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Martha, with her brother Albert, his children, and an unknown man ~1930. The boy in the middle is my great-grandfather.

Martha's last letter was never sent. It is dated a three days after her previous letter. "Albert and I spoke once more of the children [sent to Skerra] and he tried to re-assure me all would be well for them. I plainly told him I did not believe him, and which he stormed from the house. I returned to my packing". Here, however, the story turns. Albert, perhaps fearing their customs will become more widely known, or having taken counsel from another, returns to make a wild offer. "He proposed to take me to Skerra himself, and see all was well with the babes, subject to approval from the municipal authority." This is an incendiary revelation because it is commonly understood Martha was alone at sea when she disappeared. Here, we learn from Martha herself that it is her brother, with the resumed suport of the town council who volunteers to take her to Skerra. Martha was nervous, "My initial thought was to decline the offer. Perhaps becuase Albert and I had quarrelled, and these past days he has been angry and short with me. I put down these unkind thoughts and accepted and thought rationally : what harm would kind Albert do his sister?" Albert also knew how to persuade her and seal the deal ".... and he has offered to personally show me the ancient monuments that exist on the island. Of which, he assures me there are many."

The next part of the letter is just before Martha is due to leave. "We are set to leave and the weather is fair. We have packed a tent, and by luck I have been able to borrow some equipment to undertake a cursory survey of anything interesting we may find. Albert assures me there will be a great deal that I will find curious."

These are the last recorded words of Martha Tirion. There is no tender sign off of the letter this time. She never finishes or sends it. Perhaps she had to leave suddenly, perhaps she mislaid the letter. Perhaps it was stolen, as she momentarily left her desk of the kitchen table where she was writing.

Those last written words in her careful, beautiful handwriting feel ominous to me. Perhaps because it is clear, to me at least, that Albert killed his sister and her murder, was covered up as an "accident at sea". In the parish records for that year along with Martha four children are recorded as also having died that year through "misadventure". I cannot say for sure if these are the children Martha was so concerned with, but I am sure they too were murdered out on Skerra. Shortly after the Ministry of Defence took ownership of Skerra and were testing chemical weapons such as anthrax there by the early 1940s. Like many of the traditions Marth diligently documented, the Binding the Tied ceremony never revived publically after the war.

I do not know if Martha even set foot on Skerra or was killed whilst out at sea on her way there. There are no clues, no signs. Perhaps that is what has compelled me to go to Skerra myself. I have applied to join an archaeological survey that is heading to Skerra in June next year. It is is exciting, but will also be tinged with some sadness as I think of Martha. I hope I get to go. I want to do her proud.

Rhona Tirion.

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A woman holds a ceremonial blanket for her still-born child circa 1928. The ribbon has not yet been inscribed. Unknown photographer. Collection of Martha Tirion.

I have re-read Martha's last two letters so many times I know them by heart. It can be difficult to be objective and I regret not simply writing down my initial thoughts when I first read them. However, what is clear is that Martha was a rational, sensitive woman. In the first of the two letters she writes once more to Ms xxxxxxxxxxx, emphasising her distress at the fate of the young people. "It has been a week and the children are still not returned." The assurances of her brother do not assuade her fears, and cause her to reflect. "What most concerns me is that I truly think the people here believe in it [the ceremony]. Albert, Annie, and the others are truly and deeply convicted in a most religious way. They believe that sending those babes to the island will somehow change their fortunes here." Pointedly, she adds, "In my previous studies, the traditions and ceremonies I have observed are appendages to the cycle of the year. Harmless as a maypole or harvest festival. Here, however I am witnessing a kind of fervour or fanatacism that is both uncanny and discomforting." As I have tried to show in this blog, Martha understood the power and importance religion could play in people's lives for good and ill, but was not a believer herself. In her letter she rejects the beliefs of her brother as, "risking the lives of those children for a bunch of old claptrap is unconscionable". But she also sensed danger. She closes the letter by saying that she is packing her things and plans to return home the next day. Her thoughts, here turn to Ms xxxxxxxxxx, and it is here that we have a hint, and it is only a hint, that their relationship may have been more than a platonic one. The lanuage is so tender and gentle. It's beautiful. I often say those lines to myself and wonder. Martha signs off, sending "my profound and deepest love, M". It was the last letter she would send. The final letter never posted.

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Three siblings await the Binding of the Tied ceremony, 1939. The eldest girl will leave her brother and sister and be placed in the boat to Skerra later that morning. Photograph by Martha Tirion.

The first mention I can find in Martha's notes of Binding the tied is soon after visiting Albert and his wife Annie in ----------- for the first time. Her first visit was in August 1935, and she did not witness the ceremony. However, she returned again, fatefully as it turned out in 1939, to witness and record the ceremony.

The ceremony must have fascinated her, as she both took and collected many photographs of the event, some of which I have posted here. Curiously, Martha also calls the ceremony "binding the tide" in her early notes, but later corrects this to "binding the tied", which indicates initially some confusion on her part as to the nature of the ceremony.

In her journal, she noted;

"The ceremony involves tying elaborate ribbons to the villagers' clothing or hair. These are often, but not exclusively, young people or children. The ribbons are pre-written intercessionary prayers, designed to protect the village from depredation by spirits of an evil nature".

In a letter to Ms. xxxxxxxxshe is more frank on this matter, revealing some concern with what she was witnessing. She calls Binding the Tied

"an archaic death cult, where the written prayers are part intercession, asking for favour, and part curse. They invoke Death himself, but never by name".

She opines that this reflects "... a morally ambiguous origin myth involving a fisherman and Death."

In the tale, the fisherman, thinks himself saved from a terrible storm by a kindly couple. Too late, he realises he has been cursed

".. by his truculent spouse whereby he has been handed over to Death. In return, the fishermans' widow gains her wealthy lover for husband".

Martha adds "A curiosity of this tale is that Death appears as both male and female or in some tellings I have heard, a man and wife. The male aspect of Death takes the life of the individual by binding a ribbon to his cape. The female aspect of Death, like old Charon, ferries the deceased to the isles of the dead, that lie beyond Skerra in Western ocean".

I rather like the idea of them being a couple We get so used to Death being a man, or a skeleton. The idea of them being a couple that look after you is strangely comforting.

"Crowd awaiting the Binding of the Tide [sic] ceremony, ----------, 1932." Photographer, unknown. Collection of Martha Tirion.

In a letter to Ms. xxxxxxxxx Martha notes the June ceremony, as an early start

"We were up at 5 on a beautiful summers' day with the sun flickering across the wave tops. Even at that early hour the the crowd were intoxicated with excitement. They were all turned out in Sunday best on the Quayside. Here, they wave and cheer as a little fishing boat, be-decked in garlands and swags takes its precious cargo to Skerra. One cannot help but recall the myth of Theseus and his fellow-Athenian sacrifces as they were taken to Crete. Despite the cheers and giddy atmosphere on shore, all I could think about were the earnest, worried, little faces looking back at us. "

Martha, had seen many ceremonies by this point in her career; children dunked and "drowned" in rivers, made to sleep in burial chambers, but always, they were returned to parents. At ----------- Martha is clearly concerned that she does not witness the return of the children. In the same letter she notes,

"Albert, assures me all will return to their rightful place. But first must spend time on Skerra, which can be several weeks. Whilst I have no reason to question my kindly and jovial brother, I will confess, I do not have full confidence in his honesty on this point. I cannot help but think there was some detail he was holding back. It is strange, but his demeanor much reminded me of that displayed by our parents (rest their souls) , after Eleanor passed away.

Eleanor, you will recall was Martha's sister who died in early adulthood.

There are two other letters Martha wrote before she disappeared en route to Skerra, which I will cover in my next post.

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Standing stone (bronze age), Foel Senigl, Wales c.1930

Here's another photo taken by Martha. It's dated 1930 stating the location as near Harlech. She had just returned from eight years overseas working on a variety of digs in modern day Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel, as well as Egypt and Greece. Following the furore surrounding her book, gaining a place as teaching staff of a British University was unthinkable, but working on digs with French, Italian and American Schools of Archaeology was an easier undertaking and one she excelled at. Amazingly, there are very few photographs in her collection of this period. So few are there, that I conclude that there is a missing box out there yet to be found. It's clear from Martha's letters that when in the UK she returned home to Wales regularly. All her family except Albert, her brother settled there. Albert clearly shared something of Martha's interest in folklore. I have noted in this blog that they regularly corresponded, and it is obvious that by the late 1920s Albert was an actively practising pagan. His interest ultimately led him to leave home and move to ---------- . Writing to Martha of his new home, he was enthusiastic about the freedom he found there : "one can more easily dedicate oneself to a religion that is both just and natural." Within a year he had a wife and a child on the way.

The proud father and brother urges Martha to visit : "Annie begs you to come. You will love the baby and our little cottage. The apple blossom is looking magnificent this year". But there is more, and he appeals to her academic interests. ".... you will consider the customs here eccentric never the less I feel you would find them illuminating to your ongoing work....they involve intercession by use of a sea crossing to the near island that we consider sacred." He adds, "I am yet to make the crossing myself, (I will have my turn!), but I am told there are ancient monuments upon the island."

His persistence must have sealed the deal. Martha wrote saying she would come before the end of summer that year. It was to be the first of two trips. The second, would be fatal.

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Waking the sleepers at Thirndale 1923

In her book Early Death Practices of Britain & Ireland Martha made reference to folk traditions where she saw a direct link to the ancient past. Some of these traditions I am happy to say persist to this day, but many have been lost. The practice of "Waking the sleepers" at Thirndale is one example that Martha made reference to in Early Death Practices. In her photos I only managed to find this one photo. Without Martha's careful notation on the back: "Waking the sleepers at Thirndale 1923" it would be a rather random photo.

The practice centered around a neolithic chambered tomb locally known as "the Cove". The Cove itself was lost when the Thirndale reservoir was built in the 1950s.

Martha recounts how between 6-8 boys from the village would spend the night at the tomb, usually in early May. Creepy stuff, but from her account it seems that it was closer to a boy scout outing by the 1920s with "plenty of cake and cocoa around the fire to keep spirits high". Whether the spirits were as high at 2am in a cold ancient tomb I would doubt very much, but facing ones fears in the dark with others appears to have been part of the process. In the morning the women of the village would come for their sons. This is (I think) the image Martha snapped as the women marched across the fields to the Cove. Inside the tomb their children would lie as if asleep (or dead) until "touched lightly [by their mother] on the forehead and cheeks with ash from the fire" at which point the the words "You have crossed the barrier" would be spoken. In return, the child, sitting up would say "I have crossed the barrier". It is clearly a rite of passage.

Re-reading Martha explaining how the ceremony goes back to the bronze age and possibly the neolithic one can see why she attracted derision. The ceremony could as easily have been a nineteenth century invention. That said there is something in it. We now know neolithic communities such as those at West Kennet Long Barrow would visit their ancestors, touch and move the bones. We also understand through ethnographic study how farming communities use ancestors can "lay claim" to a landscape and imbibe it with fertility and abundance. The children lying in the tomb has echoes of this. Equally the timing in early May with Beltane and the re-awakening children speaks to the broader idea of world coming back to life. Perhaps the association Martha makes to a more ancient farming culture are not so strange. The Waking the sleepers practice stopped soon after Martha recorded it. Thirndale like many towns and villages lost many young men in the Great War and my guess is that it was too painful for the mothers who had lost sons who could never re-awaken.

Inside Thirndale Cove. Taken in the 1950s

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Ethel Owens as May Queen of North Lawton. 1912

And the photo today on my wall.

This is a photo I found in one of Martha's photo books. It's Edwardian, so Martha would have been a teenager when it was taken and probably collected the photo later in her life as part of her research. How, or if, she knew Ethel Owens I cannot establish, but she knew and documented the North Lawton May Queens in the 1920s as part of "Early Death Practices.". It is one of very many photos of this kind Martha collected and later took herself.

What attracted Martha to North Lawton was the ancient bridge and its relationship with the May festivities every twelve years. Old Lawton bridge was hurriedly replaced in 1941 to make it suitable for military vehicles then preparing for a German invasion. Frustratingly I cannot find any photos of it. That the bridge was ancient there was no doubt (it's noted in the Doomsday Book). Several other antiquarians and archaeologists prior to Martha had noted that some of the stones looked as though they had been recycled from a neolithic chambered tomb or monument. Martha concurred.

What Martha brought was an appreciation of the ceremony. "In this place the role of May Queen is to lead the village in what is locally known as "dressing the fields in white" by which the village folk follow the "Queen" as she walks the hedgerows and religiously blesses the hawthorn trees that burst into full blossom at that time of year.... the whole affair is conducted with a great solemnity" Martha then adds that the May Queen then " commence to take certain sprigs of hawthorn and lay them on babies' cribs, the doorframes of the infirm and others who are deemed in need. This is a practice long documented in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland." Martha drew the common conclusions: "The fertility of fields, of livestock and of people have ancient roots going back to the first farmers. What we observe at North Lawton was and is commonplace across this land" . The more unusual part of the ceremony came next as the procession came to an end at Lawton Bridge where a "rather gnarled and ancient stump" of a tree is hung with garlands and blessed". The May Queen is then "ritually drowned" in the river. Martha opined that this ceremony had ancient roots. "To the ancient farmer the river both represented fertility bringing life to fields and crops and guaranteeing survival of his kind. Equally it is a spirit road to the afterlife, and it is no coincidence that an ancient tomb, latterly the bridge was constructed here. The river is a boundary and a marker of territory and crossing and road to the afterlife."

When Early Death Practices was published North Lawton protested, Major Thomas Archibald wrote to The Times declaring his disgust. Martha was diplomatic, her published answer was that "people enact ancient ceremonies, often unaware of their antiquity and their deep meaning".

When the Bridge was demolished in 1941, the army found human remains including at least 5 complete skeletons carefully buried and reported to be "late medieval / early modern period". It's too vague to be helpful. Its very difficult to sex the bones of juveniles, but the consensus was that these were the bones of girls in early adolescence. Perhaps the drownings of May Queens were not always a ritual.

New North Lawton Bridge c.1965

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Llantwit Major, Derbyshire War Memorial unveiling ceremony 1921 © W Clarke, Llandaff

In the next few posts I'll try and share some of Martha's research into folk traditions in her book "Early Death Practices of Britain and Ireland", but I wanted to give a bit more background to her personal motivation beyond a simple academic interest.

The British have a strange relationship with their folk traditions. The reformation and its long, paranoid and bloody aftermath, victorian romanticism and the rise of the labour movement to name three have all coloured how folk traditions have been suppressed or revived. I love how we seem to be in another cycle of revival of traditions today. When Martha published Early Death Practices many communities were distancing themselves from their traditions. Partly this was the effect of 100 years of indutrialisation and urbanisation, but was catalysed by a new death practice in that time. Martha in a letter to Albert her brother, Albert gives us a glimpse. "[it was] a remarkable sight. The entire town had come and proceeded to stand awkwardly listening to the vicar. I think as a nation we have forgotten how to grieve. Forgive me, but God and prayer are no longer enough". She had witnessed an unveiling of a war memorial that morning (where she does not say). It was probably a similar sight to the photo of Llantwit Major above. Cemeteries, cenotaphs and war memorials attracted grieving families in their tens of thousands in the 1920s. Today it would be described as a cult. Many made pilgrimages to France and Belgium. The awkwardness Martha noted persists today and is captured in the annual debate around Remembrance Sunday and whether we are atoning for the sins of war or celebrating war heroes.

Martha does not note it explicitly but I think "Death Practices" was her way of showing people how they might grieve and remember in a way that connected them to their ancient, collective past. Britain in the 1920s was not ready for that. Many of the communities she studied were deeply unhappy to be later labelled "rustic" in the newspapers with the less than subtle implications of straw sucking yokelism. In another time the book would have been classed heretical by the church. The Bishop of York certainly saw it that way and was incensed by Martha's numerous examples of the Church co-opting much older folk traditions. Today of course we'd find the Bishop's arguments laughable. Sites just has Midmar Kirk and the Rudston Monolith clearly draw a straightline between the Christianity and what went before.

In the next post we'll look at some of Martha's field work.

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Martha Tirion at Maen y Bard, Anglesey, Wales c. 1925 or 26?

Sifting through family photo albums over the Christmas break I found this picture of Martha! Whilst SHE took lots of photographs of standing stones she rarely appears in them. She looks to be at Maen y Bard a chambered tomb on Anglesey. There is no date, but I suspect it may have been taken around the same time as the photo of Martha at Penrhos Feilw. She was a regular visitor to the megalithic monuments of Anglesey so, this could be a later picture.

This one captures some of her flamboyant personality. I can imagine her clambering up barefoot! The parasol is a nice touch. Around the time Death Practices was being published Martha was living between London and Cambridge. I think you can tell because in both photographs she is very chic.

I don't think I have said so far, but I am related to Martha, but I am descended from her brother, Albert, the only son and second eldest of the Tirion children. He is my great, great grandfather and died before I was born. Martha had no children. She also did not marry, though there were rumours of lovers. I have not found definitive evidence of this, but in my view it would be natural that a clever, erudite and beautiful young woman would have both romantic entanglements and in 1920s Britain be very circumspect and "proper" in her letters to those lovers. As such there are many letters I could interpret as an intimate (ie sexual) relationship with women and men, but frankly that might just be my 21st century prejudice reading too much into phrases describing deep, passionate friendships.

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Martha at Penros Feilw, Anglesey, Wales 1925

Penros Feilw, today - it hasn't changed much!

photo https://www.anglesey.info/penrhos-feilw-pair-of-standing-stones/

Martha in her Sunday Best at the incredible standing stones of Penros Feilw. Martha saw the site as some form of "ritual gateway" framing the Holy Head mountain. Unlike some of her contemporaries Martha discounted the idea the stones formed part of a stone circle. She also saw no evidence for the fabled tomb that was supposed to be between the pillars. We now know she was right on both counts and the site to be bronze age, not as Martha supposed, neolithic.

Once Early Death Practices of Britain and Ireland had been published this picture of Martha appeared very many times in British newpapers of the time. It perfectly captures the sassy 20's girl and her field of study. The original image was taken by the staff photographer of the Portmadog Evening Star.

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Martha Tirion 1919.

I love this photo. Martha at 21 years old about to start her life adventure. Of course, it was a life tragically cut short, but here we can at least see some of the verve and sass of a woman ready to step into the world. That she chose a ship as her background is interesting. She (and her siblings) were competent sailors courtesy of her RN father and a life of living next to the sea but I think there is more. She would later write of "sea roads", and how the sea connects land and sky but also the physical and spiritual world in so many folk traditions around the world. Here she is upon her own sea road, heading to the West from Wales.

In her teens Martha had started to regularly write for her church paper on the local antiquities which caught the attention of local antiquarian and methodist pastor Edmund Stanley. He became in many ways Martha's coach and mentor, helping hone her writing and field work skills as well as connecting her with the wider archaeological community. She was an exceptional student. By the time this photo was taken, Martha had already published her first paper: "Antique Monuments of Northern Wales". In the paper she makes an intriguing statement: "[Why] have these monuments persisted for millennia, when their very fabric could find utility for the farmer or roadmaker? Whilst fortune plays her part in protecting these Great Stones, the agency of man is an aspect we must consider further." In her book Early Death Practices of Britain & Ireland, she would answer that question fully.

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Standing stone near Harlech, north Wales.

In the introduction to her book "Early Death Practices of Britain and Ireland" Martha wrote: "The ancient past surrounds you in Wales. It is old, but it is far from dead". The family move to Wales clearly inspired an early interest in archaeology, but also, as we shall see folk customs also. On the back of this photo I can just make out a date, in Martha's hand in pencil, which could be 1918 or 1919 with the addition "near Harlech". Martha would have been 20 or 21 years old.

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Martha c.1908 with her siblings from L-R. Albert, Eleanor, Violet, Martha.

Martha Constance Dyllis Tirion was born in Portsmouth in 1892 the fourth child of Ernest and Emily Tirion. Ernest hailed from north Wales but having joined the Royal Navy as a boy he settled in Portsmouth and subsequently met and married Emily Roberts, whose family also hailed from north Wales. By the time their fourth child was born Ernest was a warrant officer in the Royal Navy. They were not a wealthy family. Take a closer look at the scuffs Martha's shoes; Clearly her sisters had worn them.

I don't have much detail about Martha's childhood, but some things are known. Soon after this photograph was taken the family all moved back to Wales. Eleanor, the eldest daughter died soon after. Death of children in the early 20th century was not unusual. My own Grandmother was one of 9 children of which only 5 made it to adulthood. What was unusual was Eleanor was in her 20's and deemed "safe". The cause of death is not mentioned in letters, which is not unusual for that time. The death certificate is not much help either, stating "natural causes". Superficially, that might all look suspicious but the family reaction was an almost violent grief, judging from the letters they all wrote around the time. Eleanor's death was felt sharply. Emily was understandably heartbroken and never recovered, and is often referred to as "unwell" in letters Martha and Violet wrote. Whether this was depression or a phyiscal Illness is not clear. She died at the relatively young age (even in those times) of 52.

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Photos of the 1939 Sutton Hoo dig taken by visiting school teachers Barbara Wagstaff and Mercie Lack. Copyright: The British Museum Trust - Credit: The British Museum Trust

In a parallel universe I like to fantasize that Martha Tirion was with the team at Sutton Hoo in 1939. It would have rather been her cup of tea, with company she probably would have liked. The sad fact is that by the time Peggy Preston (later Piggott and later still, Guido) was graduating from Cambridge, Martha Tirion at the age of 36 was probably already dead.

How she died remains a mystery.

In this blog I want to focus on Martha and her work which has been so grossly overlooked by a discipline (like many) that was not ready to include bright, independent women. Especially controversial women. When her book "Early Death Practices of Britain & Ireland" was published in 1925 it caused uproar in archaeological and ethnographic circles. The Church of England even got involved. The bishop of York publicly decried her assertion that pre-Christian traditions persisted in parts of the UK that could be traced back to the archaeological record of the neolithic as "utter bunkum".

In those days of Howard Carter, archaeology was news and for several weeks the British press went into a frenzy over the story involving Martha, predictably focusing not on her work, but on her looks (she was undeniably gorgeous), clothes and inferences of a lascivious love life. More of which later.

Whilst it made good newspaper headlines it also made it easy for the archaeological establishment, who had tolerated her at best to fully distance themselves from her and she spent much the last decade of her life overseas, returning in 1933 with a view to further research the British neolithic.

I will of course discuss what I think happened in June 1934 based on my reading of the evidence that is out there, but I really want to focus on her archaeological work and her singular study of folklore across Britain and Ireland when there was still an Oral tradition of stories and songs handed down from parents to children.

Her one published book "Early Death Practices of Britain & Ireland" is now strictly a wealthy collectors piece. Most people have not seen a copy let alone read it, which is partly why most people have not heard of Martha Tirion.

So here I'll start to redress the balance. Welcome!