Perhaps I'm not really British at all and I've been having you on all the time, the truth being that I have lived in Kazahkstan all my life and have never left it in all of my (nearly) 28 years.....
No, living a lie is not my style - I'm as Scottish as a tot of Glenfiddich and a finnan haddie and I reckon I've acquired a pretty extensive knowledge about this country - the UK - from John o'Groats all the way down to the Lizard point and Land's End and a whole lot of Britannica in between. In spite of its flaws and failings I love every precious square millimetre of it.
Dunwich - what I said about this coastal village in Suffolk is what I had learned about it and my post came straight out of my head - much of old Dunwich HAS been claimed by the sea in the past - it's on the east coast of England for heaven's sake and surely we all know that coastal erosion by high tides and periodic sea surges is a very serious problem. In some places buildings and dwellings that were once a mile or so mile inland from the shore are now teetering on the edge of sheer cliff faces with the pounding surf below eager to swallow them up in due course with no effective preventative measures being taken.
Dunwich, Suffolk, England - an "abandoned community"! A mini Atlantis it seems, much like the fabled "Cantre'r Gwaelod* in Cardigan Bay off the coast of West Wales - reputedly another community overwhelmed by the sea. As in Dunwich many local people claim to hear the ringing of the church bells long since submerged beneath the waves - usually on their way home from the pub on a stormy night.....
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/page11.html
The suffix "wich" - the Latin "vic" referred to a dairy farm, but by the time of the Domesday Book the "wich" in place names DID in fact refer to salt workings in the area, as at Droitwich (Worcestershire) and at Middlewich and Northwich and Nantwich (all in Cheshire).
I'm really not sure about other "wich" places, such as the lovely Sandwich, in Kent, and we all know that Harwich, in Essex, is a port from which ferries sail back and forth to the nearby Continent.
The history of British places names and their derivation is a very interesting topic in itself. Each place name has a history almost as long as the hills and dales and pasturelands surrounding them. Have you ever seen the fascinating medieval ridge and furrow effect in many of the fields of this country? They are particularly noticeable in the East Midlands of England.
Now pick holes in all of this......more airy fairy pie in the sky?
*Clychau Cantre'r Gwaelod" - literally the bells of the churches of this drowned community, probably linked to the bells of Aberdovey, a small seaside town which exists today on the same stretch of coastline on Cardigan Bay, which is where most of the people live and who claim to be able to hear the submerged bells ringing on a stormy night or see strange sights hovering over the dark waves crashing onto the rocks....wraiths and spirts of long dead souls who were drowned by the sea surges. The Welsh are very imaginative people.....perhaps given to flights of fancy now and again and they do speak a language reputed to be the oldest in Europe.
No, living a lie is not my style - I'm as Scottish as a tot of Glenfiddich and a finnan haddie and I reckon I've acquired a pretty extensive knowledge about this country - the UK - from John o'Groats all the way down to the Lizard point and Land's End and a whole lot of Britannica in between. In spite of its flaws and failings I love every precious square millimetre of it.
Dunwich - what I said about this coastal village in Suffolk is what I had learned about it and my post came straight out of my head - much of old Dunwich HAS been claimed by the sea in the past - it's on the east coast of England for heaven's sake and surely we all know that coastal erosion by high tides and periodic sea surges is a very serious problem. In some places buildings and dwellings that were once a mile or so mile inland from the shore are now teetering on the edge of sheer cliff faces with the pounding surf below eager to swallow them up in due course with no effective preventative measures being taken.
Dunwich, Suffolk, England - an "abandoned community"! A mini Atlantis it seems, much like the fabled "Cantre'r Gwaelod* in Cardigan Bay off the coast of West Wales - reputedly another community overwhelmed by the sea. As in Dunwich many local people claim to hear the ringing of the church bells long since submerged beneath the waves - usually on their way home from the pub on a stormy night.....
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/page11.html
The suffix "wich" - the Latin "vic" referred to a dairy farm, but by the time of the Domesday Book the "wich" in place names DID in fact refer to salt workings in the area, as at Droitwich (Worcestershire) and at Middlewich and Northwich and Nantwich (all in Cheshire).
I'm really not sure about other "wich" places, such as the lovely Sandwich, in Kent, and we all know that Harwich, in Essex, is a port from which ferries sail back and forth to the nearby Continent.
The history of British places names and their derivation is a very interesting topic in itself. Each place name has a history almost as long as the hills and dales and pasturelands surrounding them. Have you ever seen the fascinating medieval ridge and furrow effect in many of the fields of this country? They are particularly noticeable in the East Midlands of England.
Now pick holes in all of this......more airy fairy pie in the sky?
*Clychau Cantre'r Gwaelod" - literally the bells of the churches of this drowned community, probably linked to the bells of Aberdovey, a small seaside town which exists today on the same stretch of coastline on Cardigan Bay, which is where most of the people live and who claim to be able to hear the submerged bells ringing on a stormy night or see strange sights hovering over the dark waves crashing onto the rocks....wraiths and spirts of long dead souls who were drowned by the sea surges. The Welsh are very imaginative people.....perhaps given to flights of fancy now and again and they do speak a language reputed to be the oldest in Europe.