Pub Crawl

[hvered]

Is 'Wight' related to 'Wig, Wick, Uig etc'? As in Wigton, Wigtown, Wick and so on?

The Romans knew it as Vectis so the pronunciation seems to have been set at least as far back as them if not before.

I'd have thought this very likely. The Wiki article on wick or wich towns says wic/wick names apply to trade emporia which are usually coastal towns, and often associated with brine or salt springs or wells. Assuming the Isle of Wight was an important trade centre, it might be why Vectis was thought to be Ictis or Iktin.

Cotentin contains the 'tin' element. Would that be a connection with the tin trade? Apparently the whole area was fought over between the Bretons and Norwegians for quite a while.

Cote-en-tin certainly sounds like Tin Coast. I'm reading a book about prehistoric tin mining written by a Cornishman; his contention that Cornwall's tin was the best and most plentiful in Europe is unsurprising but enough 'unsuspected' tin mines have been found in France and elsewhere to leave shafts of darkness even in such an authoritative account.

[macausland]

'Iktin'?

Surely not another 'tin' name?

I have found an article on a French tourist site which shows why the the 'etratat, estretat, estretac, estrestac' or whatever it was called had a 'needle'. It certainly looks like one as well as the 'buttonholes' to go with it.

It reminds me of the old children's song and dance 'The good ship goes through the alley alley oh ...'.

According to many sites that song was only written in the nineteenth century and refers to the Manchester ship canal. I wonder.

http://www.francetoday.com/articles/201 ... liffs.html

[hvered]

The pebbles on this stretch of the Normandy coast are the same size and shape as those found in the pebble beds of Budleigh Salterton in Devon. The source of the Budleigh Salterton pebbles, which are apparently unlike anywhere else in Britain, is unknown though they are said to have fallen from the cliffs.

The spit formed by the pebbles prevent the River Otter from flowing into the sea, deflecting it westwards



It is interesting to read that the distinctive red 'Otter Sandstone' is the same type of sandstone found at Wytch Farm oil field in the Isle of Purbeck. There are also sea stacks here such as Hern Point Rock which is about half way between Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth.



Hern is quite an uncommon name and the reddish colour may be related to Hermes red, a scarlet dye obtained from crushed shells of the kermes (kermes oak) beetle pre-South American cochineal dye.

[Boreades]

Not unlike the Parson and Clerk red sandstone cliffs around Dawlish and Teignmouth.

[hvered]

Just noticed that Brixham, also south Devon, has an outlying rock more or less attached to a cliff called Durl Head.

Durl Rock is situated at the southern most extent of Torbay Harbour as defined on the Admiralty charts. South of the impressive Berry Head, it is a sharp dragon's tooth shaped rock formation that is cut off the mainland at half-tide upwards.

Not an island nor a sea-arch, Durl Head appears to be a marker for those in the know since the tidal race here can lead to huge standing waves if the wind is going against the tidal flow

[Boreades]

I could mention Thatcher Rock. Facing west, isolated from the mainland, battered by all extremes, but standing proud.



Some say future prime ministers have been so inspired by it, they changed their name. I couldn't possibly comment.

[Mick Harper]

If you have a look at this page http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/walks/walk_through_time/05.shtml you'll see that Thatchers Rock introduces us to yet another example of what geologists (and archaeologists) assume is a natural feature but that we know -- or at any rate more than half-suspect -- is manmade. The raised beach.

[Mick Harper]

A good way of nosing out bogus geographical claims is to observe how (quite unconsciously) the academics list Megalithic sites. Thus Wiki confidently tells us where to find raised beaches in a general kind of way:

Raised beaches are found in a wide variety of coast and geodynamical background such as subduction on the pacific coast of South America (Pedoja et al., 2006), of North America, passive margin of the Atlantic coast of South America (Rostami et al., 2000[16]), collision context on the Pacific coast of Kamchatka (Pedoja et al., 2006), Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Japan (Ota and Yamaguchi, 2004), passive margin of the South China sea coast (Pedoja et al., in press),

But when it comes to being specific, all the familiar names come tumbling out:

on west-facing Atlantic coasts, such as Donegal Bay, County Cork and County Kerry in Ireland; Bude, Widemouth Bay, Crackington Haven, Tintagel, Perranporth and St Ives in Cornwall, the Vale of Glamorgan, Gower Peninsula, Pembrokeshire and Cardigan Bay in Wales, the Isle of Jura and Isle of Arran in Scotland, Finistère in Brittany and Galicia in Northern Spain and at Squally Point in the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park, Nova Scotia.

[Boreades]

'unsuspected' tin mines have been found in France and elsewhere

Placenames found so far:
Bigorre, in the western Pyrennes
Chessy and Bel near Lyon

Marienburg, Altenburg, Geyer and Zinnwald in Germany being more examples. And Schlackenwald in Bohemia.

Reference.

[spiral]

Is 'Wight' related to 'Wig, Wick, Uig etc'? As in Wigton, Wigtown, Wick and so on?

The Romans knew it as Vectis so the pronunciation seems to have been set at least as far back as them if not before.

I'd have thought this very likely. The Wiki article on wick or wich towns says wic/wick names apply to trade emporia which are usually coastal towns, and often associated with brine or salt springs or wells. Assuming the Isle of Wight was an important trade centre, it might be why Vectis was thought to be Ictis or Iktin.

Cotentin contains the 'tin' element. Would that be a connection with the tin trade? Apparently the whole area was fought over between the Bretons and Norwegians for quite a while.

Cote-en-tin certainly sounds like Tin Coast. I'm reading a book about prehistoric tin mining written by a Cornishman; his contention that Cornwall's tin was the best and most plentiful in Europe is unsurprising but enough 'unsuspected' tin mines have been found in France and elsewhere to leave shafts of darkness even in such an authoritative account.

There is a big connection with Salt and both the Isle Of White and the New Forest....Lymington was a major producer of Salt as was Newtown on the Isle....

Maybe the ancients to boost the salt production and create safe tidal water, transformed a existing Lagoon somewhere around Freshwater Bay and by joining it to the channel created a man made Island...... ? That would make sense.

Maybe a link between Salt and Solent?