Ole said:
Pity I don't have a longboat then - my sailboat needs 5' of water against the longboat's 14"! That's part of the reason for their success: They would row (by night) up rivers the locals thought were non-navigable.
With only 14" and several hundred miles of N. Sea swell to cover, they must have arrived looking green enough to blend in with the countryside without being seen. So undetected daylight rowing was possible as well.
Actually there was one saxon at Earls Barton who spotted them and gave the alarm but as he worked at the local Northampton brewery, called Phipps'(it has long since departed so Rest in Peace) the others thought he was simply raving drunk. As he wasn't a member of East Midlands Monochrome Group and didn't have a camera he couldn't support his claim of seeing the Norsemen. Result - a successful Scandanavian invasion.
The next set of invaders were also from the North but were Celts not Norsemen. They were however equally wild and referred to as "Jocks". They established a colony in Corby which is in the North of this county and made steel. They called the original saxons "sassenachs" and like the norsemen were also hostile to them.
A leader known as Thatcher, a native of the next county of Lincolnshire, who was female and similar to that famous ancient Briton called Queen Boudicea, was able to defeat these Celts by closing their steelworks in the early 1980s.
Finally in 2004 total and unconditional surrender was achieved when even the taxis in Corby which belonged to the Jocks began to fly the red and white flag of St George during the World Cup. Alas the flag flying made no difference to the result.
Yes this has nothing to do with B&W Photography Magazine and apologies for that but I thought those APUGers from nations who have contributed to Northamptonshire's rich history might be interested.
pentaxuser