The 22nd item on the running order of ITV’s News At Ten on the 10th December 1969 was a little odd to say the least. The news anchor, Reginald Bosanquet, who had been presenting the programme since it began two years earlier, introduced the story – it was about the elaborate funeral of a dog by a secretive religious sect in Jericho Valley, “a remote part of Cornwall”.

The group responsible for the unusual burial, the Brotherhood of the Essenes, believed the animal “to be a king” who had originally lived 2000 years ago in the time of Christ.

Since the events of 1969 this story has taken on a life of its own, inspiring dark rumours within the St Agnes community, far-fetched conspiracy theories and in more recent years some rather peculiar web-stories and podcasts.

But ultimately the bare, bizarre bones of this tale are true – and truth, as we all know, can be stranger than fiction . . . well, almost!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: All the research in this article is my own and is gleaned from newspaper reports around the time of events/books on the area etc – but I also had help from someone living in St Agnes who has gathered some unique key documents and pieces of information about this story that helped me enormously. That person wishes to remain anonymous but I am in their debt.

Jericho Valley

Jericho Valley, also known at its lower reaches as Blue Hills or Trevellas Valley, lies just to the east of the village of St Agnes, between Barkla Shop and the sea. Though it is peaceful and idyllic now this was once a heavily industrialised area that had been mined for tin for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years.

In the 19th century it seems that the whole valley, so wild and natural now, was terribly polluted, like so much of Cornwall during that period. One report from the 1870s describes the little stream as running “almost black” and “its befouled water darkening the sand of the cove”.

The largest concern in the valley was the Blue Hills Tin Mining Company which was formed in 1869 and survives today as the Blue Hills Tin Steams, the only place in Cornwall still producing tin. The Jericho Stamps, from which the upper part of the valley gets its name, operated until around 1910.

Today any signs of the destructive effects of mining have almost completely disappeared and nature has reclaimed the valley. It is a beautiful spot to visit, with a shady, wild flower-lined path following the now clear, fast-flowing stream as it hurries to the sea.

To the innocent walker passing through, Jericho Valley would seem like the last place that you would find a highly secretive religious sect but it is seems that the name and some rather dubious Christian mythology have in the past attracted some unlikely visitors.

Following in Jesus’ Footsteps

For a time in the late 1960s Jericho Valley was nicknamed the ‘Happy Valley’ when a group of hippies formed a kind of commune there, presumably looking for peace, love and enlightenment in what was by then a long-abandoned post-industrial space. But these bohemian interlopers were by no means the strangest guests.

While biblical names for places and people are certainly not an unusual choice in Cornwall it does seems that there was a bit more to it in Jericho Valley. There were/are persistent rumours that Jesus himself once visited the valley with his merchant uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who was there to trade with the Cornish tinners.

Even as late as the 1990s local people reported visitors wanting to visit Trevellas Valley “to follow the route allegedly taken by Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus”.

And perhaps it was this idea that attracted the Brotherhood of the Essenes and contributed to their belief that the area as sacred.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I was walking near by researching this story I happened to strike up a conversation with a dog walker. During the course of our chat, completely unprompted, he started talking about “the cult” and how he had heard about them when he had first moved to St Agnes in the 1970s. He had been told that they believed that Jericho Valley was “the centre of the universe”.

The Brotherhood of Essenes

It is unclear exactly when the Brotherhood arrived in Cornwall but their activities seem to have been focused around a couple called John and Margarite Brawn, founding members of the sect, who owned a cottage near the village of Mithian. They named the cottage ‘Beit Hamal Achim’ meaning ‘House of Angels’ in Hebrew.

Although the majority of the other members remain something of a mystery we do know that their leader was a man called Jose Bennetto, an osteopath from Wolverhampton. The papers also noted that most of the Brotherhood, of which there were about 20 in 1969, came from well-to-do, professional backgrounds and that they were all non-smokers and vegetarians.

The media claimed that the original Brotherhood of the Essenes was a Jewish sect that had disappeared around 1800 years ago but stated that the group in Cornwall denied any Jewish connection.

What is clear is that their beliefs centred around the idea that all animal’s lives were sacred and should be protected – sentiments that I think we can all empathise with to a greater or lesser extent.

“The sect venerate animals because they consider that they have souls free from sin.”

ITV News at Ten script, 10th december 1969.

But they also appear to have had more complicated and ambiguous convictions when it came to a particular dog called Gengah or Ginga, who they referred to as ‘King Dog’. And it was this animal’s death that meant that this secretive sect made the headlines nation wide.

They believed that Gengah was the second ‘King Dog’, the first having lived and died around the time of Christ. The arrival (and subsequent death) of the third ‘King Dog’ would, according to their beliefs, signal the return of the Saviour to Earth but would also coincide with the end of the world.

Now that the second ‘King Dog’ had died, they believed that Judgement Day could not be far away.

“For the 20-strong Brotherhood of the Essenes – dedicated to protecting animals – his death means that the day of judgement and Christ’s 1000th rule of peace are approaching.”

Western Daily Press, 11th December 1969

Gengah had belonged to the group’s medium, Anna Maria, who also claimed to be able to pass on messages from Heaven to the group.

King Dog’s Funeral

The ‘King Dog’ was a 10 year old pedigree Samoyed, a breed that the sect were said to have seen as divine. He was laid to rest in a wooded grove, surrounded by trees, in Jericho Valley on 9th December in 1969. The animal had laid “in state” at the Brawn’s cottage in Mithian for several days before the funeral ceremony so that the members of the religious sect, who lived in various parts of the UK, could come to Cornwall and “pay their respects”.

A man called Bill Johnson from Blackwater had been employed to dig the dog’s grave in the circular patch of ground not far from the stream, and he later described the work as “the best pay day I ever had”. Years later, speaking about his experience that day, he told a local author:

“They looked like well-to-do people. They parked their big cars with up-country number plates in Barkla Shop. I had to prepare the grave and then disappear while the interment took place but I couldn’t resist a peek. I didn’t see much and after the service I had to backfill the grave and tidy up the site.”

Jericho to Cligga, Clive Benney & tony Mansell, 2006

According to ITV News At Ten, the dog was buried “with elaborate ritual” in the £300 white and gold coffin. The ceremony was attended by the members of the brotherhood and onlookers described them as wearing long robes with strange insignia on, which “included signs of freemasonry and astrology.”

“During the ritual burial one member offered up a chalice containing a white rose.”

ITV news at Ten, script from 10th December 1969

Sometime after the circular grove where the grave was was paved with flat stones and the area outlined with a line of green, glazed tiles.

A Second Sacred Funeral

The funeral of Gengha was not the only sacred dog burial to take place in Jericho Valley. In September 1973 a second dog, another Samoyed, this time a 14 year old female and said to be the companion of the first, was laid to rest in the same place.

On this occasion the ceremonial burial, thought to have cost around £2000 (that’s around £30,000 in today’s money), was arranged by funeral directors from Harrods, the exclusive London department store. The eleven mourners were driven to Cornwall in a cortege of Daimlers, accompanying the dog in a silver handled white coffin which was travelling in a private hearse.

Jose Bennetto spoke to the curious press about the ceremony, saying:

“I cannot confirm whether the funeral cost £2000 or £20,000. It is a very private matter, and our members pay exactly what they want.”

Wolverhampton Express & Star, 3rd September 1973

So, who was Father Jose?

Jose Bennetto was the leader of the Brotherhood of the Essenes and is sometimes referred to as ‘Dr Jose’ or ‘Father Jose’. At the time of the burials in Jericho valley he was married with five children and they, along with this wife, were all part of the Brotherhood. According to newspaper articles the family had a number of stray animals that they had adopted as pets and they made a point of feeding the birds and wildlife in their garden on Penn Road, Wolverhampton.

In one article it was said that Bennetto claimed that he was the descendent of a sailor from the Spanish Armada who had been wrecked on the Cornish coast but he doesn’t appear to have lived in Cornwall for any length of time.

Sometime in the late 1940s/early 1950s Bennetto had joined a sect in Glastonbury, where he is said to have been one of the brothers of ‘The House of the Holy Grail’. His teacher appears to have been a man known as Brother Rex and when he passed away Jose took over as leader of the group. The Brotherhood of the Essenes may have been formed around this time.

In 1950 Bennetto was questioned in relation to the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of a 60 year old woman called Gertrude Susan Bishop. The inquest held to look into how she had died heard that Bennetto was working as “a Naturopath specialising in herbal cures” at the time and that Gertrude had been receiving treatment from him. Bennetto had apparently given her some kind of herbal ‘cure’ containing raspberry leaves but she had subsequently died of a “haemorrhage and heart strain”.

There was no implication of foul play and Bennetto was never charged with anything but during the inquest a professor from the Home Office Forensic Laboratory suggested that the woman would still be alive if she had been given proper medical care.

In 1951 the Brotherhood claimed to have healed “a cripple” who had not walked for three years. The woman was apparently carried up Glastonbury Tor on a stretcher but was later able to walk down unassisted.

Sometime after this the Brotherhood began to focus its activities on the quiet Cornish valley near St Agnes.

The Last Movements of the Brotherhood

For several years after the dog funerals in Jericho Valley the Brotherhood of the Essenes continued to pop up in the media. They were reported to be giving talks on animal welfare and another article had them providing a ‘Hippie Love Feast’ in Glastonbury in 1972 during which they fed vegetarian meals to around 100 hungry hippies.

By 1976 it was reported that the sect had 30 members with Anna Maria and Jose Bennetto as its leaders but then it seems to have faded into obscurity – the next report comes in 1982 when the cottage near Mithian, Beit Hamal Achim, was put up for sale by auction.

Fun Fact: Jericho Valley was used as a fittingly atmospheric setting for a 1971 horror film called the ‘Crucible of Terror’ in which a mad, murderous sculptor makes statues from molten bronze using living women as his moulds.

Final Thoughts

In 1969 the media reported that people living in the St Agnes and Mithian area were “bewildered by the activities of the religious sect” and it seems that that suspicion and fear was only to grow as time passed.

The result has been a series of rumours about what was ‘really’ going on in Jericho Valley and the implication that the sect was somehow involved in the death or disappearance of several people. As far as I have been able to establish there is little to no evidence for any of this, beyond coincidence, fearmongering and gossip.

If the legends are to be believed something unpleasant (even deadly) will happen anyone trying to find the final resting place of ‘King Dog’ and the site of those rituals more than 50 years ago.

However, according to local sources, it does appear that for some time there was someone, a caretaker perhaps, who was watching over the dog cemetery and warning people off – but this is more likely to have been a reaction to some overly curious sightseers rather than anything really sinister or mysterious.

What is clear from my research is that the story of ‘King Dog’ and the Brotherhood was/is common knowledge in and around St Agnes but somehow these bizarre events have remained something of a mystery to the rest of us! And that in itself is amazing if you think about it.

Visiting Jericho Valley

The walk up through Jericho Valley from Trevellas Porth following the little river is lovely, whatever the season. I highly recommend taking the time to visit, especially if you are in the St Agnes area.

(I have included a link below which takes you on a self-guided circular walk through the area exploring some of the mining heritage.)

Out of respect I am not including directions to the dog cemetery because it is more than likely on private ground. Please be aware that the grove of trees is now completely overgrown, so there is very little to see, and it is highly likely that you will be trespassing in your efforts to find it. I was given very specific directions by a local person who had been there before and would not have found my way to the site without them.

I think that it is better to visit Jericho Valley for the peaceful riverside walks and the wonderful mining history.

Let your imagination run wild perhaps but let the dogs rest in peace!

Further Reading

UFOs in Cornwall

The Owlman of Mawnan Smith

St Agnes Beacon

Walking Opportunities

Circular Walk St Agnes to Trevellas

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