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

Far be it from me to come marching in with my size 10s, but I'd probably counsel that when it comes to any new sections for this entry, brevity might be the best option? Now of course everybody knows that h2g2 isn't a race for the first written or most comprehensive entries, but I think it might be remiss of me to point out that 'Devon' is far and away the biggest of all of the 'County' entries so far being put together - in fact, it's somewhat considerably more comprehensive than we were originally envisaging.

Now that is of course utterly marvellous, and a real testament to all of you... just don't get caught in the never-ending trap of trying to include *everything* about the county or you'll be here forever and ever!

HUGELY impressed by all of the work you've been doing so far though, everyone! Keep it up!

Paully

All the sections that are to be written are there as subheaders already Paully - now go and read the thread again like a good chap - I was talking about cutting it down by paring down the whole history section into another entry to reduce its size

I've taken out the big bits that I was planning to re-write so you can see the vision, Paully

Oh, I read it very carefully already, Skanky dear chap! I was just thinking of you lovely people and being concerned that you didn't take on too much!

Paully

You're too kind, Paully!

I'd rather have too much then edit it down (or hive off some seperate entries as with the history stuff) than have an entry that didn't do justice to the subject.

No amount of words would do justice to the subject, anyway, Parrferris

Ever been to Devon, Paully? Take a tour and you'd understand why this is such a massive entry

Oh, indeed I have been to Devon. Beautiful, beautiful county.

I'm just fascinated by how different researchers are taking onboard this project. Some of them have used it to create a definite 'portal-style' site, providing almost the bare bones facts about a county in the hope that researchers might write fuller, bigger entries about many of the towns/facts/features listed. Others, like your good selves, have written a much larger entry that incorporates a huge amount of extra detail.

Personally, I'm delighted that we've got both types heading into the Edited Guide!

Paully

" Honiton offers little to the visitor in itself"

the coach loads of tourists each year may have something to say.

Desubscibing again

I'm delighted to announce that we already have two County entries in Peer Review, waiting to receive any bouquets or brickbats that people might lob in their general direction! If you're currently either working on or contributing to a County entry of your own right now, you might like to have a quick look to see how some other researchers have tackled this challenge. They are: County Fermanagh (A6092606) and Norfolk (A6108473).

Hope you enjoy reading them!

Paully

And I thought posting the same message on multiple threads was frowned upon as spamming. Tsk, tsk. Honestly. It's one rule for the them, and another for us

Yes, you're absolutely correct! Control of the h2g2 Big Red Button has its priviliges, after all!

But the reason I've posted the message to all of the active threads is because the vast majority of people have only subscribed to one County - therefore they wouldn't have seen the message otherwise. Y'see, method to the madness...

Paully

Look at this!! Now he's chatting on a collaborative entry thread!! Some people have no respect

I think I'll let you off, Paully, seeing as we'd have still had *that* Devon entry to represent us if you hadn't had this rather good idea!

(although it was bit of a cheap shot to send it to the bleedin' Cornish as well )

It's been so long since I did any work on this, I had to go to someone else's page to find a link to the conversation

Anyway, I've significantly pared down what remains to be done on this. Anyone that can help to flesh out the enormous bones that are still protruding from this entry will get as much as they can drink. Any takers? Please?

We need:

A brief history (new entry has been created for Mol's extended stuff - hope you don't mind )
North Devon
Exeter
East Devon Coast
Okehampton (could just link to Paff's entry, though - its in the FP queue I think)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can add anything, however small!

Entry still at A6021505

OK Skankyrich. I needed a bit of pressure put on me.

When I said (in some other thread somewhere or other) that I'd get round to doing the Oke bit, you said no hurry (or something to that effect), so I did the Devon thing and didn't hurry.

I _will_ do an Oke section. It'll be a short summary of my pending Oke entry. I'll do it dreckly. No. I'll do it very soon.

You can count that para above as some sort of promise type thing. Give me some grief if you haven't heard from me in a week.

I should have some notes on Exeter somewhere ... and I did live there for 3 years ... sigh. Rougemont rock, Roman outpost, cathedral, university, the house that moved - just kind of strung together in sentences, I suppose. Ought to have an entry of its own, really.

I have to say, I do think that a geographic entry like this needs a map or two! Devon is fascinating in maps. Look at the geology, then superimpose land use and communication routes. And the distribution of settlements (husband invariably laughs at me for calling them settlements).

I haven't forgotten, it's just that the run up to Christmas is slightly on the busy side! I'm sure I'll have lots of time in the New Year. Oh, hang on, I haven't managed to finish the entry I started *last* Christmas yet.



Jolly good work by the team, though.

Mol

Just had a quick look at the entry again. It is good isn't it! The opening section is great.

Hope it's OK to continue to put some thoughts into this thread...


Bare Facts
Is it worth mentioning that the Taw and Torridge are the rivers where the Tarka the Otter story was set? Or maybe that's something to go in the For The Visitor section?


North Devon
If I had the time I could do this justice. I'll see (but _not_ promise) if I can come up with something about Barstaple, Bideford, maybe a sentence or two about Torrington and maybe South Molton. Oh, and maybe a bit about ND coast, Hartland, etc. And there's all the surfers stuff up at Ifracombe and Saunton and round there. So much stuff. Let me have a think.


Westward Ho!
I think it is also true that Westward Ho! was named after a fictional place, from the book "Westward Ho!" by Charles Kingsley. (A bit of googling seems to confirm this).


Lundy Island
If you can't see Lundy from the mainland, it's raining. If you _can_, it's about to rain.


For the Visitor to Know
(Might need re-wording...) There are a number of towns and villages on the edge of Dartmoor (particularly to the North) where it is claimed that "the Devil died of cold". This is due to the abnormal amount of rain that gets dropped and mist that gets caught around the edge of Dartmoor. Don't let this put you off holidaying in Devon. Jump in the car and drive a couple of miles to find those huge blue skies.

Wonderful!

Just about to go to bed, and I find people are still subscribed after all

I'll reply to these in the morning; it's great to hear that you guys are still up for doing stuff on the project. I think we're almost there, you know

Great!

I've added Paff's bits into appropriate parts of the entry and look forward to getting a brief bit on Okey by the end of the week

Mol, it would be great to have maps but it's hard enough to get diagrams on! good point, though, I'll try to find links to some map; there's a breat geological map somewhere if I can find it again... As far as Exeter goes, it's criminal that there isn't an entry on it (for me part of the great thing of this whole project is highlighting things that aren't in the Guide that really should be), but I'll try to come up with a few paragraphs as a quick introduction to the city.

Which leaves a brief history, East Devon Coast (hopefully Parferris will pop in and say it's covered soon ) and North Devon - Paff, anything you can add to this would be great. I'll bang on with Exeter and the history, you do Okey and we'll see where we are then, eh?

I hope I'm not starting to sound pushy, but this has been hanging over me for so long now!

Thanks guys - and yes, Paff, it *is* looking good

Right on schedule (or maybe leaving it till the last minute) here's my Oke bit.

In GuideML. Hoping this helps. If you'd prefer it in plain text I can repost it.

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Okehampton


'The town with moor'As the signs on the way into town would have you know.. The market town of Okehampton sits right in the middle of Devon, at the top edge of Dartmoor. Years back Okehampton (or Oke as the locals call it - pronounced Oak-ee) was known as the bottleneck - the place where the summer holiday trip down to the South West turned into a traffic jam. Nowadays the A30 goes straight past, so Oke is quite often ignored by visitors to north and south Devon or is bypassed by tourists on their way to Cornwall. So, unlike some other tourist hotspots, Oke doesn't get too overrun by visitors during the summer.



Places of note in Okehampton:



The Market Hall - hosting the auction, the pannier market (four days a week), and the farmers market (once a month).
The Museum of Dartmoor Life - a disused granary converted into an award winning museum.
Okehampton Castle - built during the Norman conquest, now an English Heritage site.
Simmons Park - including gardens (of course), bowling green, tennis courts, pavilion and putting green.



Most noteworthy though is this: Okehampton lies right on the edge of Dartmoor. The moor is visible on the way into Oke, from any direction. The moor lurks behind buildings then emerges just like the sun breaks from behind the clouds. The moor feels so close you can almost reach out and touch it. The moor brings the visitors. The moor brings the rain. The moor brings the sense of space. There is an un-signposted road out of the back of Oke that leads onto Dartmoor. Find it and follow it. Then you'll understand why Okehampton truly is the town with moor.


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Two things though:
1) I'm not sure if s should be inside s or not. I've always done them without, and have coded my nifty little GuideML converter Word macro as such.

2) I'm also unsure if the ULs spoil the flow, particularly bearing in mind the rest of the entry. I can jig it about to have the list as text within the second para if that would look better.


Paff