A SONG BY BEN EDGE
Here is the music video for my song Crossbones Lament from my new album Children of Albion, featuring guest vocals by Angeline Morrison. The video is made up of a collection of clips from Sunday, March 23rd, all taken at the Crossbones Day of Dance and the book launch for Max Crow Reeves’ new book Morris. It was a wonderful day with dancing from Black Swan Border Morris, The Belles of London City, Blackhorse and Standard Women’s North West Morris, and Brixton Tatterjacks Morris.
For those who aren’t familiar with Crossbones, it was historically a pauper’s graveyard where outcasts, sex workers, and mistreated women were buried. This unconsecrated burial ground, known as Crossbones, became the final resting place for prostitutes (locally known as “Winchester Geese”), who were thrown into unmarked graves. Despite being licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink, which included the brothels of Bankside, these women were disregarded and buried in anonymity, while the church profited greatly from the brothels.
For over twenty years, a group of passionate individuals, led by the incredible John Constable (also known as John Crow), has fought to preserve the significance of this site. John describes how, through a shamanic vision, he was visited and embodied by the spirit of the ‘Goose,’ who led him to Crossbones. Together, they have resisted property developers and ensured that Crossbones has received the recognition and protected status it truly deserves.
Today, Crossbones is a site for all outcasts, for those who don’t fit into societal norms. It’s a place to celebrate who you are, free from the dogma and conformity of organized religion—a cathedral for the outcast, the other, and the downtrodden. It’s a sanctuary for all faiths, and none. This song is celebration of one of Londons most precious sites.”
