Snippets of Downshire Life – The Summer Solstice

 

The village of Brocklington was on the River Brooke about six miles downstream from Sharping St Mary in the Finchbottom Vale which was nestled comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.

The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.

But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.  

There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third was Purplemere.

But the river Brooke was the life blood of the Vale and as such it had particular significance to the spiritual well-being of the land and its people and for generations the Wiccan community had held a secret ceremony at the time of the Summer Solstice, where they would make offerings to the river goddess, chant incantations and then bathe naked in the waters.

 

Afterwards when the sun had set on the longest day, 28-year-old Charlie Hawkins had to rush home and change as she was expected to attend her Cousin Kerry’s 21^st Birthday Party at the Village Hall.

She didn’t particularly want to go, it wasn’t her kind of thing, and as she was unattached, and content to be so, she didn’t really think there was much point, but her mother wouldn’t have let her hear the end of it if she’d stayed away.

When she finally arrived at the party she was instantly urged to get up on the dance floor which was where her life changed forever.

Charlotte had never been the most coordinated girl, in fact she was inclined to be clumsy, so it was no surprise to anyone that after a matter of minutes she had tripped over her own two feet and then fell into the arms of Sam Peters, at which point her flailing arms instantly went round her saviors neck like a sprung trap and then she kissed him wetly on the mouth, which he reciprocated, and that was a surprise to all assembled including the couple themselves.

From that moment on they were inseparable, and they danced the night away and when the night was over he walked her home and shared a passionate good night kiss on the door step.

 

The following year Charlie didn’t participate in the Wiccan ceremony in the River Brooke as they had a different kind of ceremony to attend when they were married at St Cuthbert’s Church.