Icknield Indagations 10th anniversary

I've just noticed that I've missed the 10th anniversary of my first post on Icknield Indagations, on 4th August 2015. Since then I've written 196 posts, an average of nearly twenty each year, though my productivity has fallen off dramatically since 2022. The blog's page views is also approaching a milestone - 328,314 as I write, in other words coming up to a third of a million. (But it's salutary to remember that this is page views - I assume that every time one of my posts appears on someone's screen even for a second it counts as a view, so if they scroll through the site hoping and failing to find something they want to read that can count as a dozen or so views even if they've read nothing at all. The count is of VIEWS, not reads, let alone readers.)

Here's the page views graph. As you can see, for the first three years almost no one looked at the blog, and even fewer presumably read it. A glimmer of interest began to twinkle in 2019, but summer 2020 was when it took off; I assume that lockdown had something to do with this. The reason for those two sudden peaks in summer 23? Beats me.

My top twenty most viewed posts:

1. The Lucas Hospital, Wokingham, Berks This was the number one five years ago when I first compiled a list like this. Why it still gets so many more views than the other posts I don't know; it's a fairly obscure subject.

2. An Edward Bawden calendar 1930 Bawden is a popular artist, and this is one of his lesser-known works, so I'm glad this gets attention.

 3. T H White's 'The Sword in the Stone' When I started writing this blog I assumed that I'd write about books quite often, which hasn't proved to be the case. 'The Sword in the Stone' is a popular book, and this post supplies information not easily available elsewhere.

4. The Singular History of the Double Entendre This took quite a lot of work and it's a subject I'm very fond of, so I'm glad that it's found a readership.

5. Pampisford church, Cambs My most popular church-related post (though very far from the best or most interesting).

6. The Arden Shakespeares 2nd series Another rare book-related post, though chiefly concerned with the covers. Since writing it the Arden 3rd series has been completed, and so all the 2nd series which I collected so assiduously over the years have gone from my shelves (I'd like to have kept them, but not enough space) and been replaced by the 3rd series. I think I can safely say that the covers are not in general an improvement.

7. Waterford church, Herts At last, a post about a Herts church, which I still regard as being the blog's chief raison d'etre. The wonderful PreRaphaelite stained glass is presumably what brings people to this one.

8. The Grimes Graves Venus Archaeology is another thing I intended to write about, and except for this one post I haven't. I'm glad it gets viewers as I quite like it, and again it contains information not easily otherwise obtainable.

9. Felmersham church Beds Another non-Herts church. Peculiar medieval carvings in churches (especially apparently sexual ones) is another subject I'm especially interested in, and the corbel that forms the subject of this post isn't well known.

10. Letchworth church, Herts My second most popular Herts church post. Why this one? No idea.

11. A Victorian eccentric Another post I'm particularly pleased with on a subject that deserves to be better known.

12. Ayot St Lawrence church, Herts The country's first Greek Revival church, so this deserves a readership.

13. Eric Forbes-Robertson I'd like to write more about obscure late nineteenth/early twentieth century painters.

14. John Collier My only other post on an obscure painter (though not as obscure as EFR).

15. Wallington church, Herts Presumably the George Orwell connection brings people to this.

16. Clothall church, Herts One of my favourite churches, with the stained glass birds.

17. The Wantage Novel Library A one-off post.

18. Mosaic tiles Another under-explored subject.

19. Inigo Jones' screen for Winchester Cathedral

20. Kenny Wheeler's 'Sweet Time Suite' Jazz is another thing I'd like to write about more, and maybe will.

Lastly, three posts that I wish had more readers:

The Ely octagon

Zoom Theatre Experiments With links to three short plays I wrote during or soon after Covid.

The Saunders monument in Flamstead church, Herts