Costa del Dorset
Come now children, gather round Granny’s old armchair, and I’ll tell you a story. I’ll tell you a story about long ago, when I was a little girl, before the time when the weather changed, and the seas rose.
In those times the days were not so hot in summer, and not so cold in winter, and the seas were not so high all the year round. Things were very different then.
If you look out across the bay here, from the Costa del Dorset, you can see there is an island. Well, before the time when the weather changed and the seas rose that was not an island. That was a hill, and you could walk all the way from this farm to the top of that hill and never dip your toes in salt water. There was a little stream in the bottom of the valley there, where the tide comes racing in now, deep and dangerous, but that was freshwater that the cows would go and drink. And you know cows won’t drink salt water.
I used to go paddling there with my sisters, in that shallow little stream, and our hobby was to catch sticklebacks and minnows, little freshwater fish, right there where the salt sea is now. There was a stork that used to go fishing there too – a bird with very long legs and a long beak. They were very rare round here, but there used to be a few. When the seas rose and the weather changed they flew away, and I don’t know where they live now.
And this farm where we all live had a different name too. We started to call it the Costa del Dorset when the sea came in, because the days grew hotter until it felt as though we lived in Spain Spain
We called this place Firecrest Farm then. There was wild land up on the hills behind here, and when the bracken turned colour in the Autumn it sometimes looked as though the hills were on fire. And now of course we have the beacon fire up there, ready to light as a warning if the pirates come again.
And your grandad, he wasn’t a soldier like he became later, like you’ve seen when he puts his medals on, for the memorials. He worked on the farm. I called him my jolly plough boy, and I married him as soon as we were old enough. But then all the men and women who could, we all had to learn to fight. We used to practice up on the moorland, marching sometimes like old fashioned soldiers, but mostly learning to fight a guerrilla war against the invaders. That’s another reason we called it ‘Costa del Dorset’, because guerrilla was a word that came from the Spanish language.
Who were we fighting? Well, the people that came across the seas and tried to take our land!
When the weather changed and the seas rose, there was less land anywhere, but still lots of people trying to live on it, though of course a lot died, what with the floods and the heatwaves and all, and the storms in winter, and the malaria and such that came with the mosquitoes and the other insects, and the sewers not working properly any more with the floods.
Now a lot of the people were peaceful, but needed help. But there were a lot more that just tried to take over any land they came across, and didn’t care how. So that was why we had to learn to fight. And that is why you have the lessons now in how to fight, with guns, and bows and arrows, and with knives and swords. The guns work best, but one day there won’t be any left, so it’s good to learn other weapons. You learn to fight with any weapons you can, and with no weapons at all, like the karate teacher shows you. You learn to fight, because I don’t want to lose any more of my family to invaders or pirates. Before the weather changed and the seas rose children were told off for fighting, and people got in trouble for carrying knives. But now, you make sure you always carry your knife, and you learn to fight well.
Beryl Chaudhuri
