Thursday 30th March 2023
Difficulty: Medium
The Isle of Purbeck (Quiz #132)
Photos: John Tomlinson; Jim Champion; Benjamin Elliott @ Unsplash (Creative Commons)
The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides.
1. The Isle is actually a peninsula. According to writer and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, Purbeck "is only an island if you accept the - WHAT? - between Arish Mell and Wareham as cutting off this corner of Dorset as effectively as the sea."
2. At the Eastern point of the Isle of Purbeck is Old Harry (pictured above), a chalk rock stack formed by erosion. Another, similar stack used to stand beside Old Harry, but it collapsed in 1896. What was the other stack called?
3. A prominent landmark of the Isle of Purbeck is Corfe Castle, which stands above the village of the same name. In the English Civil War, Corfe was one of the last remaining royalist strongholds in southern England, and it eventually fell to a siege in 1645. Following this, it was "slighted", on the orders of Parliament. What does "slighted" mean?
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