Page 30 • The HERALD • 16th February 2023 v THE HERALD - YOUR COMMUNITY MAGAZINE v WILLIS DECORATING & JOINERY SERVICES Est Since 1986 Interior & Exterior Painting & Decorating Wallpaper Hanging Hand-painted Kitchens & Spray Finishes Wardrobes, Bookcases, Radiator Covers Call David on 023 8084 9800 or 07946 048261 E: david.willis24@btinternet.com • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates M. C. HALL LTD 4 Carpentry 4 Fencing 4 Decoration 4 Extensions 4 Kitchens 4 Loft Conversions 4 Bathrooms 4 New Build First Rate Building & Carpentry Work Start to Finish Service • References Available • Fully Insured • 1 year guarantee Free Quotations and Friendly Advice Given Contact: mchall126@btinternet.com or call 023 8089 8456 or 07976 937941 Website: www.mchallltd.co.uk NEW FOREST PLUMBING AND MAINTENANCE 24/7 LTD *YOUR LOCAL 24 HOUR EMERGENCY CALL OUT PLUMBER* We provide a wide range of plumbing services, with an established reputation for quality, service and customer satisfaction. www.newforestplumbing247.com Contact us on 07912 092557 or 023 8194 0237 newforestplumbing@yahoo.com Local saxophonist, Simone Smith, from Paul Weller’s Style Council band will be swinging along with songs she has performed with Ivy Benson and the New Squadroniares. e multi-instrumentalists and singers are led by Chris Smith - composer and arranger for the BBC Radio Big Band and a former composer for Did a New Forest Coven of Witches Help Stop the Nazi Invasion? by Marc Heighway, mheighway@hotmail.com Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit nfhwa.org/events for details. e summer of 1940 was an incredibly tough time in our nation’s history. It wasn’t that long a er the British Army had narrowly escaped from Dunkirk, and the country was now preparing itself for a potential invasion by Germany. All along the south coast of England and in the New Forest, towns and villages prepared themselves with sandbags, roadblocks, concrete pillboxes, with the Home Guard on standby. But if Gerald Gardner, known as the “Father of Wicca” is to be believed, a coven of New Forest witches would also do their bit. In his 1954 book, “Witchcra Today”, Gerald says the secretive coven gathered at night in a clearing in the forest and cast a spell on Adolf Hitler. e strange story starts with Gardner explaining how he rst met the New Forest Coven in 1939 a er being invited to Dorothy Clutterbuck’s house. She was a wealthy woman who lived at the Mill House in Highcli e, Christchurch. Gardner says he was asked to strip naked as part of an initiation ceremony. I should point out that Dorothy never identi ed as a witch in public, and in her diaries le behind a er her death, there are no suggestions that she had any unconventional religious beliefs or links to paganism. However, Gardner claims Dorothy Clutterbuck was a leading member of the New Forest Coven and was involved in the ritual that he called “Operation Cone of Power”. is was the ritual that the New Forest witches hoped would in uence the Nazi High Command and stop them from invading Britain. According to Gardner, the ritual took place just before midnight on the 1st August 1940. e date was signi cant, as it was “Lammas Eve”, a pagan holiday and one of eight Wiccan celebrations during the year. e group of witches gathered in a clearing and marked out a circle for the ritual. ey did not light a traditional re, probably due to wartime blackout rules or to not attract attention to themselves. Instead, they possibly used a ashlight or shuttered lantern which was pointed east towards Berlin. e group, all of whom were of pensionable age, danced naked around the circle, building up to a state of ecstasy that they believed could control magical forces. As they danced, their chants repeated a magical formula that Gardner claimed was used in previous ceremonies to ward o invasions by both the Spanish Armada and Napoleon. e intention was that the ritual would weaken Adolf Hitler’s resolve to invade England through a psychological attack on his mind. Gardner said that the frenzy of dancing and chanting was so intense that it caused some of the participants to pass away from exhaustion in the following days. While the exact location of the ritual was not disclosed by Gardner, some authors have attempted to identify the site. In his book “ e Book of English Magic”, Philip Carr-Gomm believes it could have taken place in the clearing where the Rufus Stone is located. However, another author, Heselton, argues in “Witchfather” that the ritual likely occurred near the Naked Man, a large oak tree on Wilverley Plain where convicted highwaymen were hanged. Whether any of this happened, or if the New Forest Coven even existed, has never been proven as it’s all based on Gardner’s accounts and cannot be veri ed. But what we do know for certain is that German invasion of Britain never came. So, if the ritual performed by naked pensioners dancing around in the woods at midnight in the New Forest really did work, the country is forever in their debt. SWING ‘N’ SINATRA AT HANGER FARM A touch of London’s swingingWest End is coming to the Hanger Farm Arts Centre, Totton on Thursday 3rd March 7.30pm. “Swing ‘n’ Sinatra” – promises an evening of Vintage Swing, with classic songs from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller and many more. Performed by the band Five Star Swing, as featured on stage at London’s Leicester Square eatre. following our extensive UK tour I’m excited to be bringing the show to town!” For tickets please visit: www.minsteadtrust.org.uk/ hanger-farm or call the Box O ce on: 023 8066 7683. Herb Miller Big Band – (Glenn Miller’s brother). Chris, from New Milton says: “I have been brought up with these great swing songs – my father, Chris Smith (Snr) was also trombonist to the great Frank Sinatra! Fans have enjoyed this “feel-good” style of music for generations - Swing ‘n’ Sinatra
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