Thursday, November 20, 2014

Carrs

I start this morning with the sound of beer kegs being rolled down to the cellar somewhere at the back of the cottage, every Thursday this happens, clump, clump clump, very exciting to live in the middle of a town. 
Bit of of education to go with Church House.  I have a good eye for landscape, it comes with staring endlessly into the distance something I love to do.  On travelling out of Pickering I noticed how flat the land was, farmed and uninteresting but I also noticed the word Carr in the names around, and if you love words the following should be of some interest..
carr is a type of waterlogged, wooded terrain that, typically, represents a succession stage between the original reedy swamp and the eventual formation of forest in a sub-maritime climate.[1] The name derives from the Old Norse kjarr, meaning a swamp. The carr is one stage in a so-called hydrosere: the progression of vegetation beginning from a terrain that is submerged by fresh water along a river or lake margin. In sub-maritime regions, it begins with reed-swamp. As the reeds decay, the soil surface eventually rises above the water, creating fens that allow vegetation like sedge to grow. As this progression continues, riparian trees and bushes appear and a carr landscape is created–in effect a wooded fen in a waterlogged terrain. At this stage the pH is not too acidic and the soil is not too deficient in mineral elements. Characteristic trees include alderwillow and sallow"

So it must be the draining of the moors above the Vale of Pickering that had created this landscape thousands of years ago, in actual fact it was a watery landscape, and as I typed in the words, 'flood' and 'Pickering', I learnt several things.  The rivers flood round here and Pickering had been flooded several times, quite badly in 2007 and 2008.  The River Seven that winds its way so enticingly around the village also joins a confluence of two other rivers, hopefully after rather than before the village...  The little inn next to church had in fact had its cellars flooded at the time, so the seller was being a little circumspect about the risk of flooding, which he said had never happened.  We will see what LS does about this, as he likes the house...

The back of the house, did not take the front..




4 comments:

  1. It looks a nice, light house Thelma, and I love its position next to the grave yard.

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    1. Very large rooms though for two people Pat, and all open plan downstairs, going to see it again this Saturday.

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  2. I like the look of French doors in this house--as long as they fit tightly against a windy day. The location next to the old churchyard is appealing.
    Having dealt with a wet basement a time or two, I would be wanting to learn more about the frequency of this occurring in the area.
    House hunting boggles the mind with possibilities and decisions!
    I'm interested in words and the derivation of names, etc--'fens' is not a term used here, nor is 'carr.' 'Bog' or 'swamp' is generally used to describe a low wetland.

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  3. Hi Sharon, there are slightly different words used the further North you go, with Yorkshire, words often stem from the Scandinavian Vikings, York was a central capital called 'Jorvik' whereas Essex would have a Saxon grounding.

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