Anthea Wilbie-Chalk: A Seeker who has found her truth. A ‘Canny Lass’.

Anthea is a popular, well-loved, woman who has been part of the Rothbury community for 51 years

As I walk into her airy, beautiful, home, I am struck by the incredible number of books in every room. “On many mornings, my hand directs me to a book I need to find something from” she tells me. She calls this library 'her brains!' I see by one of her chairs this week's selection of reading; such wide-ranging topics!

And our conversation was incredibly broad, encompassing Quantum Physics, Frequencies, The Aura, Chakras, Reincarnation, Acupuncture, The Spirit World, The Universe, God, Consciousness, Harmony, Proportion - and much more.

Anthea has spent a lifetime searching for 'The Meaning of Life' and thinking about the universe. It is a privilege to listen to her explain to me how all the many lines of enquiry she has followed during her life, now pull together. She feels she is now very much in a settled place of knowledge and peace.

Anthea arrived in the world after her mother suffered a traumatic fall onto the horses' stalls at their farm, near Corbridge. Anthea's mother went into a three-day labour; and Anthea was born on 28th December 1936.

She was brought up on the farm. As a girl she milked cows by hand, and tended the hens, as well as many other jobs. She attended a private 'Dame's School' up in the Cheviots. This was during the war. Anthea had friends at school. However, she feels she learned nothing academic at all, because of being forced to be right-handed. She feels this caused her to quickly develop a stutter. As Anthea explains: “the left-handed brain struggles to change to right-handedness”.

Anthea recalls a horrible experience at around the same time. “I was made to lie on the kitchen table, and the doctor administered a horrific inoculation in my left leg”.

“The jab gave me a huge shock. I am sure this is linked to the start of memory issues and stammering”. She remembers that up until this point, she had a “good academic brain” and the abrupt loss of this was difficult to adapt to. “Apart from the singing, and games, my whole school education after this was a complete and utter waste of time”.

In the early 20th century, some educators and physicians thought that children whose left hand was dominant were likely to have mental and cognitive disabilities. This is why the idea of 'retraining' left-handed children to write with their right hand, came about. One of the things they believed this would cure was stuttering. This was later challenged, and Lewis M Terman's research, concluded the opposite - attempting to change 'handedness' could cause stuttering!

For Anthea, who has had a stutter for most of her life, (which she is now well able to control through breathing techniques), the memory of having to use her right hand when she was naturally left-handed, is an unhappy one.

Unfortunately, this is the case with most her memories of school. Not many are positive. She did love to sing, though, so enjoyed going to church. She was also excellent at, and thoroughly enjoyed, games.

Anthea is quiet and I look at her. I can tell that she is recalling something.

She explains that she is remembering a condition she suffered which affected her badly for many years. She tells me about the awful reaction she had to eating meat - all kinds. Though it took a long time to realise that meat consumption was the problem.

“I was such a strong runner, I played on the right wing at hockey. One day I just could not run - I had no energy whatsoever. This did not go away and I suffered a long bout of depression”.

Returning to the present moment, Anthea explains how she discovered what was wrong was that when she ate meat, it made her ill. "I'm not sure if it is an allergy, but it definitely does not agree with me - it makes me unwell". Happily, cutting out meat from her diet resolved this problem.

Another strange health issue Anthea recalls was when she lost her sense of humour and any ability to laugh or smile. This strange and unfortunate condition was cured by Accupuncture. "After two sessions, I was in the garden, and it felt as though I was emerging from water, like a deep ocean, I emerged and no longer suffered from this strange ailment".

We return to remember earlier days.

Anthea had several different jobs, including compiling information and figures for the statisticians at British Iron and Steel Federation, also working in France as an au pair. She has worked for the Inner London Education Authority as a 'Matron' in schools for excluded pupils in Maidenhead and London. “I moved about a lot”!

Back in Newcastle, Anthea took social work qualifications and became a residential social worker, a matron, at a home for 36 girls (aged 8-16) who had been excluded from school for behavioural reasons. They were divided into three groups of 12. “I decided to buy a guitar, learn to play, and have sing-songs with 'my' 12 girls”.

Since those days, Anthea has continued to enjoy playing the guitar and singing. Recently, her good friend, and another wonderful Coquetdale Creative, Jack Wilkinson, told me that: “Anthea is a very interesting personality. I have known her for a good few years and never tire of listening to her. She has a wonderful personality, and when introducing her songs she always has a lead up which can be serious, or to say the least very amusing. She has a wealth of knowledge, and with being from a generation where memories are very important, she can tell stories which bring up the past and make it interesting. I still do music with Anthea at our Day Centre, and she is invaluable both as an entertainer and helper. We have had many a laugh together!”

Anthea played in a band with Jack, and with Ann Brown. It was called 'Rothbury Hills Band. She is also a firm favourite with the monthly Cheviot Folk Club (previously Netherton Folk Club).

She is also part of the Coquet Singers, which is a very popular local choir.

I mention to Anthea that when I first moved to Rothbury, I saw a notice about her teaching dowsing and ask her to tell me more about that.
“I had come across dowsing in my early life, in many different places. But it was in Edinburgh that I learned to dowse proficiently”.
“Dowsing is a technique that allows one to detect vibrations or subtle fields present in people, objects, and places. It relies on the natural human ability to perceive energetic frequencies that escape the physical senses but can influence our well-being and our environment”. Gaia What is Dowsing

I ask Anthea about dowsing in her earlier life. “In June 1965, my mother and I went to a conference for psychical research. I met one of the lecturers, Ronald Beasley, who had a centre near Tunbridge Wells. He was giving a lecture on 'The Aura'. Ronald invited me to his centre - he could see I was a Seeker, looking for the meaning of life. His Centre was called 'White Lodge'. I went in there as a non-believer but came out feeling that what he was saying was the truth. This set me on my life's search for meaning. There is always more to learn!”
Anthea then tells me about meeting and marrying her husband, Dereck Wilbie-Chalk, and joining him in Rothbury in 1975. They made their home in the beautiful 'Wellclose House'. They turned it into a 'Seminary'. Hosting a range of speakers who talked about many different esoteric ideas and phenomena - including dowsing.

White Lodge is now called 'Centre of New Directions, White Lodge', and website tells the reader that they are concerned with: Spiritual Psychotherapy, Colour Therapy, Colour Reflections, and Sound Theory. Centre of New Directions

Anthea is pleased to see this website: “It is wonderful to see how our interdimensional working knowledge has developed.”

I ask Anthea to explain a little more.
“I've got to the point really, where I have some strange beliefs which really suit me. I feel I understand now, and it all makes sense to me.”
I clarify: you have been a seeker all of your life, and as you approach the last part, you feel you have understood its meaning, and you are content?
“Yes, I am content to feel within - and it is not just about understanding - but also about doing it, living it!”
As I take a last look around Anthea's beautiful, light-filled, home, I see her guitar with a poster next to it.

Anthea explains that she made the poster some years ago - it was to encourage people to take one minute, when the clock strikes at 9.00pm for the news, to concentrate, or meditate, upon peace.

Anthea is a most fascinating person, with a thousand ideas and a zest for learning and knowledge.

She can often be seen walking the High Street in Rothbury, litter pick in hand, cleaning up the litter and fag-ends that others have left.

A Canny Lass, a most interesting Coquetdale Creative.