Devils Dyke

[Seagull's Return]

Devil's Dyke is the deepest example in the UK of a dry valley system, eroded from the chalk by glacial/periglacial action. Alas, not a sniff of a volcano, I'm afraid. It's true about minor fault lines around the Uk though, I believe.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

The Devil was angry at the conversion of Sussex, one of the last counties to be converted from Paganism, and especially at the way churches were being built in every Sussex village. So he decided to dig right through the South Downs, a range of hills along the south of Britain. He swore that he would dig all the way through the hills to let the sea flood Sussex in a single night and drown the new Christians. He started inland near the village of Poynings and dug furiously sending huge clods of earth everywhere. One became Chanctonbury hill, another Cissbury hill, another Rackham Hill and yet another Mount Caburn.

Towards midnight, the noise he was making disturbed an old woman, who looked out to see what was happening. When she realized what the Devil was doing, she lit a candle and set it on her windowsill, holding up a metal sieve in front of it to create a dimly glowing globe. The Devil could barely believe that the sun had already risen, but the old woman had woken her rooster who let out a loud crowing and Satan fled believing that the morning had already come. Some say, that as he fled out over the English Channel, a great lump of earth fell from his cloven hoof, and that became the Isle of Wight; others say that he bounded northwards into Surrey, where his heavy landing formed the hollow called the Devil's Punch Bowl.

FACT

Is this the first recorded act of Nimbyism in Sussex?

 

[Man of Harveys]

While on this geological tack, could somebody please explain to me the geological significance of the cliffs at Black Rock, i.e. the west end of the marina? There's meant to be something cool about them but I don't know what it is, a "raised beach" or summat?

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I wondered if he was way behind schedule - after a large fry up every morning; hourly tea breaks

It was because he got Multiplex in to help with the project.

 

[Seagull's Return]

Yup, it's a raised beach (there's another one further along the coast, too) - it's where the beach used to be a few hundred thousand (or a couple of million, or whatever) years ago when sea levels were higher than they are today, I think - I'm not a geologist, I hasten to add - and so allow a kind of petrified snapshot of a coast. The archeological remains at Boxgrove are, I think, found along what was the shoreline of a raised beach, and I have an idea it's the same one as at Black Rock. Again, perhaps someone else knows better than me, but that's what I understand. I do know that the Boxgrove excavations are important in part because they cover the otherwise rather elusive transitional periods of man's evolution e.g. Paleolithic/Mesolithic, use of tools and fire, development of the Acheulean handaxe, etc.

 

[Scotty Mac]

Yup, it's a raised beach (there's another one further along the coast, too) - it's where the beach used to be a few hundred thousand (or a couple of million, or whatever) years ago when sea levels were higher than they are today, I think - I'm not a geologist, I hasten to add - and so allow a kind of petrified snapshot of a coast. The archeological remains at Boxgrove are, I think, found along what was the shoreline of a raised beach, and I have an idea it's the same one as at Black Rock. Again, perhaps someone else knows better than me, but that's what I understand. I do know that the Boxgrove excavations are important in part because they cover the otherwise rather elusive transitional periods of man's evolution e.g. Paleolithic/Mesolithic, use of tools and fire, development of the Acheulean handaxe, etc.

the DEVIL is still more exciting

 

[Man of Harveys]

Yup, it's a raised beach (there's another one further along the coast, too) - it's where the beach used to be a few hundred thousand (or a couple of million, or whatever) years ago when sea levels were higher than they are today, I think - I'm not a geologist, I hasten to add - and so allow a kind of petrified snapshot of a coast. The archeological remains at Boxgrove are, I think, found along what was the shoreline of a raised beach, and I have an idea it's the same one as at Black Rock. Again, perhaps someone else knows better than me, but that's what I understand. I do know that the Boxgrove excavations are important in part because they cover the otherwise rather elusive transitional periods of man's evolution e.g. Paleolithic/Mesolithic, use of tools and fire, development of the Acheulean handaxe, etc.

Now THAT is my favourite post of the year, any year - I'm cleverer than I was just now (although that wasn't difficult) Thanks!

 

[Seagull's Return]

the DEVIL is still more exciting

Watching paint dry is more exciting, I grant you that... Did you know that an alternative Sussex tradition dating from at least the 17th century and quite possibly earlier states that the Devil's Dyke was created by the Devil "rutting" the land in an attempt to impragnate the Earth with his evil spawn? Now THAT's what I call a tradition.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

I once saw it in print (can't remember where) used to describe Julie Burchill

 

[Man of Harveys]

the DEVIL is still more exciting

I think we should start a DEVIL story about the cliff which will then become folklore for gullible peasanthood.

It's said that the Devil's Curtain it was where he wiped his satanic cock on the cliffs after having had a swift jodrell at the excitement of FLOODING everything the next day.

 

[Scotty Mac]

Watching paint dry is more exciting, I grant you that... Did you know that an alternative Sussex tradition dating from at least the 17th century and quite possibly earlier states that the Devil's Dyke was created by the Devil "rutting" the land in an attempt to impragnate the Earth with his evil spawn? Now THAT's what I call a tradition.

sounds like he was a right slag in sussex

 

[Seagull's Return]

I know a bloke who, in the course of researching National Trust conservation sites in the south-east, typed it into the search engine at Plumpton College and couldn't get rid of the resulting cascade of vile porn until a technician was called (by an outraged fellow-student) to render the machine harmless again... he became known as "that f***ing pervert" by one and all for the rest of his time there...

 

[Scotty Mac]

I know a bloke who, in the course of researching National Trust conservation sites in the south-east, typed it into the search engine at Plumpton College and couldn't get rid of the resulting cascade of vile porn until a technician was called (by an outraged fellow-student) to render the machine harmless again... he became known as "that f***ing pervert" by one and all for the rest of his time there...

what an excuse to look at porn

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

The Devil was angry at the conversion of Sussex, one of the last counties to be converted from Paganism, and especially at the way churches were being built in every Sussex village. So he decided to dig right through the South Downs, a range of hills along the south of Britain. He swore that he would dig all the way through the hills to let the sea flood Sussex in a single night and drown the new Christians. He started inland near the village of Poynings and dug furiously sending huge clods of earth everywhere. One became Chanctonbury hill, another Cissbury hill, another Rackham Hill and yet another Mount Caburn.

Towards midnight, the noise he was making disturbed an old woman, who looked out to see what was happening. When she realized what the Devil was doing, she lit a candle and set it on her windowsill, holding up a metal sieve in front of it to create a dimly glowing globe. The Devil could barely believe that the sun had already risen, but the old woman had woken her rooster who let out a loud crowing and Satan fled believing that the morning had already come. Some say, that as he fled out over the English Channel, a great lump of earth fell from his cloven hoof, and that became the Isle of Wight; others say that he bounded northwards into Surrey, where his heavy landing formed the hollow called the Devil's Punch Bowl.

FACT

It seems to me that the devil- the supreme being of evil- is, if that story is to be believed a bit crap. What sort of retard would be tricked by an old woman, a candle and a bloody sieve?

Also if a lump of earth the size of the isle of white could fall from his cloven hoof, he must be f***ing huge. Surely he could have dug his way through the south of England in about 30minutes. Regardless of a crafty old woman and her cunning trickery.

 

[Zed Seagull]

Edinburgh castle is built on a volcano. f*** all to do with Devils Dyke but there ye go.

 

[Scotty Mac]

Also if a lump of earth the size of the isle of white could fall from his cloven hoof, he must be f***ing huge.

i take it you missed the doctor who episode with him in?

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

i take it you missed the doctor who episode with him in?

Sadly I did. Was he huge? Or a stunted dwarf?

 

[Scotty Mac]

Sadly I did. Was he huge? Or a stunted dwarf?

massive - although i doubt very much one foot could make the isle of white. maybe if dirt came off both his feet

 

[withdeanwombat]

massive - although i doubt very much one foot could make the isle of white. maybe if dirt came off both his feet

For one to whom this is the Fatherland,that's the Isle of Wight.Accept you are otherwise....er....faultless.


There is a huge fault line across the frontal lobe of the collective known as LDC,which will one day implode,and suck all its members into the hideous void known as France,where all is rural idyll and duckponds.

Not,of course,the Seagulls Party,which will remain and vote sensibly and reasonably for policies close to our collective heart.

 

[perseus]

Its lots of micro-critters called coccoliths that swam around in the sea 85 million years ago.