The Ignominy of Galloper

Tell me, when did you first begin to feel that no-one cared any more?

I’m not sure exactly, it just seemed to happen in stages and then it was only in the end that the slow seep of shame became the overwhelmingly cruel reality I am faced with daily now.

Do you remember much about the early years?

Very little now. It was such a long time ago and almost nothing of my early history has been recorded. What there is is mostly hearsay.

What about the hearsay, what do you make of it?

Well, it doesn’t take much to realise how important it all must have been at one time. There was so much going on and I was at the heart of it all. I thought it would be like that forever ... well, you do, don’t you? We don’t see what’s coming. When we thrive we can’t quite imagine the complete and total collapse and fading into obscurity that the future holds for us. I felt special and thought my place was assured for eternity.

And then that all changed?

(Sighing deeply) Yes, things changed. I had been used to being a focal point in the lives of everyone around me but gradually the world moved on and I was left behind and I languished. The early neglect didn’t really seem to bother me at first. I just kept myself to myself and fell into obscurity. I realised that that had become the way of things generally.

You’ve talked about this as a more reflective, even spiritual, phase...

It’s true, it was. I had a lot of time to myself to reflect. Indeed , it was a deeply introspective time. I realised that in a rather less ostentatious way that there were still those that would visit and I came to appreciate that I was still a part of things, a part of the whole. I might not have been as central as before but there was a growing sense of acceptance.

But that all changed again, and not so long ago. Tell me what happened...

It all seemed to happen so quickly. First there was a lot of activity. A lot of interest with people visiting, surveying, measuring. I’m ashamed to say it now, but I foolishly thought, ‘at last, they’ve come back, they haven’t forgotten me’. I thought they had reawakened to my true worth. Now, it feels like such a supreme arrogance that has been met with its equivalent matching terrible humiliation.
At first, I thought it was all rather strange. A new modern kind of pilgrimage. But I felt so incredibly special when they seemed to build a kind of ceremonial causeway all around me. I assumed that this would be a grand processional route that would form part of new and great rituals in my honour. They even gave it a modern name that gave it the air of great passages of transcendence. They called it the M6 and I was at it’s heart, encircled by its arteries that would bring people flooding fast from all over the country ....towards ME. At last, I felt as though I would be adored and worshipped once again. And yes, they all pass me in their many many thousands, but no-one ever notices or cares. I wear the necklace of ignominy around me, a shackle round my neck; they call it the Tebay Junction slip road. How very foolish I have been... (voice fades and falls away).

I’m so very sorry ...

It’s my own fault...such an outrageous sense of my own self importance but I have come to understand that this has been the fate of so many wells and many of those have been actual Holy Wells. I can’t even claim that, I have no recorded history of saints or healing. But they say I am bottomless. I am Galloper Well. I sit next to an ancient motte and bailey. I have a place in the world. So little is understood about us. I like to think I am a little bit symbolic of all my fellows. We all have a story, and more, to tell, even now, when our plight can appear so ignominious.

Thank you for telling us your story, Galloper.

Thank you for listening to it.