Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday, 7 October 2021

Changing Coasts


With the approach of the Glasgow conference on climate change we are surrounded by information and sound-bites on what is happening, will happen, could happen, should happen to protect the global environment. I am no sceptic about the dangers and hope that a proper and realistic response can be agreed upon and implemented. 

As a historian I am particularly aware of changes that have taken place in historic, as opposed to prehistoric and geological, time, and to our knowledge of changing weather patterns and to specific events. I have occasionally referred to these in past blog posts. I was therefore interested by a post about coastal changes which I saw the other day and thought was worth sharing. Many of the examples are from this country. Others are from Denmark, the US and Australia. Some, such as the fates of Dunwich and of Old and New Winchelsea, or the threat to the remains of Reculver were known to me. Others, such as the burial by the sand dunes in 1720 of Rattray on the Aberdeenshire coast or the loss of Hallsands in Devon in 1917, were instances new to me. 

The handsomely illustrated article, which operates laterally as a slide show rather than a site to scroll down,  can be seen at The world's amazing places swallowed by the sea



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