In Search of Sophia: the Egyptian Princess

In ancient days, in other lives, long past, but not forgotten.
In Adonai and Babylon, Etruscans and Egyptians came to my temple –
Journeyed to the valley of the moon. (Jim Gannon, Black Widow)

This is the account of Sir Craig Hudson, emeritus professor of Egyptology and Middle Eastern Studies at Bradenstoke College, Kingston University.

THE HIGH CHAIR

To some it is just a high chair
But to me it’s something else
As the boys are at their wooden table,
On normal wooden chairs. 

Wyre Waters Ebb & Flow

Out along the wild Fylde Coast
Where flowing waters meet
And the River Wyre runs dry,
Where does the rolling sea go
On the ebbing of the tide?

A Werewolf in Wyre

It’s a full moon tonight
Lock up your daughters and bolt the doors tight.
Windows shuttered, doors double chained closed
To keep me in, no chance to escape down the road.

TIFFY-LOU AND THE WITCHES OF WYRE

Then hurrah for the Lancashire witches
Whose smiles every bosom enriches –
Oh, dearly I prize the pretty blue eyes,
Of the pride of the Lancashire witches.

(Axon Ballads 069)

There is a large boulder by the side of the path in the churchyard of St Anne’s in Woodplumpton and a small sign says that it marks the grave of Meg Shelton – a local witch in the late seventeenth century. Meg was known as the “Fylde Hag” and apparently got up to all sorts of mischief – stealing the milk from other people’s cattle and transforming herself into animals, etc.