Posted by Robin Selby on November 11, 2024 at 07:18:15 user RobinSelby.
In Reply to: Colnsea posted by John Nichols on October 31, 2024 at 15:11:33:
This is very interesting. I kept my boat just upriver of Pin Mill for years. I thought I knew the coast reasonably well, but I never thought twice about Colnsea, because it sounds real. The River Colne enters the North Sea at Brightlingsea, so that looks like a good candidate for Colnsea. It is consistent with 'coming round' to the Walton Backwaters, since the coast from Brightlingsea to Walton-on-the-Naze is curved. 'Secret Water' is reasonably well grounded on geographical fact. The question then is why Ransome thought it necessary to invent a new place name when he could easily have used Brightlingsea. I have looked at old maps (admittedly not charts) to see if Colnsea was an alternative to Brightlingsea, but found nothing. Indeed, why would anyone want an alternative? The crew of the 'Lapwing' seems to have been based on a real Pin Mill family, so Ransome might have invented a non-existent home port to throw the reader off the scent, but since 'Secret Water' was dedicated to the Busk family that idea doesn't work either. All I can think of is that Ransome was happy to locate 'Secret Water' in a real place, but he didn't want too much reality.
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