Happy New
Year.
I hope you
had an enjoyable break over the Christmas and New Year season. I had the
opportunity to visit the village of some of my ancestors, in the Peak District
on the edge of Sheffield. We arrived to a covering of snow, so had some lovely
walks in the seasonal weather. I don’t suppose my ancestors would have been so
keen though, as they struggled to maintain their families, livestock and
businesses. Although they were so close to a city, they would easily have been
cut off by bad weather. It was very interesting to take a look around the
village, walk the paths, and locate the properties of my ancestors, and has given
me incentive to get back to some personal family history. Visiting the area
they lived, adds a dimension to their stories, that researching online cannot.
Last year we
had a number of families re-visiting Carbrooke, as the home of their ancestors,
so how do we actually ‘see’ our locality. If we are born into a place, we get
to know it by being taken about by our parents, perhaps forming an internal
map. If we arrive as children, we have to learn our way around, or by being
shown by friends. If we arrive as adults, our experiences of other places can
help us navigate and understand how a place may be laid out, we can read a map
in advance, or can ask for directions, and take note of landmarks. I should
imagine most of us just see what we need, to get about. It seems it is only
when we visit as a day out, we really take time to notice our surroundings as
we amble about.
If you have
ever re-visited a place from years previously, you will know how the memory
plays tricks, buildings shrink! roads are shorter! With the progression of
time, new buildings are added, others demolished. For anyone returning to the
village centre of Carbrooke things have not changed too much over the years,
but for anyone re-visiting the areas around the Norwich Road and old RAF
station, it is unlikely that they would recognise the area. The more familiar
we become with places too, they can be seen from a different point of view too,
think back to your first and last day in a school, or a certain house, place of
work or local building.
Next time
you have the opportunity to wander around our area, take a really good look ; -
the buildings, different styles and details. What crops are grown in the local
fields, notice the trees, wild birds and animals the varying smells of the area
– damp earth, hot dry soil, local plants
or trees, crops, different road coverings, farm smells or industrial smells,
the local sounds too:- running water, wind in the trees, traffic, children
playing, farm or industrial machinery. Take a note of the direction the sun
shines from. We use all these to navigate around our localities, but the majority of them
we are not even aware of.
Enjoy
Carbrooke this year, we have a lovely village to appreciate and work together
to maintain.
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