In April 2021, I took a trip on Zany Zen’s superb narrow-gauge railway as it charts its way through north-west Jeogeot (see: Letting off steam with Zany Zen Railway in Second Life). The results of the trip led to a short series on some of the narrow-gauge railways in Second Life (see: A Ride on the Valkyrie and Climbing a Mountain in Second Life and GLTSL 3: Dreamshire Village, Second Life).
The Zany Zen runs from the little coastal setting of Little Coverston to Somdari. In doing so, it runs through a total of seven settlements, all of which have come together to form the Welsh-themed Seogyeoshire, modelled after a traditional county of the UK and centred on the county town of Seogyeo, which forms the official mid-point of the Zen’s route. The result is a truly engaging, picturesque setting that captures the scenic beauty of rural Welsh and (dare I say it), English counties bordering Wales.
The seven villages and towns of Seogyeoshire comprise Little Coverston and Brigbymoorside to the north on the Gaori coast, Middle Claydon, Seogyeo Town itself, Verney Junction, Bempton and the delightfully named Little Framerate (which is anything but 🙂 ). These flow one to the next through landscaped countryside on either side of the Zany Zen, managed by the local community as overseen by the local town and parish councillors (aka Seogyeoshire’s admins).
As the largest of the population centres, I focused much of my visit which gave birth to this article on Seogyeo Town and its immediate surroundings – including Claydon House and its parklands – although some of the images herein are taken from other parts of the county, so if you want to truly experience the county, do make sure you visit it!
The place to start explorations of the town is the local square – the target of the town’s landing point. Here, overlooked by a figure on horseback (who is, for reasons unknown wearing a pair of motorcycle goggles!), visitors can receive a map of the county which highlights the points of interest awaiting discovery.
This map demonstrates the care with which the community at Seogyeoshire maintains the overarching theme of presenting a touch of Wales / Britain: the map is clearly modelled after those produced by Ordnance Survey (OS), the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and the first such agency to be established (dating back to 1747).
The attention to detail continues with the use of recognisably “British” street name signs (which, given this is a corner of Wales present names in both English and Welsh), road traffic signs and road markings, the use of Belisha beacons at public road crossings, very British public rubbish bins, and so on. The humour is typically subtle and easy-to-miss unless you happen to be from these shores. I wonder how many visiting the town get the joke of the local OP-CO food store, or appreciate the dry humour behind the “Grimsby Would We Really Miss It?” election poster (in almost-Conservative-blue!) or recognise the intentional irony in the naming of Long Street.
Seogyeo Town and Seogyeoshire as a whole have a sense of age and history common to the majority of rural areas and older towns of Britain: modern buildings rub shoulders with those dating back hundreds of years; the local parish church sits well above the rest of the town to remind the people of its presence and to come to worship, its graveyard speaking to the long history of settlement here. Sites of antiquity are carefully marked and preserved, and more “modern” institutions have attempted to fit quietly within the community rather than setting themselves aside. For example, there’s the post office cuddled against the local pub; the local police station tucking itself quietly inside the converted ground floor of a house, the upper floor of which offering the officer and their family a small apartment-style home.
This sense of history enfolds a length of canal which appears to have once reach all the way to the base of the hill on which the large bulk of a brewery sits. Whilst its western end has been built over and its eastern end converted into a pond and public space commemorated Queen Elizabeth II, the canal perhaps once brought grain and hops to the brewery in the early years of the industrial revolution, before steam trains robbed the longboats of their trade.
Incidentally, the brewery speaks to the manner in which some of the Seogyeo community’s neighbours have entered into the spirit of things. Whilst resembling a building born of the industrial revolution, it is in fact a façade which allows the Buildables SL building supplies store. Thus, it allows the store to blend into the Seogyeoshire’s general ambience rather than painfully clashing with it.
Across the road from the pond marking one end of the canal sits a much broader lake. This in turn marks the boundary of public parklands running up to the impressive Georgian-style estate of Claydon House. Backed by extensive coaching houses and stables, Claydon (although still under construction at the time of my visit), boasts its own large family chapel, formal gardens and lawns which all appear to be open to the public.
A further beauty of Seogyeoshire is the manner in which towns and villages have been blended with the landscape in a manner reflective of rural Britian. There are no hard lines, just a gentle blurring of fields available for crops or grazing and marked by dry stone walls with farmhouses, tended trees at the roadside, an increase of road signs – including those bearing the name of the town / village, and the arrival of a village itself which rises and then gently folds itself back into the surrounding fields and landscape once more. Here and there, ancient towers, gatehouses and the remnants of fortifications which also speak to Welsh-English history.
Outside of the Zany Zen railway, the roads running through the county offer the most obvious means of getting around and seeing all that is available; however, if walking doesn’t appeal, there are bicycle rezzers scattered around (one at the town square landing point at Seogyeo, for example), offering an entirely comfortable means of spending a pleasant time exploring.
One thing I would say here when it comes to exploring is this. There are a number of individual EEP environments scatter through the setting. If you want to avoid the time of day transitions they create, do remember to apply your own preferred EEP asset to your avatar so you can maintain consistent environment lighting throughout your meanderings.
Now featured in the Destination Guide, Seogyeoshire makes for a thoroughly engaging visit. And with that said, I’ll simply point you in the direction of Seogyeo, and say, “Croeso i Sirol Seogyeo!”
SLurl Details
- Seogyeo Town and Seogyeoshire (Seogyeo, Gaori, etc, all rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 