Rowling Makes a Stand

Ha, long post, got behind.
Windmills in Lincolnshire are mostly for making flour, around the Broads they were pumps. We have naturally visited Horsey windpump, encouraged by the DS during the fen drainage phase.

I think there may be pumps somewhere? Probably where the dyke would come to a full stop and needs to be pumped up into another watercourse.
Pumps and sluices often go together, and the electric pumps used nowadays are really small compared to windmills and steam engines so less easy to notice.

If it's not pumped then it's definitely witchcraft.

There's a drain that catches the water that comes down off the limestone ridge that Lincoln cathedral sits on the end of. It is way lower than the Fossdyke canal which it goes into via a great big pipe installed under the canal and a pumping station. The Fossdyke is probably Roman and the pipe was put in iirc late 19th century after the Trent levy went all the land down to Lincoln flooded. No way at all for it to drain due to the uphill issue so things had to be done.
Every watercourse that meets the sea on the Lincolnshire coast has to be pumped up as the land is lower and the whole huge area between the wolds and the sea relies on those pumps, and ruddy great sea defences. Same with the lower Trent which was dredged for shipping and trammelled between high levys where it used to be wide and sprawling and shallow enough to ford in places.

That makes sense...windmills in Holland

Probably pumps. I think there's a place along one of the big drains/rivers where their are successive generations of drainage pumps built next to one another. The details escape me but it's something like the oldest is wind powered, then steam, then diesel with the newest being electric, probably with the diesel as back up. The pumphouses are all at different levels as the land shrank as it was pumped dry more and more efficiently.

JK's big on cloaks!
(So is Claudia Winkleman. I am far too excited about The Traitors next season!! )

Celery is better if you run a potato peeler down the corrugated side...

Gravity is not real?

@MoistVonL waffles were also mentioned!

Thanks anyway. I understand fen drainage in principle, it's the practice that defeats me. My friend lives on the edge of March and has a dike flowing past her house. The dike is draining the fen and carries the water on to March where it discharges into the river Nene.

So far, so good. The only thing is: Match is 8 metres above sea level, my friend's house is 4 metres above sea level and the fen is 2 metres below sea level! How does the water flow uphill?

Leor Sapir had an article in Unherd about the case against WPATH

https://archive.ph/1vXeN

https://unherd.com/newsroom/federal-lawsuit-could-spell-end-of-wpath/?edition=us

I think he's qualified, spills plenty of T.

May I introduce Ethel Rudkin?
She was a historian and archivist who collected everything from stories, folklore, wart cures, witch balls, cheesemaking equipment to gigantic farm wagons. I've seen some wagons, they are ginormous and some can convert to a two wheeled trap, the front bit disconnects somehow. She filled up several farmers barns and when sought out by students who rediscovered her in the 1970s could be found excavating salt pans. Plus she has a cracking good name.

I don't have any of her books, last time I tried to find some I failed, must have another look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Rudkin

I thought the whole point was that WPATH was full of people with bias and non evidence-based scientific reasons for their 'guidelines'. I.e. not qualified.

Didn't they ask for a scientific review which didn't say what they wanted it to so they suppressed it?

And anyone is 'qualified' to speak up on safeguarding - it's one of the central tenets of safeguarding. If you see what you have reasonable grounds to think is child abuse (e.g. drugs that will lead to sterilization of children based on no scientific evidence dressed up as 'healthcare'), you must speak up.

Fascinating!

Thanks for that. 👍🏻

While we're on the subject of women leading research on wetlands history, there's an excellent book on Romney Marsh (Kent) by Jill Eddison, Romney Marsh: Survival on a Frontier.

Norfolk Broads history examined and proved by a woman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Lambert

Brigid with her cloak and her Biddies.

Believe it or believe it not, the white and stripes square is green white and violet.

Love this. They walk among us and within us. Patiently waiting to be summoned.

I like to think the old goddesses are very clever at manifesting themselves. They lie buried in names and words, and even insults, ready to spring forth when summoned. And sometimes people don't even know they are summoning them. 😊

Yes it is. It comes from the Proto-Celtic *Brigantī which means "the high one" or "the exalted one".

'brig' still means 'top, highest point' in modern Welsh. E.g. a football team that's top of its league would be "ar y brig".

Well, MN is censoring the map of Ireland's holy wells! Help, help, I'm being oppressed!

Meanwhile, here's an article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56216763

There is a link in that article to the map, just under the photo of the stone.

for anyone with an interest, this is a fantastic interactive map of holy wells throughout the UK. Largely the work of Andy Norfolk, sadly not covering Ireland, where there are other projects to map wells dedicated to St Bride/Brigit.

https://oldwells.co.uk/

Thanks for he reminder. I made some bara brith a couple of weeks ago (very nice) but I found a recipe for it with yeast. I thinking of trying it out and I'd totally forgotten about it.

I went on holiday in the fens a few years ago. Iirc it's only relatively recently that the Broads were recognised as being man made. Considering the size of the holes that were dug, the whole infrastructure that must have existed round it, it's astonishing it was forgotten. Although I expect the locals knew and there were probably fringe scientists who had their suspicions.

A very small one into fen drainage 🙂

I was thinking that babbling tied in nicely with Brigid/Bride's connection to wells and springs.