The secrets of St.

Swithuns Church in Leadenham

(by Giulio Coluzzi)
[Picture 1 A view of the Church from the South]
Leadenham is a small village in the county of Lincolnshire, in the North Kesteven district.
According to the archaeological evidence, this place has been inhabited by humans since
the Bronze Age, and excavations have shown traces of previous Romano-British and
medieval settlements. The place name probably derives from the ancient Saxon language:
it is formed by the name Leodan followed by the suffix ham, which indicates a group of
houses forming a community. The name, therefore testifies to the fact that an early group
of people inhabited this place around the house and the family of a man called Leodan,
surely a character with a leading role.
The main landmark in the village is the local parish church, dating from the Middle Ages,
and dedicated to St. Swithun. Swithun (sometime also spelled as Swithin) was, famously,
bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. According to traditions, he stated that after the
death his body should be buried outside the cathedral, instead of inside, so that all people
could walk on his tomb. After his canonization, which occurred in the year 912, the monks
at Winchester decided to remove his remains transferring them inside the cathedral, within
a shrine created for this purpose within the choir, the most sacred area. A legend says that
the Saint was so disappointed in the disrespect for his wishes that he caused a deluge of
rain that lasted for 40 days, preventing the prosecution of the works. For this reason, and
still today, it is commonly thought that if there is rain in St. Swithuns Day (the 15 th of July),
it will last for forty days!
The Church
[Picture 2 John Dee (1527 1608)]
Following the Norman Conquest there is evidence of a church in Leadenham since 1086,
when it is identified In the Domesday Book [1]. It was, probably, a typical construction in
Saxon style, with a stone basement and wooden structure. It lasted up to about 1320,
when it was demolished for the building of a new, all-stone church.
The man behind its rebuilding was Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln from 1320 to 1340.
According to the tradition he was not a wholly devout man nor a properly holy man. His
hatred for King Edward II, was widely known. Following the Kings downfall, Burghersh put
the kings effigy on a bracket in the north aisle with a devils mask upon it. However, after
the kings murder, in 1327, people became angry and the Bishop fell into disgrace. Even
so, someone went into the church and removed the mask, putting it onto the effigy of
Edward IIs son and successor, Edward III.
The church has been associated with another important character: the famous Doctor
John Dee had its Rectorship from 1566 to 1584. Dee was a scientist, philosopher and
royal astronomer for Queen Elizabeth I, and was widely known for his interest in esoteric
disciplines like Alchemy, Cabala and Magic. He has therefore been associated with the
many symbols which are carved on the walls of the little back porch, on the rear side of the
church.

Mysterious carvings
The South South entrance of Leadenham church, is now disused and its little porch is also
abandoned and in a state of poor repair. It is here that we find the walls densely covered
with strange carvings and graffiti, traced in different depths into the stone work.
The most evident representation is certainly the one shown in Picture 3, placed in the
centre of the right side wall of the porch, on entering. It is a sequence of three symbols: on
the left there is a glyph formed by two flanked and reversed deltas, whose overlapping
creates a third reversed delta in the middle. We will return to consider its possible meaning
below.
Besides this sign, in central position, we can see another glyph more hardly identifiable. It
is formed by the overlapping of two intertwined figures or symbols, one shaped as a
reversed S, and the another as an M. The beginning and ends of the M and reversed Sshapes are extended with the shape of a wide swallow (or fish) tail. Is this a monogram?
Or something more complex, for example related with astrology? The M could be the
zodiacal sign for the Virgo, while the reversed S recalls the shape of the Cancer sign. On
the opposite wall there is another sign similar to this one, at the left of the entrance door,
but it has a substantial difference: the M glyph is inverted, having its tails facing upwards,
as in the shape of a W letter (see picture 4).
[Picture 3 - Three mysterious graffiti on the right wall in the back porch]
[Picture 4 - A symbol traced on the left wall of the back porch]
The third symbol in the right side of picture 3 is also repeated in other places, both on the
right and left walls: one can count at least a ten of them, with different dimensions and
wear status. Different from the previous ones, this is a well known symbol, in use since
ancient times: the St. Johns Knot. (This symbol is explained in the dedicated text box at
the end of this article) The knot has had an apotropaic value since the beginning, and has
been associated with fertility cults and pagan rites connected with the summer solstice.
Christians have then associated this rites with the figure of St. John the Baptist, whose
nativity day is celebrated on the 24 th of June, the summer solstice day according to the
Julian calendar.
All the symbols have been carved in a threefold stroke, with the exception of one, traced
with only two lines; this is also the only variation because it is carved in a square shape
(angular knot, whose four loops in the corners are shaped as a square).
This reference to the fertility cults and to the solstice could not be casual. There is another
symbol that appears on both walls for more than once: it is a double border wheel with a
certain number of segments inside. The wheel on the right side is the clearest one, 15
segments can be counted. The other two wheels, which can be identified on the left wall,
have less segments, although they are more worn. All the wheels have a small hole in the
centre, suggesting the hypothesis that a little stick could have been inserted in the middle.
For their peculiar position, each wheel could have been represented a sort of sundial,
indicating a specific period or a date in the year.
Besides the above described symbols, there are plenty of other signs carved in the walls,
such as five-pointed stars enclosed in a circle, a cross marked with eight radial points (two
for each arm) plus a central ninth, some W shapes marked with holes in each vertex, and
so on. The differences in thicknesses and styles suggest an overlapping of carvings during
time; a big group of symbols, for example, including some five-pointed stars and the initials
P.D., is placed in the upper side of the left wall, together with the date 1703.
[Picture 5 The 15 segments double border wheel]

A strange relief: a Molly Grimes?

[Picture 6 - The stone relief in the back porch]
It is worth drawing attention to some stone artefacts that lay abandoned in the tiny space
of the porch. Instead of being exposed in the internal church, as records from the past of
the building they have been cast out. In particular, there is an ancient lid from a shrine or
coffin on the floor near the entrance. It is badly and extensively worn, so that the figure
appearing in the relief is almost indistinguishable. This figure, whose sex is impossible to
determine, has the arms gathered on the chest and the hands hold an object, maybe a
chalice. A similar representation can found with the person holding a floriated or disc
topped staff at Melrose Abbey, Kilmartin and Rosslyn churches in Scotland. It is
particularly reminiscent of the skeleton discovered and preserved at Denny Abbey in
Cambridgeshire: a Knights Templar hospice.
In some respects, the Leadenham effigy has similar characteristics to the Molly Grimes
of Glentham, another village not so far from Leadenham, and one can think it was used for
similar purposes. The history of the Molly Grimes has some very interesting peculiarities
from the symbolic perspective as it is witnessing how many of the ancient pagan traditions
are absorbed, interwoven and subsumed into well-established later Christian traditions.
The little parish church of St. Peters and St. Pauls Glentham has this unusual feature
surrounded by its own folklore. Lodged within a bay below the staircase leading to the
raised organ floor, there is a worn and blackened effigy of a woman, dating to 14c. This
woman has been identified with Lady Anne Tournay, a rich landowner in the Glentham
area around that period. According to the tradition, each Good Friday seven maids, chosen
from among the more mature women in the village, came to a nearby spring, called Newell
(or Neu-well, the suffix well indicating the presence of a spring with healthy waters,
propitiating fertility) to gather some water. With it, after a ritual procession back to the
church, the seven women carefully washed the effigy. This tradition has been preserved
from the Middle Ages until 1832, and each one of the women received as a reward for her
act some money, the seventh part of the annual rent given for a piece of land located in
the nearby countryside.
The most ancient accounts state that the effigy to be washed in this strange ritual was an
image of the dead Christ, while all post-Reformation accounts refer to the Molly Grimes
effigy. This is likely to indicate that in the period between the death of the woman (14c) and
the Reformation (16c) the effigy of Lady Tourney, (who owned the land whose rent
provided the seven maids reward), was washed together with that of the Christ and that
after the Reformation only the Molly Grimes wash has survived. The ceremony stopped,
anyway, after 1832, when the land was sold, and none of the new owners intended to use
the money to pay the women for their act.
For a long time, the term Molly Grimes has been interpreted as a persons name, but
today is commonly accepted that it is a contraction for the slang expression Malgraen,
indicating, as a matter of fact, the ritual washing of sacred images.
So, referring back to the worn effigy in the south porch of St. Swithuns church, it could be
possible that a similar tradition was started at a certain time in this place, following an older
tradition. If it is so, the St. Swithuns Church has already a double connection with fertility
cults (the first one being the presence of St. Johns Knot), and begins to appear much
more than a simple country parish church.
[Picture 7 - The "Molly Grimes" effigy in St. Peter and St. Pauls Church in Glentham]

John Dee and the Knights of the Temple

[Picture 8 - Remains of the Templar preceptory of Temple Bruer]
One could legitimately question why the notable astrologer and scientist John Dee, who
during the years of his Rectorship in Leadenham, worked for the Queen (and her
Spymaster, Lord Walsingham) and apparently had her favour, had been assigned to such
a small and isolated church in Lincolnshire.
On one hand one could think that his role was just nominal, and that in reality Dee never
visited this church apart from the day of his assignment, that occurred in 1565. This
assignment was confirmed on a commemorating slab, first mentioned by the so-called
'Arch-Druid' Dr. William Stukeley in 1735, reading "Misericordias Domini In Aeternum
Cantabo. Johannes Dee 1565" ("I will sing the mercies of the Lord for ever. John Dee
1565") Over this inscription is the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew letters for the sacred name
of God, the pronunciation of which is known to no man, and between the numbers of the
date is the Greek letter Delta to which Dee attached a special mystical significance, often
referring to himself by it and calling himself "Triplicis Alphabeti litera Quarta" meaning the
triple aspect of the fourth letter of the alphabet [2]. We dont have any trace of this
inscription nowadays, apart from literature, but the mentioning of the delta letter and its
threefold symbolical aspect recalled by Dee in his self-attributed definition, forcefully
recalls the threefold delta we have encountered carved on the right wall of the porch.
Could it be, hence, an occult signature by John Dee?
If so, one could suggest a particular interest of Dee towards St. Swithuns Church, and its
environs. This interest had been previously shared by the Knights Temple who some three
hundred years before had become responsible for much of the land holding in the area.
The area of Lincolnshire around Leadenham belonged or was under the influence of the
notorious order of warrior monks: the Temple Bruer preceptory, for example, was one of
the most rich and powerful that the Knights owned in all Great Britain and it is less than
two miles from Leadenham, while other important preceptories like Eagle, Gainsborough,
Temple Hirst, Willoughton, Aslackby, Horkstow and others are all located in the same
region.
Just outside Leadenham there is a little mound, whose purpose has never been clarified.
Tumuli of this kind are frequent in the English countryside, and a lot of hypotheses have
been raised about their use: ancient sites for fertility cults, foundations for prehistoric
temples that have long since disappeared, primitive burial sites for men of importance
within a community, territory markers for specific ley-lines or very powerful telluric energy
lines. The most well-known artificial hill of this type is in the south of England at Silbury
Hill, near Avebury, in Wiltshire. It has been suggested from local researchers [3] that the
Leadenham mound could have been, in the Middle Ages, a base for a mill built by the
Templars to provide flour for the Temple Bruer site. In his report dated 1912, William Henry
St. John Hope [4] had visited the Leadenham Park mound as a guest of Captain Reeve,
during the excavations campaign at Temple Bruer. The archaeologist excluded the concept
claiming that the position seemed to him inappropriate for the placement of a mill. The
Leadenham mound still keeps its mystery, and together with the other mentioned
mysteries make Leadenham and its little parish church a suitably mystical site to be
assigned to a prominent figure like John Dee. The travel in Bohemia and the following fall
in disgrace all occurred during the last years or after Dees Rectorship in St. Swithuns
Church. The collaboration with Edward Kelley (his scrying partner), started in about 1582
and was characterized by the celebration of rites that became more and more occult, with
seeing verging on necromancy and communing with angels/spirits that would have been
considered truly heretical. It is also fascinating to note that Dees base in Prague was

again close to a Templar holding. However, one outstanding question remains why, when
he was at the apex of his prestige, would Dee be given such a low stipend in rural
Lincolnshire? [5]
Footnotes:
[1] The Domesday Book is the title for a census of lands, goods and persons in the English
Kingdom commissioned by William the Conqueror between 1086 and 1087. Written in a
mixed language between Latin and ancient Anglo-Saxon, this work represents one of the
most important fonts for the economic and social history of United Kingdom during the
Middle Ages.
[2] Mike O'Toole, A Partial, Potted & Predjudiced History of the Rectors of St. Swithun's
Church Leadenham, (1985). As an example, it is known that Dee referred to himself in
this way in a letter he wrote to the emperor Rudolph II, dated 17 th August 1584.
[3] The Sons of TC-Lethbridge website (http://tc-lethbridge.co.uk/), August and Everything
After (Latest News section, 12 Aug. 2005).
[4] English archaeologist, historic and author (1804-1919), active from 1894 to 1907.
[5] The author wishes to thank Stephen Andrews, architect and independent researcher,
for the revising work on the English version of this article, originally published in Italian
language.
Side panel: The St. Johns Knot
[Picture: The Saint Johns Knot]
The St. Johns Knot is a very ancient symbol, originated in North of Europe, mainly in the
Scandinavian countries, where it was used with apotropaic purpose (that is, propitiating
fortune and health), and it was bonded with the cults of fertility and of the Mother Earth.
During the Middle Ages this figure has been associated with John the Baptist, symbolically
related to the above mentioned cults, at least because his feast day (the 24 th of June)
signed the summer solstice, when all rituals celebrated the harvest wealth and were
centred on the fertility claiming.
Called also Hans Cross (Hans is the Scandinavian variation of the name of John, from
Latin Johannes) or, in heraldry terms, Bowen Knot (from the name of the family that
firstly adopted it in their coat of arms), was used since the Viking era. A notable case is the
decorated stone of Hablingbo, today kept in the Fornsalen Museum of Visby (Gotland), in
Sweden, dating from 600 and 400 b.C.. Following the advent of Christianity lot of the Celtic
and pagan traditions were absorbed and adapted by the new creed. Since the winter
solstice has been associated with the nativity of Jesus Christ, Johns nativity (which from
the Gospels is said to be six months elder than Jesus) was consequently fixed at the
summer solstice, one of the greatest and most important pagan festivals, called
Midsummer Eve (Midsommarafton, in Swedish), famously mentioned in the title of a well
known William Shakespeares comedy. Various traditions associated with this festival,
such as dancing upon night bonfires, the gathering of the walnuts for the fabrication of a
special liqueur (called nocino in Italy, supposed to be a remedy for all illnesses), maypole
dances around rods resembling a phallic shape, and cutting the suckers of certain plants
to acquire their magical powers are all expressions tied the fertility cults and the myth of
the Earth Mother Goddess.

Authors profile
Giulio Coluzzi is involved from more than 20 years in studies about symbolism and
mysteries. He has published in Italy an essay about the Merels board symbolism and he
has collaborated with Italian magazines like Hera and Fenix. From 2004 he is author
and webmaster of the Italian website LAngolo di Hermes (Hermes Corner).