Talk:Winchester

Egbert and Alfred
There is a problem in the history section arising from a corrected mistake. Until April 5th it included the lines "...it was established by King Alfred the Great as the main city in his kingdom in 827. The Saxon street plan laid out by Alfred is still evident today...", which reads fine but is wrong (Alfred wasn't even born in 827). This was corrected to: "...it was established by King Egbert as the main city in his kingdom in 827. The Saxon street plan laid out by Alfred is still evident today...", which is factually consistent but stylistically weird as Alfred hadn't been mentioned until that point but it sounds as if he should have been.

So if Egbert established it, is it his street plan which survives? Or did Alfred redevelop it when he became king (in which case the sentence should be rewritten to reflect that)? Or was it actually Alfred who established it as a capital, as originally stated, and it was the year that should have been corrected? --82.47.198.253 11:03, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Edward the Elder
According to Mike Ashley's Biographical Encyclepedia of British Kings and Queens, Edward the Elder (d.924) was indeed buried in Winchester Cathedral. I'm undoing the undo and providing a reference for that fact. If this is not the case, could someone provide a ref of some sort showing that I'm wrong. thanks! Josh 14:58, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * From a plethora of possible references, I have given the most recent and specific I could find. There are many errors in Mike Ashley's work. Edward the Elder was buried in the New Minster, then at Hyde Abbey. His last resting place is marked in the Hyde Abbey Garden near the Leisure Centre. Also, strictly speaking Egbert and Canute are not 'buried' in the Cathedral. Their bones are in abox. Walgamanus 22:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * thanks for setting it straight! Josh 00:50, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Time to split off the people?
The list of people is growing, maybe its time to split it off as Bath has done here List of people from Bath. GameKeeper (talk) 20:08, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. In addition, the section within this article should be written as prose, not as a list. Waggers (talk) 10:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

City of Winchester
Fingerpuppet, it is not enough to revert my changes to the lead without discussion. You need to provide a proper source, per WP:V, for the lead as it now stands. You have only provided an ONS dataset, "for urban areas and urban subdivisions in England and Wales with populations of 1,500 people or greater."

As I have stated at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_UK_geography, the idea that articles should start with the absurd tautological construction "X lies at the heart of the wider City of X..." is damaging to our standing as a credible reference work. Can you please explain where else, outside Wikipedia, you find this approach taken? Chrisieboy (talk) 11:27, 23 April 2009 (UTC)


 * See WikiProject UK geography, which you are a participant in, and have yet to convince editors in your way of thinking. Get a consensus there, and your way of thinking will prevail. Until then (or until one of the alternative proposals gains consensus), the status quo rests.   The source is simply for the population figure. Fingerpuppet (talk) 13:45, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it is incumbent on me to get a consensus at WP:UKGEO, only here. In any case, as I have stated there, the majority of English cities are already treated this way. Now, about that source..? Chrisieboy (talk) 14:49, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

William the Conqueror
No note of William being crowned in Winchester, I seem to remember he was the Last King of England to be crowned in the City, and the only one to be crowned twice (Westminster Abbey being the place for his other coronation)

Disambiguation
Hello, I'm proposing some alterations to how we deal with cities and places within cities that share its name. The proposal, found at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_England, includes Winchester and the City of Winchester. I'm really hoping to gain a broad consensus for this proposal, and the rationale why is found at WP:ENGLAND too. --Jza84 | Talk  10:48, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Watercourses
I had to suppress an interesting article about the historic watercourses through Winchester. Luckily the text is still available at de:Benutzer:JuergenBeer. Something definitely needs to be said here on the subject. &mdash; RHaworth 12:20, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Christopher Couture - notability
''Celebrity blogger and upcoming author Christopher Couture is originally from Winchester and in his first novel, Superhated, his first character called Alexander Cunningham is from and resides in Winchester. His second novel, Life In Pink, is based in both Winchester and Southampton.''

"Upcoming author" souds like an advertisment for a book. I fail to see how this bit of trivia meets the Notability test, especially since the link to Winchester is so tenuous anyway. And particualrly since Mr Couture doesn't have a Wikipedia page to himself. I have deleted the paragraph. --Iacobus (talk) 00:43, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Confusing line
"It was planned to educate poor boys before they moved on to New College, Oxford and often a life in the church." I imagine the writer meant, a life serving in a church as a priest, etc, but it isn't clear from the line.--93.173.88.173 (talk) 21:38, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Caergwinntguic or Caergwintwg: correct translation?
In the text this is stated as meaning "white fortress" Is this correct? The Welsh name for Winchester is Caergwynt. That could equally well mean Windy castle i.e Caer: castle, Gwynt: wind. Modern Welsh It is windy: Mae hi'n (g)wyntog White castle is more likely to be Caerwyn in Welsh I accept possible ambiguity related to old language, but Welsh is quite conservative in this respect. thanks Jellytussle (talk) 08:53, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
 * It's just based on the old Latin name. — Llywelyn II   02:03, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I have updated this section but left in the possible etymology of "white fortress". That said, I also don't see how this is etymology is likely, not only for the reasons outlined by Jellytussle above, but also as we have a near identical etymology in Caerwent and Gwent, with no suggestion of a white or chalky landscape.


 * I am otherwise unaware of much debate against the etymology that -wynt is derived via the latinisation of the Celtic -Wenta/Venta as evident at three sites throughout post-Roman Britain?Cymrogogoch (talk) 16:40, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Guildhall foundation & opening
Editors - I provided the image of the Guildhall shown in the article. Here are a couple of images taken around the same time showing those leading the foundation and opening ceremonies as well as architect etc. Maybe of interest in the main article? WyrdLight (talk) 17:03, 5 January 2011 (UTC) PS: these stones are on either side of the main entrance inside the portico.

Transport?
Currently no mention at all of transport, or of the Itchen Navigation. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:49, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Added today. Pterre (talk) 14:11, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
 * That's really good. Gosh, what a lot of links! Martinevans123 (talk) 18:21, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

King Arther and Mallory
Mallory's Death of King Arthur (at least as treated by Peter Ackroyd) several times lists Winchester as the seat of Camelot Simon Minahan05:19, 8 October 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.17.236.101 (talk)

Winchester the Anglo-Saxon capital?
For a discussion of whether Winchester was the capital of Anglo-Saxon England see Talk:London/Archive 10 Dudley Miles (talk) 11:53, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Winchester the Anglo-Saxon capital?
As I see that Winchester has been nominated for GAN, I think the question of whether it was the Anglo-Saxon capital should be raised. It is frequently claimed in popular and non-specialist works, but historians of Anglo-Saxon England say that it did not have a capital in this period. For example, Frank Stenton in Anglo-Saxon England, p. 539, discussing London's claim to be the capital, says "In the eleventh century the conception of a capital city had not taken shape anywhere in the west. The centre of government in England was the king's mobile court." Sarah Foot, in Æthelstan: the first king of England, pp. 78-79 on Winchester in the tenth century: "Even if the court spent increasing amounts of time there, especially in Elder the Edward's day, this did not make Winchester the 'capital' of Wessex, or of the expanded English realm. It remained just one of the West Saxon king's many royal residences, albeit apparently a favourite one for the family in death as well as in life." John Crook in his article on Winchester in the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed) does not say anything about it being the capital. (This article and its bibliography are a valuable source on Winchester in this period.) I think this needs addressing. Dudley Miles (talk) 21:44, 18 June 2014 (UTC)
 * The first thing I would say is that the lead should not say that Winchester was a former capital of England! That is just factually wrong - what we now know and identify as "England" has always had London as the capital. London's article itself states that by the 11th century it was unquestionably the capital, and cites the relevant page on Stenton's book that you mention above.
 * Although I see a book entitled "Historic Winchester England's First Capital", the publisher, BiblioBazaar, is not one I recognise as a reliable source.
 * As for being the capital of Wessex, I see "England", Guy McDonald, New Holland Publishers, 2004, p222 which says "Winchester calls itself the 'ancient capital of Wessex'. So too do Wilton, Hindon, Somerton, Shaftesbury and Chippenham." "England for Dummies" p. 263 talks about "Winchester, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex" (I don't believe I've ever cited a For Dummies book but you would at least hope that being geared towards beginners and nonexperts that it would put emphasis on being factually correct!), and "The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Fifth Edition Revised" p407, refers to St Swithun as "the Bishop of Winchester, the the Wessex capital".
 * From this, I would conclude that it is correct to state Winchester as "described as the former capital of Wessex" in the body. I don't mind it going in the lead in a section that talks about the history and origins, but I don't think it should be in the opening sentence.
 * This reinforces my closing comment at the GA review that nominator should arm himself with a good selection of book sources so the many unreferenced or questionable sections I identified can be fixed. Ritchie333  (talk)  (cont)   08:24, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * The Oxford Dictionary of Saints is WP:RS for saints, not for Anglo Saxon history. None of the sources cited as saying Winchester was the capital are reliable sources for Anglo-Saxon history. The sources I have cited above are by leading historians of Anglo-Saxon England. Stenton's volume of the Oxford History of England is still the standard history, although now dated. Sarah Foot is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford University and an Anglo-Saxon specialist. Dr John Crook is a leading historian of Winchester and consultant archaeologist to Winchester Cathedral. The universal view of Anglo-Saxon specialists, so far as I can discover, is that the court was mobile and there was no capital in this period, and we should base articles on their views, not the statements of writers who are not experts on the period. Dudley Miles (talk) 09:50, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Given that the description of Winchester as an ancient capital is so prevalent, it would be remiss not to mention it in the article. Perhaps something like this would do the trick while retaining factual accuracy:
 * With appropriate references of course.  W a g g e r s TALK  10:20, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * That looks fine to me although I would suggest a slight tweak. "Although the consensus among historians of Anglo-Saxon England is that the court was mobile in this period and there was no fixed capital, Winchester is commonly referred to as the ancient capital of Wessex and, in some cases, the first capital of England."
 * I could email a scan of the Crook encyclopedia entry on Anglo-Saxon Winchester if that would help. Dudley Miles (talk) 11:07, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Do we need to include "in some cases, the first capital of England"? Otherwise that's okay. I'm not disagreeing with the assessment of the sources at all; rather I was reinforcing the point that it is commonly considered a "capital" of Wessex, even if that's considered inaccurate by experts. Ritchie333  (talk)  (cont)   11:15, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Fine by me to delete the last bit. Perhaps "described as" would be better than "referred to"? Dudley Miles (talk) 11:29, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think so. Just for completeness, the existing source that claims Winchester being the "capital of Wessex" (the Penguin History of Britain 1066-1284) does mention a move of the treasury from Winchester to Westminster by 1190 on the page cited, which is not really what is claimed in the article. Ritchie333  (talk)  (cont)   11:51, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I will have a go at revising the Anglo-Saxon section tomorrow. Dudley Miles (talk) 12:54, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Winchesterian?
The addition 'Wintonian' was recently reverted in favour of the strange construction 'Winchesterian'. I would say 'Wintonian' is more usual - at least among, er, Wintonians. Pterre (talk) 09:25, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I tend to agree, although a very quick search reveals no decent references to support either, so perhaps it should be deleted altogether? waggers (talk) 09:51, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Wintonian
I see this has gone again. It's one of those things where the demonym is so well known (locally) as to be 'taken for granted' and it would not occur to a local that it required a citation. If we forget about Wikipedia contributor User:Wintonian who (I presume from his early edits) hails from Winchester, ignore the entry in List of British regional nicknames and the entry for Wintonian in Wiktionary, and the various commercial enterprises based in or around Winchester with Wintonian in the name (such as http://www.wintonian.co.uk), we still have plenty of examples. As you might expect for a run-of-the-mill expression these tend to be a bit random, but we have:-
 * Sample Hampshire Chronicle headline 'Wintonian in Central America mission'
 * Typical local news content such as Winchester going bike crazy after CycleFest launched (The events were formally launched at Winchester’s Holiday Inn on Wednesday (April 10), with Wintonian and cycling commentator, Anthony McCrossan, on hand ...)
 * City of Winchester Trust Winchester's High Street
 * The Wintonian Room in Winchester Guildhall

If you want some more serious books an example would be:
 * Pterre (talk) 17:13, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi Pterre, and thanks for your thoughtful and well considered reply.
 * As background, I don't think it can be taken for granted that the demonym is very well known locally. I've lived in Winchester for over thirty years, and while I have heard the word used, in my experience it's very rare and would be unrecognised by most local people.  Basically, my concern was that we might be giving undue prominence to a word that might be only known by a very small fraction of the population of a small town, which might be, say, a few hundred people at best.
 * From what I can see, there has been a big upsurge in the use of the word "Wintonian" since around 2010 - for example, the "Hampshire Chronicle" and "this is Hampshire" articles that you reference are from that recent time. My concern is that 2010 is when the word was added, unreferenced, into the Wikipedia article.  So we need to be careful about a "circular referencing" back to Wikipedia, where people use the word because it's in Wikipedia, and Wikipedia then picks up on those references as evidence of usage.  That's an important reason why I think we need a independent sources for the word and how it is used.
 * If we search the Hampshire Chronicle archive from 1999 (which I understand is the start of the online archive) up to 2008/2009 or so, there are a few mentions of the word, but they appear to be very few and far between - less than one per year. So we are talking about a word that is extremely rare even in the local paper that is perhaps more likely than any other publication to use it.  My best understanding is that "Wintonian" is a relatively obscure word that has been used very occasionally by a few people to describe someone from Winchester.  Usually it tends to be used in reference to the medieval history of Winchester (eg as in the City of Winchester Trust article, and the interesting source from the 19th Century that you found).
 * In summary, I'm very happy for the word to go back into the article, but I would suggest that (1) we give an appropriate citation to an independent source and (2) we don't give it more prominence than is justified by independent citations.
 * Enchanter (talk) 00:13, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
 * I'd be quite happy to see this relegated to a less prominent position. Whether it is a long stsnding usage or a fsirly recent revival, there is no doubt that it is in use (and IMHO infinitely preferable to 'Winchesterian').

Someone called? This is a term that I am fairly sure has some historical meaning to it, be that a person who is from Winchester or just one that went to the college. Such meaning may have been lost in time, but then this is more of feeling of mine based on the context of its occasional usage than factual evidence. No it is not in conman usage though as perhaps alluded to above it seem to be most often be used as a term of endearing localism in the Hampshire Chronicle.

Returning to its historical usage I see that it is used here, , the former being a book by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (b. 1835 - d. 1915) and the (possibly) more recent a work in latin by a Dr. Erik kooper I think.

If we are going to mention one of these terms (and IMO we should if some historical context can be identified and sourced) then it should prehaps be 'wintonian' rather than 'Wincesterarian', which I had not herd of until coming to this article some time ago and it doesn't produce much when doing a search, although my knowledge or lack of it is irrelevant, the lack of usage is however to my mind compelling. -- wintonian talk  23:15, 31 July 2013 (UTC)
 * As I understand it someone who attends or attended the college is a Wykehamist or Old Wykehamist. Wintonian refers to a local resident. I've also never come across Wincesterian, having lived in Winchester for 12 years.Pterre (talk) 08:27, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes you are correct my brain must have fallen asleep before the rest of me. -- wintonian talk  19:24, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

some locals... for residents... or people from... or...
Couching this with lots of weasel words is against policy, unhelpful, and doesn't alleviate any of the concerns about sourcing. The statement could still use some sourcing, regardless. Surely some local government website or history will mention it in passing? Meanwhile, phrase the point simply and directly: it's the common demonym. Better yet, find a way to just include a "demonym" section in the infobox and remove it from the running text altogether. — Llywelyn II   02:03, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I've done another search for sources for usage of "Wintonian", and can't find any to give good support to "Wintonian" as a common demonym. I've therefore removed the reference from the article.  Some comments:
 * I can find no dictionary, reference book or similar good quality source that defines "Wintonian" as a demonym referring to people from Winchester
 * There is lots of evidence of "Wintonian" being used in the past few years (in local papers etc). However, that is after the definition was added, unsourced, into Wikipedia in around 2010.  I suspect that the popularity of the word now may be because it's one of the first things people read about when the look up Winchester in Wikipedia.  We should be careful about this kind of "circular referencing".
 * Looking at evidence of usage before 2010 (such as local papers etc), the word "Wintonian" was only occasionally used to refer to someone from Winchester (see above from my comments a few years ago for more detail).
 * Where the word was used, before 2010 it it was often used to refer to someone who went to King Alfred's College (now the University of Winchester). The college newsletter was called "the Wintonian" (source: A history of King Alfred's College, by Martial Rose, 1981, page 65), and the alumni association referred to students and former students as Wintonians Example here.
 * There's no doubt that the word Wintonian was used in medieval times; Wintonia is the Medieval latin name for Winchester. However, that doesn't give evidence that Wintonian is a common demonym.
 * Given the lack of sources, I've removed the sentence from the article. If mention is brought back in, I suggest it should be something more along the lines of "The word Wintonian is sometimes used to refer to Winchester, people from Winchester, and students at the University of Winchester".  It needs a good source - and not a source that gets its information from Wikipedia! Enchanter (talk) 09:29, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Sub-Roman Britain
I see that it's been discussed in the past from the comments above but somehow is missing in the most recent versions of the page. I've included some sourced treatment: feel free to find still-better sources, but kindly don't just blank parts of the city's history. — Llywelyn II   02:03, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

WP:ERA
Personally, I'm in favor of a switch to the less precious format but this edit established the use of the page as, so kindly maintain that pending a new consensus. — Llywelyn II   02:20, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Needs a Better Map
It would be very helpful if this article had a map that showed Winchester within the context of the British Isles or at least England, to benefit those who don't know where Winchester is... Stevenmitchell (talk) 01:56, 8 August 2016 (UTC)


 * The existing map does exactly that. In the top left hand corner is a map of England, with Hampshire highlighted. The main map then shows Winchester within Hampshire. Wa<b style="color:#86D">g</b><b style="color:#75C">ge</b><b style="color:#83C">r</b><b  style="color:#728">s</b><small  style="color:#080">TALK  11:07, 23 August 2016 (UTC)
 * We could label Basingstoke and Southampton, poss. Portsmouth/ Bournemouth as well? --84.92.56.128 (talk) 00:18, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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City of Kings and Priests
In 20 years of living in the city I've never heard this nickname, and I can't find a good source for it online. Google searching it in quotation marks brings up only sites that look as if they've taken it from the Wikipedia entry. In addition, for a few months in 2015, the nickname was listed as the 'City of Kings' alone, which casts doubt on the veracity of this nickname in this form. As such, I've added a 'citation needed' tag to the nickname for the time being. If anyone can find a reputable source validating this nickname feel free to remove it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fulfo (talk • contribs) 23:36, 11 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I've never heard the nick-name either, sounds like a PR invention somewhere. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 11:37, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
 * In Winchester today I see the latest exhibition at the cathedral is headlined "Kings and Scribes". I suspect the "Kings and Priests" nickname possibly derives from a previous exhibition.  Shall we delete it? Murgatroyd49 (talk) 18:41, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Further news, apparently it is mentioned in a guide available from Winchester City Hall, according to a Singapore student's blog: <http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/singapore-blog/2017/05/12/the-city-of-kings-and-priests-👑⛪%EF%B8%8F🌅/> Murgatroyd49 (talk) 16:21, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I've removed it. It's uncited, and none of the sources mentioned above back up its usage as a local name. Enchanter (talk) 01:59, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I've certainly heard it, but not as a genuine alternative name. It's more of a strap-line for tourism advertising, so I agree with its removal. <b style="color:#98F">W</b><b style="color:#97E">a</b><b style="color:#86D">g</b><b style="color:#75C">ge</b><b style="color:#83C">r</b><b  style="color:#728">s</b><small  style="color:#080">TALK  08:42, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Seconded Murgatroyd49 (talk) 08:53, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Removed from category:Cities in South East England
I've edited category:Cities in Hampshire to put it into category:Cities in South East England. Following WP:SUBCAT, I've therefore taken Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth out of category:Cities in South East England because category:Cities in Hampshire is the relevant subcategory. --Northernhenge (talk) 19:36, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Since August 2020, the category has been moved to category:Towns in Hampshire as part of a wider clean-up exercise. --Northernhenge (talk) 12:53, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

Rationale for use of a Wordpress source
I've just added a note about the city walls. One of the sources is this one: which triggered a warning message about it being on Wordpress. The author's biography begins by saying "Dave Allen has been looking after the county’s archaeology collection for thirty years. During this time, he has worked on the Museum of the Iron Age and the redisplays of Rockbourne Roman Villa and Basing House." so I am confident in the reliability of the source. The warning message asked me to explain this on the talkpage, hence this comment.--Northernhenge (talk) 21:43, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Winchester City Walls page
I've begun Draft:Winchester City Walls, beginning with an introduction paragraph whereby more detailed history of the walls and related urban defences such as the gates and castles could be added, and would welcome other contributions to the draft. See also Category:City walls in the United Kingdom.--BryceIII (talk) 15:47, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Wintan-ceastre or Wintanceaster?
In this edit, the Anglo Saxon "Wintan-ceastre" was changed to "Wintanceaster" on the grounds that the former was in the wrong grammatical case. However the original version is sourced (Bosworth-Toller) so any change would need to be reflected in a new source which was more authoritative than the old one, or otherwise both versions mentioned. The Bosworth-Toller source mentions other possible names as well. --Northernhenge (talk) 12:49, 11 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Apparently the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Vikings "abræcon (stormed, or broke in to) Wintanceastre" which shows the dative form and is, perhaps, why Bosworth-Toller use that spelling to represent the nominative. --Northernhenge (talk) 14:57, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

You're confusing different case forms with different words. Wintanceastre is the dative, accusative, and genitive form of Wintanceaster (the nominative form). The nominative case is the "default" case, used when the word is a subject or is mentioned by itself, in fact the Old English word for the nominative case is nemniendlic fiell or "naming case" for that reason. Hundwine (talk) 18:07, 11 May 2021 (UTC)
 * No, I agree with you. We just need an authoritative replacement for the Bosworth-Toller reference, which uses the dative form. The edit left us with Wintanceaster but citing a source that uses Wintanceastre. I don't know enough about the subject to judge between sources – the problem I noticed was that the reference differed from the article. --Northernhenge (talk) 20:34, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

The Bosworth-Toller reference uses the nominative form for the title of the page. Most of the example sentences use the dative form, but that's because the dative case happens to be especially common with place names, since the Old English equivalents of "in" and "to" are used with the dative case. Hundwine (talk) 21:52, 11 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, I see that now thanks. Sorry about the hassle. I've undone my revert. --Northernhenge (talk) 22:02, 11 May 2021 (UTC)