Help: Wrekin - pronunciation

Subject: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 04:29 PM

I've come across a witty folktale about the origin of the Wrekin, and I want to tell it at a meeting. The only thing I can't seem to find out is how to pronounce it. Does it have a long e or a short? The accent is on the first syllable, nicht wahr? (That's German for "not so?")

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: wildlone
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 04:54 PM

Leeneia, It is pronounced REEKIN, the W is silent like the P in swimming.***BG***
dave

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 06:52 PM

Note the assonance in the line

His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Grab
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 07:43 PM

REEkin - long E. And accent on the first syllable, stimmt.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 03:10 PM

Thank you all. Wildlone, I assume you refer to when Psmith went pswimming.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 05:15 PM

Funny, after I climbed it I pronounced it F***ing Wrecking!!!

(It was a loong looonnng time ago...)

LTS

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 06:50 PM

Liz: 1958, in my case. There was a searchlight on the summit to keep planes from banging into it.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST,HARVEY ANDREWS
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 07:38 PM

for all friends across the Atlantic I should point out that the Wrekin (reekin) is a fairly small pimple type hill on a flat plain in Shropshire, England. I live fifteen miles away and it dominates our landscape. The story of its origin is very interesting. next time you holiday over here, forget crowded London and try Shropshire. There's more to see and do in the shadow of the Wrekin than you could imagine.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 07:43 PM

Like Church Stretton?

Oh what joy...

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 09:30 PM

That's not a pimple, it's a Precambrian monadnock of rhyolite and granophyre. Show a little respect.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 11:01 PM

So when Psmith went pswimming did he catch any pfish or just pneumonia?

Here's an interesting photo of the Wrekin.

Thanks, always pnice to learn about pnew places!

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 04:54 AM

Interesting page about the Wrekin.

(warning - page has nasty embedded midi)

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Trevor
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 06:03 AM

Round these parts we have a saying that if somebody is taking a while to get to the point, or if you're going the 'scenic' route on a journey, then they are 'going all around the Wrekin'.

Nice bit of rock climbing on Ippiken's Rock as well.

I think there's a band somewhere round here called Wreakin' Havoc as well.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: wildlone
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 01:07 PM

Here is a site for more info about Shropshire and its history Click here
dave

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 03:37 PM

I really liked that infrared photo of the Wrekin. So clear!

Now what we need is a traditional tune with "Wrekin" in the title.

I don't know whether to believe that there is band called Wrekin Havoc or not. But if there is, I will hire them when I start up the tavern of my dreams, a non-smoking place called Bar None.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 03:45 AM

Everywhere I'ved lived, it seems I could look out and see the Wrekin and (in a different direction) the telecomms tower at Pye Green. Here in Milton Keynes now, the Xscape roof does a passable impression of the former, but there's no equivalent of the latter ...

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 11:05 AM

I can confirm that there is a band called Wrekin Havoc (full name Wrekin Havoc Mountain Boys), I'm not entirely sure that they are still going, they might recently have packed it in. If they are still going then you can catch them playing on alternate Sundays at the Cornhouse in Shrewsbury. There's a picture of the band on the Cornhouse website:

Cornhouse

Brian

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 04:42 PM

The poem by Housman that I mentioned earlier might well be -- indeed, may well have been -- set to music.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 21 - 08:22 AM

The Housman poem referring to the Wrekin (Shropshire Lad XXXI) has indeed been set to music. Mike Raven used a traditional tune (but I can't remember which, offhand, if I actually knew). More famously, perhaps, it's the first part of Vaughan Williams' song cycle 'On Wenlock Edge'.

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 21 - 08:27 AM

There's also this song that may or may not be of interest:'Wrekin (The Marches Line). https://youtu.be/-3qdIW1h5pA

Subject: RE: Help: Wrekin - pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 21 - 02:29 PM

On the Welsh side, I.e.Oswestry way, they do pronounce it with a short e.