The ‘Rowan’ is a tree in the rose family 1. Rowan Close follows a theme of naming roads after trees in this part of Bemerton Heath – others include Hazel Close, Pinewoods Close and Cedar Close.
The rowan is seen as significant in some superstitions. This is believed to go back to a Greek myth in which the gods sent an eagle to retrieve a magical chalice. The eagle was injured, and the rowan tree grew from the eagle’s feathers, which gave the rowan’s leaves their shape, and the eagle’s blood, which gave the berries their red colour. The tree was, or is, significant to druids, too 2.
Perhaps referring to the position of the rowan tree within neo-pagan beliefs, the 1973 horror film ‘The Wicker Man’, sometimes referred to as ‘the Citizen Kane of horror movies’ has Edward Woodward’s Sergeant Howie investigate the disappearance of a girl called Rowan Morrison 3
Footnotes
- Trees for Life – Rowan Species Profile [↩]
- Trees for Life – Mythology and Folklore of the Rowan [↩]
- The Wicker Man (1973 film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
