Frederick Bligh Bond (30 June 1864 – 8 March 1945), generally known by his second given name ''Bligh'', was an English

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and psychical researcher.

Early life

Bligh Bond was the son of the Rev. Frederick Hookey Bond. He was born in the

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

town of

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

. His family was related to

William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

, through his nephew Francis Godolphin Bond, Bligh Bond's grandfather. He was also a cousin of

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...

. (Free registration required) He was educated at home by his father, who was headmaster of the

Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School, previously known as Marlborough Grammar School and King Edward's School, Marlborough, was a grammar school in the town of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, England, founded in 1550. Originally for boys only, the sc ...

. His brother, Francis George Bond, became a major general in the British Army.

Architectural practice

He practised as an architect in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

from 1888. His work includes schools, such as the

board school School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools. School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaignin ...

s 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 , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

and the Music School of

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

. He also undertook a number of domestic commissions for the

King's Weston Kingsweston was a ward of the city of Bristol. The three districts in the ward wer Coombe Dingle, Lawrence Weston and Sea Mills. The ward takes its name from the old district of Kings Weston (usually spelt in two words), now generally considere ...

estate of

Philip Napier Miles Philip Napier Miles JP DLitt ''h.c.'' (Bristol) (21 January 1865 – 19 July 1935) was a prominent and wealthy citizen of Bristol, UK, who left his mark on the city, especially on what are now its western suburbs, through his musical and organis ...

, including a number of substantial houses in

Shirehampton Shirehampton is a district of Bristol in England, near Avonmouth, at the northwestern edge of the city. It originated as a separate village, retains a High Street with a parish church and shops, and is still thought of as a village by many of it ...

, the Miles Arms public house in Avonmouth, the now-demolished King's Weston estate office and the public hall in Shirehampton.

Cossham Memorial Hospital Cossham Memorial Hospital is a community hospital, founded in 1907, in Hillfields, Bristol, near Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, England. History The hospital was built by Frederick Bligh Bond in a Queen Anne style between 1905 and 1907, as a ...

is also an example of his work. The style of his mature works in the Edwardian years might be described as English Baroque or Queen Anne Revival. 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 Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B., (26 December 1864 – 8 September 1942) was an English Benedictine monk and martyrologist. He is best known for his many works on the English Catholic martyrs, which helped to keep their memories alive in the newly reemer ...

, a two-volume treatise entitled ''Roodscreens and Roodlofts''.

Glastonbury excavations

As early as 1899 Bligh Bond had expressed his belief that the dimensions of the buildings at Glastonbury Abbey were based on

gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

, 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 1908 the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

appointed him director of excavations at

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

. Before he was dismissed by Bishop

Armitage Robinson Joseph Armitage Robinson (9 January 1858 – 7 May 1933) was a priest in the Church of England and scholar. He was successively Dean of Westminster (1902–1911) and of Wells (1911–1933). Biography Robinson was born the son of a poor vicar ...

in 1921, his excavations rediscovered the nature and dimensions of a number of buildings that had occupied the site. Bond's work at Glastonbury Abbey is one of the first documented examples of

psychic archaeology Psychic archaeology is a loose collection of practices involving the application of paranormal phenomena to problems in archaeology. It is not considered part of mainstream archaeology, or taught in academic institutions. It is difficult to test ...

. Bond with the retired navy Captain John Allan Bartlett ("John Alleyne") as a medium claimed to have contacted through

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...

dead monks and the builder of the Edgar Chapel at Glastonbury, who advised him where to excavate. Feder, Kenneth. ''Archaeology and the Paranormal''. In

Gordon Stein Gordon Stein (April 30, 1941 – August 27, 1996) was an American author, physiologist, and activist for atheism and religious skepticism. Biography Stein was born in New York to Jewish parents, and from an early age took an interest in science. ...

. (1996). ''The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. pp. 32-43. Williams, William F. (2000). '' Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy''. Facts on File Inc. p. 39. In 1919 he published ''The Gates of Remembrance'', which revealed that he had employed psychical methods to guide his excavation of the Glastonbury ruins. As a consequence of these revelations his relations with his employers, who strongly disapproved of

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

, deteriorated and he was sacked in 1921. Archaeologists and

skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

have found Bond's claims dubious.

Joseph McCabe Joseph Martin McCabe (12 November 1867 – 10 January 1955) was an English writer and speaker on freethought, after having been a Roman Catholic priest earlier in his life. He was "one of the great mouthpieces of freethought in England". Becomi ...

suggested that Alleyne and Bond had "steeped themselves, all through the year 1907, in the literature of the subject. They read all that was known about Glastonbury, and lived for months in the medieval atmosphere." In 1922 Rev. H. J. Wilkins published a detailed criticism of Bond's psychical claims. Wilkins concluded "there is absolutely nothing supermundane in the whole of the script... All that is true in the script could be gathered from historical data or reasonably conjectured by intelligent observation of existing facts and conditions." Archaeologist

Kenneth Feder Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder (born August 1, 1952) is a professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as '' Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Scien ...

commented that the "tall church towers, whose existence and locations we are to believe were provided by spirits, actually were recorded and located in a historical document Bond almost surely had already seen. Beyond this, an early drawing of the abbey, and even structural remains visible on the surface, provided clues as to the location of these towers." Feder also noted that "there was no scientific controls whatsoever" and that it is impossible to tell whether he was actually advised by spirits or whether his expertise in church architecture and information from early drawings helped him locate the chapels he discovered.

Psychical research

Bligh joined the

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

in 1889, the

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...

in 1895, the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

in 1902, the

Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (Rosicrucian Society of England) is a Rosicrucian esoteric Christian order formed by Robert Wentworth Little in 1865,King 1989, page 28 although some sources acknowledge the date to be 1866-67. Members are confirm ...

in 1909 and

the Ghost Club The Ghost Club is a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organization in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly gho ...

in 1925. From 1921 to 1926 he was editor of ''Psychic Science'' (then named ''Quarterly Transactions of the British College of Psychic Science''). In 1926 he emigrated to the USA, where he was employed as education secretary of the

American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the gener ...

(ASPR) and worked as editor on their magazine, ''Survival''. Bligh Bond broke with the ASPR and returned to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in 1936, also rejoining the Ghost Club in the process, after supporting accusations against the medium

Mina Crandon Mina "Margery" Crandon (1888–November 1, 1941) was a psychical medium who claimed that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson. Investigators who studied Crandon concluded that she had no such paranormal ability, and others detected her ...

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 The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...

of America.

Later life

He returned to the United Kingdom in 1935, spending his time in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Dolgellau Dolgellau () is a town and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the traditional county town of the historic county of Merionethshire ( cy, Meirionnydd, Sir Feirionnydd) un ...

Merionethshire , HQ= Dolgellau , Government= Merionethshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= , Status= , Start= 1284 , End= , Code= MER , CodeName= ...

, where he died of a heart attack.

Legacy

Bond is mentioned as part of the background to

Deborah Crombie Deborah Crombie (''née'' Darden) is an American author of the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James mystery series set in the United Kingdom. Crombie was raised in Richardson, Texas, and has lived in the United Kingdom. She now lives in McKinney, Texa ...

's mystery novel ''A Finer End'' (Bantam, 2001). On 30 December 2008 Bligh Bond was the subject of a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary, ''The Ghosts of Glastonbury'', hosted by

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentaries ...

, which examined Bligh Bond's claims that he received archaeological information through

from deceased monks.

Publications

*Coates, Richard (2015
''Frederick Bligh Bond (1864–1945): A Bibliography of his writings and a list of his buildings''
;Authored by Bligh Bond
''An Architectural Handbook to Glastonbury Abbey''
(1909)
'' Roodscreens and Roodlofts''
(journal article, 1909)
''The Gate of Remembrance''
(1918)
''The Hill of Vision''
(Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1918)
''The Company of Avalon''
''a study of the script of Brother Symon, sub-prior of Winchester abbey in the time of King Stephen'' (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
Vol. I
�
Vol. II
(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.
Materials for the Study of the Apostolic Gnosis, Part I
' (1919) *Mantle, George E.
Glastonbury Abbey: Recent discoveries
' (G. E Mantle, n.d, c.1926) ;Illustrated by Bligh Bond: *Baring-Gould, S.
An Old English Home and its Dependencies
' (Methuen & Co, 1898).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bligh Bond, Frederick 1864 births 1945 deaths Old Catholic bishops English archaeologists Architects from Bristol English Old Catholics English illustrators English Theosophists Pseudoarchaeologists People educated at Marlborough College Parapsychologists Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects People from Marlborough, Wiltshire