Tag Archives: coin society

The Talk Last Night

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We had a good talk last night at the Numismatic Society, with a talk on Newark in the Civil War. Newark was  a key garrison for the King, sitting astride the Great North Road (yes, parts of the A1 are still called that on my satnav) and the River Trent. These were two important communication routes in the 17th Century, as the canal building craze was yet to come and the railways were many years off. Having said that, here is a link to the Wollaton Wagonway, an early stage of railway development that was built before the Civil War.

For the sake of balance I should also add that the Romans built some early canals in England – the Foss Dyke, Car Dyke and Bourne-Morton Canal (all in Lincolnshire) were originally Roman canals.

For my American readers, who may be having trouble with this, yes, despite what happens when you search “Newark” online, there is another one that isn’t in New Jersey. The same goes for Civil War. The internet may think there was just the one, but we had one too. In fact, if you count the Anarchy, the Baron’s Wars, the War of the Roses and the Bishops’ Wars we had several. For some reason we only called one set of them “the Civil War”. I say that, but in fact there is an academic move afoot to call the Civil War the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. This reflects the reality of the situation, with much fighting in Ireland and Scotland too. It’s even worse when you consider there were three Civil Wars wrapped up under the title of “The Civil War”

So, having said it was a good talk and having spread confusion, I will go. I have promised Julia not to overdo the typing and make my hands relapse.

Newark Siege Shilling – used after the siege as a pendant to demonstrate loyalty to the King. More on this tomorrow.

Day 73

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I note from a Twitter post that Julia showed me, that someone has painted Putin’s face on a dog poo bin in a park and labelled it Pootin. Several other artists seem to have used dog faeces as the medium for painting portraits of the tiny tyrant. (That’s Putin, not Julia, though she is actually shorter than him. They both terrify me, if I’m honest). I’ll let you search for that yourself, if that is the way you are inclined.

It’s all part of a Great British tradition. I have also seen Napoleon and the Kaiser featured in a similar way.

I counted our plant-based dietary sources tonight – 32 for this week, though I still have to check if we are doing it properly.  Some ofm them were small quantities used in  a green salad.

Tonight at the Numismatic Society of Nottingham we had an interesting talk on the life and time of Queen Anne told through coins and medals. It was very interesting, and like me, he’s more interested in the history rather than the minutiae of die varieties and are dates on coins.

He joined the society in 1958, the year I was born. This made me think.

Apart from that, the day nearly got off to a messy start when a cyclist jumped a red light and cut across the front of me. It nearly came to a messy end too, when two learners on underpowered motorcycles cut down the side of me when there really wasn’t a gap. In between times there were at least six cars that pulled out in front of me, causing me to adjust my speed. Considering that on most days I don’t have any problems, this was a notably bad day on the roads. It’s clearly the counterbalance to my good day last week.

Meanwhile, the crocuses are out all over town, the flowering blackcurrant on the corner of the street is out and the white blossom that is probably plum blossom is also starting. I noticed a magnolia budding up tonight and there is a definite haze of grey-blue hanging over our rosemary plants. Looks like Spring is starting.