Hill top history

24 April

Sunday morning and it’s a nice day out there again; Jan is off to church, Kile is sat here with me and he goes home as soon as Jan gets back from church and had a drink. Me? What am I doing? Sat at me lappy writing this … … …

With all the big names in the world of entertainment dropping like flies these days, there’s one man who I haven’t missed on the BBC News, Robert Peston. When he was reporting I hated the way he delivered his mumblings; slow, drawn-out words, and gaps where there shouldn’t have been any. I often wondered if that was his normal manor of speech. Either it wasn’t, or he has been and still is working hard to stop doing it. I recorded and watched him the other day looking at the upcoming referendum; a much better delivery, although I won’t be going after watching him every time he’s on.  

When it comes to watching the news on telly, I much prefer the BBC than ITN. I find the BBC gives a much better, professional broadcast than ITN, especially on the local news. Midlands today is by far the best local news I’ve seen. As for what you get in the Manchester area, well, no contest there. Various campaign groups are fighting to stop the government from force changes on the BBC, that would make it more pro-tory. I seem to remember that the last labour lot tried something similar too. I suppose it is what you get for being independent of all political and commercial ties, you get hammered from both sides of spectrum. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

There’s not much on telly again this evening anyway. Apart from Country File and Antiques Roadshow, the only show I’m interested in is the Channel 4 The Mystery of the Crossrail Skulls. The building of the new tube cross-rail tube line has found a lot of archaeological sites that were suspected be in the London area, or totally unexpected. This particular show is on the dozens of roman era skulls found beneath Liverpool Street Station. It makes me wonder just how much we have all lost as our towns have grown and developed. Dorktown for instance, can be found mentioned in the Doomsday Book, but what was here before that and how did the hamlet come into being.

Yes, yes, I know. A lot of people are not interested in history and claim it to be boring. I don’t agree; after all, my hons degree is in history. I remember on one telly show where a historian was showing someone a series of historical sites. At one time the non-history buff says, ‘Why is it that all history is at the top of a big hill?’ That is a reasonable question you know, at least from a nun-history buff. For me the answer lies in the history and the site itself. By building castles, monuments great houses and so on, on top of hills is two-fold. The building or whatever, can be seen from miles around. The t’ther side is that the builders/owners/lords, could also see all-round them on top of a hill. That is plain common sense.

But I invite you to inspect any discipline or subject that you might be interested in more closely though. No matter the subject, there is always a ‘steep learning curve,’ in modern terms, when coming to a new subject. That learning curve is rising above the level ground from the starting point. All experts have had to climb to the top of their particular hill, and the better ones never actually stop climbing that hill. That is how knowledge is gained and human life advances. Some advances are not so good and are abandoned when seen not to work, but even that is not a wasted effort in that lessons have been learned.

And one example, one we all know about too. When was the last time you cleared your browsing history? See, its that one little 'h' word again.

So then, today’s photo …

William of Orange(complete with a pigeon!) I shot this in South Devon a couple years ago. How do we know who it is? Because of history my friends. That was last time England was invaded, not in 1066! The difference is that there was no battle and the then king ran away to France where he was safer.

Today’s funny …

Wife: You're always complaining. I wish you would make allowances for my mother's little short comings.
Husband: I'm not complaining about her shortcomings. It's her long staying’s I object to.