MovieChat Forums > South Riding (2011) Discussion > Geography and architecture

Geography and architecture

posted 13 years ago by gwendoline_lacey
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Rather nerdy of me but surely Leame Ferry Waste and Coldharbour Colony are back to front on the map Councillor Huggins? keeps waving around.

Why would Leame Ferry Waste face on to the North Sea instead of erm well - on to the Leame?

And Robert is riding in the wrong direction when he comes to grief on the cliff. Maythorpe is south of Kiplington. In the first scene he's riding north to the school interviews so where the heck's he supposed to be off to after the final meeting with Sarah?

Winifred Holtby drew a perfectly good map of South Riding, which is in the front of my Virago edition. I wonder why the makers of the 2011 TV series didn't take a look?

Also what about the architecture? I've read some pretty angry feedback on the use of a stone house for Maythorpe Hall and sympathise... surely there were any number of more suitable houses in the area where the book's supposed to be set? Personally I imagined Maythorpe as Georgian and full of moth-eaten Edwardian splendour. And the street where Sarah and Joe come out of the pub looks like a rather imposing area in a mill town, not a seaside town at all.

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

I'll have to screencap this to check. The 1974 version did, at least, give us a map in the credits at the commercial breaks. Winifred's map is also given in her biography, The Clear Stream. My parents still live in the area, too, so I shall see what I can find…

Maythorpe is a hybrid, based partly on Dowthorpe, near Skirlaugh (still owned by Winifred's cousins) and on Winestead Old Hall, which was being demolished at this time and replaced by a mental hospital, later a residential school.
http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_yorkshire_winesteadhall.html
In the 1974 serial, it's a big Georgian house.

Here's a good piece with a detailed map, and with some explanation of the accident: this is an extremely fragile and endangered coast. Never mind the occasional squire, whole towns have fallen off the edge.
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/ecolodge/25/erosion.htm

Seingner Conrat, tot per vostr'amor chan
http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/knightlife

[–] gwendoline_lacey 13 years ago

Thanks for these links. I remember a hotel fell off the cliff at Scarborough a few years ago, a bit further up the coast but the same sort of thing must be happening there. That's a scary rate of erosion.

Here's a link to a site about Dowthorpe Hall. Dowthorpe and Winestead both look far more like Maythorpe to me than the C17? stone house they used in the TV series.
http://www.dowthorpehall.com/index.html

Ref. occasional squire falling off the edge, your reference to the Alexander III Driving Prize absolutely cracked me up. Even though I must admit a soft spot for Robert and to having cried at that scene when I read the book... yes I know :)

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

Thanks for these links. I remember a hotel fell off the cliff at Scarborough a few years ago, a bit further up the coast but the same sort of thing must be happening there. That's a scary rate of erosion.

Yes: Ravenser, where King Edward and the future King Richard landed after their exile, vanished long ago.

Here's a link to a site about Dowthorpe Hall. Dowthorpe and Winestead both look far more like Maythorpe to me than the C17? stone house they used in the TV series.
http://www.dowthorpehall.com/index.html

Ah-hah! B&B at the real Maythorpe? Now there's a crack-fic scenario…! (Can you imagine Robert and Midge taking paying guests to make money?!)
It's just up the road from my folks, who are on the borders of Hull and Bilton.

Ref. occasional squire falling off the edge, your reference to the Alexander III Driving Prize absolutely cracked me up. Even though I must admit a soft spot for Robert and to having cried at that scene when I read the book... yes I know :)

Well, I lived in Fife for many years (am now in Glasgow), am a mediævalist, and am familiar with the memorial to his drunk-driving accident at Kinghorn.

Joe's letter is what makes me cry. I've a weakness for these intense, consumptive young men.

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[–] gwendoline_lacey 13 years ago

Ah-hah! B&B at the real Maythorpe? Now there's a crack-fic scenario…! (Can you imagine Robert and Midge taking paying guests to make money?!)

Hehe I love it!!!

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

Fawlty Towers meets Cold Comfort Farm.

Seingner Conrat, tot per vostr'amor chan
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