Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:moonraker wrote:
Viv's probably
holed-up inside Corfe Castle, planning her strategy to counter-attack this Channel Islands propaganda.
You bet!
Before I make my case, have a look at Tony's suggestion, St Aubin's Fort.
http://www.jeron.je/thatwasjersey/castl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 013big.jpg
Then have a look at some of the other fortifications around Jersey
http://user.itl.net/~gedi/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The conundrum of Kirrin; Corfe or Jersey?
What excitement - we have a new clue for the real whereabouts of Kirrin. And evidence doesn't come any better than a real letter from Enid herself. Does this new evidence in any way diminish my claims that it was Corfe Castle that inspired Kirrin Castle, when Enid herself says that the castle and island are somewhere off Jersey? Strange as it may seem, I think not, and I set out my case below.
My Evidence
The evidence I worked on for my 2002 book The Dorset Days of Enid Blyton was the best available, given there was no evidence from Enid at the time.
My first port of call was to talk to her family. Gillian sent me a set of notes that she had made for a BBC Pebble Mill production called Tracks, where she described real locations, and included Corfe as Kirrin.
Next I read Norman Wright's The Famous Five: Everything you ever wanted to know. This acknowledged expert threw his weight in favour of Corfe.
Thirdly I thought about what Enid knew, and what may have influenced her. She and Gillian had visited Corfe at Easter 1941 and Five on a Treasure Island came out sometime between July and October 1942. That visit to Corfe had been very close to the time that she wrote the book, and if we knew the date of Easter 1941 and the date that the book came out, we could narrow down how soon it was. A book took an average of 10 months from leaving the author to publication, but this book may have taken even longer since a new publisher had to be found with paper to spare
Evidence about the Island
Kirrin Island has a castle on it, is surrounded by rocks with a large wreck stranded upon them, has a useful cave under it, and is of such a size that assorted children and a dog can hide themselves from various baddies.
If you can imagine Kirrin Island, without thinking first of Eileen Soper's pictures, how big an area would it cover? Would it be as big as St Michaels Mount, Lindisfarne, or Brownsea Island? Or is it very small, perhaps only the size of a football pitch?
From the mainland Kirrin Island is described as small, but as the children approach it for the first time Julian says that it is bigger than he thought. Ann says it feels like an island because wherever you are, you can see to the other side, but this must be impossible because there is a low hill on it.
From what I have seen from pictures of the islands off Jersey, their combined areas look as though they would fit comfortably inside a modern Tesco supermarket.
Evidence about the Castle
What sort of a castle is Kirrin Castle? Do you regard it as a real castle built for battle, a fortified manor house, a folly, or a small fortification?
Kirrin Castle, once beautiful, proud and strong, is now a ruin. It has an enormous broken arch and slit like windows. It had upstairs accommodation, and is built from white stone.
To me it sounds like a proper Norman castle. Archways were typical of Norman architecture, and slit like windows essential in the age of archery. Corfe Castle is such a Norman castle (complete with broken archway) and is built of pale limestone which shines brightly in sunlight.
I understand that the forts around Jersey are typically Tudor (or later) and built in the age of the canon. These forts were very small, and manned by just a few soldiers at a time. Building in Jersey is usually with granite, often pink but sometimes grey. From the pictures I'm not sure if St Aubin's is made of pink granite or red brick. However the bedrock shows clearly the origin of its French name of Noirmont. These forts were still in use during Napoleonic times, and are still in reasonably good condition. They could be said to be deserted but not in a state of ruination when Enid visited over 80 years ago.
What was Enid describing?
In 1962 Five have a Mystery to Solve came out, placing Kirrin firmly on the mainland. George cycled over to her cousins from Kirrin, and then they all rode off to view Poole Harbour and Whispering/Brownsea Island. Yet in this same year Blyton writes a letter telling a fan that Kirrin is in the Channel Islands. How can I explain this conundrum?
What I think she means is that Jersey inspired the Topography of Kirrin. I can well imagine her in 1924 gazing at all the little islands with their forts on them and thinking to herself "wouldn't it be fun to own a place like that. I must put it into a story sometime".
Perhaps this thought resurfaced 17 years later when she visited Corfe. It may have been only a matter of weeks later, following her Dorset visit, when she wrote Five on a Treasure Island. Her wish fulfilment would also came true, because through the character of George she did get to own an island with a castle on it.
The letter from 1962 was written 38 years after her 1924 honeymoon in Jersey. We know that she took inspiration for stories from all over the place, and shouldn't be surprised to see a jumble of places being used. That she writes tersely of Corfe when writing about the 1957 film is not unusual, especially when the brevity of some of her diary entries is considered.
Personally I think it a stroke of genius for her to take a Norman castle that she knew well (Corfe) and put it on a rocky island (like those off Jersey but bigger) to come up with the familiar landscape of Kirrin, even if neither element were being described exactly.
So where is Kirrin? The definitive answer has to be that the REAL location for Kirrin was inside Enid Blyton's own imagination.
Best wishes
Viv