when a parishioner died, its tolling reminding the faithful to pray for the soul of the dear departed.

The bells served another purpose because they indicated the age and sex of the deceased with the number of differing rings called knowles indicating the sex of the deceased and strokes indicating the age.

It seems that the earliest record of the passing bell in England was at Hackness Monastery near Scarborough when its sound called upon the community to offer prayers for the immortal soul of either a deceased monk or nun.

This monastery was founded by St Hilda of Whitby Abbey (617-680) towards the end of her impressive life.

Church bells are rung for many other reasons. They have been utilised to announce invasions of our country or to herald great celebrations such as a coronation or a wedding at national level and even weddings of a very local kind.

Funerals of great people can be announced throughout the land by bells ringing, as can the more modest funerals of local people thanks to the bells of their parish church.

They have also been rung on festivals, saints’ days, fairs and various other celebrations whilst at Malton they used to be rung if a local horse won a Classic race.

Not surprisingly, there were lots of superstitions featuring church bells.

One very common belief was that their sound chased away thunder and lightning and in some villages, the bells were rung during storms with the specific purpose of reducing damage.

Some believed the sound also protected crops and helped women during childbirth.

It was often said that if church bells rang of their own accord, it heralded either the presence of a saint or indicated a crime had been committed; they were also very good for driving away snakes. end