A-Z Challenge 2018 - British Rivers: 'S' Severn, Swale

The challenge this year is taking me to rivers and places that I didn't know well. For the Rivers Severn and Swale it's a different story.

The Old Customs House, Gatcombe, Gloucestershire

My younger son and his family once lived here. The lane in front leads to a watery end in the River Severn if you pass under a railway bridge.

Here is how it looks in a later photograph.

Gatcombe near Blakeney, Gloucestershire

Close to the river it's only separated by the railway.

The Severn Line train passing Gatcombe

My grandsons and I used to climb a bank through the trees on the right.

Accompanied by Milly and Cara

From the walk alongside the trees different views of the Severn could be obtained.

Severn at low tide between Gatcombe and Purton

The Severn is considered to be the longest river in the UK, rising in Wales it flows c 220 miles to run into the Bristol Channel and thence into the Irish Sea and the Atlantic.

Severn Map - Course of the River Severn

In terms of water flow it is the greatest river in England and Wales.

It's almost four years now since we visited Richmond in North Yorkshire to visit its magnificent castle. of course when you are there you get some magnificent views,

Looking down on the River Swale from the castle walls.

It's a long way down if you fall

Better to take a riverside walk - 

But keep off the rocks and not get swept away

Photo attributions:

• Gatcombe, near Blakeney, Gloucestershire: 4 March 2007 ex geograph,org,uk by Ruth Sharville - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• Severn Line train passing Gatcombe: 20 September 2008 ex geograph.org.uk by Stuart WIlding - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• Severn at low tide between Gatcombe and Purton: 28 June 2016 by Forester2009 - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence
• Severn Map: 19 January 2015 by Chris bayley: CC BY 2.5 licence

Look Straight Down - Thematic Photography

The danger is, as you get older, that you may not see your feet when you look straight down. However I do have shots that will qualify, some from years ago.

Looking down from St Rule's Tower, St Andrews - c1956/7

Moving on about 20 years to Norway I was looking down again.

1000 feet down to the water close to the Pulpit Rock, Lysefjord

The Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen) has a vertical drop of 1982 feet (604m) down to the fjord.

Much more mundane is the shot I took looking at a drain last winter.

Iced Drain

When we were at Richmond Castle last week I baulked at climbing the narrow spiral staircase to the top - that would have been an ideal place to look straight down. So I have had to settle for this view from the walls.

Bridge over the River Swale from the Castle wall

Of course if you are not careful someone may catch you looking straight down.

Danger strimmer at work!

No, I wasn't whacking weeds.

For other wacky shots looking straight down visit Carmi at Thematic-photographic-305.

Please be seated - Thematic Photography

When we visited Richmond in North Yorkshire today there were times when I would have been delighted if someone had said to me. 'Please be seated.'

But no-one did, even although there were seats like this available.

This one was the first we passed on our way down from the Market Place to the River Swale.

We could even have used several along the riverside, even those that had seen better days.

Can you spot the dog behind the tree?

Further on we were spoiled for choice when we had stopped for coffee.

Free seating

But we preferred to stand and look over the wall at the 

River Swale, Richmond

Of course we got a better view of the river from up on Richmond Castle's walls.

Looking down on the River Swale

By the time we had walked up here we were very pleased to see a vacant bench. There was no need for us to be invited to be seated.'

Bench in the Castle garden

We know at least two who never needed to be asked that question.

Maxie and Sam

Who needs a blanket?

If you still need to be invited to sit down then check out Carmi's 'Please be seated' at Thematic-photographic-304.

Arthur's Castles - Sepia Saturday

As some of you may know I am taking part in the annual April A-Z Challenge again this year. Last year my theme was Castles and, where possible, haunted ones. This year I had intended to cover the legendary King Arthur and places associated with him. I abandoned that theme as my draft posts were far too long and the A-Z sequence makes the stories about him too disjointed. However I’m pleased to say that I have adapted some for this week’s Sepia post.

There are many sites associated with Arthurian legends. Tintagel in Cornwall is the king’s traditional birthplace.

Tintagel Castle 2002

 Arthur’s father was King Uther Pendragon. Arthur was conceived at Tintagel when Uther had Merlin smuggle him, in disguise, into the Castle to enable him to lie with Igraine, the wife of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall. Uther had besieged the Duke in another castle shortly before.

The ruined castle of today was built long after the Arthur lived. The medieval castle built in 1141 by Reginald of Cornwall, the illegitimate son of Henry I, had little strategic importance and the site proved a difficult building place. At one time owned by the Black Prince, by 1540 it was a ruin, In the echoing chamber of Merlin’s Cave the wizard’s ghost is said to wander, It’s also said that Arthur lives on in the form of the Cornish chough, a bird to be seen perched on the storm lashed ledges of the cliffs.

 

Pendragon Castle

Pendragon Castle in Cumbria is said to be built on the site of a fifth-century fortress constructed by King Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon. He supposedly settled there after killing a dragon-serpent that was terrorising the region. He also tried unsuccessfully to divert the River Eden to make a moat. A local rhyme goes, “Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, Eden will run where Eden ran.” In his old age he took up arms against the Angles; and was to die at the castle from a water supply poisoned by his enemies.

The castle ruins we see are those of a later castle built in 1173 by Hugh de Morville, one of Thomas Becket’s murderers, in the 12^th century. It was destroyed by fire twice, but eventually rebuilt by in the 17^th century by Lady Anne Clifford. After her death it was left to fall into ruins. With Arthurian links and stories of Merlin living there and visiting Castlerigg Stone Circle there are many accounts of supernatural phenomena. When the moon cloaks the ruins in an eerie glow a ghostly horseman gallops soundlessly towards the castle. We will never know whether the horseman is the mortally sick Uther Pendragon returning from battle, or a messenger or a warrior of the Clifford Clan.

Stories abound about King Arthur and his knights. One of these is associated with a castle within 30 miles of where I live.

 

Richmond Castle - Curtain Wall from the southern bank of the River Swale

Built by the Normans the Castle overlooks the River Swale in Yorkshire. Richmond Castle shares a similar folk tale with other places. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table slumber in a cave below the castle, waiting to be called to England’s aid. There are many such legends that he and his knights are not dead but merely sleeping somewhere.

Potter Thompson was a man married to a harridan of a wife. To escape her constant carping he took a walk and eventually finished up below the castle. When pausing for a rest he noticed a gap in the rocky escarpment which appeared to be the entrance to a cave. He looked in and saw a faint light glowing at one end of a long passage. Following the light Peter Thompson found himself in a large cavern where, fast asleep, were a king and knights in full armour.

He recognised King Arthur because on a table in the centre of the cavern were a horn and famous sword Excalibur. Excited that he had found King Arthur’s resting place, Peter decide to take Excalibur to prove his story was true. When he started to take the sword from its scabbard, the knights stirred. Terrified, Thompson ran but not before a sorrowful voice had intoned:

Peter Thompson, Peter Thompson,

If thou hadst either drawn

The sword, or blown the horn,

Thou wouldst have been the luckiest man

That ever yet was born.

Thompson began to feel better and braver once he was outside. If he went back for the sword or the horn all his troubles would be over. He turned back but the entrance to the cave had gone. Despite a frantic search all over the rocky banks of the castle the secret tunnel was never revealed to him again.

Finally we come to the castle that ultimately led to Arthur’s death.

Dover Castle 1887

 

 

 (By David MacGibbon & Thomas Ross)

Dover is associated with the conflict towards the end of Arthur’s life between the King and his son (or nephew) Mordred. During Arthur’s absence in a French war Mordred seized the crown and garrisoned an army at Dover to prevent his father’s return. Fierce fighting ensued before Mordred was driven back. At the end of the battle Sir Gawaine was discovered badly wounded. Before he died Sir Gawaine wrote to Sir Lancelot who was overseas, calling him back to Arthurs’s aid.

Sir Lancelot assembled a huge army and landed at Dover – too late to help Arthur who had been slain at the Battle of Camlann.

For more on castles and monuments cross over to the links at Sepia-Saturday-171.

Photos:

• Tintagel - Alan Simkins - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection
• Pndragon - David Medcalf -  CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection
• Richmond - David Dunford - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection