| Madonna leaves path open for Quakers
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Madonna: She is said to be welcoming the local Quaker group
Ramblers may not be welcome on pop star Madonna's £9 million Wiltshire estate, but members of the local Quaker group are, it has emerged.
For a mile from the nearest tarmac road, amid the 1,132-acre Ashcombe Estate, near the village of Tollard Royal, lies an ancient Quaker burial ground, visited for centuries by members of the local meeting.
As well as scattering ashes of their deceased during funerals at the historic site, the 60-strong Shaftesbury Preparative Meeting stage a "pilgrimage" and worship gathering there every 10 years.
The next one is scheduled for 2010. In 2000 there were around 200 Quakers, many of whom had come from other meetings in the area.
Madonna is said to be "OK with that", according to a member of the group.
Having successfully challenged the "right to roam" legislation, which allows ramblers on to parts of their estate, Madonna, 46, and her film director husband Guy Ritchie, 36, have made no such stand against the Quakers.
The burial site on the couple's land was established in 1663 when the then-owner of the estate, William Fry, became a Quaker and designated the area because, at the time, Quakers were being persecuted and had no other safe place to lay their dead to rest.
Pensioner Audrey Acton, a member of the Quaker group in Shaftesbury, said: "We have a right of way to the burial ground and there is no doubt about it.
"We have had no obstruction from Madonna whatsoever. We are not interested in Madonna's estate as such, we are only interested in the burial ground."
She said a mile-long path winds its way into the estate from the nearest road to the burial site, which is on the side of a hill. "We use it for burials, we scatter the ashes there and relatives of the dead visit from time to time," she added.
"Every 10th year there is a Quaker pilgrimage and a meeting for worship held there. "Madonna is OK with that, as far as I am aware." The most recent burial at the site, on August 25, was that of a 91-year-old member of the Shaftesbury meeting.
With members of the local religious group free to come and go, Madonna herself continues to follow her own religion, Kabbalah, a 3,000-year-old offshoot from Judaism, currently a hot favourite with the stars.
- Daily Mail | |
