Poddington-on-Slossip: Theme

An Overview

The Village

The tiny village of Poddington, perched upon the River Slossip in mysterious Cornwall, seems to be an ordinary hamlet deep in the heart of the English countryside. Its inhabitants are mostly farmers, small tradesmen, and the odd eccentric or two, though the Dewinter family manor occasionally attracts visitors from the cities.

Poddington-on-Slossip lies near the northern coast of Cornwall, a few dozen miles east of Tintagel. Overlooked on most maps, it lies on the eastern outskirts of the fishing town Tewiff-by-Sea.

The village seems never to have recovered from the great fire of 1871, when a just-built textile factory burned to rubble on Acorn Lane even before its great looms churned out their first yard of cloth.

Many students from nearby Magnusson College visit the town for goods and for its pub, the Languishing Apple. Still others conduct archeological expeditions on the banks of the Slossip, where the ruins of a still older village lie.

The College

Magnusson College, founded in the mid-nineteenth century, has educated several generations of young men. While most of the sons of gentlemen and peers attend the colleges at Oxford or Cambridge, Magnusson caters primarily to a middle-class crowd. Like most of the British colleges, its students matriculate for three years to earn their Bachelor's degree.

The college has only admitted women during the past decade. As there is no housing on campus for them, they are required to live elsewhere. Many of them live on Twitterton farm near the college valley; still others board with farmers or townsfolk.

Magnusson College caters to undergraduates. Students there choose Mods (modern languages and literatures), Classics, Sciences, Philosophy, or History for their concentration. The college also encourages athletic and artistic extra-curricular activity.

Cornwall

The town of Poddington is the gateway to the Wildcombe Moor, a rocky, somewhat barren expanse of barely arable land, dense forests, and lush valleys. Secrets abound in the Moor, for this is Cornwall, county of mystery. The town of Tewiff, from which Buckingham Palace buys its mussels,  lies to the west of Poddington. The prettiest view of charming Tewiff  is from the headlands above it, that tumbling down to a crescent-shaped bay.

Names

In order to keep a certain consistency with the theme, we ask our players to consider choosing names that fit the regional flavour of the MUSH and the 1920s timeline. If your character is a long-term native of Cornwall or the village of Poddington in particular, you may wish to consider choosing a name from either a Cornish first name index or a surname index. 

Royalty

The ruler of England is King George V, long may he reign! His wife is Queen Mary, and their children are Prince Edward, Prince George, Princess Mary, Prince Henry, Prince George Duke of Kent, and Prince John.

British Currency

Source: Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate & Charles Dickens Knew