“Being grey absolutely suits me perfectly”

Steven met Albion Grey at the Jacksonwood Vintage Tea Rooms in Sheerness to discuss his role as Medway Postal District Coordinator for the Pagan Federation, his beliefs, and his life on Sheppey. During that conversation, Grey gave his birth name, which led us to further reporting on parts of his past not raised in the original interview, including a lottery win and a conviction that resulted in a prison sentence. We subsequently asked him follow-up questions, and the interview below combines both conversations.

First of all, could you just spell your name for me?
Yeah, my name is Tony Stubley. However my Pagan name is Albion Grey. 

Is Albion a title? 
No, I joined an organisation. I used to go to the Rochester Moot. The ladies had their own little group, and the men said we should have our own group. When you join the group, you have to have a Pagan name. It's something, 'the' and a colour. I was asked to join shortly after, two years after it started. Been here 13 years now. Straight away, it just came to mind, Albion the Grey. At the time, we predominantly wore black, but black had already been taken. I'd go for grey. As I have thought about it over the years, grey suits me more, because I'm a Libran, so I'm all about balance. Grey is neither black nor white, and it's in the middle. You can go to the white, or you can go to the black, and also, you're in the shadows. I'm very much an observer, and I like to watch things and look at things. I don't dive in and do things, and I talk to people. I like to sit back and observe and see what's happening. Being grey absolutely suits me perfectly.

But you haven't legally changed your name? 
No. I did think about it, but I don't think my son would like it.

What is your official occupation? 
I'm a retired police officer. I started getting my pension last year. 

Do you have any other additional roles, paid or unpaid? 
Yeah, I volunteer in the community. I volunteer for a local food bank. I help run the men's mental health social wellbeing drop-in group. I also present every other Monday night on Sheppey FM. I run the gaming group; I've just been appointed to Sheppey Quizmaster. I hosted my first quiz last week, which went well. Yeah, keeping busy in retirement.

At the end of the day, we’re all aiming towards the same goal. We’re just approaching it from different angles.”

What is the Pagan Federation? What does it do?
The Pagan Federation is now a registered charity. It protects Pagan rights. Its mission is to further the Pagan cause. It's to strip away the mystery and misconception around Paganism, to make it more accessible and more acceptable to people, and basically mainly to educate. Pagans don’t sacrifice goats like people think. There are several different paths to Paganism. Most of them are all nature-based. We go with the seasons.
The best way to describe it is the majority of it is modern-day Wicca, which was brought into place by Gerald Gardner in the 50s and then picked up in the 60s by the green movement. There's a lot of green politics involved. A lot of ex-hippies became Pagans, and it's filtered down through the generations. What I talk about is Paganism in popular culture. If you look at a lot of 60s and 70s children's TV shows, there's rampant Paganism, and you don't realise. The reason for that is Paganism was still frowned upon by the church.
The church was, “It was evil, the black magic,” though they couldn't understand black and white magic. A lot of other religions are more accepting now. I've got two or three friends who are actually Church of England ministers, and he's like, “You believe that, I believe that.” That's how it should be. It shouldn't be “My faith is the right one, you're following the wrong one.” It should be all working together. Because I think at the end of the day, we're all aiming towards the same goal. We're just approaching it from different angles. But it's too much, “Oh no, you can't do this because it's wrong.” That is a worry, the rise of the right-wing Christian and right-wing national Christianity at the moment. It's a lot of right-wing politics getting involved or trying to get involved in the Church of England.

How many Pagan groups are there in Kent? 
Oh, I couldn't really say how many there are in Kent, but I'm the Pagan Federation Regional Coordinator for the Medway Postal District. And at the moment, in my district, we have Moot in Rochester, the Maidstone Pagans, and the Faversham Pagans. There's a group starting soon in Sittingbourne. Two or three moots died with covid. People didn't get involved or drifted off and never got re-established.

How would you describe a moot? 
A moot is an old Anglo-Saxon word for meeting place. Moat Park in Maidstone was originally called Moot Park because it was a meeting place. A moot is what Pagans call a regular meeting that they have, and they vary. You have a social moot where people just turn up, sit around a table and chat, or you can have some which are more organised, where they'll have a guest speaker or do events. Last month I was a guest speaker, because I give talks on Pagans in popular culture. That was the first proper talk I've given. I've been threatening to write a book about it for years, and I will start that definitely.