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Adur Valley News Bulletin

Adur Torpedo

This is the first published Electronic Newspaper for
Shoreham-by-Sea and District, West Sussex, England

November 1999 : Volume 1 Issue 4

News & Events

Grand Prix Formula 1: If an Adur Bath Tub was 10 mm too wide, would it be disqualified?

Wildlife Reports

The Labour party announce at the Bournemouth Conference that the South Downs are to become a National Park. 14 of the 15 Councils in Sussex are opposed. The exception are the proponents Brighton Council. The FOE are actively in favour and groups like the National Trust and the Society of Sussex Downsmen have expressed their support. The Sussex Conservation Board, which would be replaced, are opposed. A few working environmentalists I have met said that it would not make much difference, except that:
1) planning applications on the Downs would be more difficult.
2) more money would be available for conservation projects etc.

The Shoreham Herald has invited comments from its readers in a full page display.

The Downs

Oh! the downs high to the cool sky;
And the feel of the sun-warmed moss;
And each cardoon, like a full moon,
Fairy-spun of the thistle floss;
And the beech grove, and a wood dove,
And the trail where the shepherds pass;
And the lark's song, and the wind song,
And the scent of the parching grass!

John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

Sounds like sentimental slop to me, and I am not sure what cardoon means in this context?

The summits on the downs are clay soil containing flints. I am not sure if this because cultivation eroded the clay on the other parts of the Downs, or if this was the composition laid down millions of year ago. The clay provides the conditions where beech trees can be planted and grow, e.g. Sompting Clump.

Adur Valley Wildlife
Geology of Sussex

Birdwatchers protest against bird hunting in France.

Birdwatchers will be protesting on a French nature reserve on Sunday against the shooting of birds - many of which migrate to Britain.
They are unhappy about a French decision to prolong the hunting season by two months.
Conservation groups from throughout Europe also accuse the French government of ignoring laws protecting wildlife and allowing hunters to take over part of the Platier d'Oye reserve near Calais.
The birds most at risk include Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Lapwing, all of which would otherwise migrate to Britain. (Redshank, Oystercatcher and Lapwing all inhabit the RSPB reserve on the River Adur).
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Worldwide Fund for Nature support French bird conservation groups in a campaign to reverse last year's extension by France of the shooting season.
It starts a month earlier than before, in mid-July and ends a month later at the end of February.
Conservationists say that means birds can legally be shot during part of the summer breeding season, and the winter migrating season.

An online petition against the hunting is at http://www.rspb.co.uk

Words of the Month

Paludal: | pljud()l, -lu-, paljd()l, -l- | a. E19. [f. L palud-, palus marsh + -AL1.] (Of a plant) growing in marshy ground, requiring a marshy habitat; Med. malarial; gen. marshy.paludine | paljdn, -dLn; -l- | a. of or pertaining to a marsh, marshy M19.

Cardoon | kdun | n. E17. [Fr. cardon, f. carde edible part of the artichoke, f. mod.Prov. cardo f. Proto-Romance f. L cardu(u)s thistle, artichoke: see -OON.]
A plant of the composite family, Cynara cardunculus, resembling a thistle and related to the globe artichoke; the fleshy inner leaf-stalks of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.
This plant is native to southern Europe and is not found on the South Downs, and probably would not grow there unless cultivated with great care.
It is conceivable that cardoon was used as a general name for a thistle, but I have not been able to find a reference to this in Victorian texts. It is unlikely because of the use of the thistle as an emblem for centuries before. Is it used in the poem because it conveniently rhymes with moon? Or is it part of the thistle? AH

Parch | pt | n. rare exc. in comb. LME. [f. next.] The action of parching; the condition of being parched.
Comb.: parch mark Archaeol. a localized discoloration of the ground in dry weather over buried remains.
Parch (Chambers) to make hot and very dry. (ety: unknown)
Parch is found in the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, Keats.
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Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia*
Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. (unless indicated in blue)

November 1999: Computer Shopper has the Oxford Reference Shelf (not the above reference) which is probably worth its money (£2.45) for the Metric Conversion on its own. The standard dictionary is the Pocket Oxford (Smaller than the Shorter Oxford*). Essential because of the Americanisation of word processor spell-checkers, and especially if you have to put on special reading spectacles to see a printed word dictionary. French, Italian and Spanish. Greek and Latin absent. Can anybody recommend an electronic dictionary for the last two, and Old English/Saxon?

The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia* is now available with the first issue of Computer Success Plus (in newsagents) at £1.99.

Historical Snippets

Cretaceous Period (from the Latin, creta 'chalk'), the last geological period of the Mesozoic Era, spanning the period of time from some 144 to 66.4 million years ago. The climate was warm and the sea-level rose, and by the middle of the period marine transgression was widespread (this is not what caused the combes and valleys in the Downs though).
The Cretaceous saw the emergence of the first flowering plants and the dominance of dinosaurs, although these died out before the end of the Mesozoic Era.

Mesozoic Era

Continents:

Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the Late Jurassic.

Included in the paleographic reconstruction are cold and warm ocean currents. The present-day coastlines and tectonic boundaries of the configured continents are shown in the inset.

At the onset there existed the two supercontinents of Gondwana and Laurasia, which were barely attached at the junction of North and South America. When these enormous landmasses divided, the South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean came into being. By the end of the Cretaceous, the present-day continents were separate entities except for Australia, which was still joined to Antarctica. Also, India had not yet fused to Asia. The positions of the various continents were very nearly those shown in the map below for the Maastrichtian shortly before the close of the Cretaceous.

Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during Late Cretaceous time (Maastrichtian Age).

Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are cold and warm ocean currents. The present-day coastlines and tectonic boundaries of the configured continents are shown in the inset at the lower right.

Adapted from C.R. Scotese, The University of Texas at Arlington

Note the first appearance of the Gulf Stream AH

Position of Sussex:

In the Jurassic, Sussex was roughly at the latitude in which Rome is today. The continent moved northwards in the intervening period. If this was at a steady rate, the position of Sussex would be about midday between Rome and its present position.

Sea level was higher during most of the Cretaceous than at any other time in Earth history. In general, the world oceans were about 100 to 200 metres higher in the Early Cretaceous and roughly 200 to 250 metres higher in the Late Cretaceous than at present. The high Cretaceous sea level is thought to have been primarily the result of water in the ocean basins being displaced by the enlargement of the mid-oceanic ridges.

Eustasy | justsi | n. M20. [Back-form. f. next, after mod.L -stasis corresp. to -static: see -Y3.] Geogr. A uniform worldwide change of sea level

80 million years ago, Cretaceous Period (144 - 66.4 million years ago): Sussex is covered by a warm sea inhabited by ammonites, Micraster and other urchins, molluscs, at a lower latitude (Continental Drift: Tectonic Plate Theory). Sedimentary deposits of foraminiferans such as Globigerina and coccoliths (microscopic plankton with a calcium carbonate shell) lay down the chalk which is rock of the South Downs near Shoreham.
Fossil bivalve Spondylus spinosa (pic).

Chalks and limestones, for example, were deposited during the early Late Cretaceous (e.g. Santonian age), when sea levels were at their highest.
Chalk deposition in eastern England was from Cenomanian to Maastrichtian time.

Cretaceous Seas:

Ichthyosaurs in the early Cretaceous are replaced by mosasaurs (giant aquatic lizards that ate ammonites etc.). Also pliosaurs, plesiosaurs and long-necked elasmosaurs
giant turtles, pterosaurs: flying reptiles.
The Archaeopteryx flew over land.

Reptile Page

Ends K-T event K=kreta (Gk) Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary event.
The mass extinction of the dinosaurs and life in the sea at the end of the Cretaceous period, the placental mammals evolved to become the dominant animals on Planet Earth

Brief History of Shoreham-by-Sea
Geology of Sussex

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