| Glastonbury Tor | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Glastonbury Tor in 2017 | |
| Location | Glastonbury, Somerset, England |
| Coordinates | 51°08′40″N2°41′55″W / 51.14444°N 2.69861°W /51.14444; -2.69861 |
| Governing body | National Trust |
| Official name | St Michael's Church, monastic remains, and other settlement remains on Glastonbury Tor |
| Designated | 24 April 1954[1] |
| Reference no. | 1019390 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | St Michael's Church Tower |
| Designated | 21 June 1950[2] |
| Reference no. | 1345475 |
  Location of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset | |
Glastonbury Tor is a hill nearGlastonbury in the English county ofSomerset, topped by the roofless tower of St Michael's Church, a Grade Ilisted building.[2] The site is managed by theNational Trust and has been designated ascheduled monument.[1][3] The Tor is mentioned inWelsh mythology particularly in myths linked toKing Arthur and the island ofAvalon, and has several other enduring mythological and spiritual associations.
The conical hill of clay andBlue Lias rises from theSomerset Levels. It was formed when surrounding softer deposits were eroded, leaving a hard cap ofsandstone exposed. The slopes of the hill are terraced, but the method by which they were formed remains unexplained.
Archaeological excavations during the 20th century sought to clarify the background of the monument and church, but some aspects of their history remain unexplained. Artefacts from human visitation have been found, dating from theIron Age to Roman eras. Several buildings were constructed on the summit duringSaxon andearly medieval periods; they have been interpreted as an early church and monks' hermitage. The head of awheel cross dating from the 10th or 11th century has been recovered. The original wooden church was destroyed byan earthquake in 1275, and the stone Church of St Michael was built on the site in the 14th century. Its tower remains, although it has been restored and partially rebuilt several times.
The origin of the nameGlastonbury is unclear, but when the settlement was first recorded in the late 7th and early 8th centuries it was calledGlestingaburg.[4][5] Of the latter name,Glestinga is obscure and may derive from anOld English word orCeltic personal name.[4][6] It may derive from a person orkinship group named Glast.[4] The second half of the name,-burg, isAnglo-Saxon in origin and could refer to either a fortified place such as aburh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure.[citation needed]
Tor is often used in the South West of England to refer to a prominent hill deriving from theOld Englishtorr.[7][note 1][8] The Welsh name of the Tor wasYnys Wydrin, or sometimesYnys Gutrin, meaning 'Isle of Glass'. At this time[when?] the plain was flooded, the isle becoming a peninsula at low tide.[9][10]
The Tor is almost surrounded by the low-lyingSomerset Levels,[11] rising to an elevation of 518 feet (158 m).[1] The Levels are reclaimedfen above which the Tor is clearly visible for miles around. It has been described as an island, but actually sits at the western end of apeninsula washed on three sides by theRiver Brue.[12]
The Tor is formed from rocks dating from the earlyJurassic Period, namely varied layers ofLias Group strata. The uppermost of these, forming the Tor itself, are a succession of rocks assigned to theBridport Sand Formation. These rocks sit upon strata forming the broader hill on which the Tor stands; the various layers of theBeacon Limestone Formation and theDyrham Formation.[13][14] The Bridport Sands have acted as acaprock, protecting the lower layers from erosion.
The iron-rich waters ofChalice Well, aspring at the base of the Tor, flow out as an artesian well impregnating the sandstone around it withiron oxides that have reinforced it to produce the caprock.[15] Iron-rich but oxygen-poor water in the aquifer carries dissolvediron (II) "ferrous" iron, but as the water surfaces and its oxygen content rises, the oxidisediron (III) "ferric" iron drops out as insoluble "rusty" oxides that bind to the surrounding stone, hardening it.[16]
The low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as aFata Morgana when the Tor appears to rise out of the mist.[17] Thisoptical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steepthermal inversion where anatmospheric duct has formed.[18] The Italian termFata Morgana is derived from the name ofMorgan le Fay, a powerful sorceress inArthurian legend.[19]
The sides of the Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces, orlynchets. Their formation remains a mystery[20] with many possible explanations. They may have been formed as a result of natural differentiation of the layers of Lias stone andclay or used by farmers during theMiddle Ages asterraced hills to make ploughing for crops easier.[21] Author Nicholas Mann questions this theory. If agriculture had been the reason for the creation of the terraces, it would be expected that the effort would be concentrated on the south side, where the sunny conditions would provide a good yield, but the terraces are equally deep on the northern side, which would provide little benefit. Additionally, none of the other slopes of the island have been terraced, even though the more sheltered locations would provide a greater return on the labour involved.[22]
Other explanations have been suggested for the terraces, including the construction of defensive ramparts.[23] Iron Age hill forts including the nearbyCadbury Castle in Somerset show evidence of extensivefortification of their slopes. The normal form of ramparts is a bank and ditch, but there is no evidence of this arrangement on the Tor. South Cadbury, one of the most extensively fortified places in early Britain, had three concentric rings of banks and ditches supporting an 44-acre (18 ha) enclosure. By contrast, the Tor has seven rings and very little space on top for the safekeeping of a community.[24] It has been suggested,[by whom?] that a defensive function may have been linked withPonter's Ball Dyke, a linearearthwork about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Tor.[25][26][27] It consists of an embankment with a ditch on the east side.[27] The purpose and provenance of the dyke are unclear. It is possible that it was part of a longer defensive barrier associated withNew Ditch, three miles to the south-west, which is built in a similar manner. It has been suggested byRalegh Radford that it is part of a great Celtic sanctuary, probably 3rd century BC, while others, includingPhilip Rahtz, date it to the post-Roman period and link it to theDark Age occupation on Glastonbury Tor. The 1970 excavation suggests the 12th century or later.[28] The historianRonald Hutton also mentions the alternative possibility that the terraces are the remains of a medieval "spiral walkway" created for pilgrims to reach the church on the summit,[29] similar to that atWhitby Abbey.[30]
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Another suggestion is that the terraces are the remains of a three-dimensional labyrinth,[31] first proposed by Geoffrey Russell in 1968. He states that the classicallabyrinth (Caerdroia), a design found all over the Neolithic world, can be easily transposed onto the Tor so that by walking around the terraces a person eventually reaches the top in the same pattern.[32][33] Evaluating this hypothesis is not easy. A labyrinth would very likely place the terraces in the Neolithic era,[34] but given the amount of occupation since then, there may have been substantial modifications by farmers or monks, and conclusive excavations have not been carried out.[30] In a more recent book, Hutton writes that "the labyrinth does not seem to be an ancient sacred structure".[35]
SomeNeolithic flint tools recovered from the top of the Tor show that the site has been visited, perhaps with a lasting occupation, sinceprehistory. The nearby remains ofGlastonbury Lake Village were identified at the site in 1892, which confirmed that there was anIron Age settlement in about 300–200 BC on what was an easily defended island in the fens.[36][37] There is no evidence of permanent occupation of the Tor, but finds, including Roman pottery, do suggest that it was visited on a regular basis.[38]
Excavations on Glastonbury Tor, undertaken by a team led byPhilip Rahtz between 1964 and 1966,[39] revealed evidence ofDark Age occupation during the 5th to 7th centuries[1][40] around the later medieval church of St. Michael. Finds includedpostholes, two hearths including a metalworker'sforge, two burials oriented north–south (thus unlikely to be Christian), fragments of 6th-centuryMediterraneanamphorae (vases for wine or cooking oil),[41] and a worn hollow bronze head which may have topped aSaxon staff.[42][43][44]
During the late Saxon and early medieval period, there were at least four buildings on the summit. The base of a stone cross demonstrates Christian use of the site during this period, and it may have been a hermitage.[45] The broken head of awheel cross dated to the 10th or 11th century was found partway down the hill and may have been the head of the cross that stood on the summit.[46][47][48] The head of the cross is now in theMuseum of Somerset inTaunton.[49]
The earliest timber church, dedicated toSt Michael,[50] is believed to have been constructed in the 11th or 12th century; from which post holes have since been identified.[51][52] Associated monk cells have also been identified.[52]
In 1243Henry III granted a charter for a six-day fair at the site.[53]
St Michael's Church was destroyed byan earthquake on 11 September 1275.[54] According to theBritish Geological Survey, the earthquake was felt in London, Canterbury and Wales,[55] and was reported to have destroyed many houses and churches in England. The intensity of shaking was probably greater than 7 on theMedvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale, with its epicentre in the area aroundPortsmouth orChichester, South England.[54]
A second church, also dedicated to St Michael, was built of local sandstone in the 14th century by the Abbot Adam of Sodbury, incorporating the foundations of the previous building. It includedstained glass and decorated floor tiles. There was also a portable altar ofPurbeck Marble;[56] it is likely that the Monastery of St Michael on the Tor was a daughter house ofGlastonbury Abbey.[53]
St Michael's Church survived until theDissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 when, except for the tower, it was demolished.[1] The Tor was the place of execution whereRichard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, washanged, drawn and quartered along with two of his monks,John Thorne andRoger James.[57] The three-storey tower of St Michael's Church survives. It has cornerbuttresses and perpendicular bell openings. There is a sculptured tablet with an image of an eagle below the parapet.[2]
In 1786,Richard Colt Hoare ofStourhead bought the Tor and funded the repair of the tower in 1804, including the rebuilding of the north-east corner.[1][58] It was then sold to theVery Rev. Hon. George Neville-Grenville and included in theButleigh Manor until the 20th century. The last owner of the Tor was Robert Neville-Grenville who wished to give the Tor to the National Trust along with theGlastonbury Tribunal.[59] After his death in 1936 it was sold to TheNational Trust which raised money by public subscription for its upkeep.[60][61]
TheNational Trust took control of the Tor in 1937, but repairs were delayed until after theSecond World War.[58] During the 1960s, excavations identified cracks in the rock, suggesting the ground had moved in the past. This, combined with wind erosion, started to expose the footings of the tower, which were repaired with concrete. Erosion caused by the feet of the increasing number of visitors was also a problem and paths were laid to enable them to reach the summit without damaging the terraces. After 2000, enhancements to the access and repairs to the tower, including rebuilding of the parapet, were carried out. These included the replacement of some of the masonry damaged by earlier repairs with new stone from theHadspen Quarry.[58]
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A model vaguely based on Glastonbury Tor (albeit with a tree instead of the tower) was incorporated into theopening ceremony of the2012 Summer Olympics in London. As the athletes entered the stadium, their flags were displayed on the terraces of the model.[63][64]
The Tor seems to have been calledYnys Afallon (meaning "The Isle of Avalon") by theBritons and is believed by some, including the 12th and 13th century writerGerald of Wales, to be theAvalon ofArthurian legend.[65] The Tor has been associated with the name Avalon, and identified withKing Arthur, since the alleged discovery of his and Queen Guinevere's neatly labelled coffins in 1191, recounted byGerald of Wales.[66][67] AuthorChristopher L. Hodapp asserts in his bookThe Templar Code for Dummies that Glastonbury Tor is one of the possible locations of theHoly Grail, because it is close to the monastery that housed theNanteos Cup.[68]
The Tor has been a place of Christian pilgrimage at least since the 11th-century and continues to be so, both because of the long-standing dedication toSt. Michael the Archangel (the patron of many sacred mountains and hills) and more recently because of the martyrdoms of the threebeatifiedBenedictinemonks on its summit in the 16th-centuryAbbot Whiting,John Thorne andRoger James.[46][47][48][57]
With the 19th-century resurgence of interest inCeltic mythology, the Tor became associated withGwyn ap Nudd, the first Lord of the Otherworld (Annwn) and later King of theFairies.[69][70] The Tor came to be represented as an entrance to Annwn or to Avalon, the land of the fairies. The Tor is supposedly a gateway into "The Land of the Dead (Avalon)".[71]
A persistent myth of more recent origin is that of theGlastonbury Zodiac,[72] a purported astrologicalzodiac of gargantuan proportions said to have been carved into the land along ancienthedgerows and trackways,[73] in which the Tor forms part of the figure representing Aquarius.[74] The theory was first put forward in 1927 byKatherine Maltwood,[75][76] an artist with interest in the occult, who thought the zodiac was constructed approximately 5,000 years ago.[77] But the vast majority of the land said by Maltwood to be covered by the zodiac was under several feet of water at the proposed time of its construction,[78] and many of the features such as field boundaries and roads are recent.[79][75]
The Tor and other sites in Glastonbury have also been significant in the modern-dayGoddess movement, with the flow from theChalice Well seen as representingmenstrual flow and the Tor being seen as either a breast or the whole figure of the Goddess. This has been celebrated with an effigy of the Goddess leading an annual procession up the Tor.[80]
It is said thatBrigid of Kildare is depicted milking a cow as a stone carving above one of the entrances to the tower.[81]
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