Page 6 - April 2021

CREEP, SHADOWS, CREEP (THE STORY OF GOTHIC LULLABY)
By Rob Atkins
’Last month I told the story behind the song, Gothic Lullaby, a track featured on Helena Mace’s Chasing Dreams, album. I wrote of how I’d been inspired to pen the number after seeing a painting of a maiden and a warrior, and how I’d composed a melody, and jotted down the words of the first verse. I spoke of the drastic case of writer’s block that prevented me from finishing the song, and how, years later, I’d come across the forgotten work, and picked up where I’d left off, completing it in a matter of days. I often wonder what quirk of sub-conscious memory or inspiration had been active to create a circumstance allowing me to complete a set of lyrics (that I had previously despaired of finishing) in such a short time.
The opening lines told of a weeping girl waking from a troubled dream -her face in her hands. I had no idea why she was weeping, and when I tried to bring the knight into the song could get no further. Only when I rediscovered the manuscript a few years ago, did new ideas begin to gel.
The key to my inspiration lay in the first phrases of the second verse which I had began to rewrite as ‘The warrior carved on the scarred, oaken wall, turns his gaze to the cold marble tomb.’ This set me thinking of a country church on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England, and of a strange story I had heard concerning it.
To most people the Isle of Wight, conveys images of seaside towns, Rock Festivals, Cowes week, or the rugged cliffs and pinnacles of the Needles rocks. I, however, find the sleepy valleys of the inland areas equally evocative. Here amid the dips and folds of the central downland you will find the tiny village of Gatcombe - and also its lonely grey stone church, St Olave’s, If you enter the little 13th century building,
6
you will find, close to the altar, an oak carving of a long dead crusader. He lies in a prone position, clutching the hilt of what was once a steel dagger, a cherub stands by his head while his dog, Flacon Caprice, snuggles at his feet.
Legend states he is a representation of local landowner, Sir Edward Estur, who fought in the crusades. He was badly wounded, brought back to Gatcombe -where he later died. His ghost is reputed to haunt the area. According to an article, written in the late 1960s by the then rector, the Reverend James Evans, and published in a local magazine, the crusader’s dagger was originally ornamented with a chrysoberyl stone placed just above the crossbar. In the 1830’s, a farmer’s daughter, Lucy Lightfoot, was a frequent visitor to the church. Although a local beauty, she had no interest in the eligible bachelors who paid court to her, appearing instead to be infatuated by the figure of the knight.
She would often stand in the church, gazing rapturously at the oaken image for hours on end. When curious bystanders asked her why she did so, she’d answer that she loved to ‘be with him and accompany him on his adventures in her thoughts and dreams.’On the morning of June 13th, 1831, Lucy tethered her horse outside the church and went inside. Shortly after, a violent electrical storm broke over the Island. It lasted two hours, and halfway through, was coupled with a 40 minute total eclipse. Later, a passer-by, seeing her frightened horse untended at the church gates, looked in to check that all was well. He found the church empty, with no sign of the girl: the steel dagger lay bent and shattered on the altar, and the chrysoberyl stone had vanished -presumably disintegrated by whatever electric force had struck it. No trace of Lucy was ever found.