Blind George Story

Aaron hat die Hintergrund-Geschichte zu "Blind George", dem Opener unserer CD recherchiert.

Hier ist sie:

The Story of Blind George

The opening track of our new CD 'Dancing of the Light' tells the 'mythical' story of Blind George and his ill-fated journey into a local cave but just how 'mythical' is the story? Well, there most certainly is a place called Anstey. It's a small village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England, about fifteen miles north-east of the town of Stevenage. But what of the cave and 'Blind George'?

On October 15th, 1944 the 603rd Squadron took off for a mission to Cologne, Germany but their doomed mission barely got off the ground when it crashed into a mound just outside Anstey - all ten young men aboard the flight lost their lives. The mound they crashed into was the site of an old castle and although the castle had long since gone, the moat around the castle was still there. According to historian Allen Ostrom in his article 'The Fiddler of Anstey', a local woman called Elaine Tyler reported, “Several of us attended a talk one evening about the castle and moat at Anstey. There is supposed to be an underground tunnel here leading to another entrance some distance away. It has long since been lost but is now the subject of some excavations. Could it be that one of the lads working on the crash site that morning might have seen this heavy door or gate and could still pinpoint the location?”



An old local story tells of a fiddler known as 'Blind George' who had become "quarrelsome and pot-valiant" during the evening’s drinking at 'The Chequers Inn' and as a result accepted local peoples challenge to venture into the entrance of the tunnel at the bottom of the castle moat that had recently become exposed during a dry period. The tunnel had probably been an escape route for the castle in ancient times and was reported to lead to ancient chalk pits more than a mile away from the moat itself. 

In spite of the legend that the cave had never been explored and that anyone venturing inside would never come out alive, George took his fiddle and dog and plunged into the entrance of the cave. Led by his dog, George began fiddling and the villagers were able to follow his path as they listened to an "uncanny and unknown" fiddle tune from under the ground beneath their feet.



"Suddenly, the scrape of the fiddle rose to a shriek. And then came only silence. They raced back to the tunnel entrance to see George’s dog come running out as twenty devils were behind him. He was tail-less and his hair singed off. He ran off into the night and was never seen again." The entrance was then sealed off and no one since has ever tried to find out what really happened to 'Fiddler of Anstey'. 

The Chequers Inn - now called 'The Blind Fiddler' (pictured) is still there. Maybe the tunnel is too...but who knows what became of Blind George?

To listen to 'Blind George', the opening track of our new CD 'Dancing of the Light' click here.

The picture is of the Blind Fiddler pub in Anstey, Hertfordshire which supposedly used to be called 'The Chequers Inn'