I believe that Ancaster has always been a centre of goddess worship. There are many recurring themes and representations of female energy throughout its history.
Origins of the name Ancaster?
Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. It is a topic that I find interesting but also generally unsatisfying. The explanations for many proper names, be they place names or surnames, given by the authors of reference works are generally full of assumptions and the application of theoretical devices. This speeds up “decoding” names and means books can be filled quickly. These accepted tomes are then taken literally, and the origin of a name is repeated ad nauseum without any further consideration. With that in mind, let us explore the place name Ancaster.
”The name Ancaster is Old English Anna+caester, or "Roman fort of a man called Anna". The caester portion of the name derives from the Roman occupation of England. It is unclear as to the derivation of the name Anna. The parish is listed in the 12th century as Anecastre.” A. D. MILLS, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991
The “Caster” part of the name is indisputable. Caester (Caster, Castre, etc.) is a name used to reference a Roman fort. It appears in many place names nationwide, including in names such as Chester and Manchester. The author then decides that this must be a patronymic. That the name is acquired from a male associated with the fort. A man named Anna. This is an odd conclusion to jump to, but perhaps not surprising. Anna is a feminine name generally considered to be from the Hebrew Hannah. It is also an ancient goddess name, as is explored further below.
The name is first recorded in a 12th-century Danelaw charter from the reign of Henry II and again in an 1196 legal document. In both instances, the name is recorded as Anecastre. Wherever this fact is now reported, the claim is made that the name means “the Roman fort of Anna”.
I can find no grounds for assuming that Anna was male. There is, though, much evidence that Anna was female. Not only female but a goddess worshipped in Ancaster. This might be an ancient British goddess, or it might be a goddess imported by the Romans.
The goddesses Anna
In ancient British beliefs, the mother goddess was the creator. She spun, wove and cut the threads of life. She was associated with flowing and emerging water. She had many names, including Ana, Anna, and Annis.
Robin Melrose, the author of “From Sacred Waters and Pagan Goddesses to Holy Wells”, says:
“Before Christianity came to Britain in the 4th century, Britons often made offerings to goddesses in watery places like rivers, lakes or marshes, and many shrines of saints or the Virgin were associated with holy wells.”
Ancaster has a sacred spring known as Lady Well. The Northern Antiquarian explores its history:
“The spring is not mentioned historically; for example, Leland (1535-43) notes a chapel and hermitage, but no well: “The area wher the castelle stoode is large, and the dikes. In the highest ground of the area is now an old chapel dedicate to S. Marie, and there a her(em)ite.”
"However, it appears likely that this is the spring Rudkin (1936) notes as St. Helen’s Well or Mucky Pool in the legend of Byard’s Leap, the famed story associated with a local witch as the story has an association with Ancaster – although this could record another site.”
The Roman settlers recognised the feminine energy and continued the worship of goddesses. A statue was found that is now kept in the Grantham Museum and is known as the “Deae Matres” or the Three Mothers. This statue depicts three women who all appear pregnant and hold food. This is said to represent the Celtic-Romano mother goddess and is a recurrent theme throughout Europe during the Roman era. There is not one single Celtic mother goddess, and often, these “Deae Matres” are considered local and associated with sacred springs.
The photographs above were taken over 20 years ago. I don't know if the copy of the statue is still on display outside the church at Ancaster or if the original is still displayed at Grantham. I will check when I have time and take better photographs. The copy statue is markedly different to the original. The food the three ladies hold is much more impressive in the original. I'm also not sure why it was decided that the three ladies were pregnant. They are not obviously so in the photographs.
Of the mother goddess statues found across Europe, the most similar to the one found at Ancaster would be the Matronæ Aufaniæ, also known as the Deæ Aufaniæ. Primarily found in Germany, with a few examples elsewhere, these three mothers are typically depicted with baskets on their laps. One example found in Bonn closely resembles the Ancaster Deae Matres. The origin of the name Aufaniæ is widely debated. One possible root is a link to flowing water or rivers. Another is that the first part of the name comes from the Gothic ūfjō, ‘abundance, plenty’. This leaves us the name Ani as the second part of the word, giving the meaning of Ani, the goddess of plenty.
Also found close to the “Deae Matres” are other exciting temple stoneware and inscriptions pointing to this as an important temple site. One inscription found reads “DEO VIRIDIO TRENICO ARCVM FECIT DESVODON” or “To the God Viridio, Trenico has set up this arch at his own expense”. The god name Viridio is not recorded anywhere else, and no one for sure knows of its translation or meaning. Thoughts are that it may mean virile, youthful or verdant, all concepts that fit nicely with the mother goddess imagery. The idea that an archway was built here is fascinating. What if this arch was built across the road and formed a grand entrance to the temple of Ana? No one will know exactly where, how big, or what the archway was.
A further archaeological discovery was made in Ancaster of a votive stone (an offering left at a temple) that depicts the figure of a woman. This stone carving has been attributed to Minerva, who attained a position similar to that of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athene. This is an interesting fact, for there was an old Roman goddess, Anna Perenna. She was the goddess of the circle or "ring" of the year. There is much discussion about how her name links to annum (year), for example, in the phrase "per annum". What is the etymology and origin of the name of Dido's sister Anna? - Latin Language Stack Exchange. In the story of Anna Perenna, she disguises herself as the goddess Minerva to enter the god Mars’s bed chamber. Her ceremonies took place on the Ides of March and were quite wild. Perhaps, then, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the votive found at Ancaster is not Minerva but Anna disguised as Minerva. Anna Perenna is a perfect goddess for other discoveries related to Ancaster. Its situation at the foot of the Lincolnshire Star County Circle would be ideal for her to be worshipped.
Anna Perenna here depicted on a coin.
Ana seems to have been a universal female goddess. In Irish tradition, Ana is often portrayed alongside two other goddesses, Madb and Macha, as part of a triple goddess; this would seem an obvious connection with our Deie Matres statue found in Ancaster, clearly a Roman substitution for Ana as the triple goddess.
Further evidence of Ana in the area we are interested in can be found not too far away at Leicester, where legends of Black Annis remain. Here Ana has assumed a more sinister persona, quite similar to the stories associated with Meg at Byards Leap, where she lives in a cave eating children. No doubt, this story was encouraged by Christians to turn locals away from the Mother Goddess. Black Annis’ cave is located in the Dane Hills, a name again derived from Ana’s synonym Danu. With Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester) being the capital of the Corieltauvi, it is not unreasonable that the story would travel to Ancaster, a town populated by the same tribe. Perhaps a cult of Ana started in Ancaster and spread to Leicester rather than vice versa.
Ana also appears further away as Anahita, perhaps the most complex version of the goddess. Originally a Semitic goddess, she became a goddess of fertility to the Parsees, and later, the Persians adopted and adapted her to Ishtar or Venus. The cult of Ishtar is particularly pertinent as it has been said that Mary Magdalene was a priestess and keeper of the doves before following Jesus. The belief that the Knights Templar secretly worshipped Mary Magdalene in the guise of Mary Jesus’ mother has been widely considered. It directly links pentagrams with the Templars and perhaps the chapel dedicated to Mary in Ancaster.
Even in the Hebraic tradition, which is very male-dominated, Ana makes a surprising appearance as Hanael (Haniel or Anael), one of the Archangels. This Angel is described as being male, pretending to be a woman. I suppose those who recorded the traditions had difficulty accepting that this was, in fact, a female.
Haniel - The name means ”grace of God”. This is the angel of Venus, allotted in the system of the Kabbalah to the seventh Sephirah, Netzach.
On the sixth day rules Anael. He is appointed on all manner of love. This ruler is in the likeness of a woman. She has in one hand a mirror in which she beholds herself and in the other a comb with which she is combing her hair. Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa
Venus, the brightest “star” in the sky, is known as the morning star. When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus define five points in the sky that become the five points of a perfect pentagram. Thus, the pentagram became associated with worshipping Venus, the goddess. As previously mentioned, Venus is closely associated with Ishtar, whom Mary Magdalene worshipped. This possibly gives us our links between the goddess Ana, Venus, the five-pointed star, and the Knights Templar.
The church at Ancaster is dedicated to St. Martin and is known to have been built upon the original Roman Temple site. Martin was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and made a career of destroying temples and building Christian churches upon them. A temple to the mother goddess Ana here at Ancaster was just too much for the misogynistic Christians of the day. So, the Christian church was established and dedicated to Martin, probably ending the centuries of female deity worship. However, all was not lost for goddess followers as across the road from the church of St Martin was established a chapel and hermitage dedicated to St Mary. There appears to be no record of how this looked or why it was established.
The current church of St Martin was built in the 14th century, long after ancient goddess worship had been eradicated. However, echoes of times past can be seen through the presence of a Sheela Na Gig. The origin of these carvings is widely debated. One theory is that the carvings are remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion. However, this is not certain. The arrival of these depictions of females with exaggerated vulvae appears to coincide with the Normans. Whatever the meaning and origin of these sculptures, they are undeniably feminine. As their appearance is sparsely distributed across the country, it is yet another intriguing link to the feminine spirituality of the town.
The connection of early Ancaster to goddess worship is undeniable. That goddess being named Ana is evident and becomes a logical explanation of the origins of the town’s name.
Intriguingly, evidence of a goddess named Ancasta in Roman Britain has been unearthed. It was found far away from Ancaster, near what is now Southampton. The discovered inscription reads:
DEAE ANCASTAE GEMINVS MANI VSLM “To the goddess Ancasta, Geminus Mani[lius] willingly and deservedly fulfils his vow."
It is assumed to be a local goddess, and there have been attempts to translate and apply the name to local features. But it just might be evidence of widespread worship of the powerful Ana. Perhaps Geminus Manilius had been stationed at the Caster of Ana, and in return for his safe passage, he vowed to make offerings to Ana for continuing to keep him safe.
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