QUICK TOUR QUICK TOUR NORDELPH COMMUNITY WEBSITE: May 2009
Disturbed by an approaching boat, two ducks take off from the placid waters of Well Creek as it passes through Nordelph. But this isn't just another Spring photograph, this is a still from the latest video to be uploaded to the Nordelph website. As well as the car drives through the village, and the illustrated directions for finding Nordelph from Huntingdon, there are now three more videos taking you through the village by water.
Boat travel
is a touch too slow for Internet video, so the trips are speeded up. Our previous experience with the car videos, where we had no soundtrack as a way of keeping the file sizes small, was that they sounded a bit sterile, so we've added a speeded up sound track this time, but we've maintained the pitch of the engine note. Let us know what you think. Unlike our previous video trips, these were shot in widescreen high definition: although they're no longer in HD after being processed for the Internet, they are still widescreen -- except for the Quicktime versions: we don't understand why, but these play back in a standard 4:3 window! You can access them from this page or, in the future, via the Nordelph on Video page.
Journey One is from opposite the church, eastwards towards Downham Market until we're in open country; it's available as a Windows Media or a Quicktime file and lasts 1m 44s.
Journey Two is the longest and is an uninterrupted westbound passage through the village (disturbing the ducks above!) and lasts 4m 11s: Windows Media or Quicktime.
Finally, Journey Three is the missing eastbound segment, from where Journey Two ends back to the church. 2m 16s Windows Media or Quicktime.
ANOTHER BRIDGE!
Our previous update seemed to be rather bridge-oriented. You may recall that
we set off in a couple of directions pursuing matters of minor interest, and all because Google Maps had got its Nordelph bridges in a twist. In the course of those articles, we foolishly referred to the 'first' and 'second' bridge. Not only is it a hostage to fortune of the most obvious kind to call something the first of anything, this very website (in its 'History of Nordelph' section) points out that Well Creek was here in Roman times. So not only was it more than likely that there was an earlier bridge, but we were sent a picture of it:
We don't know very much about the bridge, but we rather enjoyed the detective work involved in tracking down the artists. The lithograph is probably dated 1830, but we've asked the Norfolk Museums and Arcaeology Service to help us identify it more securely and they've given us their verdict. You can, read all about it in our Nordelph Past section.
By the way, if you missed last month's story about Google Maps or simply want to read it again, remember that BACK NUMBERS in our index will take you to any home page since the site started.
POST OFFICE CHANGES
The timings of the mobile Post Office that calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays have altered -- and not really for the better. There's now just 30 minutes on each of the days, from 1300 until 1330. This isn't because the service is being pared back, or because it's not being used enough (it's probably secure for the next four years, we've been told) -- instead it's to accommodate one more village in its coverage. For details of when, where and what, consult our Mobile Services page.
ALSO CHANGING
If you make regular use of the BBC's generally excellent weather pages you'll know that they've recently been revamped. There's also a rather meaningless change -- previously, if you typed in a Nordelph postcode, you were offered the Downham Market forecast; in fact, this was based on Marham, which is the nearest meteorolgically active site to Nordelph. After the revamp, however, we're branded as Wisbech -- not even the same county, and rather further away. A pretty pointless change, but even more puzzlingly, it's still based on Marham! Try for yourself at:
news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/3086.AND FINALLY ...
No Fen vegetables this month -- our Fen Food correspondent Ian Massingham is standing in the forthcoming elections (for the Green Party) and in the interests of balance and impartiality we can hardly offer him a platform without giving space to all the candidates. So here instead is a repeat of last month's vegetable!
Don't forget that you can visit all the pages mentioned above by repeatedly clicking on the 'THIS MONTH button.
THIS MONTH
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