PETE JENNINGS HOME PAGES

Although known as Pete, his original forename was Owen. He is not to be confused with the late American TV newsman Peter Jennings. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jennings

Born in 1953 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, the son of a working-class family with three older siblings.

Employment

Pete Jennings left Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich, in 1970 and became an apprentice engineer for Post Office Telephones. After qualifying as a planning engineer, he left in 1978 to pursue a career as a salesman and manager for various companies, including United Biscuits and Coca-Cola, for whom he was UK Salesman of the Year in 1986. He married his first wife Valerie Male in 1975, and they had two children, Ann and Martin.They divorced in 1989.

After becoming disillusioned with his life following redundancy and divorce, Pete earned a Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy in 1999 from Anglia Polytechnic University. He pursued a new career in social care, first as a Support Worker. After study he gained a BA (Hons) in Social Work in 2008 at Anglia Ruskin University, and spent the rest of his working life as a social worker, specialising in Learning Disabilities and Adult Safeguarding. He retired in 2018 and lives on the Essex/Suffolk border with his second wife, Sue, whom he married in 2012. They each have two adult offspring from their previous marriages, and collectively seven grandchildren, plus a rescue lurcher named Dobby.

Entertainment

Throughout his life, Pete has been involved in various forms of entertainment, starting at 12 as a disco DJ. This progressed to being the folk presenter/producer on Radio Orwell & Saxon Radio. From 1990 to 2023, he broadcast a weekly folk show on BBC Radio Suffolk. His work led to several film and TV appearances. [1] 

Jennings also organised folk clubs and festivals and wrote a music column for the Ipswich Extra & Suffolk Leader newspapers. Although not a dancer, he appeared as Green Man for East Suffolk Morris on their Mayday morning event for many years. Later, he helped revive the Cutty Wren tradition every Boxing Day at Middleton, Suffolk as Wren Bearer for Old Glory Molly Dancers and Musicians. [2] Pete also founded the Magic Mummers troupe in Chelmsford, Essex, appearing as the Clever Doctor. [3]

Pete also fronted both local semi-pro rock and folk bands in Suffolk, including WYSIWYG and PYRAMID of GOATS. Three albums were released.[4] 

Having been involved in amateur dramatics in his teens, Pete joined the professional Irregular Special Players,  acting in murder-mystery evenings. He also became the principal tour guide for Gemini Original Ipswich Ghost Tours in 1997, utilising his storytelling skills and writing about the stories he researched.[5]

Jennings also joined Ormsgard Viking re-enactors [6] and later formed Ealdfaeder Anglo Saxons.. The international Skirmish Living History magazine (November, 2012) commented:

EALDFAEDER ANGLO SAXONS are the elite semi-resident group of 7th century re-enactors at the notable burial ground of Sutton Hoo, Suffolk and also perform at West Stow and other historic sites, mainly around East Anglia. Although they stun audiences with vicious combat, they are also focussed upon presenting crafts and everyday living.

Spirituality.

From his teens, Pete had been interested in Paganism in its various forms. After studying purely through reading for many years, he became active in his local Pagan community in the late 1980s, promoting a moot, the annual Leaping Hare event in 1994 (which still continues), and the Gippeswic magazine, which he edited. As a member of Odinshof from 1988, he later ran a training programme. He also joined The Pagan Federationin in the late 1980s. As an Odinist, now termed Heathen, he served for three years as Media Officer and was then elected President for a three-year tenure in 1997. [7]

As speaker at many national Pagan camps and conferences, he began writing books, of which there are now more than forty.[8] They mostly cover Paganism plus Anglo-Saxon & Viking topics, but his work also includes folklore, ghosts, and the Ron Webb Suffolk murder mystery series. He is best known for 'Pagan Paths' (2002, Penguin). The Times review said

"An excellent primer, taking in all the traditional earth-centred rituals as well as the more recent emergence of eco and cyber-paganism."

Reviewing 'Heathen Paths' (Gruff, 2018), the specialist Anglo-Saxon history magazine Widowinde stated

"Pete Jennings has done much to dispel such ignorance and prejudice and to place modern Heathenism proudly amongst neo-Paganism."