Historic England
Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture and Sport. It is tasked with protecting the historical environment of England by preserving and listing historic buildings, ancient monuments and advising central and local government; the body was created by the National Heritage Act 1983, operated from April 1984 to April 2015 under the name of English Heritage. In 2015, following the changes to English Heritage's structure that moved the protection of the National Heritage Collection into the voluntary sector in the English Heritage Trust, the body that remained was rebranded as Historic England. Historic England has a similar remit to and complements the work of Natural England which aims to protect the natural environment; the body inherited the Historic England Archive from the old English Heritage, projects linked to the archive such as Britain from Above, which saw the archive work with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to digitise and put online 96,000 of the oldest Aerofilms images.
The archive holds various nationally important collections and the results of older projects such as the work of the National Buildings Record absorbed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the Images of England project which set out to create a accessible online database of the 370,000 listed properties in England at a snapshot in time at the turn of the millennium. Historic England inherits English Heritage's position as the UK government's statutory adviser and a statutory consultee on all aspects of the historic environment and its heritage assets; this includes archaeology on land and under water, historic buildings sites and areas, designated landscapes and the historic elements of the wider landscape. It monitors and reports on the state of England's heritage and publishes the annual Heritage at Risk survey, one of the UK Government's Official statistics, it is tasked to secure the preservation and enhancement of the man-made heritage of England for the benefit of future generations.
Its remit involves: Caring for nationally important archive collections of photographs and other records which document the historic environment of England and date from the eighteenth century onwards. Giving grants national and local organisations for the conservation of historic buildings and landscapes. In 2013/14 over £13 million worth of grants were made to support heritage buildings. Advising central UK government on which English heritage assets are nationally important and should be protected by designation. Administering and maintaining the register of England's listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered battlefields, World Heritage Sites and protected parks and gardens; this is published as an online resource as'The National Heritage List for England'. Advising local authorities on managing changes to the most important parts of heritage. Providing expertise through advice and guidance to improve the standards and skills of people working in heritage, practical conservation and access to resources.
In 2009–2010 it trained around 200 professionals working in local authorities and the wider sector. Consulting and collaborating with other heritage bodies and national planning organisations e.g. the preparation of Planning Policy statement for the Historic Environment Commissioning and conducting archaeological research, including the publication of'Heritage Counts' and ‘Heritage at Risk’ on behalf of the heritage sector which are the annual research surveys into the state of England's heritage. It is not responsible for approving alterations to listed buildings; the management of listed buildings is the responsibility of local planning authorities and the Department for Communities and Local Government. It owns the National Heritage Collection of nationally important historic sites in public care; however they do not run these sites as this function is instead carried out by the English Heritage Trust under licence until 2023. English Heritage Historic England Archive Cadw Historic Scotland Northern Ireland Environment Agency Manx National Heritage Department for Culture and Sport Conservation in the United Kingdom Heritage at Risk Historic houses in England National Trust Properties in England Heritage Open Days List of Conservation topics List of heritage registers List of museums in England Heritage film Official website The Historic England Archive: Search over 1 million catalogue entries describing photographs and drawings of England's buildings and historic sites, held in the Historic England Archive.
Britain from Above: presents the unique Aerofilms collection of aerial photographs from 1919-1953. Images of England website Heritage Explorer: Education site for teachers Department for Culture Media and Sport
Lady Godiva
Godiva, Countess of Mercia, in Old English Godgifu, was an English noblewoman who, according to a legend dating at least to the 13th century, rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from versions of this legend in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead. Godiva was the wife of Earl of Mercia, they had Aelfgar. Godiva's name occurs in the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies; the Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant "gift of God". Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name. If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of the 12th century she was a widow when Leofric married her. Both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016.
Writing in the 12th century, Roger of Wendover credits Godiva as the persuasive force behind this act. In the 1050s, her name is coupled with that of her husband on a grant of land to the monastery of St. Mary and the endowment of the minster at Stow St Mary, Lincolnshire, she and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Much Wenlock, Evesham. She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver. Another necklace went to Evesham, to be hung around the figure of the Virgin accompanying the life-size gold and silver rood she and her husband gave, St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London received a gold-fringed chasuble, she and her husband were among the most munificent of the several large Anglo-Saxon donors of the last decades before the Norman Conquest. The manor of Woolhope in Herefordshire, along with four others, was given to the cathedral at Hereford before the Norman Conquest by the benefactresses Wulviva and Godiva – held to be this Godiva and her sister.
The church there has a 20th-century stained glass window representing them. Her signature, Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi, appears on a charter purportedly given by Thorold of Bucknall to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. However, this charter is considered spurious by many historians. So, it is possible that Thorold, who appears in the Domesday Book as sheriff of Lincolnshire, was her brother. After Leofric's death in 1057, his widow lived on until sometime between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and 1086, she is mentioned in the Domesday survey as one of the few Anglo-Saxons and the only woman to remain a major landholder shortly after the conquest. By the time of this great survey in 1086, Godiva had died, but her former lands are listed, although now held by others. Thus, Godiva died between 1066 and 1086; the place where Godiva was buried has been a matter of debate. According to the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, or Evesham Chronicle, she was buried at the Church of the Blessed Trinity at Evesham, no longer standing.
According to the account in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "There is no reason to doubt that she was buried with her husband at Coventry, despite the assertion of the Evesham chronicle that she lay in Holy Trinity, Evesham." Her husband was buried in St Mary's Priory and Cathedral in 1057. William Dugdale says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, about the time of Richard II; the legend of the nude ride is first recorded in the 13th century, in the Flores Historiarum and the adaptation of it by Roger of Wendover. Despite its considerable age, it is not regarded as plausible by modern historians, nor is it mentioned in the two centuries intervening between Godiva's death and its first appearance, while her generous donations to the church receive various mentions. According to the typical version of the story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls.
At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism; some historians have discerned elements of pagan fertility rituals in the Godiva story, whereby a young "May Queen" was led to the sacred Cofa's tree to celebrate the renewal of spring. The oldest form of the legend has Godiva passing through Coventry market from one end to the other while the people were assembled, attended only by two knights; this version is given in Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover, a somewhat gullible collector of anecdotes. In a chronicle written by Richard Grafton in the 1560s, Grafton claimed the version given in Flores Historiarum originated from a "lost chronicle" written between 1216 and 1235 by the Prior of the monastery of Coventry.
Other attempts to find a more plausible rationale for the legend incl
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands, it contains Birmingham and the larger West Midlands conurbation, the third most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Coventry is located within the West Midlands county, but is separated from the conurbation to the west by several miles of green belt; the region contains 6 shire counties which stretch from the Welsh Border to the East Midlands. The region is geographically diverse, from the urban central areas of the conurbation to the rural western counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire which border Wales; the longest river in the UK, the River Severn, traverses the region southeastwards, flowing through the county towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester, the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Staffordshire is home to the industrialised Potteries conurbation, including the city of Stoke-on-Trent, the Staffordshire Moorlands area, which borders the southeastern Peak District National Park near Leek.
The region encompasses five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Wye Valley, Shropshire Hills, Cannock Chase, Malvern Hills, parts of the Cotswolds. Warwickshire is home to the towns of Stratford upon Avon, birthplace of writer William Shakespeare, the birthplace of Rugby football and Nuneaton, birthplace to author George Eliot; the official region contains the ceremonial counties of Herefordshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as the name is used for the much smaller West Midlands county and conurbation, in the central belt of the Midlands and on the eastern side of the West Midlands Region, it is still used by various organisations within that area, such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service. The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres in west Herefordshire on the border with Powys, Wales; the region contains five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including the Shropshire Hills, Malvern Hills and Cannock Chase, parts of the Wye Valley and Cotswolds.
The Peak District national park stretches into the northern corner of Staffordshire. Served by many lines in the urban areas such as the West Coast Main Line and branches; the Welsh Marches Line and the Cotswold Line transect the region as well as the Cross Country Route and Chiltern Line. There are plans to reopen the Honeybourne Line. Numerous notable roads pass with most converging around the central conurbation; the M5, which connects South West England to the region, passes through Worcestershire, near to Worcester, through the West Midlands county, past West Bromwich, with its northern terminus at its junction with the M6 just south of Walsall. The M6, which has its southern terminus just outside the southeast of the region at its junction with the M1, which connects the region to North West England, passes Rugby and Nuneaton in Warwickshire and Birmingham, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire; the M6 toll provides an alternative route to the M6 between Coleshill and Cannock, passing north of Sutton Coldfield and just south of Lichfield.
The M40 connects the region through South East England to London, with its northern terminus at its junction with the M42. The M42 connects the M5 at Bromsgrove, passing around the south and east of Birmingham, joining the M40 and M6, passing Solihull and Castle Bromwich, to Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham; the M50 connects the M5 from near Tewkesbury to Ross-on-Wye in the southwest. The M54 connects Wellington in the west, to the M6 near Cannock; the A5 road traverses the region northwest-southeast, passing through Shrewsbury, Cannock and Nuneaton. The longest elevated road viaduct in the UK is the 3 miles section from Gravelly Hill to Castle Bromwich on the M6, opened on 24 May 1972; the section of the A45 in Coventry from Willenhall to Allesley in 1939 was one of the UK's first large planned road schemes. Princes Square in Wolverhampton had Britain's first automatic traffic lights on 5 November 1927. On 13 January 2012, 34-year-old Ben Westwood of Wednesfield, was caught by the police, when speeding at 180 mph, in an Audi RS5 with a Lamborghini engine, from Wolverhampton up to Stafford on the M6, back again.
He was travelling so fast that he was outpacing the Central Counties Air Operations Unit Eurocopter helicopter. He and the vehicle had been in fifteen smash and grab raids and he was jailed for nine years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in August 2012; as part of the transport planning system, the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a regional transport strategy to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by Highways England and Network Rail. Within the region, the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a local transport plan which outlines their strategies and implementation programme; the most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the West Midlands region, the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: Herefordshire, Shropshire U. A. Staffordshire and Wrekin U. A. Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire; the transport authority of Stoke-on-Trent U.
A. publishes a joint local transport plan in partnership with
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status; the NHS commissions most emergency medical services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other emergency services, the public access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. In addition to ambulance services provided by NHS organisations, there are some private and volunteer emergency medical services arrangements in place in the UK, the use of private or volunteer ambulances at public events or large private sites, as part of community provision of services such as community first responders. Air ambulance services in the UK are not part of the NHS and are funded through charitable donations.
Paramedics are seconded from a local NHS ambulance service, with the exception of Great North Air Ambulance Service who employ their own paramedics. Doctors are provided by their home hospital and spend no more than 40% of their time with an air ambulance service. Public ambulance services across the UK are required by law to respond to four types of requests for care, which are: Emergency calls Doctor's urgent admission requests High dependency and urgent inter-hospital transfers Major incidentsAmbulance trusts and services may undertake non-urgent patient transport services on a commercial arrangement with their local hospital trusts or health boards, or in some cases on directly funded government contracts, although these contracts are fulfilled by private and voluntary providers; the National Health Service Act 1946 gave county and borough councils a statutory responsibility to provide an emergency ambulance service, although they could contract a voluntary ambulance service to provide this, with many contracting the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or another local provider.
The last St John Division, to be so contracted is reputed to have been at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, where the two-bay ambulance garage can still be seen at the branch headquarters. The Regional Ambulance Officers’ Committee reported in 1979 that “There was considerable local variation in the quality of the service provided in relation to vehicles and equipment. Most Services were administered by Local Authorities through their Medical Officer of Health and his Ambulance Officer, a few were under the aegis of the Fire Service, whilst others relied upon agency methods for the provision of part or all of their services.” The 142 existing ambulance services were transferred by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 from local authority to central government control in 1974, consolidated into 53 services under regional or area health authorities. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England.
The June 2005 report "Taking healthcare to the Patient", authored by Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, for the Department of Health led to the merging of the 31 trusts into 13 organisations in England, plus one organisation each in Wales and Northern Ireland. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, this has further reduced to 10 ambulance service trusts in England, plus the Isle of Wight which has its own provision. Following the passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, commissioning of the ambulance services in each area passed from central government control into the hands of regional clinical commissioning groups; the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary provider for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England, 1 each in the other three countries. In England there are now ten NHS ambulance trusts, as well as an ambulance service on the Isle of Wight, run directly by Isle of Wight NHS Trust, with boundaries following those of the former regional government offices.
The ten trusts are: East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust London Ambulance Service NHS Trust North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustThe English ambulance trusts are represented by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, with the Scottish and Northern Irish providers all associate members. On the 14 November 2018 West Midlands Ambulance Service became the UK's first university-ambulance trust; the service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Scottish Ambulance Service is a Special Health Board that provides ambulance services throughout whole of Scotland, on behalf of the Health and Social Care Directorates of the Scottish Government.
Due to the remote nature of many areas of Scotland compared to the other Home Nations, the Scottish Ambulance Service has Britain's only publi
Atherstone
Atherstone is a town and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire. Located in the far north of the county, Atherstone forms part of the border with Leicestershire along the A5 national route, is only 4 miles from Staffordshire, it lies between the larger towns of Tamworth and Nuneaton and contains the administrative offices of North Warwickshire Borough Council. At the 2011 census the population of the civil parish of Atherstone was 8,670; the population of the larger urban area which includes the adjoining village of Mancetter was 10,573. Atherstone has a long history dating back to Roman times. An important defended Roman settlement named Manduessedum existed at Mancetter near the site of modern-day Atherstone, the Roman road, the Watling Street ran through the town, it is believed by some historians that the rebel Queen of the Britons, Boudica was defeated at the Battle of Watling Street by the Romans in her final battle near Manduessedum. The Domesday Book of 1086, records; the ancient St. Mary's Chapel in Atherstone dates from the early 12th century when the monks of Bec made a donation of 12 acres to a house of friars and hermits referred to as "Austin friars".
During the reign of Edward IV the Crown granted lands in Atherstone to the Carthusian order situate at Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire. According to Nichols, the chapel was granted to Henry Cartwright in 1542 left abandoned and neglected until 1692 when Samuel Bracebridge settled a yearly sum for the parson of Mancetter to preach there every other Sunday in the winter seasonAfter this, St. Mary's Chapel seems to have experienced something of a revival, its square tower being rebuilt in the fashionable "Gothic" style in 1782. This drastic alteration aroused some controversy. Although the fine architectural drawing of the chapel made by Mr. Schnebbelie in 1790 prompted Nichols to assert that "the new tower provides a good effect". St Mary's was further redesigned in 1849 by Thomas Henry David Brandon, it is said that the Battle of Bosworth took place in the fields of Merevale above Atherstone. Reparation was made to Atherstone after the battle and not to Market Bosworth. Local legend is. In Tudor times, Atherstone was a thriving commercial centre for clothmaking.
The town's favourable location laid out as a long ‘ribbon development’ along Watling Street, ensured its growth as a market town. While it remained an agricultural settlement in medieval times, attempts were made to encourage merchants and traders through the creation of burgage plots, a type of land tenure that provided them with special privileges. A manuscript discovered by Marjorie Morgan among the muniments of Cambridge's King's College, refers to the creation of nine new burgage strips from land belonging to seven of the tenants in Atherstone vill. By the late Tudor period Atherstone had become a centre for leatherworking, clothmaking and brewing. Local sheep farmers and cattle graziers supplied wool and leather to local tanners and shoemakers, while metalworkers and nailers fired their furnaces with local coal and the alemakers supplied thirsty palates on market days; the surviving inventories from 16th century Mancetter provide a fascinating glimpse into Atherstone's Elizabethan merchants and traders, before the town was economically overshadowed by the bustling cities of Coventry and Birmingham.
They show Atherstone at this time as a typical Midlands market town, taking full advantage of its location and agricultural setting. Atherstone was once an important hatting town, became well known for its felt hats; the industry began in the 17th century and at its height there were seven firms employing 3,000 people. Due to cheap imports and a decline in the wearing of hats, the trade had died out by the 1970s with just three companies remaining, Denham & Hargrave Ltd, Vero & Everitt Ltd and Wilson & Stafford Ltd; the production of felt hats in the town ceased altogether with the closure of the Wilson & Stafford factory in 1999. As of 2018 the factory has received the go-ahead to be redeveloped into canalside residential apartments. Atherstone is part of the parliamentary constituency of North Warwickshire, with the current MP for the area being Conservative's Craig Tracey; the local authority is North Warwickshire Borough Council, since May 2015, has been under Conservative control. The town is situated 6 mi northwest of Nuneaton, 9.5 mi southeast of Tamworth and 15 mi north of the nearest major city, Coventry.
Atherstone is close to the River Anker which forms the boundary between Warwickshire and Leicestershire. Witherley village is on the opposite bank of the river in Leicestershire, whilst the village of Mancetter is contiguous with Atherstone to the southeast. Other nearby villages include Sheepy Magna, Ratcliffe Culey, Fenny Drayton, Dordon and Baddesley Ensor, its co-ordinates are 52°35′00″N 01°31′00″W 1. In part due to its central location in the UK, Atherstone's economy has expanded since the 1980s, with several major companies such as TNT, 3M setting up their head office operations and/or national distribution centres in the town; the British Home Stores warehouse which had operated in the town for 40 years, closed in August 2016 Atherstone is on the main A5 national route and close to the M42 motorway. The Coventry Canal and a series of eleven locks runs through the town, as does the West Coast Main Line railway. Atherstone has its railway station on this line, with an hourly service 7 days a week to both
Karl Parsons
Karl Bergemann Parsons was an English stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Parsons was born in Peckham in south London, on 23 January 1884, the 12th and youngest child of Arthur William Parsons, a foreign language translator, Emma Matilda Parsons, née Bergemann, he was christened with the names Charles Bergemann, though the family always called him Karl, the name he was to use in life. From 1893 to 1898 he attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys School at New Cross in south London. One of Parsons’ older sisters was the artist Beatrice Emma Parsons. Beatrice worked for a while in Christopher Whall’s studio and when Parsons left school, Beatrice persuaded Whall to take him on as an apprentice. Whall it seems saw promise in Parsons' sketches. Apart from starting with Whall as a pupil-apprentice at Whall’s Hammersmith studio, he worked at Lowndes and Drury in Chelsea, this under Whall’s supervision, he attended Whall’s classes at the L. C. C. Central School of Arts & Crafts.
He completed his apprenticeship in the 1900s and worked as one of Whall’s assistants. In September 1904 he began teaching at the Central School as one of Whall’s assistants and as principal teacher of stained glass. One pupil was cousin of Margaret Agnes Rope. Another pupil was Joan Fulleylove who worked with Mabel Esplin and in fact continued Esplin's work for the Anglican cathedral in Khartoum when Esplin could no longer do so. Throughout the 1900s he was to assist Whall on his major commissions and in 1905 drew some of the illustrations for Whall’s book Stained Glass Work this along with fellow student Edward Woore. Parsons assisted Whall with the windows for Gloucester Cathedral and those for Canterbury Cathedral, Southwell Minster, Tonbridge School Chapel, churches in Ashbourne and Burford. In 1907 he married Grace Millicent Simmons, she too became an Arts and Crafts embroiderer. In 1908 he worked with Whall on the design and execution of apse windows for Cape Town Cathedral and in that year set up his own studio at the Glass House in Fulham.
In the same year he began work on his first independent commission, a series of windows for St Alban, Hindhead. He exhibited three designs at the Royal Academy and 25 September 1908 saw the birth of his daughter Margaret Rosetta, it was the architect Herbert Baker who had asked Whall to take on the Cape Town windows and it was Baker’s associate Fleming, who in years was to invite Parsons to undertake other commissions in South Africa. Close connections with architects were important to people like Parsons and he was to have a similar relationship with Robert Lorimer in Scotland, to lead to his receiving important Scottish commissions. Other important contacts were John Duke Coleridge, Everard and Pick. Whall had benefitted from close ties to the likes of the architects John Dando Sedding and Henry Wilson. During the period 1909 to 1910, he worked for a short period with Louis Davis, cartooning windows from Davis’ designs. In 1910 he exhibited designs at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition. Parsons worked with Davis in 1910 on the windows for St Anseln church and Holy Trinity in St Andrew’s Fife.
It was Davis. In 1910, Parsons lived at 38 Gainsborough Road in Bedford Park, London.1911 saw the birth of his second daughter, Jacynth Mary, who became a book illustrator. In 1912 he received a commission for the Rolls and Grace memorial window at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey and in the next year his work was exhibited at the Ghent International Exhibition, it was in 1913. One was to influence the other; the Great War saw many of the Glass House staff leave to do military service and in 1916 Parsons himself was conscripted into the Army but was not posted overseas. Demobilised in 1918, he resumed work at the Glass House and went back to teaching at the Central School; as a teacher, Parsons was, like Whall before him, to inspire several of his pupils to become stained glass artists, including Lilian Pocock, Joseph E. Nuttgens and Herbert Hendrie. After the war there was a boom in demand for stained glass with many memorial windows being commissioned and Parsons appointed Edward Liddall Armitage as an assistant and Leonard Potter.
Both were ex-pupils. 1924 saw Parsons make what was to prove a seminal visit to Chartres where, with his brother Ambrose, he carried out a detailed study of medieval glass. Parsons wrote "So far as my knowledge goes, this world cannot show anything made by men so amazingly beautiful". In 1927 he was commissioned to make the apse windows for the new St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. 1929 saw a collection of poems that he had written published by the Medici Society under the title Ann’s Book. His daughter Jacynth provided the illustrations.. Over the years Parsons had several of his poems published in periodicals. In the same year he resigned from his teaching post at the Central School. In 1930 Parsons moved from Northwood, where he had lived for many years. There he set up a studio at Ropewind Farm where he converted a mid-18th century three-bay barn, adding a large, porch-like window to let in natural light on the north side, he incorporated a small granary on unusual brick and timber staddles thus converting it into a larger purpose-built storage building and garage, giving access directly from Rivar Road.
The house he lived in adjoined the site. It sh
Alcester
Alcester is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in Warwickshire, England 8 miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon, 8 miles south of Redditch, close to the Worcestershire border. The 2011 census recorded a population of 6,273; the poet and antiquary John Leland wrote in his Itinerary that the name Alcester was derived from that of the River Alne. The suffix'cester' is derived from the Saxon word'ceaster', which meant a Roman fort or town, derived from the Latin'castrum', from which the modern word'castle' derives. Alcester was founded by the Romans in around AD 47 as a walled fort; the walled colonia named. It was sited on Icknield Street, a Roman road that ran the length of Britannia from the north east near Hadrian's Wall to southwest England; the town was just north of the Fosse Way, another important thoroughfare in Roman Britain. Alauna, a bustling market town, was within the commercial sphere of Salinae, where rock salt and brine was extracted and processed.
Archaeological investigations shows the colonia had streets and workshops. Investigations into Alcester's Roman history began with local businessman B. W. Davis in the 1920s. Recent excavations have shown that a substantial part of the Roman town was built outside its defensive walls in the 3rd century AD. In the Early medieval period, Alencestre had become a Saxon market town in the Kingdom of Mercia. Alcester was the site of Alcester Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1138 by Ralph le Boteler. Richard de Tutbury, the last abbot, resigned his office in 1467 and Alcester Abbey was absorbed into the neighbouring Evesham Abbey. By 1515 Alcester Abbey was in ruins as a result of the neglect of various abbots, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries Henry VIII it was demolished; the ruins were granted to the local Greville family, who used much of the stone to rebuild their family seat of Beauchamp Court. Today the town features architecture from the Medieval, Georgian, Victorian and 20th century.
The oldest house appears to be The Old Malthouse at the corner of Church Street and Malt Mill Lane, which dates from about 1500. The clock on St Nicholas Church is in an unusual position on the south-west corner of the 14th-century tower, making it visible from the High Street; the church houses the tomb of Fulke Greville, grandfather of Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke. The church's Georgian nave with Doric columns and plastered ceiling is believed to have been designed by Francis Smith of Warwick, supervisor of its rebuild by Woodward brothers of Chipping Camden in 1729. Alcester was served by Alcester railway station belonging to the Midland Railway, on the Gloucester Loop Line, branching off the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway main line at Ashchurch, passing through Evesham railway station and Redditch and rejoining the main line at Barnt Green, near Bromsgrove; the loop was built to address the fact that the main line bypassed most of the towns it might otherwise have served, but it took three separate companies to complete, Alcester being on the Evesham and Redditch Railway prior to absorption by the Midland.
In addition a branch line provided by the Alcester Railway company ran from Alcester to Bearley, thus giving access to Stratford-upon-Avon. This line, was an early casualty, closing in September 1939; the Midland loop was due to close between Ashchurch and Redditch in June 1963 but the poor condition of the track led to all trains between Evesham and Redditch being withdrawn in October 1962 and replaced by a bus service for the final eight months. Redditch to Barnt Green remains open on the electrified Birmingham suburban network. Alcester is served by buses from Redditch and Stratford upon Avon. Alcester is known for two nearby stately homes. To the north is Coughton Court, the family seat of the Throckmorton baronets as well as a National Trust property. To the south-west is Ragley Hall, the home of the Marquis of Hertford, whose gardens contain a children's adventure playground. Kinwarton, just north of Alcester, contains a church of Anglo Saxon origin and a historic dovecote, Kinwarton Dovecote, a National Trust property.
Alcester is a significant town on the 100-mile-long Heart of England Way long-distance walking route. Recent developments, carried out by a multi-agency partnership, include'Roman Alcester', a museum exhibiting locally found archaeological artifacts from the 1st to 4th century AD. In early June Alcester holds the Court Leet charity street market with a procession and competitions for best stall and best fancy dress. On the first Monday and Tuesday in October Alcester holds an annual mop fair where amusement rides, side stalls and food booths line the High Street, Church Street and Henley Street; the mop fair has decreased in size over a period of years an external influence since the people of Alcester still flock to the streets during the two nights. The Alcester and Forest of Arden Food Festival is held every October; the St Nicholas Night Fair is held on 6 December each year. The rivers Arrow and Alne, which join on the outskirts of Alcester, have flooded and on a few occasions engulfed part of the town.
The last occurrences were in 1956, 10 April 1998 and on 21 July 2007 when 200 homes were left uninhabitable. In response to the severe flooding of 2007 Alcester flood scheme completed an underground storage tank with a 3.25 million litre capacity in June 2011, costing just over £1 millio
Media related to Ansley, Warwickshire at Wikimedia Commons
