Construction was also almost certainly seasonal and done in the winter months. And, given that people back then were lucky to live beyond forty years, it is unlikely that anyone who participated in the start of the construction on any one of the bigger enclosures would have still been alive to witness its completion.

II: River Esk, North Yorkshire, 1920

“Lost, along with the privacies that form the real biography, never recorded or known; then countless inner adjustments we make to be in the world, to accommodate our loneliness, our ache for reunion.

IV: River Orwell, Suffolk, 1984

“At the back of the shop, Peter sat at a large table, the Anglepoise leaning over him, as if searching for errors in his work. He heard the front door open, with its bell on a hinge, and a voice call out:

‘On Amsterdam Island, it’s 4:01 p.m.; in Perth, it’s 11:01 p.m.; in Alert, it’s 10:01 a.m.!’

He looked up. Thank God. She was home.

VI: River Orwell, Suffolk, 1984

“Above all, shared desire, with its unfathomable, inexpressible peace. The hope implicit in their days and nights together.

X: Highcliffe, Dorset, 1912

“Our machines govern our behaviour, thought Hertha, but they will never teach us meaning.