In these blog posts, I will be covering some extra information about the counties that I may have missed in the actual episodes. I forgot to talk about the flag in the episode so I will talk a little bit about it here. The flag is a combination of several symbols which are significant to the county. The flag was instated on September 11th 2014.
The yellow and red quadrants are taken from the arms of the Beauchamp Family, powerful in the county after the Norman conquest of England and constructors of Bedford Castle. The blue and white wavy lines (a Fess wavy barry way of four Argent and Azure) are symbolic of the Great River Ouse, which flows through the county, including the county town of Bedford. Finally, The three vertically-arranged shells on a black panel are taken from the coat of arms of the Dukes of Bedford. So the flag certainly has a lot more going for it than you may think. The flag was designed by Luke Blackstaffe.
Another interesting thing in Bedfordshire is the Panacea society, which is a religious sect which was founded at the end of the first World War by Marvel Barltrop. They held views like God being fourfold - Father, Son, Mother and Daughter. Barltrop believed herself to be the Daughter of God and took the name Octavia.
The society believed that their access to God allowed them to offer healing to people with diseases especially cancer. These treatments would include: receiving a piece of linen blessed by Octavia. They were then instructed to put the linen in a jug of water, pray, and drink this "Water A" four times a day. Water A could then be diluted with additional water, producing "Water B," which should be applied to the body as bath water or through sponges.
The people in the Panacea society would also believe that Bedford was the centre of the Garden of Eden. Joanna Southcott was an obscure British poet who left some of her writings in a sealed box. Southcott herself has said that the box can only be opened in a time of 'grave national danger' on the instructions of 24 bishops of the Church of England.
The location of the sealed box remains undisclosed, however it is rumoured to be at 18 Albany Road, three doors down from Mabel's. Another well-documented belief that the Panacea society had was that crime and adversity in general would increase in the years following the First World War unless the Bishops opened Joanna Southcott's box.
The last known member of the Panacea society died in 2012, and since then it has ceased to exist as a religious community. Now it is under the control of a trust which has a museum, which is open for a small amount of time every Thursday. Here is a link to the trusts' website: http://panaceatrust.org
Here is a map of Bedfordshire:
So that is all for the extra information on Bedfordshire, and I hope this has added to your knowledge of the county. For every county I will also be posting some nice pictures just to shows how naturally beautiful England is. The link to the transcript of this episode can be found here as well as on the Transcripts section of the website for a downloadable copy.
I really liked the information about the Panacea society and am really intrigued about what might be in Joanna Southcott's box. Thanks for sharing this.