1.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
2.
Scots language
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Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
3.
West Dunbartonshire
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West Dunbartonshire is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the west of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgows commuter towns and villages, West Dunbartonshire also borders onto Argyll and Bute, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Stirling. The area was formed on 1 April 1996 from part of the former Strathclyde Region, namely the entire district of Clydebank, act 1994 that created the council area its name was Dumbarton and Clydebank. The council, elected as an authority in 1995, resolved to change the name of the area to West Dunbartonshire. The area is composed of three parts, the towns of Clydebank, Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven district. West Dunbartonshire is administered from Dumbarton, although Clydebank is the largest town, the council is run by 22 councillors elected from 6 wards. On 18 September 2014, West Dunbartonshire was one of four areas which had a majority Yes vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum at 54% with a 87. 9% turnout rate. Kilpatrick Hills Loch Lomond Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park River Leven West Dunbartonshire at DMOZ
4.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
5.
Subdivisions of Scotland
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For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as council areas, which are all governed by unitary authorities designated as councils. The council areas have been in existence since 1 April 1996, historically, Scotland has been divided into 34 counties or shires. Although these no longer have any function, they are still used to some extent in Scotland for cultural and geographical purposes. Traditionally burghs have been the key unit of the government of Scotland, being highly autonomous entities. Even after the Acts of Union 1707, burghs continued to be the principal subdivision, until 1889 administration was on a burgh and parish basis. The years following 1889 saw the introduction of a hierarchy of local government administration comprising counties, counties of cities, large burghs, source,2011 Census for Scotland Scotland has several other administrative divisions, some of which are handled by joint boards of the councils. The Police and Fire Reform Act 2012 resulted in the merger of police and fire services on 1 April 2013 to form the Police Service of Scotland. Policing was the responsibility of the Cities and Burghs of Scotland, Police and fire service areas date from the era of regions and districts and island council areas. There are several joint boards for electoral registration and the purposes of property valuation for assessing council tax, see also NHS Scotland Until 1 April 2014 the towns of Cambuslang and Rutherglen were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area despite being located in South Lanarkshire. They are now part of NHS Lanarkshire, the Scottish Government has created seven Regional Transport Partnerships, for establishing transport policy in the regions. They broadly follow council area groupings and these areas in most cases resemble those of the pre-1975 administrative counties with Glasgow being the only current city to form a registration county. Although they have had no administrative function since 1930, they still exist and are used for statistical purposes such as the census. Many former civil parish areas also continue to form current registration districts and it should be noted that many boundary changes have occurred over the years and that an area currently derived from an old parish might no longer contain a place previously within that parish. The base level of sub-division in Scotland is that of communities, the main role of the CCs is to channel local opinion to larger local-government bodies. Otherwise, they have limited powers. There are around 1,200 communities in Scotland, not all communities have councils, some have joint councils. Scottish communities are the nearest equivalent to parishes in England. List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom ISO 3166-2, GB, subdivision codes for the United Kingdom
6.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
7.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
8.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
9.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
10.
Police Scotland
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The Police Service of Scotland is the police force of Scotland. Although not formally absorbing it, the merger resulted in the winding up of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. Police Scotland is the second-largest police force in the United Kingdom in terms of numbers. The Chief Constable is answerable to the Scottish Police Authority, Scotland is also policed by the Ministry of Defence Police, British Transport Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary within their specific jurisdictions. The National Crime Agency also has jurisdiction in Scotland. In 2016, the Scottish Government introduced legislation which will integrate the Scottish division of the British Transport Police into Police Scotland, after a consultation process, the Scottish Government confirmed on 8 September 2011 that a single police service would be created in Scotland. The Police and Fire Reform Bill was published in January 2012 and was approved on 27 June 2012 after scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament, the Bill received Royal Assent as the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012. In September 2012, Chief Constable Stephen House of Strathclyde Police was announced as the future first Chief Constable of Police Scotland and he was sworn into the post on 1 October 2012. The first chair of the Scottish Police Authority, Vic Emery, was appointed in August 2012, as the date of formation approached, it was widely reported that the new Chief Constable and the Scottish Police Authority were in disagreement over the control of backroom staff. In February 2013 it came to light that the previously announced logo for Police Scotland could not be used as the Force had failed to approval from the Court of the Lord Lyon. This new symbol, a stylised thistle upon a Scottish saltire shield, a permanent logo was not approved in time for 1 April 2013 creation of Police Scotland, but the pre-2013 crowned thistle emblem was finally introduced in July 2013. This emblem was designed for the former Dumfries Constabulary by Robert Dickie Cairns. With minor artistic variations, it was the logo used by all regional Scottish police forces before 1 April 2013. Police Scotland has previously denied setting stop and search performance targets for individual officers, also removed from the report were calls for a review of stop and search on children and for clarification of the policys primary aim. In October 2013, Police Scotland announced proposals to close 65 out of 215 police station public counters, the plans were condemned by some opposition MSPs. In November 2016, it emerged that 58 further stations could close as part of an estates review and it was also announced in October 2013 that the number of police control rooms in Scotland was under review, with the possibility of 7 out of 10 control rooms closing. Control rooms considered for closure include Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries, in 2014, the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh was opened. The Assistant Chief Constables salary depends on their previous experience and would fall between £90,000 and £106,000 a year
11.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
12.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
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The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the national fire and rescue service of Scotland. It was formed by the merger of eight regional fire services in the country on 1 April 2013 and it thus became the largest fire brigade in the United Kingdom, surpassing the London Fire Brigade, and the fourth-largest in the world. After a consultation, the Scottish Government confirmed on 8 September 2011 that a single fire, following further consultation on the detailed operation of the service, the Police and Fire Reform Bill was published on 17 January 2012. After scrutiny and debate by the Scottish Parliament, the legislation was approved on 27 June 2012, the Bill duly received royal assent as the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012. This Act also created Police Scotland in place of the eight regional police forces. The mergers were effective from 1 April 2013, eight months after the consolidation, an internal report said the reorganisation had not negatively affected operational response. The service is headquartered are in Cambuslang, Glasgow, which houses a national training centre opened in January 2013. There are a further three service delivery centres in the east, west and north of the country, pat Watters, former president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was also announced as chair of the service, an appointment to run for three years from September 2012. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended 25,002 fires in 2014/15, the service also delivers a preventative programme, with 65,343 free home fire safety visits conducted in 2015/16. As well as fighting fires, the service attends tens of thousands of specialist services such as traffic collisions, water rescues. In 2014/15 it attended 10,740 non-fire incidents, firefighters are routinely called out to water, flood and boat rescues. For example, during Storm Frank in December 2015 the SFRS received 350 flood related calls in the space of six days, in 2015 the SFRS were called out to 78 wildfire incidents in total, with over half of those taking place in the north of Scotland. As of March 2016, the SFRS operates 356 stations throughout Scotland, stations are split into three categories, Wholetime, A station with full-time firefighters. Retained, Part-time, on a basis and predominantly based in some of the more rural areas of Scotland. Volunteer, On a call-out basis and predominantly based in some of the remote villages. The most northerly station is Baltasound on the Shetland Islands, the most southerly is a volunteer station in the village of Drummore in Dumfries and Galloway. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service National Training Centre opened in January 2013, the facility in Cambuslang features a mock town with ultra-realistic motorways, railway tracks and buildings, including a multi-storey tenement structure. The number of control rooms handling 999 calls was reduced from eight to three
13.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
14.
Scottish Ambulance Service
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The Scottish Ambulance Service is part of NHS Scotland, and serves all of Scotland. It is a health board funded directly by the Health. The service was known as the St Andrews and Red Cross Scottish Ambulance Service, the Red Cross withdrew from the service in 1967, the service was renamed the St Andrews Scottish Ambulance Service. In 1974 the service was taken over by the NHS, the title being shortened to the Scottish Ambulance Service, St. Andrews First Aid, which is the trading name of St. Andrews Ambulance Association, continues as a voluntary organisation. In 2003 there was a reorganisation of the control centres across Scotland. The original uniform for the service consisted of a blue shirt, black clip-on tie, navy blue sweater. These uniforms were an Irish green colour for Emergency staff and a blue shade for Patient Transport staff. In 2013/2014, the uniform was changed to mirror the NHS National Uniform standard. It is now supplied by Dimensions and is similar to all other Ambulance Services in the UK. All staff, including control centre staff, now wear the national uniform unless otherwise authorised, the national headquarters are in west side of Edinburgh and there are five divisions within the Service, namely, The Patient Transport Service carries almost 1.6 million patients every year. This service is provided to patients who are physically or medically unfit to travel to hospital out-patient appointments by any means can still make their appointments. The service also handles non-emergency admissions, discharges, transport of palliative care patients, Patient Transport Vehicles come in a variety of forms and are staffed by Ambulance Care Assistants, whom work either double or single crewed. They are trained to look after patients during the journey, the service has the only government-funded air ambulance service in the UK, operated under contract by Gama Aviation. In 2015/16, the air crews flew 3,849 missions. One helicopter and one King Air are based at a Gama Aviation facility at Glasgow Airport, the other operating bases are Inverness Airport and Aberdeen Airport. The aircraft based in Glasgow are regularly used by the UKs only Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, the air ambulance service was occasionally featured as part of the popular Channel 5 television documentary series Highland Emergency. In late 2012 a charity was founded to provide an air ambulance, based at Perth Airport. Scotlands Charity Air Ambulance commenced operations in May 2013 with a Bolkow 105 airframe, since November 2015, SCAA operates a Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter
15.
Scotland (European Parliament constituency)
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Scotland constitutes a single constituency of the European Parliament. In 2014 it elected six MEPs, using the method of party-list proportional representation. The constituencys boundaries are the same as those of Scotland, one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, the constituency was formed as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. These were Glasgow, Highlands and Islands, Lothians, Mid Scotland and Fife, North East Scotland, South of Scotland, Strathclyde East, the number of MEPs returned by the constituency was eight in 1999, seven in 2004, and six in 2009 and 2014. Elected candidates are listed in bold, brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won. Elections in Scotland Scottish Elections Between 1997 and present
16.
West Dunbartonshire (UK Parliament constituency)
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West Dunbartonshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election, the current constituency was first used in the 2005 general election. There was also an earlier West Dunbartonshire constituency, from 1950 to 1983, the current MP is Martin Docherty of the Scottish National Party, who was elected at the 2015 general election. The historic constituency was created under the House of Commons Act 1949, as created in 1950, the constituency was one of two covering the county of Dunbarton. The two new constituencies replaced the earlier constituencies of Dunbartonshire and Dumbarton Burghs, West Dunbartonshire covered the Helensburgh, Old Kilpatrick, and Vale of Leven districts of the county and the burghs of Cove and Kilcreggan, Dumbarton and Helensburgh. For the 1951 general election the boundaries were adjusted to take account of a change to the boundaries of the Old Kilpatrick district. The results of the Second Periodical Review were implemented for the February 1974 general election, the other two were East Dunbartonshire and Central Dunbartonshire. West Dunbartonshire now covered the Helensburgh and Vale of Leven districts, February 1974 boundaries were used also for the general elections of October 1974 and 1979. The Third Periodical Review took account of new local government boundaries, the existing constituency was created as a result of the Fifth Periodical Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland, It covers and is entirely within the West Dunbartonshire council area. The area of the constituency was divided between the Dumbarton and Clydebank and Milngavie constituencies. It includes the centres of Clydebank, Dumbarton and Alexandria. 1 Change to majority not meaningful as seat changed hands, the current West Dunbartonshire constituency was formed in 2005 from parts of the earlier Dumbarton, and Clydebank and Milngavie constituencies. Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with D
17.
Scottish Parliament
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The Scottish Parliament, is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the city, Edinburgh. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 5 May 2016, as a consequence, both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England ceased to exist, and the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London was formed. The Act delineates the legislative competence of the Parliament – the areas in which it can make laws – by explicitly specifying powers that are reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate in all areas that are not explicitly reserved to Westminster, the British Parliament retains the ability to amend the terms of reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can extend or reduce the areas in which it can make laws. The first meeting of the new Parliament took place on 12 May 1999, initial Scottish proposals in the negotiation over the Union suggested a devolved Parliament be retained in Scotland, but this was not accepted by the English negotiators. Suggestions for a devolved Parliament were made before 1914, but were shelved due to the outbreak of the First World War, one of the principal objectives of the commission was to examine ways of enabling more self-government for Scotland, within the unitary state of the United Kingdom. Kilbrandon published his report in 1973 recommending the establishment of a directly elected Scottish Assembly to legislate for the majority of domestic Scottish affairs, the party argued that the revenues from the oil were not benefitting Scotland as much as they should. The combined effect of events led to Prime Minister Wilson committing his government to some form of devolved legislature in 1974. However, it was not until 1978 that final legislative proposals for a Scottish Assembly were passed by the United Kingdom Parliament, publishing its blueprint for devolution in 1995, the Convention provided much of the basis for the structure of the Parliament. Devolution continued to be part of the platform of the Labour Party which, in May 1997, an election was held on 6 May 1999, and on 1 July of that year power was transferred from Westminster to the new Parliament. Since September 2004, the home of the Scottish Parliament has been a new Scottish Parliament Building. The Scottish Parliament building was designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles in partnership with local Edinburgh Architecture firm RMJM which was led by Design Principal Tony Kettle. Some of the features of the complex include leaf-shaped buildings. Throughout the building there are many repeated motifs, such as based on Raeburns Skating Minister. Crow-stepped gables and the upturned boat skylights of the Garden Lobby, Queen Elizabeth II opened the new building on 9 October 2004. In March 2006, one of the Holyrood buildings roof beams slipped out of its support and was left dangling above the back benches during a debate, the debating chamber was subsequently closed, and MSPs moved to The Hub for one week, whilst inspections were carried out. During repairs, all business was conducted in the Parliaments committee room two
18.
Dumbarton (Scottish Parliament constituency)
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Dumbarton is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election, the Dumbarton constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, the Westminster constituency was abolished in favour of new constituencies, the constituency takes in Helensburgh and Lomond from the Argyll and Bute council area and covers Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven in West Dunbartonshire. The rest of West Dunbartonshire is covered by the Clydebank and Milngavie, the rest of Argyll and Bute is covered by the Argyll and Bute constituency, which is within the Highlands and Islands electoral region
19.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
20.
River Leven, Dunbartonshire
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The River Leven is a stretch of water in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, flowing from Loch Lomond in the North to the River Clyde in the South. The total length of the river is approximately six miles and is popular with salmon and sea trout anglers. The Vale of Leven is a collection of communities in the part of the river. Dumbarton Castle sits at the confluence of the river with the Clyde, the Leven is a relatively short river but is widely claimed to be the second fastest flowing river in Scotland, after the River Spey. The river is crossed by nine bridges and two weirs, there is a path for pedestrians and cyclists near the river, which connects with a cycle path to Glasgow. It follows the river closely from Balloch to Renton, less closely from Renton to Dumbarton. In the past the river was used to get steamers into Loch Lomond, although they sometimes did not find it an easy journey, nowadays the river is considered to be not navigable. The height of the river can vary, sometimes being a good deal higher in winter than summer, list of places in West Dunbartonshire William Denny and Brothers History of the River Leven - Clyde Waterfront Heritage
21.
Dumbarton
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Dumbarton is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Alclud, Dumbarton Castle, on top of Dumbarton Rock, dominates the area. Dumbarton was a Royal burgh between 1222 and 1975, Dumbarton emerged from the 19th century as a centre for shipbuilding, glassmaking, and whisky production. However these industries have declined, and Dumbarton today is increasingly a commuter town for Glasgow 13 miles east-southeast of it. Dumbarton F. C. is the football club. Dumbarton is home to BBC Scotlands drama studios, Dumbarton history goes back at least as far as the Iron Age and probably much earlier. It was the site of a strategically important Roman settlement known as Alcluith of a province named Valentia, the next record of a settlement in Dumbarton is a record in Irish chronicles of the death of Guret, rex Alo Cluathe, in AD658. The loss of the British power base led to the emergence of the new kingdom of Strathclyde, or Cumbria, the title king of the Britons of Srath Clúade was first used in 872. Dumbarton was later the county town of the county of Dunbartonshire, in September 1605 Chancellor Dunfermline reported to King James VI that inundations of the sea were likely to destroy and take away the whole town. It was estimated that the defences would cost 30,000 pounds Scots. During World War II Dumbarton was heavily bombed by the German air force, the Germans were targeting the shipyards, and the area in the vicinity of the yards was consequently hit, with Clyde and Leven Street being severely damaged. The ploy was sometimes successful in diverting the bombers and many bombs fell harmlessly onto the moors, Dumbarton Castle sits on Dumbarton Rock, at the east bank mouth of the River Leven, where it flows into the Clyde estuary. The Castle has a history and many well-known figures from Scottish and British history have visited it. The castle was a royal fortress long before Dumbarton became a Royal Burgh, its ownership went from Scottish to English, the castle was an important place during the Wars of Independence and was used to imprison William Wallace for a short time after his capture by the English. It was from here that Mary, Queen of Scots, was conveyed to France for safety as a child, Mary was trying to reach Dumbarton Castle when she suffered her final defeat at Langside. In later times, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II visited the castle, today, Dumbarton Rock is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, it has legal protection in order to maintain and conserve the site for the future. As such any sort of work on the rock is strictly regulated by the Scottish Government, from the top of the castle can be seen both the River Clyde and Leven Grove Park
22.
Balloch, West Dunbartonshire
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Balloch is a small town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, at the foot of Loch Lomond. Balloch comes from the Gaelic word bal which means village or hamlet, so Balloch means village on the loch, the word bealach means a pass. Balloch is at the end of the Vale of Leven. It connects to the town of Alexandria and to the smaller village of Jamestown. It also borders the Kilpatrick Hills, to the east of the town lies the major local authority housing scheme in the area known as The Haldane or The Mill of Haldane. At 56 degrees N, Balloch is at about the latitude as Moscow. The town has a number of hotels, inns and pubs, and there are cruises from Balloch up Loch Lomond, and other services, including to locations like Luss. The largest number of boats cruising on Loch Lomond leave from Balloch, the town is also the home of Dunkirk vessel Skylark XI which helped rescue 600 troops during WWII. It contains Balloch Country Park and Balloch Castle, and is at the end of the first Scottish national park, Loch Lomond. There is a Sea Life Centre in the town, the Loch Lomond Youth Soccer Festival used to take place in the town. Lochfoot in the Jean Robertson novels of Jane Duncan is partly based on the town, the PS Maid of the Loch is currently being restored at Balloch pier and the Balloch Steam Slipway is located nearby. The A811 road goes from Balloch to Stirling, and the A813 goes from Dumbarton to Balloch, the Glasgow to Loch Lomond cycle path ends at Balloch. The West Loch Lomond Cycle Path also runs from Balloch, the town was formerly served by two railway stations on the Caledonian and Dunbartonshire Junction Railway, Balloch Central, and Balloch Pier, which closed in 1988 and 1986, respectively. The town now has one station opened by British Rail. Balloch is served by Haldane Primary School and formerly St. Kessogs Primary School before its demolition in 2015, list of places in West Dunbartonshire 2
23.
Bonhill
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Bonhill is a town in the Vale of Leven area of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is sited on the Eastern bank of the River Leven, the area is mentioned in a charter of 1225 giving the monks from Paisley Abbey fishing rights on the east bank of the River Leven at the Linbrane pool. In 1650 this small parish was enlarged, and since then the Parish has included most of the towns. The village of Bonhill itself featured a church, and a ford across the River Leven on the drovers road to Glasgow. The first modern church was close to the river in 1747. Various churches of other denominations were constructed from 1830, but closed in the 1960s, the textile finishing industry came to Bonhill with a printworks, the Dalmonach Works which started in 1786. It burnt down in 1812, and was rebuilt by Henry Bell, a second textile works opened in 1793, and two more works had begun by 1840. Some closed shortly afterwards, but one lasted to 1936, the Dalmonach Works itself featured a school outside the main gates, serving children from the area as well as children employed in the works. The town rapidly expanded in the 1960s and 1970s when many residents of Glasgow were moved there when the old slums and this process was known as the Glasgow overspill. Due to a lack of planning when the new housing was built, most of these are located mainly in Alexandria, just across the river Leven and Dumbarton,2 miles to the South. It serves as a town to Dumbarton and beyond. According to the 2001 national census, Bonhills population was 9,574
24.
Renton, West Dunbartonshire
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Renton is a village in West Dunbartonshire, in the west Central Lowlands of Scotland. In the 2001 National Census it had a population of 2,138, Renton is particularly famous for the villages association football side. Renton was one of the 11 founder members of the Scottish Football League and winners of the 1885 and 1888 Scottish Cup, the Renton takes its name from Cecilia Renton after whom the modern sandstone, model village was named in 1762. Dalquhurn Bleachworks in 1715 and Cordale Printworks in 1770 were responsible for attracting new industrial workers, at the north of the village stood the Place of Bonhill, a residence from 1642, to the South was Dalquhurn House. Two parallel north-south streets, Main Street and Back Street were first joined by Station Street, Stirling Street, Burns Street, Thimble Street, Market Street, in late Victorian times, the village extended southwards to Leven Street, Alexander Street and John Street. Further expansion occurred in the 1930s as housing was built in the grounds of Cordale House and it lies on the main road, A82 as was, between Alexandria and Dumbarton. Renton railway station is on the line from Glasgow to Balloch and it has a footbridge across the River Leven to the Strathleven Industrial Estate, and a minor road, with a steep 33% hill, across Carman Hill to Cardross. Stone, plaster and mortar are not generally susceptible to scientific dating techniques and this would suggest a site to the south of the Pillanflat, but to the north of Castle Park, in the vicinity of what is now Mains of Cardross. The committed work of community activists such as Cllr Jim Bollan, the community spirit of Renton really does produce remarkable characters, as the history books show. True character in the village remains in the shape of Tom Swans sweet shop. The Village maintains a strong character and identity, people from the village are both widely regarded and known as both Rentonians and from The Renton. Robert the Bruce Robert I, King of Scots died on 7 June 1329, at the Manor of Cardross, near Renton, the identification of the Royal Manor of Cardross is derived from a 1329 reference to the Manerium de Cardross, but its exact location is uncertain. It may not have been very near the village of Cardross. Barrow suggests that it was at present-day Mains of Cardross farm on the outskirts of Dumbarton, beside the River Leven, and certainly the place-name Mains would appear to derive from Manerium. Bruces son, David II, and his grandson Robert II and he was born in Dalquhurn House in what is now Renton in 1721. After an education at Dumbarton Grammar School and Glasgow University, he joined the Navy, the experiences of his early life provided graphic backing for his first novel Roderick Random. Living by his pen, Smollett was prolific and variously successful as an editor, translator, dramatist, political satirist, historian, at one time his reputation was the highest of four or five great authors, who can be said to have founded the English novel. Scott and Thackery both rated him highly, and Sheridan, Dickens and Joyce are all said to have influenced by him
25.
Argyll Motor Works
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The Argyll Motor Works, currently known as Lomond Galleries, is a former car factory in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was opened in 1906 by Argyll Motors Ltd, at the time the largest producer of cars in Scotland, after the Argyll company folded it was used as a torpedo factory, subsequently lying empty for many years, and is now a shopping centre. The elaborate structure is protected as a category A listed building, Argyll Motors Ltd was established in Bridgeton, Glasgow, in 1899 as the Hozier Engineering Company. By 1905 the company was expanding rapidly, and a new site at Alexandria. Plans were drawn up by architect Charles James Halley, and the building was opened by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. The factory covered 12 acres, and was served by its own railway line, the new facility cost over £200,000, and was designed to produce 2,500 cars per year. By 1907 production had passed 800 per year, but a series of technical experiments, the high running costs of the huge factory, and the failure to adopt mass-production, may also have contributed to the companys troubles. The final blow came in 1914 following a lawsuit brought by Daimler, which Argyll won, the works, and its employees, were taken over by the Admiralty as a munitions factory during the First World War. Afterwards it was briefly a silk works, but remained empty for most of the inter-war period, in 1937 it was repurchased by the Admiralty and reopened as the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, which operated into the 1950s. In the 1960s the site is said to have involved in Chevaline. The facility was closed in 1969, and in 1971 the Argyll Works was purchased by electronics company Plessey, however, their production unit closed within a year, prompting a sit-in protest by staff. Despite various proposals, the factory remained empty for three decades, the factory sheds were demolished, and the substantial red sandstone offices facing North Main Street deteriorated. The future of the building was secured in the 1990s with its renovation as a shopping centre and it now trades as Lomond Galleries
26.
Argyll (car)
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Argyll was a Scottish motor car marque manufactured from 1899 to 1932, and again from 1976 to around 1990. 1901 models had an engine of 5 hp, cars made in 1902 were upgraded even further. Soon there appeared a 10 hp twin with radiator tubes forming the sides of the hood, one of these was a 10 hp of 1985 cc, others were fours of 3054 cc,3686 cc, and 4849 cc. All cars featured Govans rather awkward gearbox, which had a T-shaped gate and separate reverse, the Argyll Motor Works covered 12 acres, had its own railway line, and was opened in 1906 by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. However, the new factory was never used to capacity, and it went into liquidation in 1908. Production restarted in 1910, under a company now named Argyll Ltd. with a new range of cars including the famed Flying Fifteen, the 12/14 was widely sold as a taxi even being exported to New York. Argyll changed hands in 1914 and the Alexandria factory was sold to the Royal Navy for torpedo production, car production was resumed on a small scale in the original Bridgeton works under the control of John Brimlow who had previously run the repair department. The first product from the new company was a revival of the pre-war 15·9 hp model, now with electric starter, in 1922 it was joined by a 1½-litre sleeve valve model and in 1926 by the 12/40 sports. The company made an appearance at the London Motor Show in 1927. The name was re-used in 1976 by a new company who made a sports car. The new manufacturing company was founded by Bob Henderson, the new car was named after the original Argyll of 1898, in honour of a grandfather of one of the investors who worked in the Argyll factory at Alexandria. The 1976 prototype car featured a turbocharged Rover V8 engine, a version with a turbocharged Saab engine was also mooted, but none was built. The suspension came from the Triumph 2500 and the gearbox was a ZF 5-speed unit, by undoing 10 bolts, the entire rear end, suspension, gearbox and engine came away. A production version of the car, made its début in 1983, had a version of the Douvrin Euro V6 as used by Renault, Peugeot and others. A turbocharged V8 of 3.5 -4.2 litres, together with the ZF transmission, was an option, other engine options were the Lancia Beta engine and transmission, a Buick V6 which had started out as a stillborn Indycar engine. A top speed of 160 mph with the turbo V8 was claimed, production capacity was stated to be twelve cars a year however, none were sold. The silver version used for the launch and publicity material belonged to the company accountant and was never driven. The hexagonal tail lights were from the Datsun Cherry, the dashboard from Volvo, the wheel from the Triumph Dolomite
27.
Admiralty
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The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board. It is common for the authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply The Admiralty. The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011, the title was awarded to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the office of Admiral of England was created around 1400 although there had already been Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546, King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission, the office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709 after which the office was almost permanently in commission. In 1831, the first Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity, in 1964, the Admiralty along with the War Office and the Air Ministry as separate departments of state were abolished, and re-emerged under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the running of the Royal Navy. The Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, the quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, after 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian while the professional head of the navy came to be known as the First Sea Lord. The first real concerted effort to organise the Admiralty was started by Henry VIII. Between 1860 and 1908 there was no study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service. All the navys talent flowed to the great technical universitys and it was perceived by officials within the Admiralty at this time that the running of war was quite a simple matter for any flag officer who required no formal training. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign, there was no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions in 1914 a Trade Division was created. In 1916, Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty, he organized the staff as following, Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilization, Trade. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the Board, the would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations
28.
Torpedo
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Historically, it was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo, colloquially called a fish. The term torpedo was originally employed for a variety of devices, from about 1900, torpedo has been used strictly to designate an underwater self-propelled weapon. Todays torpedoes can be divided into lightweight and heavyweight classes, and into straight-running, autonomous homers and they can be launched from a variety of platforms. The word torpedo comes from the name of a genus of rays in the order Torpediniformes. In naval usage, the American Robert Fulton introduced the name to refer to a gunpowder charge used by his French submarine Nautilus to demonstrate that it could sink warships. The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was successfully developed. In 1275, Hasan al-Rammah described. an egg which moves itself, in modern language, a torpedo is an underwater self-propelled explosive, —but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines. These were used on an ad hoc basis during the modern period up to the late 19th century. An early submarine, the Turtle, attempted to lay a bomb with a fuse on the hull of HMS Eagle during the American Revolutionary War. In the early 1800s, the American inventor Robert Fulton, while in France and he coined the term torpedo in reference to the explosive charges he outfitted his submarine Nautilus. However, both the French and the Dutch governments were uninterested in the submarine, Fulton then concentrated on developing the torpedo independent of a submarine deployment. However, the British government refused to purchase the invention, stating they did not wish to introduce into naval warfare a system that would give advantage to weaker maritime nations. Fulton carried out a demonstration for the US government on 20 July 1807. Further development languished as Fulton focused on his steam-boat matters, during the War of 1812, torpedoes were employed in attempts to destroy British vessels and protect American harbors. In fact a submarine deployed torpedo was used in an attempt to destroy HMS Ramillies while in New Londons harbor. Hardy to warn the Americans to cease efforts with the use of any boat in this cruel and unheard-of warfare. Torpedoes were used by the Russian Empire during the Crimean War in 1855 against British warships in the Gulf of Finland and they used an early form of chemical detonator. During the American Civil War, the torpedo was used for what is today called a contact mine
29.
Loch Long
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Loch Long, is a body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Sea Loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end and it measures approximately 20 miles in length, with a width of between 1 and 2 miles. The loch also has an arm, Loch Goil, on its western side, Loch Long forms part of the coast of the Cowal peninsula and forms the entire western coastline of the Rosneath Peninsula. Loch Long was historically the boundary between Argyll and Dunbartonshire, however, in 1996 boundary redrawing meant that it moved wholly within the council area of Argyll and Bute. Villages on the loch include Arrochar at its head and Cove on the east shore near its foot, several Scottish sea fishing records are attributed to the loch, The Ardentinny Outdoor Education Centre on the western shore uses the loch for watersports. It is now an area for diving on the numerous wrecks that scatter the loch. The Finnart Oil Terminal is located on the shore of the loch. The eastern shore is also the location of the Royal Navys Coulport Armament depot, part of HMNB Clyde, the loch was used as a testing ground for torpedoes during World War II and contains numerous wrecks. Map sources for Loch Long Gaelic place names of Scotland Map showing Loch Long, circa 1600, National Library of Scotland
30.
Plessey
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The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics and it expanded after the Second World War by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, in 1989, it was taken over by a consortium formed by GEC and Siemens which split the assets of the Plessey group. The majority of Plesseys defence assets were amalgamated into BAE Systems in 1999 when BAe merged with the arm of GEC. A small portion of the market, mostly embedded electronic systems and circuitcards remained with GE, formerly GE Fanuc. The bulk of Plesseys telecommunications assets were acquired by Ericsson through its 2005 acquisition of Marconi Corporation plc, the remainder of the communication assets went to Telent plc. The Plessey company was founded in 1917 in Marylebone, central London, the original shareholders were Thomas Hurst Hodgson, C. H. Whitaker, Raymond Parker and his brother Plessey Parker, a talented German engineer, William Oscar Heyne was employed by the company. Heyne later became the Managing Director and Chairman of Plessey and was one of the key figures in the development of Plessey during the 1920s and 30s, the company moved to Cottenham Road in Ilford early in 1919. In 1925 the original company was wound up and a new one formed with a share capital. Most of the work carried out by the company was mechanical engineering rather than electronics. An early customer of Plessey was a company called British Electro Chemists. One of that companys shareholders was Byron G. Clark, an American, Hodgson, one of the founders of Plessey. The Clark family would dominate the management of Plessey for most of its history. During the 1920s Plessey began to diversify into electrical manufacturing, important contracts included the manufacture of early radios for Marconi and the production of telephones for the GPO. Because of the production, Plessey moved to Vicarage Lane Ilford in 1923. In 1929 the television pioneer John Logie Baird had his first production produced by Plessey. The company also produced the first British made portable battery radio in the same year, the manufacture of electrical components also became a key area of growth for Plessey
31.
A82 road
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The A82 is a road in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Inverness by way of Fort William. The majority of the route is a road and hence managed by Transport Scotland. The road passes close to some of the most notable landmarks in the Highlands, including Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, Ben Nevis, the Commando Memorial, Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Several travel guides have praised individual parts of the road, such as the section from Tyndrum to Glencoe across Rannoch Moor, as providing memorable driving experiences. At 167 miles, the road is the second longest A-road in Scotland, after the A9, the A82 has an extensive history. The modern route is based on that designed by Telford, and these include a diversion across Rannoch Moor and another around Loch Leven, which was subsequently replaced by the Ballachulish Bridge. The A82 is a route for tourists due to its extensive scenery. Transport Scotland have publicly declared a commitment to improve the road, parts of the road are occasionally closed for maintenance, which has resulted in strong protest from the local community. On 1 April 1996, however, the section from Glasgow to the Dalnottar Interchange with the A898 was detrunked, the main length of the A82, as managed by Transport Scotland, is now described in statutory instruments and orders as the Dalnottar - Inverness Trunk Road. From Glasgow to Dalnottar, the route is now the responsibility of the Glasgow City Council, the A82 begins in the St Georges Cross area of central Glasgow, at a junction with the M8 and the A804. The road here was built as a turnpike road in 1816. All the trees along the route were preserved due to environmental concerns, the Great Western Road has been described by Tam Galbraith as the most noble entry to any city in Europe. The road continues northwest as a high quality dual carriageway route through Dumbarton before running to the west of Alexandria and this dual carriageway ends at the Balloch Roundabout near the western shore of Loch Lomond, where the road enters the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The A82 follows the Luss Road along the shores of the loch. Toward Crianlarich, it follows the route of the Old Military Road that runs along the shoreline in several places. At Tarbet, the A83 branches west to Campbeltown while the A82 continues to the end of the loch. This part of the road is currently of a lower standard than the sections further south and it is sandwiched between the shoreline of the loch and the mountains to the west, and it runs generally alongside the West Highland Line. The road narrows to less than 7.3 metres in places and causes significant problems for heavy vehicles, which have to negotiate tight bends
32.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
33.
Loch Lomond
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Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest inland stretch of water in Great Britain by surface area, the loch contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles. Loch Lomond is a leisure destination and is featured in the song The Bonnie Banks o Loch Lomond. The Loch is now part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002, there are also two National Nature Reserves within the National Park, Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve and The Great Trossachs Forest National Nature Reserve. The former is managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, and the latter by a partnership of the Forestry Commission Scotland, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Loch Lomond is a corruption of the Gaelic Lac Leaman, or Lake of the Elms. Loch Lomond is a freshwater loch lying on the Highland Boundary Fault and it is 24 miles long and between 0.75 and 5 miles wide. It has a depth of about 121 feet, and a maximum depth of about 620 feet. Its surface area is 27 sq mi, and it has a volume of 0.62 cu mi, of all the lochs and lakes in Great Britain, it is the largest by surface area and the second largest by water volume. Traditionally a boundary between Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is currently split between the areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 14 miles north of Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, Loch Lomond is now part of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Ben Lomond is on the shore,3,195 feet in height. A2005 poll of Radio Times readers voted Loch Lomond as the sixth greatest natural wonder in Britain, the main arterial route along the loch is the A82 road which runs the length of its western shore. For a long time, this was a bottleneck, with the route clogged with tourists during the summer months. It was upgraded in the 1980s and 1990s, although the north of Tarbet remains unimproved. The loch contains thirty or more islands, depending on the water level. Several of them are large by the standards of British bodies of freshwater, Inchmurrin, for example, is the largest island in a body of freshwater in the British Isles. As in Loch Tay, several of the islands appear to be crannogs, morton wrote, What a large part of Loch Lomonds beauty is due to its islands, those beautiful green tangled islands, that lie like jewels upon its surface. One of the islands, Inchconnachan, is home to a colony of wallabies
34.
Alexandria railway station
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Alexandria railway station serves the town of Alexandria, Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is served by trains on the North Clyde Line, the line then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The line through the station was double until the mid-1980s, when sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail. 2tph to Airdrie via Glasgow Queen Street Low Level and to Balloch, on a Sunday, 2tph operate alternately to Larkhall and to Motherwell via Whifflet, via Glasgow Central Low Level. The Directory of Railway Stations, details every public and private station, halt, platform and stopping place, past. Jowetts Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland, From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day, Station on navigable O. S. map RAILSCOT on the Caledonian and Dunbartonshire Junction Railway Video footage of Alexandria Station
35.
Balloch railway station
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Balloch railway station is a railway station serving the town of Balloch in Scotland. The station is a terminus on the North Clyde Line, 19¾ miles north west of Glasgow Queen Street railway station, the station is managed by Abellio ScotRail. Balloch station opened on 24 April 1988, replacing the former Balloch Central station which was situated north of a level crossing. Closure of this crossing was made possible by the closure of the previous terminus station - Balloch Pier - half a mile to the north. Opened by British Rail and SPTE, there is a half-hourly service from Balloch to Airdrie via Glasgow Queen Street and Singer Mondays - Saturdays. These services run non-stop from Dumbarton East to Dalmuir, on Sundays the service runs via Yoker and Glasgow Central, then alternately to Motherwell via Whifflet and to Larkhall. Services terminate here at the platform and remain there for around ten minutes, if possible. The Directory of Railway Stations, details every public and private station, halt, platform and stopping place, past. Video footage of Balloch and Balloch Central Stations
36.
Glasgow Queen Street railway station
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Glasgow Queen Street is a city centre railway terminal in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the two main line railway termini and the third busiest station in Scotland. The station is situated between George Street to the south and Cathedral Street Bridge to the north, at the end of Queen Street adjacent to George Square. The other main station in Glasgow being Glasgow Central. The station was built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, in 1865 the E&GR was absorbed into the North British Railway, in 1878 the entire station was redesigned by the civil engineer James Carswell. It became part of the LNER group in 1923, in 1928 there was a railway accident causing 3 fatalities when a train leaving the station slipped to a standstill and rolled back into another train. Modern diesel trains have no difficulty with the climb and this caused difficulties with longer trains, as Queen Street is in a confined position between George Square and the tunnel. In the 1980s, HST were used on Cross Country and East Coast services ran by InterCity, Queen Street stations platforms are on two levels, with the High Level platforms running directly north-south, and the Low Level running east-west. They are connected by staircases at either end of the Low Level platforms,3 trains per hour to Stirling 1 train per hour to Aberdeen via Perth and Dundee. 1 train per hour to Dundee, the high level railway approaches the station building through the Queen Street Tunnel, which runs beneath the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre to the Sighthill area northeast of the city centre. Platforms 1–7 occupy the High Level, Platform 1 being at the end of the trainshed. Platforms 8 and 9 comprise the Low Level station, and it is the most central stop on the North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network. Trains run frequently between Helensburgh, Balloch and Milngavie on the Firth of Clyde, towards Airdrie, on the edge of the Greater Glasgow and onward to Edinburgh via Bathgate, the line is electrified, the fleet operating this route are Class 318s, Class 320s and Class 334s. Services on the West Highland Line to Oban, Fort William, the Low Level line between High Street, Queen Street and Charing Cross was built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest underground railway in the city. In May–June 2014, work was carried out to redevelop the Low Level platforms, Queen Street signal box, opened in 1881, was on a gantry spanning the tracks close to the tunnel mouth. It closed on 26 February 1967 when control of the high level station was transferred to a panel in Cowlairs signal box and that box was superseded by the new Cowlairs signalling centre on 28 December 1998. This in turn was abolished in October 2013 and the station is now under the supervision of Edinburgh IECC, the low level station had two signal boxes, Queen Street West and Queen Street East. Both boxes were over the tracks and closed on 8 February 1960, the low level lines came under the control of Yoker Signalling Centre on 19 November 1989
37.
Pub
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A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer, ale and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, New Zealand, Canadian, in many places, especially in villages, a pub is the focal point of the community. In his 17th century diary Samuel Pepys described the pub as the heart of England, Pubs can be traced back to Roman taverns, through the Anglo-Saxon alehouse to the development of the tied house system in the 19th century. In 1393, King Richard II of England introduced legislation that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold, most pubs focus on offering beers, ales and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals, the owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or publican. The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s and these alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the public house, or Pub as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, the Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. A survey in 1577 of drinking establishment in England and Wales for taxation purposes recorded 14,202 alehouses,1,631 inns, Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway, in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built a system of roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old, in addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less commonly accommodation. Famous London inns include The George, Southwark and The Tabard, there is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. In North America, the aspect of the word inn lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century, alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries, the 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin
38.
A. J. Cronin
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Archibald Joseph Cronin, MBChB, MD, DPH, MRCP was a Scottish novelist and physician. His best-known novel was The Citadel, about a doctor in a Welsh mining village who quickly moves up the ladder in London. Cronin had observed this scene closely as a Medical Inspector of Mines and this book promoted controversial new ideas about medical ethics which largely inspired the launch of the National Health Service. Another popular mining novel, set in the North East of England, was The Stars Look Down, both these novels were adapted for film, as were Hatters Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His novella Country Doctor was adapted for a long-running BBC radio and TV series Dr Finlays Casebook and his paternal grandparents emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland and were glass and china merchants in Alexandria. Owen Cronin, his grandfather, had his surname changed from Cronague in 1870 and his maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage, Cronins parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School, when he was seven years old, his father, an insurance agent and commercial traveler, died from tuberculosis. From an early age, he was a golfer, a sport he enjoyed throughout his life. The family later moved to Yorkhill, Glasgow, where he attended St Aloysius College in the Garnethill area of the city and he played football for the First XI there, an experience he included in one of his last novels, The Minstrel Boy. A family decision that he should study for either the church or medicine was settled by Cronin himself and he won a Carnegie scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1914. He was absent during the 1916–1917 session for naval service, in 1919 he graduated with highest honours, with the degree of MBChB. Later that year he made a trip to India as ships surgeon on a liner, Cronin went on to earn additional degrees, including a Diploma in Public Health and his MRCP. In 1925, he was awarded an M. D. from the University of Glasgow for his dissertation, during World War I, Cronin served as a Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals including Bellahouston and Lightburn Hospitals in Glasgow and he undertook general practice work in a small village on the Clyde, Garelochhead, as well as in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. He was involved in the disaster at Ystfad Colliery in Pengelly, where miners were drowned. He subsequently moved to London, where he practised in Harley Street before opening his own thriving medical practice in Notting Hill, Cronin was also the medical officer for Whiteleys at this time and was becoming increasingly interested in ophthalmology. In 1930, after being diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. At Dalchenna Farm by Loch Fyne, he was able to indulge his lifelong desire to write a novel, having previously written nothing but prescriptions
39.
Vale of Leven F.C.
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Vale of Leven Football Club are an association club based in the town of Alexandria, Scotland, in the Vale of Leven area of West Dunbartonshire. Nicknamed the Vale and formed in 1939, they play at Millburn Park and they play in the Scottish Junior Football Association, West Region, and wear blue and white strips. In the early days of Scottish football, Vale of Leven, Vale won the Scottish Cup three times in succession. In 1878 they travelled down to England and beat the FA Cup winners, The Wanderers, the Wanderers had the advantage that the game was played under the English throw-in rule, but the Vales Scottish passing game proved superior to the English game of individual dribbling. The club also won the Celtic Society Cup in shinty in 1879, Vale of Leven was a founder member of the Scottish Football League when it was formed in 1890. By this time, the club was being eclipsed by the stars from Glasgow. In their second season failed to win a single game. Rather than face re-election for the time, the club withdrew. Between 1893 and 1902 the Vale played only friendly matches and in cup competition before joining the Scottish Football Combination, in 1905 they applied successfully for readmission to the Scottish League when the Second Division was extended with two additional places. They finished as runners-up in 1907 and in 1909 but did not receive the votes they needed to be elected to the First Division, as the following decade wore on, Vale of Leven struggled and regularly finished near the foot of the table. When the Second Division was suspended in 1915, Vale joined the Western League, after World War I ended Vale of Leven returned to the Scottish League for the third time as members of the reformed Second Division. After a decent fourth-place finish in their first season, the club was relegated to the new Third Division in 1924 and this ill-fated competition was abandoned in 1926 when it became clear that the cost of meeting match guarantees and additional travel expenses were beyond the means of its members. Despite the church name, Vale Ocoba appeared to be a flag of convenience for the Vale of Leven Football & Athletic Club struck off the SFAs roll. Original club colours, Dark blue shirts, dark blue shorts, disaster struck however when the start of World War II obliged the league to be suspended due to restrictions on travel by December 1939. Technically, the current club is unattached to the senior club. Scottish Junior football has a number of clubs that were forced to fold as Senior sides due to financial reasons or as a result of the collapse of the old Scottish Division Three in the late 1920s. This is more prevalent on the West Coast where no non-amateur Senior league exists any longer, the most recent example of this trend has been the former Junior turned Senior turned Junior again side Clydebank. Vale of Leven should not be confused with the slightly differently named East of Scotland League club Vale of Leithen
40.
Millburn Park
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Millburn Park is a football ground in Alexandria, Scotland. It has been the ground of Vale of Leven since 1888. Millburn Park was opened in August 1888 when Vale of Leven moved from North Street Park, a grandstand was brought from North Street Park and erected on the eastern side of the pitch, which was surrounded by a cinder track. A covered stand was put up on the side of the pitch. Vale of Leven were founder members of the Scottish Football League in 1890, although the club left the league in 1892, they were elected into Division Two in 1905. The grounds probable record attendance of 8,000 was set for a Scottish Cup match against Alloa Athletic on 2 February 1922, the club was also disbanded a few years later but reformed as a Junior club in 1939, with the reformed club using Millburn Park
41.
Scottish Cup
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The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Scottish Cup, is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for mens football clubs in Scotland. The competition was first held in 1873–74, entry is open to all clubs with full or associate membership of the Scottish Football Association. The competition is called the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship reasons and it was first presented to Queens Park, who won the final match of the inaugural tournament in March 1874. The current holder is Hibernian, who won the tournament for the time by defeating Rangers 3–2 in the 2016 final. The tournament starts at the beginning of the Scottish football season in August or September, the Scottish Cup Final is usually the last game of the season, taking place at the end of May. Participating teams enter the tournament at different stages depending on their league ranking, the lowest ranked clubs enter the tournament at the first round whilst the highest ranked, those that compete in the Scottish Premiership, enter at the fourth round stage. The competition is a knock-out tournament, in each round of games the teams are paired at random, with the first team drawn listed as the home team. Every game lasts 90 minutes plus any additional stoppage time, the winner of each game advances to the next round, whilst the loser is eliminated from the tournament. If a game ends in a draw, the fixture is replayed at the ground of the other team at a later date. If the replay also ends in a draw,30 minutes of time is played followed by a penalty shoot-out if there is still no clear winner. In the semi-final and final rounds, if the ends in a draw there is no replay. The competition has a staggered entry system, Scottish League One and six Scottish Championship clubs started in the third round, while the remaining four Championship clubs and all 12 Scottish Premiership clubs entered in the fourth round. Any club that is a full or associate member of the Scottish Football Association is entitled to compete in the tournament, every team that plays in the Scottish Professional Football League is therefore eligible. Between 1895 and 2007, clubs that were SFA members but not competitors in the professional football leagues could only qualify for the tournament by winning the Scottish Qualifying Cup. Clubs that are not members of the SFA may still qualify for the tournament by winning the Highland League, Lowland League, three junior clubs, Banks O Dee, Girvan and Linlithgow Rose are also SFA members and therefore qualify automatically. From 2015, the winners of the Scottish Amateur Cup are also eligible to qualify, players that are registered with a competing club are eligible to play. However, players are not entitled to play for more than one club during the same tournament, each club names eleven players and up to five substitutes before every match. In order to play in the match, a player must have also been registered to compete in the semi-final round for the same club
42.
Scottish Football League
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The Scottish Football League was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland. From its foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998, after 1998, the SFL represented levels 2 to 4 of the Scottish football league system. In June 2013, the SFL merged with the SPL to form the Scottish Professional Football League, the SFL was associated with a title sponsor from the 1985–86 season. As this sponsor has changed over the years the league was known in turn as the Fine Fare League, B&Q League, Bells Scottish Football League, the SFL also organised two knock-out cup competitions, the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Challenge Cup. Organised football in Scotland began in 1873 with the formation of the Scottish Football Association, during the next 15 years or so, clubs would play friendly matches, Scottish Cup ties and local cup ties. The Football League, initially containing clubs from the North West and this had been done in response to the professionalisation of football in England in 1885, with the regular diet of league fixtures replacing the haphazard arrangement of friendlies. Many Scottish players, known as the Scotch Professors, moved to the English league clubs to receive the high salaries on offer. This prompted Scottish clubs into thinking about forming their own league, in March 1890, the secretary of Renton wrote to thirteen other clubs inviting them to discuss the organisation of a league. All of the clubs accepted the invitation, except Queens Park and these concerns were to prove well-founded, as six of the founder members would leave the league before 1900. The Scottish Football League was inaugurated on 30 April 1890, the first season of competition, 1890–91, commenced with 11 clubs because St Bernards were not elected. The eleven original clubs in membership were Abercorn, Cambuslang, Celtic, Cowlairs, Dumbarton, Heart of Midlothian, Rangers, Renton, St Mirren, Third Lanark and Vale of Leven. Renton were expelled five games of the 1890–91 season for playing against St Bernards. Renton raised an action against the SFA in the Court of Session and won, in the 1890–91 season, Rangers and Dumbarton were level at the top of the league on 29 points. The teams drew 2–2 in a match, but no further thought had been given to separating teams by another method. Goal average was introduced for the 1921–22 season and replaced by goal difference for the 1971–72 season, the league proved to be highly successful, and in 1893 a Second Division was formed by the inclusion of a number of clubs previously in the Scottish Football Alliance. Promotion was initially based on a ballot of clubs, automatic promotion was not introduced until 1922, in 1923, the League decided to introduce a Third Division. The Western Football League was used as its backbone but the new set-up lasted only three years before it collapsed under heavy financial losses, from 1926 until 1946, the League returned to two divisions. Post-World War II reforms saw the League resume with three divisions, postwar seasons saw the divisions renamed A, B and C with the last section also including reserve sides
43.
Gordon Reid (tennis)
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Gordon Gio Reid MBE is a British professional wheelchair tennis player, ranked world No.3 in singles and world No.2 in doubles. He is a paralympic gold medallist and 2 time singles grand slam champion. He has competed for Great Britain at the Summer Paralympics when tennis made its first appearance at Beijing 2008 and he reached the quarter-finals in the singles in London 2012 as well as reaching the quarter-finals in the doubles. He won Paralympic gold in the singles event at Rio 2016 and Silver in the doubles event with partner Alfie Hewitt. He was born in Alexandria on 2 October 1991 and he first began playing Wheelchair Tennis in 2005, when he was introduced to the sport at Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow. He was acknowledged for his credentials in 2006, when he was among the 10 shortlisted finalists for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. In 2007, Gordon became Britain’s youngest mens Singles National Champion and he feels his greatest achievement was representing ParalympicsGB at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games when he was just 16 years of age. When he was younger, Gordon combined his training commitments with his studies and in 2009 he passed Highers in Maths, English and he was brought up and remains an ardent supporter of Rangers F. C. and regularly attends their home matches. Gordon won his first wheelchair tennis title in April 2005, six weeks after coming out of hospital and he became Britain’s youngest National champion at the age of 15 in 2007 and the youngest British men’s No 1 shortly before his 18th birthday at the end of September 2008. At the 2006 British Open he won both the Men’s Second Draw Singles and Boys’ Junior Singles and ended the year among the 10 shortlisted finalists for the 2006 BBC Young Sports Person of the Year. Gordon was named Tennis Scotland Junior Male Player of the Year in 2009, Gordon also played in the men’s wheelchair doubles at Wimbledon in 2008. Gordon ended 2010 having beaten three top ranked players on his way to winning three NEC Tour singles titles during the season, as well as winning four doubles titles during the year. He beat Austrian world No 9 Martin Legner to win his last tournament of the season in December, in January 2016 Reid won his first ever grand slam singles wheelchair title at the Australian Open. In July 2016, Reid followed up with his grand slam victory in the inaugural singles wheelchair championships at Wimbledon. At the 2016 Summer Paralympics Reid won the Gold medal for the Mens Wheel chair Singles tennis, beating fellow Briton Alfie Hewitt in straight sets, Gordon Reid at the Tennis Foundation London 2012 Paralympic Profile Gordon Reid London 2012 Paralympic Information
