Too many sailors drowned whilst digging the graves so they would often hide the body under a canvas or flag and tip it into the sea when they thought nobody was watching.
This really made me laugh & reminded me of something I’d not thought about for years, when I was little & I heard the phrase buried at sea & the only reference I had of a burial was a scene in Scrooge & I presumed they done the same but at sea, think the football game scene in bedknobs & broomsticks helped my imagination along with how a sea burial would work & I believed this for far longer than I should have!
A Ha Ha is a ditch that is obscured from a view. Often used in gardens of stately homes to prevent deer approaching the front of the house but not noticeably visible and spoiling the line of the view of the lawn.
You've got it the wrong way round.
Later a ditch was dug to keep out the locals and was called the Ha Ha ditch after Ha Ha Road
The name was then used for other similar ditches and became a generic name.
The story behind Ha Ha Rd is that a Royal Artillery Officer had a wager with a fellow Officer, that he could build a 6ft wall less than a mile from the Orderly office in the barracks and the second officer could not see it.
Pubs called The Chequers: nothing to do with board games, despite what many of the pub signs would have you believe.
Back in the day, pubs made their own beer. Many pubs had trees called the Wild Service Tree (Sorbus Torminalis) in their grounds or nearby and the fruits from these trees, called chequers, were used in the brewing process instead of hops. The bark of the tree is also in a chequered pattern. Hence the pub name.
Nowadays the Wild Service Tree is quite rare. (I have one growing a short walk from my house). Frankly it is unremarkable but if you find one it's probably a sign that you are standing in a patch of ancient woodland.
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when I was little & I heard the phrase buried at sea & the only reference I had of a burial was a scene in Scrooge & I presumed they done the same but at sea, think the football game scene in bedknobs & broomsticks helped my imagination along with how a sea burial would work & I believed this for far longer than I should have!
Back in the day, pubs made their own beer. Many pubs had trees called the Wild Service Tree (Sorbus Torminalis) in their grounds or nearby and the fruits from these trees, called chequers, were used in the brewing process instead of hops. The bark of the tree is also in a chequered pattern. Hence the pub name.
Nowadays the Wild Service Tree is quite rare. (I have one growing a short walk from my house). Frankly it is unremarkable but if you find one it's probably a sign that you are standing in a patch of ancient woodland.