Glastonbury Thorn

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

The Glastonbury Thorn is a specimen of hawthorn that is first mentioned in an early sixteenth century anonymous metrical Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathea. It is said that when Joseph of Arimathea landed from his boat he thrust his staff of dry hawthorn wood into the ground. Miraculously it immediately took root, which was taken as an omen of the fruitfulness of his mission. This original bush grew on the side of Wearyall Hill, just to the south of the town.

The thorn is unusual in that it flowers twice in one year; once as normal on "old wood" in spring, and once on "new wood" (the current season's matured new growth) in the winter. This flowering of the Glastonbury Thorn in mild weather just past midwinter was accounted miraculous. The blossoms of the Christmas shoots are usually much smaller than the May ones and do not produce any haws. It is noteworthy also that plants grown from the haws do not retain the characteristics of the parent stem (the same is true also of apples and their pips). Many have tried to grow the Glastonbury Holy Thorn, Crataegus monogyna var, biflora, (or Crataegus oxyacantha praecox) from seed and direct cuttings, but in recent years all attempts have reverted to the normal hawthorn type, flowering only in spring.

At the time of the adoption of the revised Gregorian calendar in Britain in 1752, the Gentleman's Magazine reported that curious visitors went to see whether the Glastonbury Thorn kept to the Julian calendar or the new one:

"Glastonbury—A vast concourse of people attended the noted thorn on Christmas day, new style; but, to their great disappointment, there was no appearance of its blowing, which made them watch it narrowly the 5th of January, the Christmas-day, old style, when it blowed as usual." —Gentleman's Magazine January 1753

This tree has been widely propagated by grafting or cuttings, with the cultivar name 'Biflora' or 'Praecox'. The present "sacred thorn tree" at the Church of St John, Glastonbury was grown from a local cutting, like many others in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury. The original Glastonbury Thorn itself was cut down and burned as a relic of superstition by Cromwellian troops during the English Civil War. In 1800 John Clark placed a tablet which marked the precise spot. However, cuttings are said to have been taken from the original thorn prior to its destruction, and one of these is said to have been the one secretly planted in the ground of Glastonbury Abbey after the originals destruction; this is what is now called the 'Glastonbury Thorn'.