Of Knot and Knights
The three looped pretzel shaped Staffordshire knot can be traced back to the Middle Ages, Being present on the early coat of arms as history turned its pages.
Tasked with providing Pilgrim’s safety to Jerusalem and formed back in 1119, The Knights Templar were a powerful organization of the medieval era, it would seem.
Referenced in a survey of Staffordshire in 1588, Is a Crusaders grave at an Enville church, with limited information to date. A frontier post in the Anglo Saxon struggle against many a Viking horde, Stafford, in Old English, means ‘landing place’ and ‘ford.’
Such a place was secured by a maternal great aunt, an academic no one would deny, This young lady attending grammar school was Margaret Bashford of Attwood Street, Lye.
Whilst at school she had met her husband to be, intriguing to the family when told, Their first hearing of this beau was on her 18th birthday when presented with a watch of gold.
His family’s Staffordshire business, named Jaspers, specialised in the art of cake baking, Progressing to teaching at Stafford College, this speciality had become her making.
From life’s treasure chest of memories, and as my mother would often regale, Was the occasion when Margaret’s sisters and niece visited Stafford, and hereby hung a tale.
All had been well upon departure for home on the train from Stafford that night, It was at the time of disembarking that they had realised their plight. One aunt present who would talk for England would curtail other’s words to be few, The time of their shock was late evening and during World War II.
So deeply absorbed in her conversation that their intended stop had been missed, Stepping out into Coventry’s darkness to a city that had been blitzed. From the deep recesses of memory, and of words that I recall with ease, When born, Margaret sent flowers to my mother and a posy of violets for baby Laura Louise.
Sadly I lack visual memories of this special great aunt, recalling what I have heard over time, Our paths had crossed during the winter of her life and during the spring time of mine.
Continuing to live out in Stafford, her extended family she never forgot, With family ties that were bound just as tightly as the intertwined Staffordshire Knot. As for one final piece of the jigsaw with the family’s ethos of ‘the more the merrier,’ Who could forget my mother’s family’s loyal pet – Tinker the Staffordshire Bull Terrier?