Frederick Bligh Bond
Encyclopedia
Frederick Bligh Bond was an English
architect
, illustrator
, archaeologist, and psychical researcher
.
town of Marlborough. His family was related to William Bligh
, through his nephew Francis Godolphin Bond
, Bligh Bond's grandfather. He was also a cousin of Sabine Baring-Gould
. He was educated at home by his father, who was headmaster of Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School
.
He practised as an architect in Bristol
from 1888. His work includes schools, such as the Board Schools in Barton Hill
, Easton
, and Southville
, Greenbank Elementary School and St George's School. He designed the schools of medicine and engineering at Bristol University and the Music School of Clifton College
. He also undertook a number of domestic commissions, and a public hall in Shirehampton
. Cossham Memorial Hospital
is also an example of his work. In addition he oversaw the restoration of a number of churches, became an acknowledged authority on the history of church architecture, and in 1909 published, with Dom Bede Camm
, a two volume treatise entitled Roodscreens and Roodlofts.
In 1908 the Church of England
appointed him as director of excavations at Glastonbury Abbey
. Before he was dismissed by Bishop Armitage Robinson
in 1921, his excavations rediscovered the nature and dimensions of a number of buildings that had occupied the site.
His work at Glastonbury Abbey is considered one of the earliest successes in psychic archaeology
.
in 1889, the Theosophical Society
in 1895, the Society for Psychical Research
in 1902, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
in 1909 and the Ghost Club in 1925.
As early as 1899 Bligh Bond had expressed his belief that the dimensions of the buildings at Glastonbury Abbey were based on gematria
, and in 1917 he published, with Thomas Simcox Lea, Gematria, A Preliminary Investigation of The Cabala contained in the Coptic Gnostic Books and of a similar Gematria in the Greek text of the New Testament, which incorporated his own previously published paper, The Geometric Cubit as a Basis of Proportion in the Plans of Mediaeval Buildings.
In 1919 he published The Gates of Remembrance, which revealed that he had employed psychical methods
to guide his excavation of the Glastonbury ruins, using first Captain John Allan Bartlett (‘John Alleyne’) as a medium, and later others. As a consequence of these revelations his relations with his employers, who strongly disapproved of spiritualism
, deteriorated, and he was sacked in 1921.
From 1921 to 1926 he was editor of Psychic Science.
In 1926 Bligh Bond emigrated to the USA, where he was employed as education secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research
and worked as editor on their magazine, Survival. Bligh Bond broke with the ASPR and returned to England in 1936, also rejoining the Ghost Club in the process, after supporting accusations against the medium Mina Crandon
that she had fraudulently produced thumbprints on wax that she presented as being produced by the spirit of her dead brother, Walter.
During his time in the USA Bond was ordained, and in 1933 consecrated as a bishop, in the Old Catholic Church
of America.
in 1935, spending his time in London
and Dolgellau
, where he died of a heart attack.
's mystery novel A Finer End (Bantam, 2001). ISBN 0-553-57927-4
On 30 December 2008 Bligh Bond was the subject of a Channel 4
documentary, The Ghosts of Glastonbury, hosted by Tony Robinson
, which examined Bligh Bond's claims that he received archaeological information through automatic writing
from deceased monks.
Co-authored by Bligh Bond:
Illustrated by Bligh Bond:
About Bligh Bond:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, archaeologist, and psychical researcher
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
.
Early life
Bligh Bond was the son of the Rev. Frederick Hookey Bond, born in the WiltshireWiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
town of Marlborough. His family was related to William Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
, through his nephew Francis Godolphin Bond
Francis Godolphin Bond
Francis Godolphin Bond was a Rear-Admiral in the British Royal Navy. He was a nephew of William Bligh and grandfather of Frederick Bligh Bond. He sailed as Bligh's First Lieutenant on HMS Providence, Bligh's second breadfruit mission to Tahiti following the ill-fated Bounty voyage.-External links:...
, Bligh Bond's grandfather. He was also a cousin of Sabine Baring-Gould
Sabine Baring-Gould
The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould was an English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1240 publications, though this list continues to grow. His family home, Lew Trenchard Manor near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he had it...
. He was educated at home by his father, who was headmaster of Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School
St John's School and Community College
St John's School and Community College is an age 11–18 mixed comprehensive school in the town of Marlborough, Wiltshire in England.-Admissions:...
.
Architectural practice
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
from 1888. His work includes schools, such as the Board Schools in Barton Hill
Barton Hill, Bristol
Barton Hill is an area of Bristol, just to the east of the city centre and Bristol Temple Meads railway station.It includes residential, retail and industrial premises and is crossed by major roads, railway tracks and the feeder canal leading to Bristol Harbour.-History:Barton was a manor just...
, Easton
Easton, Bristol
Easton is both the name of a council ward in the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and an inner city area that lies partly within that ward. The Easton ward also contains the Whitehall and Netham areas of the city. Notable places within the ward include Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road railway...
, and Southville
Southville, Bristol
Southville is an inner city ward of Bristol, England, situated on the south bank of the River Avon and northwest of Bedminster. Most of the area's houses were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries either for workers in the Bristol coal mining industry or the tobacco factories of W. D. &...
, Greenbank Elementary School and St George's School. He designed the schools of medicine and engineering at Bristol University and the Music School of Clifton College
Clifton College
Clifton College is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1862. In its early years it was notable for emphasising science in the curriculum, and for being less concerned with social elitism, e.g. by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated...
. He also undertook a number of domestic commissions, and a public hall in Shirehampton
Shirehampton
Shirehampton, near Avonmouth, at the north-western edge of the city of Bristol, England, is a district of Bristol which originated as a separate village. It retains something of its village feel, having a short identifiable High Street with the parish church situated among shops, and is still...
. Cossham Memorial Hospital
Cossham Memorial Hospital
Cossham Memorial Hospital is a community hospital in the Kingswood area of Bristol.The services provided, by North Bristol Primary Care Trust at Cossham include outpatients and physiotherapy...
is also an example of his work. In addition he oversaw the restoration of a number of churches, became an acknowledged authority on the history of church architecture, and in 1909 published, with Dom Bede Camm
Bede Camm
Reginald Bede Camm was an English Benedictine martyrologist. A monk of Erdington Abbey, he is known for works on the English Catholic martyrs.-Life:...
, a two volume treatise entitled Roodscreens and Roodlofts.
Glastonbury excavations
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
appointed him as director of excavations at Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. The ruins are now a grade I listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument and are open as a visitor attraction....
. Before he was dismissed by Bishop Armitage Robinson
Armitage Robinson
Joseph Armitage Robinson KCVO was a priest in the Church of England and scholar. He was successively Dean of Westminster and of Wells . He was educated at Liverpool College and Christ's College, Cambridge of which he became a Fellow...
in 1921, his excavations rediscovered the nature and dimensions of a number of buildings that had occupied the site.
His work at Glastonbury Abbey is considered one of the earliest successes in psychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology is a loose collection of practices involving the application of paranormal phenomena to problems in archaeology.Practitioners of psychic archaeology utilize a variety of methods of divination ranging from pseudoscientific methods such as dowsing for Electromagnetic Photo-Fields...
.
Psychical research
Bligh joined the FreemasonsFreemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
in 1889, the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...
in 1895, the Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
in 1902, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia is a Masonic esoteric Christian order formed by Robert Wentworth Little in 1865, although some sources acknowledge the date to be 1866-67. Members are confirmed from the ranks of subscribing Master Masons of a Grand Lodge in amity with United Grand Lodge of...
in 1909 and the Ghost Club in 1925.
As early as 1899 Bligh Bond had expressed his belief that the dimensions of the buildings at Glastonbury Abbey were based on gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
, and in 1917 he published, with Thomas Simcox Lea, Gematria, A Preliminary Investigation of The Cabala contained in the Coptic Gnostic Books and of a similar Gematria in the Greek text of the New Testament, which incorporated his own previously published paper, The Geometric Cubit as a Basis of Proportion in the Plans of Mediaeval Buildings.
In 1919 he published The Gates of Remembrance, which revealed that he had employed psychical methods
Psychic archaeology
Psychic archaeology is a loose collection of practices involving the application of paranormal phenomena to problems in archaeology.Practitioners of psychic archaeology utilize a variety of methods of divination ranging from pseudoscientific methods such as dowsing for Electromagnetic Photo-Fields...
to guide his excavation of the Glastonbury ruins, using first Captain John Allan Bartlett (‘John Alleyne’) as a medium, and later others. As a consequence of these revelations his relations with his employers, who strongly disapproved of spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, deteriorated, and he was sacked in 1921.
From 1921 to 1926 he was editor of Psychic Science.
In 1926 Bligh Bond emigrated to the USA, where he was employed as education secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research
American Society for Psychical Research
The American Society for Psychical Research is an organisation dedicated to parapsychology based in New York, where it maintains offices and a library. It is open to interested members of the public to join, and has a website...
and worked as editor on their magazine, Survival. Bligh Bond broke with the ASPR and returned to England in 1936, also rejoining the Ghost Club in the process, after supporting accusations against the medium Mina Crandon
Mina Crandon
Mina "Margery" Crandon was the wife of a wealthy Boston surgeon and socialite, Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon. She became well known as a medium who claimed that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson.-Biography:...
that she had fraudulently produced thumbprints on wax that she presented as being produced by the spirit of her dead brother, Walter.
During his time in the USA Bond was ordained, and in 1933 consecrated as a bishop, in the Old Catholic Church
Old Catholic Church
The term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...
of America.
Later life
He returned to the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1935, spending his time in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Dolgellau
Dolgellau
Dolgellau is a market town in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the county town of the former county of Merionethshire .-History and economy:...
, where he died of a heart attack.
Legacy
Bond is mentioned as part of the background to Deborah CrombieDeborah Crombie
Deborah Crombie is an American author of the Duncan Kinkaid / Gemma James mystery series set in the United Kingdom. Crombie was raised in Texas and has lived in the United Kingdom...
's mystery novel A Finer End (Bantam, 2001). ISBN 0-553-57927-4
On 30 December 2008 Bligh Bond was the subject of a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary, The Ghosts of Glastonbury, hosted by Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...
, which examined Bligh Bond's claims that he received archaeological information through automatic writing
Automatic writing
Automatic writing or psychography is writing which the writer states to be produced from a subconscious and/or spiritual source without conscious awareness of the content.-History:...
from deceased monks.
Further reading
Authored by Bligh Bond- An Architectural Handbook to Glastonbury Abbey (1909)
- The Gates of Remembrance (1918)
- The Hill of Vision (Boston Jones Co., 1918)
- The Company of Avalon (1924)
- The Gospel of Philip the Deacon (1932)
- The Secret of Immortality (1934)
Co-authored by Bligh Bond:
- Bligh Bond, F. & Camm, Rev. Dom Bede. Rood screens and rood lofts - 2 vols. (London, 1909)
- Bligh Bond, F. & Lea, Thomas Simcox. Gematria: A Preliminary Investigation Of The Cabala Contained In The Coptic Gnostic Books (1917)
- Bligh Bond, F. & Lea, Thomas Simcox. The Apostolic Gnosis (1919)
- Mantle, George E. Glastonbury Abbey: Recent discoveries (G. E Mantle, 19??)
Illustrated by Bligh Bond:
- Baring-Gould, S. An old English home and its dependencies (Methuen & Co, 1898).
About Bligh Bond:
- Hopkinson-Ball, Tim. The Rediscovery of Glastonbury (The History Press Ltd, 2007).
- Kenawell, William W. The Quest at Glastonbury. A Biographical Study of Frederick Bligh Bond (Helix Press / Garrett Publications, 1965)