remains associated with the soundwork ‘Black Joy’ at NWT Visitor Centre (NR25 7SA) from 1st July to 1st August 2021 …
“During the invasion scare of 1587, Edmund Yorke drew up a complex plan of an earthwork rampart backing Salthouse Marshes, with tow forts at either end, one adjoining the rampart at Weybourne, the other separated from the rampart at CleyHaven. This latter fort, lack Joy Fort was planned to be a six-pointed star fort with ravelins between each face, the first example of such an advanced design in England. it ws probably Yorke’s solution to the rapid rebuilding of an existing unbastioned sconce. Some part of the defences existed then as orders were given to enlarge `the sconce at Weybourne Hoop’. It is unlikely that the plan was was cried out beyond strengthening the extant sconce as the Armad commenced soon after the plan was drawn up.”
[source: https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1394969&resourceID=19191 last accessed 30th June 2021]
Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley, Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley, Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley, Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley, Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley, Cley, Clye, Cly, Claye, Clye, Cly, Claye, Cley, Cly Clye, Claye, Cley,
indistinctly, amongst Holes and Eyes,
cut, raised, ditch, bank
between New Cut and banked shingle
Half Moon sets to the east
beacons, buoys, and mud
repeatedly crowd Cow’s brackish waters
buried, eroded and destroyed by doubt
history realigning Clay Old Walls
reading a copy’s digital detail
with theoretical sophistication, originality and pragmatism
Yorke’s hasty map maps indistinctions,
marred by smudges and corrections
lines overlay to cover dead ground
an eight-pointed star, of
elaborate geometry, of
ravelins and bastions
inked re-iteratively onto
landform washes …
and retreat this defence
through page border
surrounded by water
facing South the threat
is from below, behind,
from an Ocean of gently brushed waves
an intent of management for the sure line
against the Spannyard’s projected invasion
and conquest of England
to garde ye entry at Claye Haven:
Mr. Catling’s paced lines.
A sinuous zig-zag of scanty remains,
faltering through Marsh grasses;
not clues for a defensive failure
destroyed by floods
Black Sey? The writing is unclear
a toponymic re-membering, misreading, mishearing
re-pronounced as Black Joy
an error creeping through time and language,
a fluidity of words for a fluid coastline.
Hold this unsure line of words
ye sheare deip Seas
beateth upon the Shores with a mighty noise
a possibility of increasing tidal prisms
adapting to the translation of line and language
an instability entrusted to transactional monitoring
and active management
maintaining a standard of protection
through the uncertainty of timing
along undefended line
implying a more complex process
of long, sure, drifting words
Camden, William. Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Translated by Philemon Holland. London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610.
Cozens-Hardy, Basil. “Norfolk Coastal Defences in 1588.” Norfolk Archaeological Journal, Vol XXVI (1940): 311.
Hooton, Jonathan. The Glaven Ports: a Maritime History of Blakeney, Cley and Wiveton in North Norfolk. Blakeney: Blakeney History Group, 1996.
Kent, Peter. Fortifications of East Anglia. Lavenham: Terence Dalton, 1988.
North Norfolk Shoreline Management Plan. Environment Agency et al, 2010.
O’Neill, B.H. St. J. “The Fortifications of Weybourne Hope in 1588.” Norfolk Archaeological Journal, Vol XXVII, 2 (1940): 250-262.
Ordnance Survey. Explorer Sheet 251, Norfolk Coast Central: Wells-next-the-Sea & Fakenham. Southampton: Ordnance Survey, 2015.
_____________. Norfolk Sheet IV 16. Southampton: Ordnance Survey Office, 1906. Robertson, David et al. Norfolk Rapid Coastal Zone Archaeological Survey (part 1). Norwich: Norfolk Archaeological Unit, 2005.
