Talk:The Wrekin

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Can someone clarify which Beetham Tower you can see The Wrekin from? I'm guessing the one in Birmingham but the one in Manchester is the most eminent. 81.79.44.74 18:17, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

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I guess this story has no place but I thought it might be of interest to Wrekin admirers:

My best friend here in Philadelphia always says, when she gets lost or takes a wrong turn, "We had to go round the reekin". She still says it today and occasionally her mother says it it too. They will even use the expression for simple things like going down the wrong aisle in a store; "Oh I couldn't find you. I had to go round the reekin...".

I asked where it came from and they had no idea; they just always used the expression in similar situations. So I was intrigued because I had never heard it before in the UK, or anywhere in the USA for that matter. Why would they be the only two people on earth to use what they thought to be a common expression? So I started searching the internet and tried every spelling; "round the reekin", "round the rekin", "reakin", "reekan" to no avail. It was a total mystery and yet I just couldn't imagine it was unique.

Then one day I posted the query on a forum about "idioms" and someone replied with the expression, "All around the Wrekin", and the story behind it. My friend must have picked it up from her mother, who must have picked it up from another family ancestor, who probably hailed from Shropshire! Fantastic! One of life's great mysteries solved! Thegallery 05:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Certainly that has a place! The article has a section "Folklore and local custom", which might not have been there when you made this comment. It's very interesting that the saying crossed the Atlantic and is current to the present day.

A longer version of the origin of The Wrekin is here, in the large compilation of world folklore by D. L. Ashliman: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/origins.html

Other versions are here, in the book "Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings" by Georgina Frederica Jackson, beginning on page 2, as referenced by Ashliman: https://books.google.com/books?id=qORCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q&f=false . Note that one Walter White wrote a book "All Round The Wrekin", published in 1860 (p. 4).

Apparently this hill rising inexplicably from the plain captured the imagination of people in prehistoric times, and their stories have survived. Various features of the hill are called the Bladderstone, the Needle's Eye, and the Raven's Bowl (or Cuckoo's Cup), which is claimed to always have water in it, and there are folkloric explanations for their existence. 173.174.85.204 (talk) Eric —Preceding undated comment added 18:24, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Geology

Could some knowledgeable individual please provide any information concerning the geology or provenance of this hill and surrounding area? The article currently (14mar2008) does not explicitly say if this is a natural outcrop, or a construct. Remains of a hillfort are mentioned, but what of the main body of the hill? Why does it project from the plain? The geology of the area is twice stated to be quite interesting, but never described to answer "why". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.37.58.220 (talk) 23:14, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Well it certainly isn't a 'man made' hill. Locally it's said to be an extinct volcano, but I don't know how true this is. 84.68.229.34 (talk) 17:02, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

I've attempted to bring all of the previously separate geological commentary together into one section and tell a coherent story but it could still do with a look by someone familiar with the local geology rather than simply someone (like me!) who understands the principles of geology but is not that acquainted with the locales mentioned. I can confirm that it's not an extinct volcano, except insofar as it is partly formed from volcanic rocks - its shape, just like that of Sugarloaf in south Wales is merely reminiscent of that of a volcano - other natural processes have brought about the potentially similar form. cheers Geopersona (talk) 21:26, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Evil heathen place, like circle

Evil hethen palce just liek stone circle. Maybe not mountain, but evil magic their. talk of Tūalf'seni (pron. Too-Alf-Sen-Ear) - apparent holy pagan mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mitchell%27s_Fold —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.139.33 (talk) 21:51, 3 October 2010 (UTC) and more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wrekin&diff=388549199&oldid=384204272

Scanned this CD inlay: http://b.imagehost.org/0480/uyuyuyuyuyuyuhjhkkj.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.248.239 (talk) 16:14, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Age of Uriconian Volcanics

Toghill (Toghill, P. 2006 Geology of Shropshire 2nd edn Crowood Press) cites an age of 566 million years for this group of rocks - an age which differs by 100 million years from the age presently cited in the article. Geopersona (talk) 05:25, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Map is wrong

The map has Caer Caradoc in completely the wrong place. Caer Caradoc is more northerly than the Clee Hills, and is just east of Church Stretton. 2A02:C7E:3A38:5A00:3F65:C0C8:44CA:1089 (talk) 21:26, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

I agree. Duddasley (talk) 21:40, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Name

The section on the name "Wrekin" is rather unsatisfactory, giving as it does the surmised origins of the word, but nothing about the meaning... Bibliosporias (talk) 12:55, 9 September 2023 (UTC)