Monday Morning: Andrew (at 7.0 clock) has gone swimming. The new rage in the household, not me of course but it is the new exercise. Andrew is a great walker as well, and my daughter is getting there ;)
Well I found this video online (Map Reading Company) about how to walk up hill and down by this guide. In actual fact I had come across another video of his about a Yorkshire field and he had given a talk about the history of the field and how it had accumulated its bumps and hillocks. And to be honest after reading about Shake holes, potholes and coal mining holes I am not sure I want to put a foot on much of the Yorkshire landscape. And the wisest words - do not go on the uplands of Yorkshire in the dark, or you may fall down a hole.
Well I have decided I am too old to do much walking so I will just write about it. The first thing I noticed in this second video was different words to describe the naming of place. How a word would take on an Anglo-Saxon meaning, then later a Viking sub word would be added and then the word would meld into what we call medieval. Though I still do not understand how the word 'goblin' formed itself from Robin.
But I squeaked slightly when he described a clay dewpond as a 'mere'. These ponds along the trackway he was walking were made for the cattle driven down from Scotland to the markets in Yorkshire and further South.
Interesting fact; The dogs who would drive these animals, when their job was finished would be sent back home by themselves to Scotland and the inns and drinking houses would feed them as they passed through.
Local names are fascinating and in my part of the country which was Wiltshire/Somerset, the sink holes or shafts you found were called 'swallets' and were seen by the people of the Iron Age as portals into the underworld. (I wrote so much about this in 2008 that I will give just one link. And finish with one of my bad videos....
We have meres here in Suffolk and Norfolk, does Mere mean man made?
ReplyDeleteYou've been writing a blog for nearly 20 years I realised while following your links - amazing!
Funnily enough Sue when I was looking up old blogs, I came across a comment from Jennie in 2008. "lovely to meet someone who is into obscure things like me". Amongst the many things of writing a blog, mine was not social interaction but recording things I thought about or read about. But looking back it seems it has been much a family diary as well and often it is like opening a diary into the past.
DeleteAt times something jumps our from a post, and the dogs making their trips back to Scotland, being fed at, essentially pubs, on their way home is amazing.
ReplyDeleteA trained sheepdog is a very valuable asset today Andrew. They can cost hundreds of pounds to buy. A friend trains his dogs to sell, and one was sent to America I remember. The dogs from history, would know where to stop for food on their way back, either a farmhouse or an ale house serving drinks.
DeleteDogs are amazing creatures and humans are richer for them. I always understood a mere to be a lake, as in Windermere.
ReplyDeleteWell he probably got it mixed up but he was talking about a clay-lined pond. Which catch the morning dew probably or at least the rain.
DeleteI do love walking along water as that bubbling sound is always so soothing to me. There are many parks in my area that have paths for walking or hiking and they are kept up so nicely. I usually just have to watch for tree roots but no great holes to fall in to!
ReplyDeleteSounds fun Ellen to have several parks we only have one, though it is large and is surrounded by tree lined slopes which have steep paths to the moors.
DeleteA mere to me is a proper lake (Ellesmere for example). Loved the sound of the water in the 2nd video and will go out when it isn't raining to practice walking properly up hills (no shortage of hills round HERE!)
ReplyDeleteI often wondered why you settled in hilly countryside, except of course it is beautiful.
DeleteGood info in that hill walking video, thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. Remember to keep your knees bent downhill ;)
ReplyDeleteI read this but did not follow the links because I am just about to climb up the hairy mountain to bed. I hope Y remember to come back to this blogpost tomorrow. Night-night Thelma! Oh dear, you have got your curlers in again!
ReplyDeleteAs children we would have to go up 'the wooden stairs' to bed. Which must be an old saying because stairs were normally carpeted. Didn't know curlers still existed ;)
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