Comments on: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ana Almunia’s Ghost

By: Visitor 1

Visitor 1 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:40:28 +0000

@Martyn I used to work there in the 1980's. When the fire alarm went off people from round about would ring in and ask if anyone had escaped.

By: Martyn

Martyn — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:47:39 +0000

There are lots of accounts in the Garston area of Monk Ghosts particulary around the Bus Garage area which I belive was near to the old Garston Manor. I can confirm the the Asylum alarm Klaxon DID go off in the late 70′s

By: Kay

Kay — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:04:52 +0000

i was born and raised at 13 old forge close leavesden and we were haunted by a menacing spirit that was thought to be the blacksmith becouse it liked metal objects and has latched on to me and only is peacefull when i dont live with a man ?

By: C.M., D.D.S.

C.M., D.D.S. — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:57:25 +0000

Richard is, of course, quite right: Alban was a Romano-Briton, a Briton with the privileges of Roman citizenship, as Alexander of Neckham, whose mother nursed King Richard I at her breast, noted in his poem on Verulamium:

“Here Alban, Rome, thy citizen renown’d,
With rosy grace of martyrdom was crown’d.”

Or as the great cavalier parson Thomas Fuller made clear in his 1655 Church-History of Britain:

“Alban was a Briton by parentage, a Roman by privilege; naturally a Briton, naturalized a Roman; and, which was his greatest honour, he was also a citizen of that spiritual Jerusalem which is from above.”

However, given the special veneration with which he is today regarded in England, and (sad to say) the indifference with which he is regarded nearly everywhere else—and also given the mutability of what we today regard as “Englishness”—I saw fit to repatriate him into the country of which, were he to be born today, he would find himself a citizen.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:17:18 +0000

St Alban the first English martyr? In 250-odd AD? As I understand it, there weren’t any Angles in Britain at that time, so he can’t have been English. He would have been either Welsh (i.e. a Briton) or Roman.

By: The Plinth of Darkneth

The Plinth of Darkneth — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:20:31 +0000

Congratulations for a wonderfully detailed and descriptive piece of work indicative of some excellent research.

I feel compelled to thank you for posting what I personally believe is a wholly informative and locally important piece.

Naturally, it will be interesting to see how developments occur from here.

I for one shall be monitoring any further progress will eager anticipation.

Feel free to email me at martin.elsen@gmail.com should you feel inclined to research this matter any further and I would be delighted to offer any assistance that I can.

All the best.

The Plinth of Darkneth.