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The Model Framework outlined in this document represents the evolution of a practice that has its origins in a deeply embedded Celtic tradition—one that has endured for over fifteen centuries.
At its core lies the ancient method of transmitting knowledge and culture through the oral performance of poetry, music, and song. This tradition was exemplified in the sixth century by the legendary bards Aneirin and Taliesin of the Kingdom of Rheged – now Cumberland – who not only composed their own works but also instructed a troupe of bards to orally disseminate their compositions across the land.
By the tenth century, as literacy began to spread, some of these compositions were transcribed, ensuring their survival and extending their reach to an even broader audience.
Yet, the tradition of the bardic composer never ceased. In every age, Celtic bards have continued in the footsteps of Aneirin and Taliesin—themselves walking in the footsteps of the ancient druids—carrying forward the mantle of the Awenydd—a Brythonic term pronounced “Awen-ith,” referring to one who is divinely inspired.
This legacy finds modern expression in Penrith Beacon Radio, an enterprise founded by Harrison of The North, a name historically linked to his coat of arms, and a familiar name in Penrith: Harris is the seventh generation of his family to buy clothes at the celebrated N Arnison and Sons in Penrith, located on Devonshire Street. Those seated in the regular services at St Andrew’s Church gaze up at the stained glass windows installed by the Harrisons of The North, and William Wordsworth’s schoolboy and lifelong friend, Anthony Harrison, the then family head of the Harrisons of the North (HOTN) and a son of Penrith, was not only a poet himself, but he proofread some of Wordsworth and Southey’s compositions, and was closely engaged with the Romantic poetic movement. As Duncan Wu pointed out, he is the only person known to have written poetry about Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy, apart from Wordsworth himself!
Thus, it becomes evident that the practice of Awenism within the Harrison of The North family is a tradition that stretches back centuries.
The HOTN family are an old indigenous family of Cumberland, ‘statesmen’ by traditional ethnic rank, and in this respect the pride of Harris as a statesman family head is no different from any other statesman family head in Cumberland, exemplified by the following quote.
This quote comes from the Archaeological Journal, Volume 48, 1891 – Issue 1. The article is called “The Heraldry of the Cumberland Statesmen” by R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A., (Chancellor of Carlisle).
“The ‘statesmen’ or small landed proprietors in the north of Cumberland, now alas few and dwindling in number, yielded to none in the pride of their pedigree; they boasted their family arms so proudly as ever did Dacre or Howard. Herald, there was none to say to them nay: bold man must have been any official of the College of Arms to venture into Bewcastle and to meddle with the tombstones of the Armstrong and the Routledges, and the strange armorial achievements sculptured thereon. His probable fate would have been to be ‘spatchcocked’ with his head in a rabbit hole, and his legs pinned down with a stake.”
A poet and composer of Celtic works for over three decades, Harris has crafted numerous original compositions, as well as word-for-word English translations of Aneirin and Taliesin’s sixth-century masterpieces—among them Urien of Erechwydd, originally written in the sixth century by Taliesin but now distributed worldwide via DistroKid.
Penrith Beacon Radio is rooted in Harris’s creative output, a notable pride for a son of Penrith, comprising over 80 original Celtic compositions.
In true bardic tradition, he is assembling a troupe of 24 vocalists to re-record these works, ensuring their distribution across Britain and, ultimately, the world.
The majority of these works are available on his @harrisonofthenorth YouTube and Instagram channels as a pick-and-mix selection from which the new vocalists can choose, to be re-published under the label Penrith Beacon Music as part of Troupe Celtique.
This modern-day bardic troupe—Troupe Celtique—embodies the soul of Cumberland’s ancient predecessors, both in purpose and presentation.
Composed of vibrant young men and women who will lend their voices to each composition, Troupe Celtique will visually invoke the Celtic warrior aesthetic, adorned in body paint inspired by ancient cup-and-ring motifs, woad-blue patterns, and the distinctive red central dot. In performance, they are envisioned as the “Victoria’s Secret Angels” of the Celtic world, reinterpreting ancestral artistic traditions in a striking contemporary form.
In many respects, the origin story of Penrith Beacon Radio, springing forth from this cadre of performers walking the same steps as Aneirin and Taliesin’s ancient compatriots, is the same origin story as that of Penrith itself!
From this cultural foundation, Penrith Beacon Radio emerges as an extension of Troupe Celtique, blending ancient artistic principles with modern broadcasting technology.
Leveraging his expertise as a seasoned computer programmer specialising in mobile applications and cloud services, Harris has automated a scalable broadcasting model. This model is built on a structured 28-day programming cycle, offering 1,344 half-hour timeslots. The first half-hour of each hour is open to independent presenters operating as timeslot franchisees, while the second half is reserved exclusively for the station’s core Celtic content.
This framework enables a seamless integration of diverse voices while maintaining the station’s distinctive cultural identity. Penrith Beacon Radio is Celtic at heart, but inclusive of all aspects of society.
Penrith Beacon Radio derives its name from the historic site known as King Arthur’s Round Table, a Neolithic henge located just 1.2 miles south of the heart of Penrith township.
This site, at the geographic heart of mainland Great Britain, has long been associated with high leadership and cultural convergence.
In the sixth century, the henge King Arthur’s Round Table was known in Old Welsh as the kenning ‘Pen Rhith’, meaning “Chief Appearance,” a poetic circumlocution for “The Chief Meeting Place (of the leaders of Britain)”. The name, undergoing soft mutation, evolved into Pen Rith, which likely gave rise to the modern town name, Penrith.
This site’s significance as a centre of ancient British leadership is further underscored by the fact that in 926 AD, the Kingdom of England itself was forged at this very henge. The echoes of history resonate through Penrith Beacon Radio, positioning it as a beacon of Celtic heritage broadcasting from Britain’s geographic and cultural nucleus.
More than a mere radio station, Penrith Beacon Radio aspires to be a central force in the modern Celtic Renaissance.
The station’s inception can be traced back to the early 2000s, when Harris led the Cumbric Revival Community Forum, earning coverage from BBC Cumbria’s Gordon Swindlehurst and journalist Meg Jorsh from the News and Star. From those formative years, Penrith Beacon Radio has sprung to become a platform poised to broadcast Celtic culture across the nation and beyond, reaching a worldwide audience. He has since been interviewed by Lizzie Cundy and Stephen Leng, and has appeared on First Dates.
The vision extends even further. If we conceptualise the ancient mesolithic and neolithic cup-and-ring carvings of Britain as a symbolic framework, King Arthur’s Round Table stands at the centre as the “cup”—the Grail of Knowledge.
Radiating outwards from it, Penrith Beacon Radio begins to form the first ring of voices. This innermost circle consists of Troupe Celtique, carrying forward the Celtic doctrine in the footsteps of Taliesin and Aneirin, and the ancient druids before them.
Surrounding them, a wider ring of presenters who have secured individual franchise timeslots, their voices will contribute to the collective chorus.
Beyond these circles, additional rings will emerge from those who engage with Penrith Beacon Radio: experts in politics, academia, and theology; community leaders including vicars, imams, and rabbis.
Indeed, Harris’s vision is that four from each of these faiths, commonly ‘Sons of Abraham’ who collectively believe in The Holy Spirit, known as Ruach HaKodesh in Judaism and Ruh al-Qudis in Islam, will form a ring of 12 around the henge as the modern-day ‘12 apostles of the Celtic Church’, all bound together by the Holy Spirit.
As further rings expand outwards, each voice, from the core of Celtic tradition to the broad spectrum of modern discourse, will contribute to an ever-expanding network of knowledge, education, and entertainment.
The outside ring will be formed by the pencenedls of Britain – a Welsh term unfamiliar to many but illustrated in the Archaeologia Cambrensis, July 1860:
“A person passed the ninth descent formed a new pencenedl, or head of a family. Every family was represented by its elder, and these elders from every family were delegates to the national council. The origin of this system is buried in the depths of antiquity, for it was found to be in existence at the early part of the sixth century.”
For those pencenedls who do take this seat up by birthright, three things are significant:
- In the context of their own local regions, anywhere in Britain, they will become part of a local indigenous council amongst other pencenedls who also sit with them, serving their local communities in a traditional framework that is not just over fifteen centuries old, their service will be based upon the traditions of this land and not be subject to Scoti-Anglo-Saxon politics;
- For the first time since perhaps at least the sixth century, there will be a single indigenous council capable of voting to represent the indigenous needs of this country. In a political climate when the general populace is becoming extremely dissatisfied with the general political climate, this ‘council of the outer ring’ will effectively have personified Churchill’s quote, “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.”
- This “Council of the Outer Ring” serves as the final filter around the henge, with King Arthur’s Round Table at its centre, symbolising the Grail of Knowledge. The cup of the rings represents the Grail of Truth, and this council will indeed serve as a modern-day “King Arthur’s Round Table,” where those seated in this outer ring will do so by their historic birthright of the ninth descent. As such, one seat will remain vacant—the seat of Arthur himself. However, in accordance with the second of the Four Great Prophecies of Arthurian Britain, which states, “Arthur will return as a raven,” it is foretold that, in time, this seat will be filled by someone chosen through a popular vote into that titular position.
To fortify this position, Harris has also acquired the domain name KingArthursRoundTable.com in addition to PenrithBeacon.com and is wholly committed to promoting “Indigenous Proofs” – where ‘content is king’, an Indigenous Proof is a poem, performance, song, or document, that stands its ground to reverse the marginalisation, suppression, and obfuscation of Indigenous Britain.
He has already written numerous books that portray Arthurian doctrine, notably the following children’s series, which conveys Arthurian doctrine without the associated Indigenous politics:
- The Secret Cypher of Chalice Well
- The Secret Cypher of Edward the Confessor
- The Secret Cypher of Why There Are Ravens in The Tower of London
These books are also suitable for adults and for those looking for additional publications without the associated Indigenous politics, Harris has also written:
- The Ascent of Arthurian Britain
- The Salmon Baptiste
- Penrith Beacon: An Introduction to Celtic Nation Food (Book 1)
Where the topic of the first is self-evident, tracing the ascent of Arthurian Britain back to the melt of the last ice-age, the last two are concerned with introducing readers to Celtic foodways, with The Salmon Baptiste being the Celtic Nation Food doctrinal bible, but with the third book being more practical, such as introducing Celtic Nation Food recipes.
Not wishing to put his own books on a pedestal, Harris is committed to discovering other Indigenous Proofs, which—by creating a council of authors sitting as a ring around the same King Arthur’s Round Table—will effectively aim to create a new ‘Library of Alexandria of the Celtic World’.
The significance of this undertaking should not be overlooked; not only will it elevate new modern authors into prominence, but it will also generate a litany of documents rigorously assessed to conform not only with the broad Arthurian Canon but as a core part of that canon—the Four Great Prophecies of Arthurian Britain. This effort will provide a foundation for future generations to understand and explore the deeply rooted traditions and stories that shape the Celtic world.
With this foundation, Penrith Beacon Radio is committed to reversing centuries of this marginalisation and erasure. It will serve as a powerful platform for the First Nation Aboriginal peoples of Britain, recognising and restoring their rightful place within the national consciousness. This initiative stands as an unprecedented reclamation of indigenous British identity, amplifying voices long suppressed.
With this foundation, Penrith Beacon Radion will operate under a Presenter Franchise Model Framework that is designed to seamlessly integrate this cultural vision with a sustainable commercial strategy, ensuring that Penrith Beacon Radio not only flourishes as a business but also endures as a beacon of Celtic identity, history, and revival. The Presenter Franchise Model Framework is specified in a separate document with that title.