Sunday, March 01, 2009

REDFERN IS BACK AT CANNOCK CHASE - snake stories

A dense and eerily atmospheric forest situated deep within the heart of the historic and ancient English county of Staffordshire, the Cannock Chase is a high plateau bordered by the Trent Valley to the north and the West Midlands to the south.

And it’s also the very location where I spent much of my childhood and teenage years.

The huge and picturesque Cannock Chase has been an integral feature of the Staffordshire landscape for generations. Following an initial invasion of Britain in A.D. 43, Roman forces advanced to the south to what is now the town of Cannock, and along a route that became known as Watling Street: a major, and historic, Roman road.

The surrounding countryside was heavily wooded even back then, as can be amply demonstrated by the Romans’ colorful name for the area: Letocetum, or the Grey Woods.

And those Grey Woods are, today, home to some distinctly strange and diabolical beasts.

For example, just three years ago, the local Birmingham Post newspaper recorded that: “In March, 2006, ramblers reported seeing a ‘fourteen-foot snake moving through the bracken’ near to Birches Valley. They said the beast had a powerful head and ‘coloring that stood out sharply against the greens and blues of the bracken.’Read on....

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