Hemptonwic

The settlement of Hemptonwic, located thirty-six kilometres south of the town of Hempton Bay, situated on the shore of the bay with the same name on the largest of the Warring Islands, was founded by a charter issued by the Exarch of the Warring Islands, Jeremiah Avon-El, issued on 11.XIII.1689.

The boundaries of the settlement of Hemptonwic have been demarcated within the Bailiwick of the Warring Islands by means of an enclosing turf-mound and dry-rock wall, three metres high and three metres wide, that ran for a length of three kilometres. Eight gates on the landward side have been cut into the wall, with access controlled by sentry-posts and raiseable barriers.

On the coastward side Hemptonwic lays in a shallow bay of eroded clay between a band of chalk rock ending in cliffs to its north and an outcrop of limestone forming a jagged promontory to its immediate south. The main beach, facing westwards towards the wider fjord of Hempton Bay, forms a low amphitheatre of rolling dunes that is normally sheltered but in the event of a south-westerly storm broiling up the bay will see masses of seaweed dumped upon the shore - which is gathered up and taken to be dried and used as fertiliser or, in extremis, as food.

Behind the dunes may be found an alluvial marsh, whose brackish waters are fed by a brook whose source rises a short distance inland in the moorlands outside the Eastern length of the enclosure wall. One well, fed by clear spring water may be found in the southern third of the enclosed land down by the edge of the limestone outcrop.

The charter for Hemptonwic divides the settlement into three plantations, north to south, each consisting of six allotments, east to west. Through these run the north-south and the east-west roads, with the latter following the course of the brook for the final third of its course to the point where the two roads intersect. At this point has been built the grand hall and the cottages of the plantation workers and allotment owners grouped there around.