The long and Winding Woad

I've been thinking about woad. Popularly grown in these parts in years gone by - particularly over the border in Hanslope where people from Husborne Crawley were prone to move. Probably for the clay.

Woad was a common colouring material for the Ancient Britons, according to some traditions. In particular the Celts under Woadicea (this was under the revised Latin pronunciation) did their best to drive the invaders out of these islands - pointing out, in the words of Pontius Pilate, that all woads lead to Rome. Although, if you're out walking the footpaths in the countryside between Grafton Regis and Northampton, all roams lead to Roade.

But how did the Ancient British People really use the stuff? And if you activated the dye by weeing on it, as the woad page suggests, would you really want to rub it on your face to make yourself scary? Indeed this page suggests that other dyes may have been used, or it may have been for tattooing rather than a kind of splash-it-all-over woad. In which case maybe we're on the woad to nowhere.

Of course, if my puns have seriously annoyed you and my lack of respect for traditional myths has left you mourning your lost fantasy world of the pre-Roman British Isles, I can only ask you to calm down. It's really not very helpful, is woad rage.