Films Were Made

Films Were Made
 
Volume 1 ‘The Region at Work’

A look at films and film makers in the East of England 1896-1996

with chapters on
Industry, Farming, The Coast, Transport, Wartime, & Regional Television

Since 1896 people have operated motion picture film cameras in the East of England recording and making films in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Only a fraction of the films made have survived, but those that have show us what life was like, what film makers were making, and what we were watching and doing. These may be local films, home movies, cinema films, television films, educational films, publicity films etc. This book looks at some of these films and the people behind them, and is based on films preserved in the East Anglian Film Archive. This is a unique and wonderful research collection of material reflecting local history in the form of moving images of the past. This is Volume 1 entitled “The Region at Work” of a two part work by David Cleveland, founder of the East Anglian Film Archive in 1976 – the first regional motion picture film archive in the country. The Archive is owned and run by the University of East Anglia.

Hardback A4 size, 282 pages, 422 illustrations (28 of which are in colour)

Price £27

Available upon receipt of cheque for £30 from
David Cleveland
48 High Street
Manningtree Essex C011 1AJ

We cannot restore or repair everything that is lost

1953 Flooding in Essex

The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill):
 

I beg to move, That this House desires to record its deep sympathy with the Governments and peoples of the Netherlands and Belgium in the personal suffering and material loss inflicted on them by the unprecedented violence of the sea on the night of 31st January to 1st February, 1953, and its approval of the practical measures of assistance which have been extended by Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom; and further offers warm thanks on behalf of the people of the United Kingdom for the spontaneous generosity of friendly nations within and without the Commonwealth which has been freely proffered for the relief of the hardship and loss suffered by so many of Her Majesty's subjects on that occasion; And that this House, deeply moved by the calamity which befell this country on the same night, records its sympathy with all those who suffered bereavement, injury or material loss by tempest or flood; takes note of the declared intention of Her Majesty's Government to treat the catastrophe on a national basis; welcomes the welfare measures to mitigate suffering and distress and the measures to repair the damaged sea defences which were put in hand; acknowledges with gratitude the unremitting labours, during and since the disaster, of local and statutory authorities, police forces, voluntary organisations, and civilian workers, including voluntary workers; pays tribute to the magnificent work done by members of Her Majesty's Forces and the Forces of her Allies; and pledges its support in seeking the solution to the problems left by the disaster, many of which are recognised to be of a long-term character. The shock felt by the whole nation on hearing, for the first time, of the great storm which swept over the North Sea coasts during the night of 31st January has been followed, as the toll of tragedy and devastation has been counted, by a surge of deep concern and sympathy for all those who suffered. It is that sympathy and concern, especially for the relatives of those who died, which we wish to put on record today. We are resolved that the nation shall do everything within its power to make good the distress which this sudden disaster has brought to so many thousands of our fellow countrymen. We cannot restore or repair everything that is lost, but we shall seek to combine the generosity of the individual and the resources of the State so as to replace as best we may the homes and the furnishings which the seas by their invasion have destroyed.

Great as our own afflictions have been, the thoughts of the British Empire turned throughout these days to our neighbours in the Low Countries, whose ordeal was far harder than our own. I am indeed glad that our Armed Forces were able to lend their help to the people of the Netherlands, whose courage and resolution have again proved worthy of their famous past. We and they, too, have been encouraged and sustained by the generous and spontaneous offers of help which have poured in upon us from overseas. They have not only come from countries in our own Commonwealth and Empire, which have never failed us in our hour of need, but from peoples and Governments of many other lands.

Finally, we remember with gratitude and admiration the many thousands who worked day and night to bring relief to those in danger and distress—the Armed Forces of the Crown, the police, the local authorities, the Red Cross and St. John, the Civil Defence organisations, mustering at once at the sound of the alarm, the Women's Voluntary Services, most effective and intimate, the Salvation Army and the Church Army, and all the magnificent voluntary organisations which we never called upon in vain.

Then there are a vast number of unknown, but not less honourable, individuals who have shown themselves willing to prove that they are good neighbours in the hour of need, and who will unite or are capable of uniting effectively in good planning to prevent a renewed disaster. All engaged in this showed once again in various ways the quality and strength of our civilisation.

from the House of Commons debate on 19th February 1953, in Hansard vol 511 cc1456-580

Women threw down banks and works, and burned instruments and tools

The Star Chamber (from a drawing taken in 1836) from Old and New London Vol. II (1881) by Edward Walford

"that diverse were set on work by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to make trenches for the draining, that 300 persons came to the workmen, and Harrison, Gibson and Moody threatened to kill the workmen: and Brown, Stockwell, and William Scott told them if they would leave their work that would appease the multitude; or else they might go on at their peril: that labourers were hurt; 8 wheelbarrows, 180 deal boards, planks, many shovels, spades, pickaxes, and other materials and instruments were burnt. That one Mr Hawthorne was thrown into the river, and kept in with poles a great while; that they cried out, "Drown him! Kill him! Break his arms of legs!" That James Moody, Harrison, Henry Scott, and Edward Gibson did cry out, "Throw him into the river! Break his arms and legs!" Others were beaten with dry blows, Hawthorne's face was hoodwinked with a cloak or coat, and so cast into the river, and Richard Scott and others laid hands on him, and struck and beat him; but bid them not to duck him over head least he should be drowned, but rather to break his arms or his legs, and so let him go; and some of the rioters poured water in at the necks of some of the workmen; and one run at the deponent with a drawn knife and cut his clothes, and some cried out, "Cut his throat! Break his legs!" and made them swear never to come there again. They set up a gallows and threaten to hang such of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden's men as would come thither again. The women assembled themselves to the number of 200 in 1629 diverse days and times, and threw down banks and works, and burned instruments and tools."

from Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission (1886) edited by S. R . Gardiner

Another riotous assembly

Tidal Protection Barrier for Sutton Saltmarsh (2009) by Simon Read

Sept. 15th [1632]

Affidavit of John Hunns, of Tyd St. Giles, co. Cambridge, Labourer.
On the 26th July last James Balder, accompanied by George Tilson the elder, and various others, came in a riotous manner into Sutton Salt Marsh, lately inned from the sea by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden. They demanded of deponent whose man he was. He answered he was employed by Sir Cornelius. They replied in a scornful manner that Sir Cornelius had nothing to do there, neither should any horses which belonged to the workmen stay there. They then destroyed a gate and a bridge, and assaulted deponent and tore all his clothes from his back.

Sept. 15th [1632]

Affidavit of William Leake, of Newark -upon-Trent, co. Notts, and John Hunns, mentioned in the preceding article. They depose to another riotous assembly of Capt. Skipwith, James Balder, George Tilson the elder, and others in Sutton Salt Marsh, on the 12th inst. They threatened to pull down a house of one of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden's labourers, took the horses of the labourers, cut their halters, and violently pulled some of the labourers from their horses to the peril of their lives.

from Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I: 1631-1633

The gnats and flies, that is the common sort of the inhabitants

Map of the Isle of Axholme before the drainage by Vermuyden 1626 from The M.S. in a Red Box (1903) by an unnamed author believed to be John Hamilton

The plan, however defective, was rapidly proceeded with, so that before
the close of the second year from its commencement, it was so far completed
that a Commission was issued in order to survey and divide the same. "Cor-
nelius Vermuyden," says Prymne, "to the great surprise - of the whole nation,
and to the vast advantage of the country round about, which before was but
barbarously and thinly inhabited, poor and beggarly, and at the incredible
labour and charges of above £400,000 did dis-chase and drain Hatfield
Chase, whose name deserves a thousand times more to be honourably men-
tioned and received in all histories, than Seaurus was in those of Rome, for
draining a great lake in Italy not a quarter so big as this." That the large
deep pools of water were drained off the Chase, we are willing to allow; but
that this was done to the great benefit of the country round about," is an
assertion which we can by no means admit; The very reverse was the fact,
as the History which I am about to relate will abundantly prove.

The Commissioners were the Viscount Aire, Sir John Saville, Sir Ralph
Hansby, and Sir Thomas Fanshaw. They proceeeded with their task amidst
the loud complaints of the inhabitants, who alledged that the work could
not be said to be completed, for that instead of the water being conveyed
away, it was only removed from the new lands to be spread upon the old:
and when they had assigned the thirds to the respective parties, they were
charged with having sacrificed the interest of the natives, by assigning to
them only the lowest and worst lands. This dissatisfaction of the Commoners
soon produced acts of open violence and outrage.

A manuscript written by one of the original Proprietors gives us the fol-
lowing account of some of these proceedings. "While the great projector
was actively employed in this undertaking, he found himself mightily an-
noyed by the gnats and flies, that is the common sort of the inhabitants,
that set upon him when he should rest ; for they finding these mounds of
earth, cast up for his ease and security. would prove their utter ruin, and dam
that water upon their ancient lands above which should, lay upon his im-
provement below, they disturbed him in his works and when that would not
do, in great numbers they burnt his carts and barrows and working instru-
ments, in great heaps by night."

from The History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme: Being that part of
Lincolnshire which is west of Trent (1838) by Rev. W. B. Stonehouse

Soe many washings still the specks remaine

Landscape with a double rainbow (1812) John Constable

   The skies give succour or they withhold it; and whatever their whim, for the countryman the eternal promise is still vivid in the soft rainbow that spans the fields. For the rainbow over the battered ark, like Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, is one of the several Bible stories that come very near the heart of things for him. He it is who still actually bears the burden of Adam's fall from grace, and for him the rainbow is still knit with the hues of god's mercy.
   I remember coming upon a memorial tablet in a Fenland church commemorating the floods that had devastated the district in the years 1613, 1614, and again in 1670. Surely, complained the author of the quaint rhyme:

'Surely our sins were tinctured in grainne.
May we not say the labour was in vaine,
Soe many washings still the specks remaine.'

In teh face of such continued punishment out of the relentless skies the rainbow itself seemed little better than mockery. But not for long. The countryman know better than that.

'Heavens face is clear, though the Bowe appeare
Reader nere fear: there is no arrow neare.'

from Miles from Anywhere (1944) by C. Henry Warren

Dream the Waves

Life Buoy (Circle Poem) (2006) by Alec Finlay

The moment we had weathered the angle of the Essex coast, bearing to the north, we found ourselves in another element. The waves began to enlarge, with a sullen and angry look, like sea-horses of an enormous size; insultingly they approached us, rolling one after the other with elevated crests and foaming jaws, as if they would swallow us at once. For my part I did not like it ; I could not look in any direction but these monsters presented themselves, and I grew sick at the sight. I was quite horrified, laid myself down on the deck, and shut my eyes till the next morning. A thick fog came on the next day, and bore down the turbulent waves, which was more agreeable to me.

from Music and friends: or, Pleasant recollections of a dilettante (1838) by William Gardiner.

Fenland at Full Moon

Fenland at Full Moon (c.1947) - Artist Unknown

A Fenland superstition is that public dinners should always be held at the full moon, or tragedy will follow. Knowing the Fenland roads, with the wide ditches on each side and the total absence of lights, the authors can well believe it. Driving along these roads in the dim light of a waning or waxing moon is an operation fraught with considerable peril-especially after a public dinner, at which the wine has flowed with the generosity of Fenland people.

from Encyclopedia of Superstitions (1949) by Edwin Radford and Mona A. Radford

As radioactive as an old joke

UK nuclear sites at risk of flooding

     Governments fall from sheer indifference. Authority figures,
deprived of the vampiric energy they suck off their constituents,
are seen for what they are: dead empty masks manipulated by
computers. And what is behind the computers? Remote control.
Of course. Don't intend to be here when this shithouse goes up.
Nothing here now but the recordings. Shut them off, they are
as radioactive as an old joke.
     Look at the prison you are in, we are all in. This is a penal
colony that is now a Death Camp. Place of the Second and Final
Death.
     Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only
those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed
in can hope to escape.

from The Western Lands (1988) by William S. Burroughs.

A Straunge and terrible Wunder

From Rev. Abraham Fleming's account of the appearance of the ghostly black dog "Black Shuck" at the church of Bungay, Suffolk in 1577

This should be a morning to set the church bells ringing in 
that vanished village of Shipden which lies beneath the sea! 
But all I can hear above the roaring of wind and sea is 
the scream of a sea-bird and the song of a lark which the 
storm cannot keep from soaring. If there were any truth 
in those old legends of tolling bells in the sea depths, such a 
gale as this should make the East Anglian coast as musical as 
the "City of Churches" on a Christmas Eve ; for many a ham- 
let, and many a church which was a landmark to seamen, has 
gone down cliff between Aldborough and Lynn. But now 
it is the children only who listen for the bells, just as it is
the children only who go about at night in fear of Black Shuck. 
If this were a stormy night instead of a stormy day the old 
fisher-folk of the coast would say it were just the time for
Black Shuck to be abroad ; for he revels in the roaring of the
waves and loves to raise his awful voice above the howling of the 
gale.

Oh let the frogs and miry bogs destroy where they do enter

A Map of the East & West Fenne (1661) by Wenceslas Hollar, from William Dugdale's The History of Imbanking and Draining of Divers Fens and Marshes

Come, Brethren of the water, and let us all assemble,
To treat upon this matter, which makes us quake and tremble;
For we shall rue it, if''t be true, that Fens be undertaken
And where we feed in Fen and Reed, they'll feed both Beef and Bacon.

They'll sow both beans and oats, where never man yet thought it,
Where men did row in boats, ere undertakers brought it:
But, Ceres, thou, behold us now, let wild oats be their venture,
Oh let the frogs and miry bogs destroy where they do enter!

Behold the great design, which they do now determine,
Will make our bodies pine, a prey to crows and vermine:
For they do mean all Fens to drain, and waters overmaster,
All will be dry, and we must die, 'cause Essex calves want pasture.

Away with boats and rudder, farewell both boots and skatches,
No need of one nor th'other, men now make better matches;
Stilt-makers all and tanners, shall complain of this disaster,
For they will make each muddy lake for Essex calves a pasture.

The feather'd fowls have wings, to fly to to other nations;
But we have no such things, to help our transportations;
We must give place (oh grievous case) to horned beasts and cattle,
Except that we can all agree to drive them out by battle.

Powte's Complaint (c.1611) by an anonymous author and sometimes attributed to the "Fenland Tigers", this ballad was included by William Dugdale in his History of Imbanking and Draining (1662). Another version:

Leave the Lands to the mercy of the Thames

A Prospect of the Breach in Dagenham Level as it appeared Feb. 3 1707

Having given this Account of their Prostration let
us lastly enquire into the Manner how these Trees came 
to be interred, which is a difficulty more easy to be re-
solved than the last. And this I take to be from the
gradual increase of the Mud, or Sediment, which every
Tide of the Thames left behind it. I presume those Trees
might be thrown down before the Walls or Banks were
made, that keep the Thames out of the Marshes; and
then those Trees were over-flown every Tide. And by
reason they lay thick, and near one another on the
ground, they would soon gather a great deal of the Se-
diment, and be soon covered therewith. And after the
Thames- Walls were made, every Breach in them, and
Inundation would leave great quantities of Sediment be-
hind it; as I by a troublesome Experiment found, in
going over some of the Marshes, soon after the late
preach, where I found the Mud, generally above my
Shoes,and in many places above my Knees. And it is
a practice among us (of which we have divers Instances)
that where a Breach would cost more to stop, than the
Lands over-flown will countervail, there to leave the
Lands to the mercy of the Thames; which by gradu-
ally growing higher and higher, by the Additions of
Sediment, will in time shut out the Water of the River,
all except the biggest Tides. And these Lands they call
Saltings, when covered with Grass; or else they become
Reed-ground &c.

From Observations concerning the Subterraneous Trees in Dagenham, 
and Other Marshes Bordering upon the River of Thames, in the
County of Essex. By the Revd. Mr. W. Derham, Rector of Upminster
in the Same County, and F. R. S. (January 1, 1753) published in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

Vanished from the fen when the pools growed up

Marsh White (1975) by Margaret Mellis

" Hob-o'-Lantern," or the " lantern-man," seems to 
have vanished from the fen when the pools "growed up," 
No one appears to regret this, for he is supposed to have 
been a dangerous sprite to encounter, and only foolhardy 
persons went out of their way to make his acquaintance. 
As old Ben once said, "If so be as how you went a-nigh 
him, he would 'come for you' like as though he wor a- 
goin' ter knock you down." This had not been his own 
experience, for he had always kept away from the fen 
when the lantern-man was in possession ; but he had 
known a man to go down into the fen at night with a 
lantern, and have a lantern-man " go right tru him and 
take his breath right away." He had heard people say 
that the lantern-man was only a kind of marsh gas ; but 
he did not believe it, for no matter in what direction the 
wind might be blowing, there were times when the light 
was seen going against it ; in fact, it used to " mamder 
around" in all directions, and then suddenly go "a- 
slidderen orf as though it wor a flash o' lightnin'."

the sea lends large

A Map of Marsh-land in Norfolk (c.1700)  by Sir William Dugdale

And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea
Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood tide must be:
Look how the grace of the sea doth go
About and about through the intricate channels that flow
      Here and there,
      Everywhere,
Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying lanes,
And the marsh is meshed with a million veins,
That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow
    In the rose-and-silver evening glow.
                Farewell, my lord Sun!
The creeks overflow: a thousand rivulets run
’Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir;
Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr;
Passeth, and all is still; and the currents cease to run;
And the sea and the marsh are one.
How still the plains of the waters be!
The tide is in his ecstasy.
The tide is at his highest height:
                And it is night.

from The Marshes of Glynn (1878) by Sidney Lanier

Will O' The Wisp.

Illustration from Robert Mudie's A Popular Guide to the Observation of Nature (1836)

 I have often seen this, although it is every day becoming more rare from the extension of drainage. The first I saw was in a fenny bog called "Quy Bottom," a few miles from Cambridge, on the Newmarket road. I have seen them since, both in Norfolk and Suffolk. Probably W. might procure a sight of one if he would inquire of some rustic where they most frequently occur. But for this purpose he must know the venacular name in the district in which he lives. In Herts they are called "hob o' lanterns," or "hobby-lanterns." Along the valley of the Waveney they are called "Syleham lamps," from a village in Suffolk named Syleham, where formerly they were common, although now destroyed by good drainage. In Norfolk they are called "lantern-men," and it is popularly believed that if a man with a lighted lantern goes near one, the enraged "lanternman" will knock him down and burst his lantern to pieces. More than one labourer, whose truthfulness I have no reason to question, has assured me that such a thing has happened to himself. Quest, Can the lighted lantern have ignited the gas, and caused an explosion, which has startled the rustic and burst his lantern? I have generally seen them at the end of October and beginning of November, probably because the marsh vegetation is then beginning to decay. But I find in my diary that I saw one on the second day of March, 1844.

I do not think that any one could be led astray by a Will o' the Wisp. Its appearance is so peculiar, and its movements so fanstastic, that I cannot imagine it to be mistaken for a light in a house, or a lantern carried by a man. In Norfolk a person who has lost his way, and cannot find a gate or stile, with the situation of which he ought to be familiar, and is in fact utterly bewildered, is said to be "ledwilled." A common remedy with rustics, in such a case, is to turn the left stocking wrong side outwards, and then to renew the search. Forby, and after him Halliwell, derive this phrase "ledwilled" from being led by Will o' the Wisp. But I am inclined to suggest a different origin for it. There is an obsolete adjective "wille," given by Halliwell and Jamieson, signifying lost in doubt: "will of wone," at a loss for a habitation; "will of rede," without advice. Jamieson compares it with Su. G., will, Isl. vill-a, error; Isl. vill-az, to lead astray. He has also, "Wilsum, in a wandering state, implying the ideas of dreariness and ignorance of one's way." This, in Old English, seems to have been wilful. For, in the Robin Hood ballad (Percy's Reliques), Sir Guy of Gisborne says :

"'I am wilful of my way,' quo' the yeman,
     'And of my morning tyde.'
'I'll lead thee through the wood,' sayd Robin,
  'Good fellow, I'll be thy guide.'"

This word, like the Scotch wilsum, seems to answer completely to the Norfolk "ledwilled," which thus would mean "will of leading, at a loss to guide oneself." In the notes to Canto IV. of The Lady of the Lake, Scott quotes from Jamieson's translation of the Kæmpe Viser:

"'Up, will of rede, the husbande stood,
 Wi' heart fu' sad and sair," &c.

To which he appends the following glossorial note :

"Will of rede, bewildered in thought; in the Danish original vildraadage, Lat. inopa consilii; Gr. ἀπορωψ."

 "This expression," he adds, "is obsolete in the Danish as well as in the English." If, however, my conjectural etymology be correct, it is not obsolete in the Norfolk dialect.   E. G. R.

 The anonymous "E.G.R." (1855), Will o' the Wisp. In Notes and Queries, 13th October 1855, p.290.

Tha folk would na give tha Duchies vittles, or beddin', or fair words

Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (c.1650) the Dutch engineer and drainer of the Fens
by Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld

“Tha folk would na give tha Duchies vittles, or beddin', or fair words; no'on let 'em cross tha door-sill; an' tha said to each ither, tha said, as t'ud be ill days for the Cars, an' tha poor Car-folk, so-be tha bog-holes wor meddled wi', an' "Tiddy Mun" wor unhapped.

For thee know'st, Tiddy Mun dwelt in tha watter-holes doun deep i' tha green still watter, an' a comed out nobbut of evens, whan tha mists rose. Than a comed crappelin out i'tha darklins, limpelty lobelty, like a dearie wee au'd gran'ther, Avi' lang white hair, an' a lang white beardie, all cotted an' tangled together; limpelty-lobelty, an' a gowned i' gray, while tha could scarce see un thruff tha mist, an' a come wi' a sound o' rinnin' watter, an' a sough o' wind, an' laughin' like tha pyewipe screech. Tha wor none so skeered on Tiddy Mun like tha boggarts an' such hawiver. A worn't wicked an' tantrummy like tha watter-wives; an' a worn't white an' creepy like tha Dead Hands. But natheless, 'twor sort o' shivery like when tha set round tha fire, to hear the screechin' laugh out by the door, passin' in a skirl o' wind an' watter; still tha only pulled in a bit nigher together, an' lispit wi' a keek ower tha shouther, "'Arken to Tiddy Mun!"

Mind ye, tha au'd Mun hurted none, nay, a wor real good to un at times. Whan tha year wor geyan wet, and tha watter rose i' tha marshes, while it creepit up to the doer-sill, an' covered tha pads, come tha fust New Moon, tha feyther an' mither, an' a' tha brats, ud go out i' tha darklins, an' lookin' ower the bog, called out together, thoff mappen a bit skeered an' quavery like:

"Tiddy Mun, wi'-out a name, tha waiters thruff! "

an' all holdin' on togither an' tremblin', a'd stan' shakin' an' shivering while tha heerd tha pyewipe screech 'cross tha swamp; 'twor tha au'd Mun's holla! an'i'tha morn, sure 'nough, tha watter ud be doun, an' tha pads dry. Tiddy Mun a done tha job for un..”

From the Lincolnshire folk tales collected by Marie Clothilde Balfour in Legends of the Cars (1891).

Learn more about these tales at Telling History the website of historian, writer, folklorist and storyteller Maureen James.

Impervious and quaking

An Essex Marsh by Charles Henry Baskett

"Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps."

from Walking (1863) by Henry David Thoreau

Between the pasture and the wave

Peewits, Essex Marshes (1930) by Charles William Taylor

"Between the pasture and the wave, the many miles of rushes and reeds in England seem to escape that insistent ownership which has so changed (except for a few forests and downs) the aspect of England, and has in fact made the landscape. Cultivation makes the landscape elsewhere, rather than ownership, for the boundaries in the south are not conspicuous; but here it is ownership. But the rushes are a gipsy people, amongst us, yet out of reach. The landowner, if he is rather a gross man, believes these races of reeds are his. But if he is a man of sensibility, depend upon it he has his interior doubts. His property, he says, goes right down to the centre of the earth, in the shape of a wedge; how high up it goes into the air it would be difficult to say, and obviously the shape of the wedge must be continued in the direction of increase. We may therefore proclaim his right to the clouds and their cargo. It is true that as his ground game is apt to go upon his neighbour’s land to be shot, so the clouds may now and then spend his showers elsewhere. But the great thing is the view. A well-appointed country-house sees nothing out of the windows that is not its own. But he who tells you so, and proves it to you by his own view, is certainly disturbed by an unspoken doubt, if his otherwise contented eyes should happen to be caught by a region of rushes. The water is his- -he had the pond made; or the river, for a space, and the fish, for a time. But the bulrushes, the reeds! One wonders whether a very thorough landowner, but a sensitive one, ever resolved that he would endure this sort of thing no longer, and went out armed and had a long acre of sedges scythed to death."

from Rushes and Reeds (1914) by Alice Meynell.

Great Storm, 1613

 

From a small quarto pamphlet of 1613. It was entitled:

 ‘The Wonders of the windie winter, by terrible stormes and tempests, to he losse of lives and goods of many thosands of men, women and children. The like by Sea and Land hath not been seene or heard of in this age of the world."

Waters with Banks confin'd; as in a Gaol

I sing Floods muzled, and the Ocean tam'd,
Luxurious Rivers gover-n'd, and reclam'd,
Waters with Banks confin'd; as in a Gaol,
Till kinder Sluces let them go on Bail;.
Streams curb'd with Dammes like Bridles, taught t'obey,.
And run as strait, as if they saw their way.

Samuel Fortrey (1685)

Huibers's Ark

Dutch artist Johan Huibers has completed building the 'Ark of Noah' a life size replica of the Old Testament boat (currently moored in Dordrecht, Netherlands).

Christian website Bible Verses helpfully provides some apposite Biblical quotes:

Managed Retreat

Along the eastern shore of Britain the line between sea and land has been sketched many times and any particular stroke we might consider now as definitive tells us more about our place in time than about the place’s place in space. Up and down the coast are fields re-claimed from the brine, drained, each one a little victory in a guerrilla campaign against the tide, fought for and barricaded in, fortified with bank and stone work. The war, of course, was actually lost millennia ago when climate change had worked its assault on the northern ice and a distant frozen fortification was undermined - releasing a tsunami across Doggerland, our Palaeolithic Atlantis, the fabled land bridge across which the first hominids had walked here. Since then the German Ocean, the North Sea, has provided our moat – a stretch of water separating the British archipelago from the continent to which it belongs.