Location, Location.

[whinny-muir.livejournal.com]

Not being English & having only the vaguest geographical sense of where the books are set, can anyone throw some light on exactly where Trennels is?  I've been to Hampstead but sorta thought Trennels must be along the south coast somewhere.  Anyone? 

Comments

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I have always thought Trennels must be located somewhere like Sherborne (http://www.sherbornetown.com/) ie on the Hampshire/Dorset border. I believe there is a strong case for Port Wade (where Nicola runs off to see Giles) being Portland Harbour, an important naval base, which would place Wade Abbas very definitely in Dorset.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

This sounds about right - it's definitely West Country, and to be near the sea in the variety of directions it is, and the type of landscape, it all says 'Dorset' to me.

My guess is that Wade Abbas might be Dorchester and Streweminster is Shaftesbury - or even Salisbury, but apart from the sizes of the towns,being in Dorset, and sounding a bit like Hardy's names for local towns, I don't have anything to support that.

Second thoughts from the Elizabethan books

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Sorry - I think I may have been a little rash in pushing Trennels so far West, since isn't Christopher Marlowe on his way back from Sherborne when he encounters Geoffrey? Perhaps Trennels is closer to West Bay (young Nicholas refers to "a Bridport dagger" with a certain level of local pride)

[(Anonymous)]

There's quite a bit about the geography of Trennels in The Marlows and their maker. Antonia Forest said her landscape was fictitious, but she has used features of real places, and placed Trennels somewhere in Eastern Dorset,about 2 miles from the sea. There are clues in Run Away Home - coming back from France, Giles and Peter see thye Needlesw lighthouse and know they are nearly home. It does seem to have a feel of Hardy's Wessex, but not with such recognisable features.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Didn't Forest live in Bournemouth? That, together with Abbas (cf Cerne Abbas)has tended to make me think of Wessex/Dorset

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

The descriptions of sea and country definitely feel like Dorset. There's plenty of cliffs in Dorset for Patrick to fall off and Peter to get scared on!
Although if it is Dorset I've always been a bit puzzled as to how Nicola gets to Cambridge from there in RMF, setting off after lunch, by train, with a couple of changes, in time to do sightseeing etc before the Post Office and library shut.

[theladymoppet.livejournal.com]

I think it's Oxford? But I was puzzled by this too. It didn't seem feasible, even given that the train service would be much more frequent and extensive pre-Beeching.

I was also surprised that the phone box Nicola and Miranda use in End of Term has a London telephone directory - think this has come up for discussion before!

Hello all, btw - long-time lurker, first-time commenter.

[(Anonymous)]

O.K Forest has such a strong sense of plcae I was always puzzled I couldn't actually find any of these places on a map! Obsessive, I was. I knew someone who lived over there would have an idea of where she based Trennels! Iwill now go look up Dorset properly.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Whoops yes, I should have said Oxford.

[intrepid--fox.livejournal.com]

PB is quite specific, that Colebridge is 139 miles from London and 61 from Bristol; also that Trennels is 30 miles from Sherborne. If you plug all of these into a map, ISTR you get a location somewhere around Swanage in Dorset.

[(Anonymous)]

I always thought it was Hampshire, but probably because that's where I lived in the UK (and where I bought my copies of the books).

[(Anonymous)]

I wondered if Kingcote was in Exeter = Wade Abbas, then Port Wade = Exmouth - does that make sense for a 40 minute drive from Trennels which yes I agree is somewhere Dorset-wards from Bournemouth where Forest lives - and Corfe castle can be the castle that comes into PR