It seems to be precisely when February’s sleet and muck threaten to become unbearable that the aeons-old conversation between celestial and terrestrial turns to growth and greening. We’re now past the pagan quarter festival of Imbolc, which honours a goddess of many guises. Of particular relevance here, in the iron age territory of the Brigantes, she was Brigantia. Of her other guises, the foremost was the Celtic Brighid, goddess of springs, of healing and farming, or poetry wisdom and smithing – the stuff of creation.
We pay a family visit to Lady’s Spring Wood in nearby Malton, named for the water that rises alongside the Yorkshire Derwent. Small channels spill in braided rivulets, their clarity a startling contrast to the murky flow of the river. It’s a place that is triple blessed, by topography, geology and hydrology, with elevated ground for security, river clay for pottery, a floodplain for farming, and before that for hunting and gathering, the river for transit and, principally, the springs for life.
There’s no doubt that the springs’ situation so close to a natural fording place is the reason the town exists. There was once a castle here, and before that a Roman fort, Derventio Brigantum, named for the river, the people and the goddess whose land they occupied. So here is a right and proper place to mark the season.
The main spring has a substantial pool, its surface disrupted by the concentric ripples of several upwellings. You have to come early to find it clear enough to drink, as it’s a favourite splash spot for local dogs. The joy in their games is undeniable, but I imagine a future where alternative provision for canine fun can be made nearby and the spring left in peace.
Meanwhile, it’s not going anywhere and there are other things we can do to honour it. Today, instead of leaving Imbolc offerings, we take stuff away: poo bags in a range of hues, drink bottles in the usual livery of strident azure (Lucozade Sport), carmine (Coke Zero) and imperial purple (Ribena), and crushed beer cans. It all seems recently discarded – we’re not the only ones picking up. Call it love, community spirit, reverence, it’s all much same, and a little goes a long way.
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