New Member

Hi, I came across this group this evening, had a look at the posts and joined immediately! Everyone seems so friendly and helpful. I am looking forward to posting and hearing everyones views and comments.

Just thought I'd introduce myself. I started boxing in 2003 have just collected my 500th box. Hopefully spending time on the moor will be easier as I am moving to Devon in the next few weeks, I am currently in Bucks.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to the meet in the spring but I have just sent off for the current charity walks and will hopefully complete them soon.

Claire

Hi Claire, welcome to the site!!!!

You will find everyone to be very friendly and helpful here.....even me!

Great news about you moving down here, much closer to the moors, I live in Torbay so it's not to far to get up there most weeks.

Have a safe and good move.

Dizzy

Thanks Dizzy.


Claire

Hiya - let me echo Dizzy's comment there and welcome to the site
If you have any problem we can stop the infighting and give you a hand - I mean - we dont fight (do we?).
Seriously though if you have any problems -- we will be glad to help and if you can help then GREAT!

Just wonders what part of Buckinghamshire you hail from as I used to live there many years ago

I'm from Chalfont-St-Peter. Have lived here for the past 25ish years. I don't know if you get it too but I find it amazing the amount of people you meet, especially in Devon who used to live in Bucks. Is there some sort of natural migratory pattern emerging here??!!!

I fell in love with Devon the first time I visited and have been plotting and planning how to become a permanent resident rather than a frequent visitor ever since!!

Claire

Welcome to the site Claire its nice to see a new fresh face in here. You seem realy happy to be moving down to Devon, where about are you moving to? I live in Exeter which means that Dartmoor is only about a half an hour drive from me. Well good luck with your move and welcome.

Welcome to the site Claire. I've only been a member of the Group for a couple of months, but everyone is extremely friendly.

Good luck with the move.
Tina

I used to live in Aylesbury before I moved down to Plymouth in 1977 eeps! That is a long time ago... all I remember about the move was that it rained persistantly fofr months. However, it was a few years before I found the magic of the moors but the work situation I had to move to London last year - I hate the place - but it pays the bills and I am nearer my daughter too well one of them... hmmm not near enough if you ask me...


I was bitten by the letterbox bug and I miss it horribly at this time - especially with all this fine weather we are getting

Welcome to the gang
Sorry to hear you are leaving the ranks of Grockle to become a local though

Thanks for all your kind welcomes. I am moving to Whiddon Down, near Okehampton, so the moor will be nice and close. Perhaps a bit too close - I'll never get any work done especially on days like we're having this week!!!

I have been reading though other topics and wondering what a 'grockle' is. Didn't realise I am one at the moment!!!

Anyway looking forward to contributing to this site more and am so glad I stumbled across what has proved to be a very friendly, welcoming place.

Claire

Hi Claire, it's nice to meet you

Claire wrote:I have been reading though other topics and wondering what a 'grockle' is. Didn't realise I am one at the moment!!!

Claire

Hi Claire - thought this might explain:

What is the origin of the word 'grockle'? Printer Friendly Version

This slightly dismissive term for a 'tourist' was, as several of our readers have noted, first popularized because of its use by the characters in the film The System (1962), which is set in the Devon resort of Torquay during the tourist season. Some older dictionaries suggested that this might be a West Country dialect word. Other scholars have suggested that it might originate in a comparison of red-faced tourists (in baggy clothing with handkerchiefs on their heads) to 'Grock', the famous clown. The word grockle was indeed picked up by the script-writer from the locals during filming in Torquay. However, it was apparently not an 'old local dialect word'. According to research by a local journalist in the mid-1990s, the word in fact originated from a strip cartoon in the children's comic Dandy entitled 'Danny and his Grockle'. (The grockle was a magical dragon-like creature.) A local man, who had had a summer job at a swimming pool as a youngster, said that he had used the term as a nickname for a small elderly lady who was a regular customer one season. During banter in the pub among the summer workers, the term then became generalized as a term for summer visitors. This seems to have occurred in, or only shortly before, the summer in which The System was filmed: we know of no instances of the word dating from before the release of The System (though one or two people from the south-west remain convinced that they knew it before then).


Tina

Hi Claire!

Welcome from us too! We only joined a few weeks ago, and as has been said earlier in the post everyone is very friendly!

James & Jenny

Grockle

Good one that, I've been living in Torbay for over 19 years and I've been told by locals I'm still not a grockle. Apparently you need two generations in the grave yard before you can be called a 'local'. (So I've been told).

Dizzy

So why do the Cornish call them "Emmits"? So if you are on the border of Devon and Cornwall are you a Grommet?

As ponted out above the term Grockle has been used for quite a while to describe someone who is not from Devon's glorious shores. It was after having a discussion with someone in Torquay about letterboxing I first heard the term and I loved it from the off!
The order was set up as a tongue in cheek reply to the conversation.