theweepingcross.co.uk

If you're looking for anything to do with Weeping Cross, the small town in Staffordshire, UK, I do beg your pardon but you won't find it here.
Instead this site is devoted to a few of my arcane interests, as listed below. Welcome!

'Weeping Cross' is a term from English folklore. It can mean either a wayside cross which has lost one of its arms, or one where funeral processions halted
on their way from outlying country districts towards the parish church. I can't remember why I selected it for my online identity, but I still like it enough to keep it.
Despite the confusion with the town in Staffordshire.

 I've been converting my old website writings to downloadable pdfs, and so the website is now a portal for those rather than having any additional material on it.
Some of the items are available in print form as well as digitally and I am always willing to get rid of print copies if I have them!
I hope you find something to interest you here. Do contact me if you have any questions.

Go to Holy Wells frontpage Holy wells of Buckinghamshire
(2003) - the first book examining holy and ancient wells in Buckinghamshire.
Holy Wells of Kent
(2003) - the same sort of thing for Kent!
 Holy Wells of Surrey
(2008) - a third exhaustive county survey of wells, this time for Surrey. Print copies still available.
 Holy wells of Dorset
(2019) - Holy Wells of Dorset is a more substantial book in a different format and is only available in print.
 Aquae Avaloniae, the Holy and Noted Wells of Glastonbury
(2024) - bringing together for the first time information on the varied wells of England's most mystical town.

Go to Gothic frontpage Exuviae
Exuviae (2004) looks at the meaning and nature of Gothic through the things that have been interpreted as Gothic over a long, long time - 'from Shakespeare to Siouxsie', as we say! Print copies still available.
 MIxed Signals
Mixed Signals (2013) reflects on the alleged and real contradictions between Christianity and the Gothic - by someone who finds themselves with a commitment to both.
 Wild and Pleasing Horrors
In Wild and Pleasing Horrors (2022) we encounter twelve designed landscapes in Britain, and explore  their role in the development of the Gothic imagination.
 Dark Capital, Gothic Walks around LondonFrom 2007, the London Goth Meetup Group went on many strolls around the capital examining abstruse aspects of its history. Dark Capital (2023) includes some of them!
 The Shadowed LibraryThe Shadowed Library (2024) helps the curious navigate the thickets and forests of contemporary writing about Gothic.

religion
 Something Other Than we Are
(2009) Something Other Than We Are tells the story of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England in an accessible way.
 Christ's Athene
(2022) She may or may not really have existed, but St Catherine of Alexandria is one of the most revered holy figures in Christian tradition. Christ's Athene examines why.
 PLANNED - the history of the Catholic Movement in the Diocese of Guildford


Political writings
 Kissing Your Sister
Kissing Your Sister (1993) is a history of the Oxford University Liberal Club - the oldest student political society in Britain.
 The FOULD Papers
The FOULD Papers (2022) contains the stuff that didn't make it into Kissing Your Sister!



Other items button Rockfall
Rockfall (2022) - a medium-length poem written in response to the case of Gaia Pope, whose body was found on a Dorset cliff in 2017.
Past Presence Past Presence (2022) - a former museum curator reflects on ten years of museum visiting.
Dorset Deco
Dorset Deco (2022) -
The Art Deco buildings of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
 Usually AfloatUsually Afloat (2024) - a woman and her narrowboat, by Mortimer Bones The Ribos OperationThe Ribos Operation: Where Truth Lies (2024) is our one great contribution to the scholarly analysis of a well-known long-running TV sci-fi show ...