h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

("Greywell Tunnel HOUSES an important bat colony" is better)

Excellent - I hope to visit Winchester this weekend if I can persuade my wife to drive there. One thing I noticed was you misspelt Carisbooke. You may want to consider adding a link to the article at A311112 for Carisbrooke Castle.

What did you want to do regarding the earthwork castles? Very few of them can have anything more than a name and location written about them, and definitely would not be worth an article each. We could just have one article listing them all?

Oh, and if Christchurch Castle is still up for grabs, can I do that one?

<BB<

Points taken chaps this still only a rough any content ideas.

Yes <BB< thats why I left it you being local and all

Scuse Icy capitals but the responses stand out better

DONE

No - it isn't a type, it's a castle. But it's an *example* of this type, certainly.DONE

I'd be inclined to describe it in the opening sentence as something like:

"Odiham Castle is a small 13th-Century ruin on the banks of the Basingstoke Canal in North Hampshire." DONE


The keep's octagonal, isn't it? Do you mention that? THAT IS GOING IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTION


Having visited the site, I'm pushed to describe it as "a site that evokes both the power and majesty of kings". It's certainly a fascinating place to stumble upon, though. TRY AGAIN AFTER ABOUT 4 PINTS ON A WARM SUMMERS EVENING


Can you also give some instructions for visitors (where they should park their car, nearest public transport, etc) - I can help with this if you're not sure. WILL DO


Can you also mention other sites of interest in the area. Include Odiham, of course. I WILL LOOK INTO ODIHAM ADDITIONS (got married in Odiham church dont think that counts though)

I'd also mention the Basingstoke Canal, as this isn't covered elsewhere in the Guide. In fact, I was once planning to write about it, but got bogged down and never finished. Here are a couple of paragraphs from ny draft, which you're very welcome to use or abuse, if you think it needs it:

"An oasis of peace and tranquility amid one of the busiest parts of the country, the Basingstoke Canal is a fully-navigable waterway which runs for 37 miles between Greywell in Hampshire and Woodham in Surrey. Built in the 18th Century to allow barges to deliver agricultural produce from Hampshire to London, it fell into disuse with the advent of the railways and was for the most part derelict by the 1940s."
ADDED
"A short walk along the towpath to the west of St John's Castle lies the 1,120m long Greywell Tunnel. In the latter half of the 20th Century the roof collapsed - a restoration job too far for the canal society volunteers. Greywell marks the western end of the navigable section, although ramblers can follow the footpath through to Basingstoke. Today, Greywell Tunnel is an important bat colony."
ADDED

Carisbrooke still needs an 'E' on the end I'm afraid.

I've started an Earthwork castle entry here: A75730386 We can perhaps write about all the castles there that we've not got enough information about to warrant their own article.

<BB<

I've also done an overview article here: A75733437 which shows what has been done and will be done by who. I hope no-one minds as after all I consider this to be BobStafford and Icy North's project that I'm helping with.

Is there anywhere you'd like to cover, Icy North?

<BB<

Funny you should say that - I'm seeing this as Bob's and Bluebottle's project

I don't have much knowledge of castles - I've just lived in and around Hampshire for years (and worked for a while in the gin palace next to Fort Southwick). If you're really stuck, then I could always try to cover Hurst Castle, as I visited it a couple of years ago and picked up a small book (no idea where it is, though). But if that was on anyone else's list, then that's fine, too - I'll be happy to pre-sub-edit anything or give you the dubious benefit of my opinions. (If you hadn't already guessed, I prefer quality over quantity )

I see the earthworks as a series of individual entries <BB< but the header page is a good job well done.
If you want to make it an entry in its own right then we must expand it into a basic political and historical overview.

Hampshire Castles (excluding earthworks):

Basing House - ME PLEASE
Merdon Castle - ME PLEASE
Warblington Castle - ME PLEASE

I've updated the Earthworks entry. If you feel you have enough information about any of the castles in that article to write a whole article about them then that's fine - I've not been able to find out much about them and rather than ignore them completely I thought it would be better to have something written about them.

I'll add your name to those castles, and Icy North, I've no objection to you doing Hurst Castle should you wish to.

<BB<

I found my Hurst Castle booklet, so I may well have a stab at that - at the very least I can draft it and let you castle enthusiasts add all the geeky bits

In the back of the booklet, it lists some interesting stuff in 'Further Reading'. One reference which caught my eye is an article in the Archaeological Journal (the publication of the Royal Archaeological Institute). It's this:

SAUNDERS, A D (1966) 'Coastal defences since the introduction of artillery', Archaeological Journal 123: 136-171

Now, this is available from the RAI for just the price of post & packing (£4.50). If you think it might be useful, then you'll find info and a Back Issue order form here: http://www.royalarchaeolinst.org/

I suggest if anyone's really interested, they e-mail them and double check before they order anything that this article is indeed in issue 123.

Icy

I just had a trawl through an academic research site and found a couple of interesting articles from British Heritage which I can mail to anyone who's interested. The first (Ancient Walls) 'Focuses on Great Britain's use of castle walls and shore forts in defending against Germany during World War II'. The second (England's Shore Forts) 'Features several shore forts in England. Factors contributing to the creation of the forts; Description of the interior passages; Architectural design.'

I also have an interesting 1989 article from History Today about Fort Nelson.

If you're interested, e-mail me at icy (underscore) north (at) hotmail (dot) com

Icy

Quick question - are we going to put these articles into peer review when we've written them, or do we want to have them as a University Project and submit them all together? If so, I can remove the articles I've written about Yarmouth and Calshot Castles from Peer Review.

<BB<

Personally, I'd prefer the entries to stand alone. Then, there's a steady flow of them going through Peer Review.

We can use this forum to support each other with advice and additional research.

What do you think, Bob?

As long as we unite them in some way that's important, it is an unusual project in many ways some 20+ entries on the same subject in a first I think.

They should all include a header as in a uni entry linking them to their section at least and we should identify the project in the titles in some way with the prefix Solent Defences perhaps.

Stand alone is good but with uniting it all in some way is vital as we will just end with a lot of castle entries, can the Eds suggest something.

There's no reason why we can't have a top menu on each which unites them. We just have to keep it updated (the curators will be happy to do this after they get published).

The largest project was the one written by Galaxy Babe, Gnomon and others on on star constellations - 88 entries in all! They submitted them one by one, as it's just too big a job for people to review 88 at once. 20 would be pushing it too.

Agreed that need only to be united has begun that task. And each entry linked and separately linked with all the others of its type.

When we get them all published we could ask if our previous entries also could be included in the overall project - the one on Carisbrooke Castle, Southampton Town Walls & Castle, Portchester Castle and perhaps even the Glossary and article on curtain walls as appendices. What do you think?

<BB<

I'm all for links. There are lots of ways to do it, though.

The normal in-line links to words are useful for tangential subjects.

The top menu (like we have in the constellations project) is useful for very similar related entries, eg. Yarmouth / Carisbrooke / Portchester / Southsea Castles.

If the subjects are more diverse, you might consider a standard closing section "Links to further information".

Both are good ideas and I would be in favourmultiple links and header list