By Harry Mottram: We finally portrayed the first residents of not-Axbridge (as Axbridge was yet to exist) in the pageant 2022 who were Neolithic hunter gatherers who lived betwixt the Levels and the Mendips. The pageant saw a family group of these First Axbridgians whose fashion tastes involved not so much animal print outfits rather than animal skin outfits. Politically In-correct clothing was some 6,000 years away – but no sabre toothed tigers or mammoths were hurt in the scene. Historically people have lived in the area of Axbridge since the stone age, with evidence of farming, wood turning, and mining in the area long before the Romans rocked up with their leather sandals, slaves and Latin script. Here’s a poem…
Listen, listen, listen… to…
The sound of flint on flint,
And the call of human voices
As the ice shield fell away.
Under the snow covered Mendips
The first people came to this land
And began to fell the forest
Before Axbridge had begun.
Listen, listen, listen… to…
The sound of an axe on wood
Of round houses being built
Barking dogs and bleating lambs
Ghosts from a forgotten land
The Celtic tribes and their hill forts
Before the Romans arrived
Who herded cattle
And smelted iron
And lead from the Mendip mines.
Harry Mottram