C o m m o n G r o u n d particular news Issue number three Summer 2004 East But look, the morn in russet mantle clad from the heart of the landmass Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward gives the flatnesses of hill. Holderness, Lincolnshire and Horatio from Hamlet 1.1, Shakespeare East Anglia a reputation for Above all ‘east’ invokes the searching winds, withering in dawn, the breaking of a new day, their treatment of field the return of the sun. In this guise N S workers, rude in their it is the most charismatic of the penetration of badly fitting cardinal points, yet somehow it windows, dangerous to carries less baggage than the windmills and the devil to cycle others. At the dawn of the new against. millennium, those wanting to see the first rays of the sun fall on Graham Swift, in Waterland, England went to Lowestoft, but it W recalls: hardly rivals Land’s End as a "some say that the Wash, that destination. Our churches are built east/west, gaping wound in the backbone of their altar to the rising sun. Christian Perhaps our mainly urban lives and Britain, is not formed by the effects of bodies are laid with heads towards changing ways, with lessening tides and rivers and geology, but it is the east, archaeologists read ancient experience of the dawn, have simply the first bite the East Wind takes burials from their orientation. diminished our interest, yet it is at out of the defenceless shoreline with its ice-whetted incisors." the high points of the year, when In the USA much is ‘explained’ by dawn is captured by ‘The Stones’ the stereotypes of ‘he’s an Eastener’ In ‘The Compleat Angler’ Izaac themselves, that Stonehenge attracts or ‘she’s from the West Coast’, in Walton either created or repeated the its serious followers. And it is England the east and west have no observation: through England that the Prime such opposition except within cities, Meridian passes: Greenwich is notably London where the East End "When the wind is in the east ’tis good bisected by the imaginary line of carries layers of connotations only for neither man nor beast" zero longitude where east and west now being challenged by decades of begin their separate journeys across erosion of dockland jobs and the he would also have known the adage the globe. imposition of major development. ‘fish bite the least with wind in the east’. Easy to turn your back on, but East is now defined at right angles to There are at least 27 settlements people who have grown up on the the true north-south line but it is called East End, from Hampshire to eastern side of the country find the from the east that we ‘orientate’ Yorkshire, and our forbears dry air difficult to live without – ourselves. The Latin oriens means distinguished hundreds of places by under 25" of rainfall in a year is the rising sun. East, the word, seems the points of the compass, from East- technically semi-arid despite the to grow out of Old High German the-Water in Devon to Ascot Fenland drains and the Norfolk ostar meaning to the east, dawn in (meaning eastern cottage) in Broads. Greek is eos and further east still Berkshire to East Curthwaite in usas in Sanskrit means dawn. Most Cumberland. Does anyone still get up to ‘Never of the building blocks of our history Eat Shredded Wheat’ a breakfast and culture arrived from the east, Physically the east suggests less time mnemonic to remember, from the mainland of Europe and rainfall, less humidity, lower wind clockwise, the points of the out of Asia. speeds. The continental influence in compass? What do the other cardinal sending us cold winds seemingly points evoke? www.england-in-particular.info Mere today ... Ring and Ditchling Beacon. But they weedy depressions. Their demise was are also to be found on the chalk of the probably hastened by a run of dry gone tomorrow ... ? Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds, the summers in the years following the first world war, - sums up the inevitable ecological which left their tendency for shallow water bodies to clay linings be colonised and filled in by plants - all exposed and ponds would be land if they could… vulnerable to Glyn Goodwin Still water in small pools comes in cracking, as well many different guises, many of our as a decline in making: canal reservoirs, claypits, sheep grazing. corrie lakes, fish ponds, gravel pits, When sheep were lagoons, marl lakes, meres, mire pools, plentiful, their moats, pingos, slacks, subsidence treading of the flashes, tarns… can you tell us exposed edge of anything of natural, cultural interest the pond could about one near you? prevent cracks from developing. Mere is the old Anglo Saxon word which predates pond, but ‘maere’ limestone around Flamborough Head In those early decades of the 20th meaning boundary in Old English in Yorkshire and in the White Peak of century, farmers’ concerns about often translates to mere also. In Norfolk Derbyshire in defiance of local parasitic disease in livestock became a eleven parishes converge on a series of hydrology. prompt for the reinforcement of meres at Rymer Point. dewponds with concrete. Many of these large, shallow Ponds could be bottomless, at least ponds were probably first This must have seemed the "according to legend." And a built in the 17th or 18th height of rational bottomless pool might mean a dragon - centuries, and lined farming, but in fact, Knucker Hole near Lyminster in Sussex with puddled clay to the modern material and its dragon have been meticulously make them water-tight. turned out to be highly researched by Jacqueline Simpson, liable to crack, and who writes “at one time there were A few are much older, today, all five concrete Mark Reddy several such ... all known as ‘Knucker perhaps; prehistoric dew ponds on the Holes’ or ‘Nickery Holes’.” The name pastoralists may have Caburn block of downs derives from the Anglo Saxon word constructed downland ponds east of Lewes, Sussex ‘nicor’ meaning ‘water monster’. on natural deposits of flinty clay are dry. around the tops of southern downland. A mermaid was said to have stolen a Refurbished over the centuries, such Many of the Derbyshire dewponds church bell fallen from Marden church ponds may lie in particularly were lined with concrete but stand in Herefordshire. On the guidance of a auspicious spots. The name seems to empty now, a loss to the linnets and wise man the bell was pulled out in have been invented by Victorian finches, rabbits, hares, foxes and silence by white heifers and the gentlemen with a strong, if romantic, badgers which drank from them. mermaid lay asleep inside. But she was interest in country matters. Shepherds Conservation groups on the South awoken by cries of surprise and pulled called them sheep-ponds. the bell back into the water. Still the Downs have restored a few ponds by bell can be heard from the There is an art to making dew installing plastic linings, giving new depths echoing the bells ponds, and as late as the life to these much needed small mirrors in the church. In 1930s small teams of of the sky. Free of predatory fish, 1848 a rectangular professional men revitalised dew ponds can be havens bronze bell of a would still for newts and frogs and water beetles, Celtic type travel huge and provide watering holes for many was found in distances more wild creatures. The well-filled dew pond at South Hill Barn above Brian Grimwood ancient mud. mending and re-lining or Cuckmere Haven near Seaford, for The Sussex digging new instance, is alive with dragon - and Downs are dew ponds damselflies on warm sunny days. often regarded above the spring- as the traditional lines on the chalk Even derelict ponds can have their home of the dew pond. and limestone uplands uses. At Cissbury Ring in West Sussex, In the early decades of the where sheep and cattle needed the muddy remains of a former dew 20th century, no holiday-maker could water. pod plays host to rare fairy shrimps, say they had "done" Sussex until they which, according to the National Trust had visited two of the finest Today, few dew ponds hold any water, " can lie dormant for years until the specimens, on Chanctonbury and most survive only as ghostly, pond fills with water." Help us to L is for Legends and Lore ... It is said that .... LEARN Crusaders magically returned to their wives at Wroxall Abbey (Warwickshire), Wolverley (Worcs), Thrybergh (Yorkshire), Mottram (Cheshire) ... King Arthur ... was given Excalibur from Dozmare pool near Bodmin (Cornwall) ... had an argument with Guinevere at Sewingshields (Northumberland) ... has cups and saucers near Tintagel (Cornwall) ... conjoured a butterfly from a bishop’s hands in Winchester (Hants) ... recieved his fatal wounds at Slaughter Bridge near Camelford (Cornwall) ... was transformed into a raven ... and remains in a magical sleep in Richmond (Yorkshire) ... and Dunstanburgh (Northumberland) ... and about Sewingshields ... Seven Saracens settled on Biddulph Moor (Staffs) ... A newlywed bride perished in a trunk at Marwell Hall (Hants), Minster Lovel Lead Mines (Gloucestershire), Bramshill House (Hants), Bawdrip (Somerset) and Malsanger (Hants) ... Robin Hood ... was born in Loxley (Staffs) and has a Ringstone near Letterboxing Halifax (Yorkshire), a bower at Southleigh (Wilts), Butts near Church Stretton (Shropshire), Picking Rods on the Ludworth Intakes Libraries (Derbyshire), a well near Doncaster (Yorkshire), a stable near Papplewick (Notts), a bay near Whitby (Yorkshire) and a bog in the grounds of Chillingham Castle (Northumberland) ..