It's been an odd time in Greenhill recently and we've all been busy with other tasks and chores, not to mention the Midsummer Fayre, but we should be resuming our online missives shortly now that the portents look right again.

"Fences are there only for people. The land and its various inhabitants care not for the petty rules and restrictions that mankind attempts to lay upon them."

Miss Newtons' diary, May 5th 1935.

"Well, Del always swore blind that one Christmas time he'd seen the sun shine all the way down Biggs Tunnel end to end. Never believed him 'cos of course it's not dead straight, until I saw it meself back in December '74."

Boatman's Diary, P. Babb, 1987.

"As usual, newcomers to Greenhill Easter Fayre scoffed at the notion that pace eggs would roll up the slope of Hill Lane. After several demonstrations proved that to be fact they left quickly, citing previous engagements elsewhere."

Miss Newton's diary, April 18th 1933.

Apologies for the lack of updates. There was an electromagnetic emanation at Patchett's Bend on the Equinox which took out Greenhill's telecoms, and it took until Saturday for Openreach and the district council's exorcists working together to remedy the matter.

Once again the Cornmasters Guild gathered at the Black Well on the Spring Equinox to recite Ward's Scroll in chorus and ensure its waters would nourish the land for another year. The reason for the verse about hounds flying about the village is lost to time.

Sunday Echo, 22/03/2020

The Fourstone monument actually stands on MoD land, but the troops who put the fence up were local lads and ran the wire around the other side of the circle. A new CO had the error corrected later, but after the "ghoul" incident the fence was returned to its original line.

Sunday Echo, 11/11/2018

"Arthur Burbeck's porcelain works on Well Street went out of business after flooding in 1894, despite being well away from any water courses. Locals said that building a factory on top of the ancient flower well wasn't Burbeck's best idea."

Histories of Greenhill, D. Norton.

Records say the station is so far from the High Street due to cost cutting by the railway builders, though it's a popular local tale that the merchants didn't want steam polluting the town. If you know the effects that iron has on witches and the Fae you're much closer to the truth. - Miss Newton.

Despite zero evidence "everybody knows" that condemned criminals were locked in the cellars of The Cross Inn the night before meeting the gallows that stood at the foot of Hill Lane. As the Cross is possibly the least haunted pub in Britain a pinch of salt is advised.

Pub Lore podcast, June 2017

Something has drawn humanity to where St Mary's stands for millennia. The Beaker Folk, Celts, Romans and all later peoples of the area who sought something beyond the mundane world gathered here. Some still do, but none of them have ever been able to explain why.

Norton's Histories of Greenhill

Greenhill schools still use the unofficial motto "Salt Stone Water & Iron" as shorthand for local history. From pre-Roman salt making to quarrying medieval castle ashlars to the canals and then the railways, all left physical and psychic marks upon the land.

"Nick's Newsletter", March 1987.

"It was only after the third such incident in the spring of 1923 that Mr Dale began to reconsider his decision to call his bespoke gentleman's motorcycle brand The Banshee."

Two Wheels Between Two Wars, Setright, 1974.

"Canon Jupp walked the boundaries of the churchyard and vicarage every evening while reciting The Letters of St Paul, starting at precisely 9.48 in order that he would be back on his doorstep at exactly 10pm. He never said why."

Reverend Raymond's "History Of St Mary's"

"Chap I was 'prenticed to lived by the rail bridge over the canal. Reckoned he'd seen steam trains on the cut and horse-drawn boats along the tracks, but I put it down to 'im having a taste for the gaffer's special scrumpy at the Butcher's Arms!" - Boatman's Diary by P Babb, 1987.

The people and other denizens of Greenhill stand with the people of @hookland.bsky.social on one simple but important matter:

Re-enchantment is resistance.

"For those who don't know Greenhill it's that place you drive through or past without really noticing, one of those single platform stations your train zooms through without stopping. It wears the modern age lightly, but millennia of history and lore lie just beneath that skin" - Chris Jensen.

The Echo is back, here where the sky is blue and there is much less twittering 🐦