#wolverton

World Beats Records, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, circa 1991

Grabbed the camera bag with my trusty 550D yesterday and headed off to Holy Trinity Church in Wolverton for a quick lunchtime snapping session, and thanks to the changeable weather, I got a distinct Hammer Films vibe.

In my head, I suppose it looks a bit like Bray Studios, which remains best known for its association with Hammer Film Productions. It's also like a location or matte painting which you would find in one of their films - not that I've seen many, big scaredy-cat that I am.

According to my vague diggings, the old medieval building was replaced by a new church in the early 19th-century, with the new church incorporating the 14th-century central tower, but re-cased in new masonry. Its style is described as "Gothic Revival". Despite not being particularly tall, it's quite imposing.

There's nothing much scary about this place in real life though, especially when the sun comes out. There's even a small fairy garden carved into the trunk of a tree.

The grounds aren't large either and most people could easily walk around the whole place in just a few minutes. It's nestled in what used to be Old Wolverton, most of which has disappeared over the centuries.

As well as the filmmaking side of things, another point of local interest for me is the Grand Union Canal, which runs close by. The Warwickshire stonework for the 19th-century renovations to the church were brought in from Attleborough by barge on - you guessed it - the Grand Union, which was new at the time.

It was only a quick visit and I'm sure I'll be back at some point in the future, perhaps as a part of a film crew, but until then, here's some links to the places I scoured for my (ahem) encyclopaedic knowledge.

Keep safe...!

http://saint-george.org.uk/

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp505-509

Thank you so much for all the kind words! 😊

I do know Wolverton! It’s awesome to hear from another creator of werewolf things. I’ve always found Wolverton cute and enjoyable. :D

I’ve always been curious about that, too, to be honest. Answers can range from anywhere to “Well they’re usually in the woods so it makes sense to make them lumberjacks” all the way back to one of the very earliest werewolf films (but not technically the first one ever! We’ve lost the first one ever), made in 1925.

There are two important werewolf movies that were made before The Wolf Man in 1941: Wolf Blood (1925) and Werewolf of London (1935). Neither were nearly as influential as The Wolf Man, for certain, and thus Werewolf of London is not what generally gets cited/credited for associating a werewolf with the moon (though this was also arguably done in some myths, so it’s not completely baseless).

Wolf Blood, however, may have introduced the idea of a “werewolf lumberjack” to the world - and lumberjacks are often associated with flannel. In the film, the lumberjack protagonist is attacked by a rival logging company. A doctor gets a bright idea to give him a blood transfusion from a wolf, and things go from there.

Generally, though, it’s chalked up to the idea of werewolves living in the woods, so they either are lumberjacks or run into lumberjacks and take clothes like them. Or else dress like them to blend in with where they live.

Or what’s just as likely is, someone decided a flannel-wearing lumberjack werewolf was a funny joke and it caught on. Since werewolf jokes do seem to catch on more than other things.