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Tuesday 21 September 2010

A local history lesson - by JD Schnauzer

Hi everyone - it's JD here. Now, since my brother took over our blog recently to boast about his amazing detective skills in 'The Case of The Mysterious Blue Pelican' I thought it would only be fair for me to take over a post of my own to let our pals know a little bit more about where we live. This is because we both love our home town and we'd like to share a little bit of its history.

As you probably all know we live in a place called 'Clacton-On-Sea' but what you probably don't know is that the name of our town dates back to 500 AD - I don't even want to think about just HOW long that is in dog years, suffice to say it was a very, VERY long time ago! Anyway, in 500 AD Saxons - under their leader Clacc - set up residence and named the place 'Clacc Inga Ton' which translates as 'the Village of Clacc's People'. The 'On-Sea' part of our town's name was added by more modern humans, probably to make sure there's no confusion about what all that blue, wet stuff is that floats along side our town, he he he!

I'd like to do a few posts like this about our local history so I've decided to impart a juicy little snippet of information like this each time and then add some photos of historic local landmarks. But do let me know what you think of this post okay? As I wouldn't want to bore you all with local history if you don't find it interesting....

Anyway, without further ado, here are some photos of remaining memories of World War II that we have dotted around our town. These are look-out towers that can be found along Clacton seafront.

A World War II look-out tower - a genuine piece of local history!

Although a bit of scaffolding has been added to this particular one (as it's now used as a bird watching tower by local twitchers!) you can see the series of small 'windows' where the soldiers would have stood to watch the seas for approaching enemies. This particular look-out tower is on the highest point of the coast and is set back slightly further than the others, on the top of a hill. Because of this high vantage point it is in better condition than the others - and it also offers spectacular views, so it is very popular with twitchers and walkers alike. We like it when FH picks us up and puts us on the very top of it....

"Don't look down Max!!! Gosh, it's kinda high up here......!"

...because it means we can really appreciate the amazing views! From this look out tower you can look directly out to sea....

Amazing sea views from the look-out tower, even more spectacular when the weather is as beautiful as it was on this day!

....or you can look over to the nature reserve behind it, where there is a small lake where lots of geese and some herons live! (If you biggify the picture below you can see the bird hides in front of the lake.)

Nature reserve with small lake and lots of very noisy geese!

There are several other look-out towers that were built directly on the beach - because of this they are not in such good condition. These beach-front look-out towers have now been incorporated into our modern-day sea wall defences - we suppose it's an agreeable compromise to ensure a bit of local history isn't destroyed.

Another look-out tower as part of our sea defence wall! If you biggify the picture above you can see the two of us checking out pee-mail alongside it - there's always some really good messages left here!

Even though these other look-out towers are hidden behind the sea defence walls we still think they're fascinating and really appreciate that we live in such an amazing place.

JD checks out the view from a rather crumbly looking look-out tower!

19 comments:

Oskar said...

Oh we love posts like these, so please keep them coming!

I know Clacton-on-Sea is much safer with both of you manning the lookouts!

Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar

Unknown said...

OOOOOO!!!!!
Such a treat!
we did read up a little about where u live, but that was nothing compared to today's post. Straight from a resident schnauzer's mouth!
Enjoyed the trip thoroughly.
That look out tower looks like a lot of fun...
have u caught any geese yet? can we come over n help?
wags,
gin n Bud
p.s: Mummy says lots of thanks for your kind words. she is ok now.
Btw, 'U know whta' hasn't come yet! will let u know as soon as it comes. so don't worry

Uji, Angel Izzy, Ziggy, Angel Bean, Angel Hiro and Momma Tea said...

Ohh Not been to Clacton for absolute yonks must be about time for a re visit what do you think boys?

Love
Mollys Momma Tea
x x x x x

Lola and also Franklin, too said...

Oh, I got the dreaded Service Unavailable and lost my comment. I hate when that happens. What I was going to say was that Blog Mom and I love history when it's spoon fed to us in a very accessible way so we look forward to any and all of these posts you might want to do. One of Blog Mom's favorite books ever was Sarum and she's read a lot of Rutherfurd's others as well. So, we're delighted if you want to share local history.

lotsa licks, Lola

Swimtaxi said...

Thanks for the photos and history lesson.

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Pawesome pikhs and stuff about your part of the world!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

We love learning about our furiends country, great post. And we bet it makes for some fun exploration time for you two.

Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara

K9 Katastrophie said...

How cool!! What a lovely country!

Licks,
Ruthie

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the photos and info. It so reminds me of MaxDog the Tour Guide!

woo woos, Tessa

the booker man said...

JD,
me and asa and mama loved learning about your town! we'd love to read more posts like this, especially since we've nevarrr been to your part of the world. it's very interesting like! mama especially loves learning about word and name origins, so it was really cool to learn how your town got its name and that it's reaaaaally old, too! oh, and you and max are doing a totally awesome job manning (or should it be dogging?) the look-out tower. :)

*woof*
the booker man

We love Luna said...

My sweet friends JD & Max!
I'm so impressed with this post and all history!I wonder what's mean 500 AD, how long that is in CATS years, I imagine it is such long time...
The place there is beautiful.You are so lucky to have so many adventures there!Your life is full of stories, colours, good friends, and lots of love from your beans!Lovely indeed!
purrs
from Luna

The 'splorin' Wolfies said...

oh JD and MAX!!!!!! this is our kinda post!!!! xoxoxox Guinness

Anonymous said...

I LUUUUUUVED this post, JD and Max! What an interesting and Most Beautiful place you live! My mom is always really interested in the history of the You Kay cuz we don't have anything very old over here. I mean, Columbus came here in 1492, but your town was already about 1000 years old by then! Isn't that crazy?

I can't wait to see more of where you live!

Wiggles & Wags,
mayzie

Unknown said...

Hi Boys - well, Hsin-Yi really enjoyed your post but she may be biased as she has good memories of her time living in the UK and she does miss the nice walks she did with Paul in the English countryside (especially on a Sun morning, followed by a country pub lunch!) She says history in books is dry and boring but history told in a personal way by cute doggies is very entertaining! :-)

Hey - by the way - did you see the last comment I left you? It was just a quick note to let you know I was back and to send me the final details for the last of the auction winners.

Oh - and when you've got a moment, you MUST come over and check out my latest post which is all about the doggies my humans saw in Taipei - they saw so many Schnauzers! I'm just dying to know what JD - as international doggie of style - thinks of the 'cool dude' modelling the sunglasses! :-)
I think your FH might also enjoy the post before that coz it was all about the food that my humans had while in Taipei - and boy, did they stuff their faces!

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Zona said...

This was a FANTASTICAL post!!! I loved learning about where you live. It is BEAUTIFUL!!

When can I come visit??

Wags,
Zona

Anonymous said...

Wow - those views are just stunning!

Kapitein Haakje said...

this is PAWSOME!!!
we love this post!
thanks fur sharing!

Kissslobbers
El'bow & Hauwii

Diana Chiew said...

You've been a great guide, JD. We can't wait for more posts like this one to learn more about the place you live in.

Quinn and Angel brandi said...

Mama is what she calls an "anglophile". She particularly likes Saxon history, and someone called Alfred the Great who was some kind of cool Saxon bean. She said their is some kind of statue in England of him, but she never gotted to see it in person.
So, keep the history coming. What makes mama happy makes me happy.
Thank you much for sharing, from both of us.
brandi
mama Carol