May Hill

Hidden Gloucestershire

May Hill

10 May 2026

Hidden Gloucestershire by Margaret Sollars.
First published in 1988
by
Countryside Books
Newbury
Berkshire

Introduction
by
Kenneth Webb

I frequently see May Hill, most days in fact. I observed it yesterday from the bus and today from the train, later on next week from the car. May Hill has always fascinated me because I recall it being pointed out to me as a tiny boy and when we were driving home after a picnic or even to one, the game being set for my sisters and me as to who would be the first to spot May Hill?

Earlier today I watched a documentary by Dr Lucy Worsley on Mary I Queen of England also known as Bloody Mary. Dr Worsley gave a balanced appraisal and the documentary ended in favour of Queen Mary in so far that in her short five year reign the lady should be credited with having established protocols for every Queen Regnet since. I do not doubt this last point.

I suspect the Queen also came under the influence of her Spanish husband Philip; and it is unfortunate that people at that time saw the images of husband and wife on their coins depicting the husband on the left and the wife on the right facing each other. Thus, people would say “there are the King and Queen of England.” Because it is very clear from Dr Worsley’s detailed research that men were very misogynistic and one particular protestant Dr John FOXE, an extreme misogynist, has much to answer for. Philip was merely the Consort.

Nevertheless, the following entry on May Hill by Margaret Sollars is discomforting and shows the hideousness and downright evil of human nature. Whilst the account tends to upset my own romantic notions of May Hill and its mystical clump of trees, reading it seemed more synchromatic than coincidence. It felt as if history was whispering always consider all of the evidence… Do not shy away from facts I’d rather ignore.

Extract

The author writes…

The pale blue arc of May Hill, topped by its clump of trees, means home to all those who live in the Severn Vale for it can be seen from far away to the north, south, and east and many a returning traveller has breathed a sigh of relief when that serene blue outline comes into view.

But if you live on the hill, it is a different matter for May Hill is steep and thickly wooded with deep lanes swooping and turning along its sides between cottages perched haphazardly on its slopes. Only the summit of May Hill is open where the wind whistles through the group of huge pine trees which form the hill’s famous “topknot”.

Deep in a fold on the hillside stands the Glasshouse, a reminder of the glass-making which was long ago a local industry introduced by Huguenot refugees and, somewhere higher among the trees, still guarded by a yew tree, is the cave, secret meeting place of a small group of Protestants who dared to defy the dreadful edict of Mary I that all her subjects must return to the Catholic fold. The local priest was loyal to her and had his register ‘The reign of King Philip and Queen Mary’ and these few courageous people soon found themselves in Gloucester prison awaiting trial and execution.

 One, Horne, escaped and returned to his wife and newborn baby in their little house on May Hill, remaining there concealed until, at the baptism feast, the midwife noted that thick slices of meat had been cut from the joint and taken to his secret hiding place.Dutifully, as she saw it, the woman reported this to the authorities and Horne was re-arrested and taken to Newent Priory where he was burnt at the stake as a heretic, suffering, we are told with great fortitude and loudly singing the 146th Psalm ‘…Put not your trust in princes… happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help…’.

As soon as Elizabeth I was proclaimed Queen, in an explosion of rage the local women drove the priest from their parish, ridiculously seated backwards on his horse. But no one has recorded the fate of that treacherous midwife who, so soon after bringing a little child into the world, could in the name of religion, be the instrument of the horrifying death of its father.

~ End of Margaret Sollars Extract ~

 

Of Mary I Bloody Mary, as I used to conclude many years ago in court, Your Worships, I rest my case.

And of religion? When religion defines a group of people, any and every religion and every denomination therein, and all religion, I say this. Yes, enjoy your religion if it strengthens your personal faith and leads you to live righteously.

But I have yet to find any religion that does not exact upon others such evil even in this twenty-first century.  

KW Sunday, 11 May 2026.

May Hill by KTW
from the Cheltenham Racecourse on 22-24 June 2024,
with May Hill in the far distance, some fifteen miles away as the crow flies, and around 25 miles by road.