I hope to be making a lot of new additions to the site over the next twelve months as I will be traveling around a lot more than I have done.

I will be adding some pictures from various places that will not be explained as they are being hosted as part of a family history site and it’s far easier to add them to this site and then link to it.

So if you find pictures of gravestones, and churches that have no explination, that’s what it’s about.

There has been a castle at the top of the hill at Dunster for more than 1000 years. The Domesday Book records one on this location before 1066.

The castle was granted by William the Conqueror to William de Mohun, whose family lived there until the castle was sold in 1376 by Lady Joan de Mohun to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell. Lady Elizabeth’s descendants owned Dunster Castle until 1976.

The Castle dominates a steep hill overlooking the picturesque village of Dunster. The hill has been fortified since Saxon times, although nothing now remains of these early defences. During the early medieval period the sea reached the base of the hill offering a natural defence, and strong walls, towers, ramparts and outworks protected the other sides.

[Show as slideshow]

It is impossible for a visitor to the Church of St. John the Baptist to miss the Ashbrittle Yew. With a girth of 40 feet and a vast canopy that arches over you as you approach it, the tree invites you to stop and gaze upon its lichen-covered branches, many of which nearly touch the ground, and its ancient, gnarled trunks cushioned by the lush mound of vegetation from which they grow. The tree has a hollow central trunk, with six smaller ones surrounding it. This distinctive form may have arisen long ago as the tree repaired itself after damage or infection in its original trunk.

Burnham-on-Sea is notable for its beach and mudflats, the danger they pose to individuals and shipping, and the efforts locals have gone to defend their town and to prevent loss of life. The Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world. The extensive mud flats at Burnham are characteristic of Bridgwater Bay and the rest of the Bristol Channel where the tide can recede for over 1.5 miles (2.4 km). Over the years a string of people have died when they became trapped in mud and were overcome by the rapidly rising waters. One of the earliest recorded historical incidents to affect the town was the Bristol Channel floods of 1607. Today the town is defended from flooding by a large curved concrete wall that runs along the Esplanade.

Burnham-on-Sea railway station was the terminus of the Burnham branch of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The former GWR station is now known as Highbridge and Burnham.

[Show as slideshow]

The principal town (pop. 28,185) of the island is also named Corfu, or Kérkyra in Greek, as is its municipality (pop. 39,487). Corfu is home to the Ionian University.

The island is steeped in history and perennially connected to the history of Greece from the beginning of Greek mythology. Its Greek name, Kerkyra or Korkyra, is connected to two powerful water symbols: Poseidon, god of the sea and Asopos, an important Greek mainland river. According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopus and river nymph Metope, and abducted her, as was the custom among gods of the era’s myths – Zeus himself was a serial offender. Poseidon brought her to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to the place: Korkyra, which gradually evolved to Kerkyra (Doric). Together, they had a child they called Phaiax, after whom the inhabitants of the island were named: Phaiakes, which was then transliterated via Latin to Phaeacians. The island’s history is laden with battles and conquests, indicative of Corfu’s turbulent position in a historical vortex lasting until the modern period, at which time unification with modern Greece from 1864 made the island’s history one with that of the mainland, with no further foreign intervention. The legacy of these struggles is visible in the form of castles punctuating strategic locations across the island. Two of these castles enclose its capital, which is the only city in Greece to be surrounded in such a way. As a result, Corfu’s capital has been officially declared a Kastropolis (Castle city) by the Greek Government.

In 2007, the city’s old town was named on the UNESCO World Heritage List, following a recommendation by ICOMOS.

[Show as slideshow]