Ottery St Catchpole

This whole chapter, "The Whomping Willow" is one of the main reasons I really don't like this book - the Ford Anglia is something that just really gets my goat, for some reason. I can't explain it, nor am I going to try to! We forge onwards, and that post will come tomorrow now as I got rather carried away on my exploration of the Burrow and the charming little village it is located in.

Last Weeks of the Summer Holiday

There's something that rings so true of my own school days in the first section of "The Whomping Willow". Maybe it's the fact that Harry's days at the Burrow are noted as 'the happiest of his life', the fact that they have hot chocolate before bed(!) and the mad rush that happens as you pack up to go back to school for a term. Or three!

We generally only have hot chocolate when we are on holiday, and some of my happiest holiday memories are of sitting around a fire in a cottage in Wales having a drink and roasting marshmallows in the fireplace. Ahh, nostalgia...I'm off to make myself a hot chocolate!

The other side of this mug can be seen here.

Anyway, back to the story. There's a scary moment that almost makes them late for the Hogwarts Express, when Ginny leaves her diary behind at the Burrow. It would have been so much simpler if Mr Weasley had just said 'no, we are running quite late enough, you will have to leave it'! Although, we wouldn't have known how to destroy a Horcrux, I suppose. You win some, you lose some!

After running so late, our Ford Anglia full of people makes it to Kings Cross at quarter to eleven. This always made me wonder where the heck Ottery St Catchpole actually is. I always assumed it was in Devon (my Gran lived in Ottery St Mary when I was a teenager), but for some reason the fact that they drove to Kings Cross made me doubt this, but not enough to have ever bothered looking it up.

A quick Google search later and I found out that Ottery St Catchpole is, in fact, in Devon. JKR went to University in Exeter and presumably knew about Ottery St Mary - the "Ottery" bit means that the village is probably located on or near the River Otter. The "Catchpole" could refer to a Quidditch post or similar, or could also be a reference to the Middle English meaning of the word, sheriff's deputy. In other words, somebody who collects debt...some sort of crazy reference to the poverty of the Weasley's, or are we just looking too far into it?

Devon's location in the UK.

The rough area of Devon where the Burrow may be located.

If you ever find yourself in this area, I do recommend a look around. Knowing the rough location has made me read these pages in a new light, being able to picture the area much more accurately. Ottery St Mary is a really old town with higgledy piggledy houses along the main street, developing into more modern housing developments as you leave the town. The Burrow would have to be on the outskirts of the town, which I imagine to be slightly further south of the actual location of Ottery St Mary because of the description of hills and what not in the area. It's one of the greenest places in England, with traditional hedgerows guiding tiny lanes to wherever they are off to - a lot of cows, sheep and produce, the coast, a moor and plenty of trees. A wonderful place to spend some time if you've grown up, abused, in a suburb of London, that's for sure!

Cottage in Ottery St Mary

Countryside in this area of England

Hills near Ottery St Mary

A tumbling weir in the Otter River.

The journey to Kings Cross would take around four hours, meaning that as long as Mr Weasley did not have any magical speed enhancements on the Ford Anglia, they would have had to leave the Burrow at 6:45am at the earliest to make it on time. That doesn't account for traffic at Bristol, in London or finding a parking at the station. Not so easy!

Arthur claims that if they flew to London from Ottery St Catchpole, they would arrive in ten minutes. I think this is the bit that really gets to me. TEN MINUTES?! Passenger planes take at least half an hour, that thing has some serious speed!

Anyway, that's all for today - I'd better get to bed if I have any hope of using my brain tomorrow!

Much love,

Corrie xx