I do enjoy it when reality slips sideways just a little bit. A few days ago I commented on this excellent blogpost from this excellent blog:

Click here to see the excellent blogpost

Yesterday I came home to find a small and peculiar brown paper package laying in my hallway, looking very out of place, otherworldly even, amongst the regular post. I carefully opened it to find my very own edition of the very same pamphlet courtesy of Mr Les Taret & Mr Eric Nullbrigg of the Soddenham Historical Society and Curry Club.

What a beautiful thing it is, too! Gorgeously tactile paper bound with linen cord, the ends of which have been dipped in red wax or dye? At least I hope it’s wax or dye! It’s certainly deep red in colour!!

The contents are an assortment of children’s rhymes which have been, and possibly still are, popular amongst the children of the small Norfolk village of Soddenham. Many of these rhymes, as children’s rhymes tend to be, are of a rather sinister nature, pertaining often to the village’s troubled history with witchcraft.

To highlight the nature of the verse we also have a series of woodcut illustrations with suitably dark overtones.

I also received an invitation to visit the village of Soddenham. I may well take them up on the offer at some point although I will try to avoid the major festival dates as I understand that some locals in villages such as this can get a bit excitable with their bonfires, especially with those outsiders that arrive ‘of their own free will’.

I will of course also practise thinking of brick walls. Just in case there are bands of fair-haired children with staring eyes roaming the streets. One can never be too careful.

If anyone else out there wishes to visit the small village of Soddenham then more information can be found here:

Click here to visit Soddenham