Saturday 12 October 2013

Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. Garmondsway



Q2. Chesney Allen

(N.B there are around one hundred and fourteen deserted villages listed for Durham but one which looks like it could be a good fit, being four miles or so west south west of Station Town, is Garmondsway)


The initial clues place us most likely in Station Town, which is listed as being a village, in the county of Durham, and could be why the puzzle author has used the quote marks around the word town. There does seem to be a dismantled railway line near this hamlet and it looks like it passed slightly to the north west, though there are also remnants of a disused line approaching from the south (now a walking trail). About four miles west south west of there, according to the OS map, lies the abandoned medieval village of Garmondsway (this is also listed as a deserted medieval village and field system on some heritage sites). Six miles or so south east of Station Town, lies the port and former shipbuilding town of Hartlepool. Some references claim that the last ship constructed in the town, called the Blanchland, was launched from there c 1961. The settlement was shelled heavily by the imperial German navy c 1914, with around 119 casualties and six members of the Durham Light Infantry being killed in the attack, which was one of the first of the war and became known as the 'Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby raid'. An Indian built frigate, which lies in the harbour museum there, is most likely HMS Trincomalee, which was according to the ship's official web site, constructed in India c 1817.


Hartlepool abbey was according to some sources constructed on a headland called the Heugh, c 640 ad and the first abbess was a Saint Hieu (feast day 21 Sep). The second abbess was a saint Hilda (feast day Nov 17) and St Hilda's church, which now stands on the Heugh headland, is dedicated to her memory. The author Compton Mackenzie is said in some references, to have been born in west Hartlepool c 1883, he was a very prolific writer and is probably remembered more for his work 'Whisky Galore', than for the book which features John Ogilvie, 'The Four Winds of Love'. Depending on which source you check, the comedian Chesney Allen was born c1893 or 1894 and died in 1982. I found one reference which claims that his first week away from his home in London, was spent in repertory, at the Grand, in west Hartlepool c 1912. The comedy duo Flanagan and Allen did a sketch called 'Oi', a version of which can be heard on Spotify.

Where Was I?

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