KATHERINE LOUISE OLDMEADOW

Children's Writer and Member of the New Forest Coven?

Philip Heselton

In my book Wiccan Roots - Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival [1] I wrote at length about my investigations into claims that Dorothy Clutterbuck had been involved in the witchcraft tradition into which Gerald Gardner claimed to have been initiated in 1939. I came to no definite conclusions on that, but drew attention to the sentence in the biography Gerald Gardner Witch which quoted Gardner as saying: "I found that Old Dorothy and some like her, plus a number of New Forest people, had kept the light shining." [2]

Gardner said that he was told this by the people who initiated him who had found a surviving coven centred in Highcliffe, on the edge of the New Forest. This was a clue that I felt could be followed up. I took the phrase "some like her" to mean individuals of a similar social background, so I was generally looking at her friends and acquaintances to see whether there was anyone who stood out as a possibility.

Katherine Louise Oldmeadow (1878-1963) was a close friend of Dorothy's. She lived in The Glen House, only a quarter of a mile or so from Dorothy's home, The Mill House. She shared the house with her sister, Ann Eliza, her other sister, Edith and Edith's husband, Arthur Lawrie. They had lived there since at least 1913.

Katherine was an author of girls' stories, having had some 20 books published between 1919 and 1958. She was also the author of a non-fiction book entitled The Folklore of Herbs[3]. I have looked through her books to see what there might be to suggest that Katherine knew about a local tradition of witchcraft or the existence of a coven in the vicinity of Highcliffe. I found nothing which indicated this unambiguously but there were certain major repetitive themes which, when taken together, are certainly very suggestive of certain attitudes and knowledge on the part of the author. They tend to occur in the earlier books written before 1926, notably Madcap Judy (1919)[4], Ragged Robin (1920)[5], Princess Charming (1923)[6] and Princess Anne (1925)[7]. These were the school stories. They represent Katherine Oldmeadow at her best, writing truly from the heart. And certain themes emerge from these stories which are, to say the least, suggestive of a knowledge of something very similar to what we now know as the Craft.

What are these themes? First of all, there is a very rich awareness of Nature and of the experience of Nature evoking deep feelings in her characters. Katherine Oldmeadow was very much aware of and appeared to have a very deep emotional response to the landscape around her, both Chewton Glen, which was at the very bottom of her garden, and the New Forest generally.

"It was the greatest fun getting ready for the night; though it really was not like night at all with a moon swinging like a great silver lantern over the Forest, and the only darkness lying in the shadows of the holly trees, which stood round the caravan like armed soldiers, their sober, prickly old heads crowned with yellow-tinted wreaths of honeysuckle." [Princess Charming p199]

There is mention of special places in the landscape which we might think appropriate for the performance of pagan rituals: "... before they had gone many miles they left the forest road and plunged into a rough track through pine-woods. "We'll show you the King's Council Chamber," promised Rory. "Pan and I call this wood that - the old King is the darlingest pine-tree, and he's got twenty-four courtiers." They emerged suddenly into a wide clearing, where a ring of fine old pines surrounded an immense tree, covered with cones as big as babies' heads. They lay fallen among the scented pine-needles, too, and Rory called them the king's treasures and began to pick them up to burn with the Christmas log." [Princess Charming pp256-257]

Closely linked to this feeling for Nature, is an awareness of the existence of fairies. Katherine Oldmeadow definitely believed that fairies were real, although she couldn't see them. She regularly refers to fairies and undoubtedly regarded Chewton Glen as a magical place, and she brings it into her books. Princess Charming includes many references to fairies. There is also an extended passage which is the most vivid description of the spirit underlying Nature in any of her writings.

"Do you see that little green knoll just where the pine-trees stop, where the wild apple-blossom has fallen?" asked Rory with excitement. "Yes." "Well, that's where They are; it's where we find the rings, you know, and once Pan found nine hazel leaves in a sort of circle."

... to be in a wood just after dawn with a girl who made an offering to the fairies thrilled her imagination, as she really believed in the Little People as firmly as did her old nurse, and to her every tree and flower in the Glen was haunted by the fairy folk. [Princess Charming p94]

There are also several references to fairies in The Folklore of Herbs: "On Midsummer Eve Mother Elder's glance was benevolent, for if you stood beneath her boughs she would, perhaps, show you the fairies. On the same night it was usual to make a magic circle and stand inside it holding elderberries just picked, which might induce the dryad of the tree to give you the power of finding the magic fern seed, which would make you invisible on this night of nights for fairy revels." [p55]

Divinity is represented almost exclusively by reference to Pagan gods and goddesses. There is hardly a mention of the Christian God, and no mention at all of Jesus, in any of Katherine Oldmeadow's books, but there is a profusion of classical and other pagan deities.

'We must have twelve nymphs,' said Barbara; 'and Marian, you ought to be the poetic Muse, and read a birthday poem to Miss Flower.'" [Madcap Judy p273]

The window panes and door were painted green, and in the middle of the door there swung an old copper knocker - the head of Pan, the woodland god, holding a round copper ring between his grinning lips. [Princess Charming p101]

"I'll be Pan," announced Jill with determination. "I don't care if he is a boy. I simply love him, and I'm like him, too, because I adore wandering over mountains and rocks and woods and having people dance round me and teasing them." [Princess Charming p144]

"The offerings to Mercury were cakes, honey, and incense," said Wendy... [Princess Charming p149]

Again, the Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas are hardly mentioned. There is one festival which dominates the books, and it is one which present-day pagans would equally emphasise - May Day. The thing I noted about these quotations that these festivities are not imposed from above - the girls themselves have created them. And, in so doing, have included many specifically pagan themes. The descriptions of the May Day celebrations, particularly in Princess Anne, would not be at all unlikely were they to be of a modern pagan ritual.

"A great, spreading, pink thorn-tree grew there, which would make a flowery and fragrant canopy for a May Queen." [Madcap Judy p276]

"Rehearsals had been held in the wood ... and the secret so carefully kept ...The evening before the birthday was spent in the woods, and the girls returned laden with wild flowers, and great branches of pink and white May ... The next morning dawned just as a perfect May-day should, and the girls were up and in the woods again ..." [Madcap Judy p278]

"Bettine, dressed as a wood-nymph, all in green, danced in with a crown of golden flowers, which she placed on the May Queen's head. Then very soft music sounded, and twelve nymphs in silver and green came running from the pine-wood in the distance, garlanded with flowers, six of them bearing great branches of white May, and six carrying Spring flowers of blue and gold. These they scattered before Queen Virginia, as Elizabeth led her to her throne, and in the distance behind the trees, Sylvia Ford's sweet voice sang songs of Spring, birds, and woodland." [Madcap Judy p284]

"If we don't laugh on May Day, and make others laugh, and dance the winter out and the summer in, we shall all cry before the year's out." "Who said so?" demanded Elma. "Father did - he knew such lots of things about old May Day; he knew what all the old Morris dances meant, too, and heaps of things."" [Princess Anne p211]

"They joined hands and danced round the first oak tree they saw, because Anne Golden said it was a rite of May to dance round a tree - the most wonderful thing in Nature - clapping your hands with joy that it is green again." [Princess Anne p214]

"Thirteen maidens stood in a semi-circle round the canopy, bearing hazel staves entwined with flowers and greenery..." [Princess Anne p216]

Katherine Oldmeadow mentioned witchcraft a lot, but most of the mentions are negative, describing it in terms of fear. For example:

"...she hated going to bed alone, with a witch living under the staircase!" [Ragged Robin p93]

"She's a witch, you know. If you poked your nose through that door which leads into her part of the house, she'll cast an awful spell on you."[Princess Anne p156]

However, a change seems to occur in about 1925-1926. After that time, witchcraft is shown in a more positive light. Indeed, in The Folklore of Herbs, published in 1946 but probably written several years before, she makes a clear distinction between "White" and "Black" witches, but writes some interesting positive things about witches. She was sufficiently aware to know that there were witches who tried to heal. She calls them "white witches", and there are extended passages where Katherine Oldmeadow makes a clear distinction between "white" and "black" witches. She also makes a very interesting statement:

"The white witch of today still holds queer beliefs about mixing creatures with her simple medicines, and only a short time ago a gypsy woman advised the author to take "a strong cup of snail tea" for a bad cough." [p15]

This is very clearly implies that she recognised that witches still existed when she was writing and that she knew at least one of them sufficiently well to know what they believed. She states that "witches always had herb gardens", a very definite statement, perhaps implying that she knew some that did.

Her continuing distinction between "white" and "black" witches clearly demonstrates that she was aware that there are witches who do not do harm (because she had personal knowledge of them or even was one herself) and wanted to distinguish them from the "other kind". This distinction is totally absent from her pre-1926 books, which refer to witchcraft in purely negative terms.

Ritual elements, such as dancing barefoot, and the use of candles, wands and knives are referred to. And there is a strong awareness of the world underlying physical reality and various methods of divination, such as witch balls and scrying mirrors, dream books and dowsing, as well as a belief in numerology.

Secret societies, with suggestive names and initials, are a common theme. Katherine Oldmeadow was not alone in introducing the theme of secret societies into her school stories: they appear to have been one of the staple elements in such books. But there is, perhaps, a particular emphasis in Katherine Oldmeadow's writings including some familiar characteristics. The names of the societies include the Secret Seven [Madcap Judy], also known as the S.S.S.S.; the Black Brotherhood [The Pimpernel Patrol]; the Society of School Savages (S.S.S.) and the Bad Brownies Brigade (B.B.B.) [The Fortunes of Billy]; the Red Circle [Princess Elizabeth] and the Boys' Brigade (B.B.) [The Fortunes of Jacky]. Note the preponderance of two initials, Bs and Ss. It is interesting that present-day witches use both these initials as abbreviations, B.B. being short for "Blessed Be" and S.S. being short for the Kiss and the Scourge. There are also initiation ceremonies which include much archaic language, and various ritual acts are undertaken.

Katherine Oldmeadow had clearly been interested in herbs since before her first book, Madcap Judy, was published in 1919. The fact that the one non-fiction book that Katherine Oldmeadow wrote was devoted to the folklore of herbs is interesting in itself. Certainly Gerald Gardner makes it clear that the artifacts donated by the "Southern Coven of British Witches" as a museum display consisted predominantly of items for the collection, storage and preparation of herbs for medicinal and magical purposes.

What are we to make of Katherine Oldmeadow's writings? Clearly, because of their emphasis and repeated occurrence, there is much in her works of fiction which echo her own personal feelings - her sympathy with the landscape, with pagan deities and traditions, particularly seasonal festivals, and an awareness of a variety of divinatory techniques. Secret societies with specific practices are also prominent.

Professor Ronald Hutton [8] has urged a note of caution and reminded me that the concentration on classical deities was not unusual for writers of Katherine Oldmeadow's generation and does not necessarily imply pagan sympathies, much less an involvement in witchcraft. He points out that Spencer's The Faerie Queene is "a long story by a dour evangelical Elizabethan Protestant which is stuffed with pagan deities" and that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were fervent Christians.

Nevertheless, when taken together with an analysis of Dorothy Clutterbuck's "diaries", such as provided in my Wiccan Roots, we have two individuals living in close proximity, both of whom seemed to have exactly the beliefs and interests that one might expect from those adhering to a surviving tradition of witchcraft.

Internal evidence from her books indicates that Katherine Oldmeadow's tradition was initially not called "witchcraft" but that about the mid-1920s this changed. Could it be that this was because at around this time she met some people who did call themselves witches. If so, it seems possible that such a meeting resulted in a fusion of Katherine Oldmeadow's and Dorothy Clutterbuck's brand of paganism with something which did call itself "witchcraft".

References

[1] Philip Heselton - Wiccan Roots - Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival (Capall Bann 2000)

[2] J. L. Bracelin - Gerald Gardner: Witch (Octagon 1960)

[3] Katherine Oldmeadow - The Folklore of Herbs (Cornish 1946)

[4] Katherine Oldmeadow - Madcap Judy (Collins 1919)

[5] Katherine Oldmeadow - Ragged Robin (Collins 1920)

[6] Katherine Oldmeadow - Princess Charming (Collins 1923)

[7] Katherine Oldmeadow - Princess Anne (Collins 1925)

[8] Ronald Hutton - personal communication to the author[11 August 2001]

 Published in The Cauldron # 104 (May 2002)