Comments on: Tintagel Castle

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:39:55 +0000

True, it is a bit of a climb. But then that answer leads to the question, why not go somewhere where it’s easier to get around? Eh, it’s not my time and money I suppose.

Starcross is a good name. I’d call my village Starcross, if I had one.

By: Nicholas Waller

Nicholas Waller — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:56:08 +0000

I was also in Tintagel briefly during September (24th) - the first time I'd been there since a visit with my then-gf in the summer of 1977. I went on a day trip from Somerset, first going to Teignmouth (home of Muse) via a village - while we're on evocative names - called Starcross, then across Dartmoor. There are relatively few visitors to Tintagel itself compared to the tacky village for probably the same reason there are relatively few people walking round the top of Cheddar Gorge (my regular Sunday walk) compared with Cheddar village below - its actually pretty steep and tough to get about on. There's a Land Rover shuttle for the more infirm or lazy the half-mile or so down to the entrance, but after that its a lot of steep wooden steps. We have some other good names in Somerset, like Shepton Mallet, Chew Magna and Westonzoyland, next to the last battle on English soil, the Battle of Sedgemoor. And, to be relevant to this blog, site of an RAF base 1926-68

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:42:16 +0000

See, Australia has many places with names imported directly or indirectly from Britain, but for some reason we don't tend to pick ones like Slaughterbridge or Middle Wallop (or Westward Ho!), despite having no aversion to silly place names. There are exceptions, though. I used to live in Footscray, which is named after Foots Cray, a charmingly odd name.

By: JDK

JDK — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:02:06 +0000

Don’t compromise on Slaughterbridge, when you can have Lower, Upper or Middle Wallop, Piddletrenthythe or Long Load. I lived in Middleton Stoney for a while, which is a long way from Stoney Middleton, if people were careless of the addresses. There are many more, even greater enjoyment can be obtained by adding the naive American (even if mythic) tourist element.

The very charismatic Michael Wood’s TV programme on Arthur in his ‘In Search of Myths & Legends’ series is very good as a look at the legends, the ‘realities’ and as you’ve touched on Brett, the need for re-inventing myths for new political purposes. A good jog trot through the complexities of the Artherian stories. Of course, on a basic level, if a story has a clear need to exist and feels ‘right’ in the way that Arthur does, the historian alarm bells should sound max volume…

By: Erik Lund

Erik Lund — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:41:22 +0000

Study those birds, and you’ll learn that aviation is just a great illusion!

By: Alan Allport

Alan Allport — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:44:46 +0000

Now why can’t I live somewhere with a fantastic name like Slaughterbridge?