Winchester Geese

I had to leave her for a while to check how the students were getting on. They had nearly completed cleaning the two skeletons unearthed yesterday and they would bring the boxed bones to me about lunchtime. I wasn't sure how they would react to Molly, if they could see her.

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They could see her. When Robert and Jane arrived with the boxed skeletons, they were slightly surprised that I had someone with me. They were also startled by Molly's use of language, but like me, they could understand and reply in Middle English. Later they told me that at first, they had thought Molly was speaking like that just because she was practising...

"Robert, Jane, this is Molly. She's staying with me for a while." I said.

"How have you got on with the first skeleton, Alan?" Jane asked.

"I have been very lucky. You know that a leg was badly smashed?"

"Yes."

"I thought that she must have been taken to a hospital and the nearest one was Barts. I looked at their records and..."

I opened the box of Molly's bones and produced the printout of the Barts record including the sketch.

"So, the skeleton is of Molly Brown, a Winchester Goose, who died on the 31st of October 1410."

"The same name as your guest?" Robert queried.

"Yes. That is a coincidence."

"That is amazing," Jane said. "We thought we were in an older part of the burials. Everything above that grave and the other two had been disturbed by the foundations of a series of buildings. We have packed all the bones, and bone fragments by layers but it might take decades, if ever, to sort out complete skeletons from the jumble. But 1410? We hadn't expected that."

"Can I see the graves?" Molly asked unexpectedly.

"Of course," I said.

We went to where the students had been digging. The excavation was about eight feet deep and ten wide. We could see bones projecting from the sides of the hole in a jumbled heap down to about two feet above the bottom where there was undisturbed earth. The three graves showed signs of clean-cut edges.

"There were no coffins or grave goods," Robert said. "Not that we would have expected any for pauper burials. But the burials were done professionally and well. Even though it was unconsecrated ground, they were all buried in a Christian alignment."

"I can see," Molly said. "They were treated well for outcasts from the Church."

"And Molly Brown was given the last rites," I added.

"But the monks were reprimanded." Molly said.

We went into the finds Portacabin. There were several large boxes of assorted bones, and one table was covered with a mass of them. There were at least eight skulls, more skull fragments, and a pile of limb bones.

"We think, but we are not sure, that there are the remains of at least twenty people here," Jane said. "This was the top layer, about a foot below the modern surface, and the most disturbed. Perhaps the experts at the Museum of London can sort them out. I can't."

"That is sad," Molly said. "So many people who will always remain with their stories untold. Perhaps they too were Winchester Geese."

"We don't think so," Robert said. We think all three layers were after the Geese's time, early 19th century, probably, just before Cross Bones stopped being used. Carbon dating should tell us."

"But at the depth we have reached, we should find many more undisturbed graves," Jane added. "We have to clear a route for construction traffic, about twenty feet wide. We still have weeks of work to do, and we should be getting on with it. Good luck, Alan, with reconstructing the two skeletons we brought. We are fairly sure they are complete, but unlike Molly's bones, as far as we have looked, we can't see any signs of trauma."

As Molly watched, I opened the first box and started to put the bones in order. As with Molly's bones there were signs of poor nutrition and early hard labour, carrying heavier weights than a child should have done. The woman had been younger than Molly, possibly late twenties, but there were no indications of anything that might have killed her.

"How many Geese died young?" I asked Molly.

"Most of us," she replied. "I was older than almost any of my contemporaries. We were vulnerable to any disease because of our lifestyle and living conditions. Which reminds me. How old are you, Alan? You didn't have the stamina last night I might have expected. You went to sleep too easily."

"Me, Molly? I'm forty-six."

"Forty-six! I didn't know anyone that old, not even my richer clients. Living beyond your thirties in Southwark would have been incredible. I knew people could live longer in the countryside, but in London? No."

"So, you will be gentle with an old man, Molly?"

"You don't look that old, Alan, but yes, I will try to be considerate tonight."

"Thank you, Molly. I enjoyed last night but..."

"You need more rest than a younger man?"

"Yes."

Molly helped to arrange the bones. A couple of ribs were missing but everything else was there. Whoever it was had been younger and not as tall as Molly, who must have been fairly tall by the standards of the early 15th century.

"I wonder if I knew her," Molly said.

"Possibly. She was buried next to you, so she probably died within days of your death. It is likely she was also a Goose."

I recorded everything I could discover from the skeleton before putting it back in the box and starting on the second box. The features of the bones were almost identical, there were no signs of trauma or anything that could have killed her. The signs of bad nutrition and hard labour were present.

"This one was buried the other side of you, Molly so again she may have died just before or just after you."

"It would be nice to know who they were, Alan."

"But unless there are distinctive marks on the bones that were recorded at Barts? We'll never know."

"Unless we ask them..."

"How do we do that, Molly?"

I had my back to Molly, sitting at the table, looking at the bones, with my laptop on the Barts records.

"Yesterday was Halloween, when ghosts, like me, walk," Molly said, "but..."

Suddenly I was sneezing again. I put my handkerchief to my nose and swung around. Behind Molly were two more women, dressed in smelly rags as she had been yesterday.

"Alan? Meet Sarah Bowman and Ruth Pike, the women whose skeletons you have."

I was still sneezing. All I could do was nod.

"That do smell, don't they? Even I notice after a day of being clean. I'll take them to the bathroom. You can wash their clothes and I think there are enough of Gail's clothes to cover them."

A few minutes later I loaded the rags into my washing machine for a prewash. There were giggles from the bathroom. Half an hour later, the two women emerged. They were much shorter than Molly and wearing what had been Gail's midi-skirts with T-shirts. On them Gail's skirts were ankle length.

"Hello, Sarah and Ruth," I said.

"Alan? I died a day before Molly," Sarah said.

"And I? The day after," Ruth said.

"I think we both had diphtheria, although the monks at Barts just put it down as a fever," Sarah said. "If you look at their records, you should find us, either side of Molly."

I looked. They were there among a dozen or so that died in those three days. Their names, height, weight and age, mid-twenties, were shown, and that they had been buried at Cross Bones. But I had not enough to prove hat the skeletons were theirs. I had their word, but a ghost's word is not evidence.

Molly suggested to that I looked at the Barts records again. She was right. Ten people died at Barts around the time of Molly's death but eight were given Christian burial, so not at Cross Bones. Sarah, a Winchester goose died the day before Molly; Ruth the day after and both were recorded as having been buried at Cross Bones. I scrolled through the records. There had been no burials except those three at Cross Bones for several months. Everyone else, not that there were many, had been buried in consecrated ground. Three graves side by side on the same level, neatly cut? It was likely that the three were Molly, Sarah and Ruth. I added pencil notes and a printout of the Bart's record to each box of bones. I only had Sarah and Ruth's word for which skeleton was whose.

Sarah and Ruth, like Molly yesterday, were surprised at the choice of food for lunch, and they also didn't know how to use a fork. Afterwards I left them alone for an hour or so while I went shopping to a cheap clothing store. Molly needed better fitting bras. The other two were too small to wear Gail's bras. When I returned with a heap of bulging carrier bags it was as if I had given them free rein in a toy shop. I sat at the table, drinking coffee -- none of them appreciated coffee yet -- while they tried on everything. The admitted that only well-off (by their standards) Winchester Geese ever had more than a single spare item of clothing.

When they had dressed in their new clothes, Molly and I took the other two around the caravan to show them the equipment, how to turn on and off lights, the bathroom and toilet etc. Sarah and Ruth were fascinated by the taps. They were used to a communal pump for contaminated water, I drank a glass of water to show that the water was safe to drink. They were more impressed with the clarity, unlike the brown stuff swimming with bugs that had come from the pump.

They liked the idea that I had my own flushing toilet unlike the communal very smelly earth toilet shared by about thirty people, or a chamber pot emptied into the street. Washing their hands after going to the toilet was also new to them. When I told them that many people in the 21st century had a shower or bath once a day, that startled them. None of the three could ever remember having a bath. Their clothes would be worn all day and every day, and except during hot weather, all night as well. Washing clothes? They didn't have a spare set to change into, and even if they did, their clothes might fall apart in a wash. They could have been right. When I took their clothes out of the washing machine, some of the repairs and darns had disintegrated. They could have been repaired easily but their new clothes were so much better.

I retrieved Gail's clothes. I would wash them and put them back in her suitcase now the three women had their own clothes that fitted better. They were incredulous when I told them that the clothes I had bought today were theirs to keep.

Sarah and Ruth explained that their fathers had died in wars with the Scots, and their mothers had sold them to become Winchester Geese. Their income as Geese, poor though it was, was just enough to keep the rest of their families from starvation but their mothers had died a decade before Sarah and Ruth.

I took all three out to meet the students, Robert and Jane who were widening the trench.

"Robert, Jane? Meet Sarah and Ruth. I think I need to give you an explanation," I said. "All three of them are ghosts."

"Ghosts!" Jane exclaimed.

"Yes, the ghosts of the three skeletons we have uncovered."

"They don't look like ghosts," Robert said cautiously. "Are you sure this isn't a joke?"

"No, Robert. That's why they speak Middle English. That was what they spoke in the 1400s. Please treat them as my guests. They might be able to help us with our research. Obviously they won't know anything beyond their time..."

"Don't be so sure, Alan," Molly said. "I don't think we are likely to produce any more ghosts, but as ghosts we might be able to talk to some of the dead people buried here. For example, Jane is holding a skull. I can tell you that the skull is that of Francis Sawyer who ran a bear baiting pit and was killed by one of his own bears in 1535. You can see the bear's claw marks on the skull..."

Jane turned the skull around. There were obvious deep; scratch marks on the face, marking the facial bones.

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Over the next month, the three ghosts helped with the archaeology, and I entered them on the payroll of the site owners as 'students'. I had equipped them with wellington boots, jeans, anoraks., etc. They were able to identify and tell the stories of many of the buried people we uncovered. Although I recorded what the ghosts said, I couldn't add that to the official records because no one would believe me.

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But there was a greater impact on my personal life. All three wanted to make love to me in exchange for sixpence a coupling, the standard rate for Geese of their time. I found some solid silver teaspoons and a couple of silver forks in my collection of odds and bobs. Sarah and Ruth were happy to be paid in silver.

I talked at length to all three about their lives as Winchester Geese. They were unanimous that money was their main concern. On an average day they would expect eight customers and they were not allowed to work on Sundays, or Holy Feast days, of which they thought were too many. Out of every sixpence, one penny went straight to the Bishop of Winchester; two pennies had to be paid to the brothel keeper for bed and board, up to three shillings a week, but from that the brothel keeper paid the Bishop six pence a week; and three pennies could be kept by the Goose herself, but as most were the major or sole support of their wider families, most had very little money left each week.

If they could, most Geese paid a halfpenny out of their threepence to the brothel keeper to cover the costs when they couldn't work because of ill health or Feast days. The brothel keepers kept the Geese's money in strong boxes for safety and the brothels were patrolled by the Bishop's own guards to ensure that the bishop's dues were paid, but also to intervene if there was any trouble from customers or thieves. The bishop tried all malefactors in his own court and the usual punishment was a fine which went to the Bishop.

Winchester Geese were seen as the best in Southwark. Prostitutes who were not Winchester Geese could not charge as much as sixpence and were often older and disease-ridden harridans.

I tried, by researching online, to work out what sixpence was worth in today's values. It could be as little as about £15 or maybe £150 but what you could buy in 1210 varied so much. Clothes were very expensive. A new skirt, made from hand woven fabric and sewn by hand, would cost about five shillings and that sort of money was beyond most Winchester Geese. To earn five shillings that they could keep would mean twenty customers but the demands from their families meant that accumulating five shillings was almost impossible.

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Giving the three Geese ghosts silver was a big mistake. Along with the silver ingot I had given Molly which she had valued at 40 times sixpence, but she had decided that a full night was worth four sixpences i.e., two shillings, I had given her and the other two some heavy silver cutlery. They had weighed them on my kitchen scales and had decided that they owed me at least one hundred couplings each or twenty nights.

They first night I had all three in bed with me. Although they took it in turns to ride me, I could only manage three emissions -- not enough to count as a full night. So, I still owed each one at least ninety-nine couplings. I wasn't sure I would survive if they wanted me every night (except Sundays).

They decided because of my advanced age that they would take it in turns, only one Goose each night. But they were young and reasonably fit. After six nights I was shattered. On the Sunday I slept almost all day.

Their work with the students meant we were clearing the skeletons faster and for each one I was told who they were and how they died. That was fascinating information but academically useless because I had no way of confirming what the Geese told me.

After a month, the three Geese decided I needed a week's rest from nocturnal activities which were affecting my fitness considerably. Three Geese were more than I could mange and they considered that they owed me many more nights of sex, but I couldn't perform. I was fucked.

In desperation I asked how long they were likely to remain ghosts. They didn't know. They didn't know why of how they had appeared as ghosts, capable of making love to me over and over again. In desperation I asked the priest at the local Catholic church. Could he exorcise them before I died of too much sex? He didn't believe exorcism would work but perhaps a memorial mass might calm their restless spirits and their sex drive.

I asked him to conduct a Memorial mass for all the people buried at Cross Bones and especially Molly, Sarah and Ruth. Their three skeletons would be placed in the nave for the service.

I mad two more mistakes. In each of the three boxes of bones I added, carefully wrapped, the silver items with a note to future researchers that these items were Not found with the skeletons. I went to a jeweller's and bought three silver crucifixes that I had engraved with the names and dates of the three women. I put those where the neck bones would be.

That night Molly told me:

"Even if the mass works, Alan, we owe you. As Geese we have to deliver sex for value. The silver we already had? All three of us owe you at least fifty more couplings. The crucifixes? As works of art they are worth more than the weight of silver so perhaps another one hundred couplings -- from each of us. We will try to be gentle and considerate, but it will take years for us to pay our debts."

It did. The mass seemed to lay most of the restless spirits of Cross Bones, but not Molly, Sarah and Ruth. For the next five years, six nights a week, I was sharing my bed with a Winchester Goose. Experience made me fitter and more able to satisfy them properly. At the end of the five years, all three shared my bed for one last night. I will never forget that night. Three Winchester Geese doing their best to arouse a long tern client? It was bliss. In the morning Molly said:

"We have repaid our debts to you, Alan, and now we can go. But if ever you feel lonely? You can remember us and maybe, perhaps, one night return."

From time to time, they did. But Gail never returned. I didn't miss her. Three Winchester Geese, available whenever I wanted them, was more than enough for me.

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Note:

If you want to compare the value of a £0 0s 1d Commodity in 1410 there are four choices. In 2020 the relative:

real price of that commodity is £2.68

labour value of that commodity is £28.28

income value of that commodity is £60.81

economic share of that commodity is £1,564.00