Image of the day – 20

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

This photo shows the River Churn flowing through Stratton Meadow on the northern edge of Cirencester, with the old Stratton Mill in the background. As you can see, the Churn is only a small river, but like the Thames its name is very ancient, going back at least to Iron Age times. In Roman Britain the Thames was Thamesis and Churn is the Corin in Corinium (the Roman name for Cirencester). It’s also the Ciren in Cirencester and the Cerney in several villages north and south of the town.

Rivers are intriguing things, the water contained in them is flowing so the water you see now is different from the water that you saw five minutes ago. Yet the river usually changes its course very little in a human lifetime, so there’s a sense of constancy about it. The water is here for moments only, but the river is here for generations.

In ancient Jewish thinking, flowing water was considered living water, but stationary water in a cup, basin, pond or lake was not living and was therefore of less value and significance. A mikvah was a special bath with water flowing in and water running out at all times, bathing in this living water would make a person ritually clean. Taking a dip in the pond had no such effect!

Cirencester

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:

A417 roadworks, Advent Market, Bishops Walk, Baunton, Canal 1, 2, Castle Street, Christmas lights 1, 2, Church 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Churn flood, Countryside, Fallen tree, Fleece, Gasworks, Gloucester Street, Hare 1, 2, Hospital, Market Place 1, Phoenix Fest, Riverside Walk, Stone plaque, Stratton Meadow, Tank traps, View, Wonky 1, 2, Yellow Iris

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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