1.
Non-metropolitan district
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Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a two-tier arrangement, in the 1990s, several non-metropolitan counties were created that are unitary authorities and also have non-metropolitan district status. A third category is the districts of Berkshire, which are districts that are unitary authorities. Non-metropolitan districts are subdivisions of English non-metropolitan counties which have a structure of local government. Most non-metropolitan counties have a county council, and also have several districts, many districts have borough status, which means the local council is called a Borough Council instead of District Council and gives them the right to appoint a Mayor. Borough status is granted by charter and, in many cases, continues a style enjoyed by a predecessor authority. Some districts such as Oxford or Exeter have city status, granted by letters patent, by 1899, England had been divided at district level into rural districts, urban districts, municipal boroughs, county boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. This system was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and the Local Government Act 1972, non-metropolitan districts were created by this act in 1974 when England outside of Greater London was divided into metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties. Metropolitan counties were sub-divided into metropolitan districts and the counties were sub-divided into non-metropolitan districts. The metropolitan districts had more powers than their non-metropolitan counterparts, initially, there were 296 non-metropolitan districts in the two-tier structure, but reforms in the 1990s and 2009 reduced their number to 201. A further 55 non-metropolitan districts are now unitary authorities, which combine the functions of county, in Wales, an almost identical two-tier system of local government existed between 1974 and 1996. In 1996, this was abolished and replaced with a unitary system of local government. Since the areas for Wales and England had been enacted separately and there were no Welsh metropolitan areas, a similar system existed in Scotland, which in 1975 was divided into regions and districts, this was also abolished in 1996 and replaced with a fully unitary system. In England 200 out of the 201 non-metropolitan district councils are represented by the District Councils Network, special interest group which sits within the Local Government Association. The network’s purpose is to “act as an informed and representative advocate for districts to government and other bodies, based on their unique position to deliver for ‘local’ people. ”This is a list of non-metropolitan counties. Some non-metropolitan districts are coterminous with non-metropolitan counties, making them unitary authorities and these are excluded from this list as is Berkshire which has no county council. For a full list of districts of all types including unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs and this is a list of former two-tier districts in England which have been abolished, by local government reorganizations such as the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. It does not include districts that still exist after becoming an authority or those that transferred from one county to another
2.
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
3.
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
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
6.
East of England
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The East of England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999 and it includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region and its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, the southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt. The region has the lowest elevation range in the UK, North Cambridgeshire and the Essex Coast have most of the around 5% of the region which is below 10 metres above sea level. The Fens are partly in North Cambridgeshire which is notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of Holme 2.75 metres below sea level which was once Whittlesey Mere. The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft, in the far corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills. In the late 1960s, the Roskill Commission considered Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, Nuthampstead in Hertfordshire, the East of England succeeded the standard statistical region East Anglia. The East of England civil defence region was identical to todays region, England between the Wash and Thames Estuary has since post-Roman times been and continues to be known as East Anglia, including the county traversing the west of this line, Cambridgeshire. Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons, previously formed part of the South East England, as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the earliest use of the term is from 1695. Charles Davenant, in An essay upon ways and means of supplying the war, wrote, The Eleven Home Counties, then cited a list including these four. The term does not appear to have used in taxation since the 18th century. East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450 mm to 750 mm. This is usually because low pressure systems and weather fronts from the Atlantic have lost a lot of their moisture over land by the time they reach Eastern England, however the Fens in Cambridgeshire are prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area. Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds, westerly winds bring milder and, typically, wetter weather. Southerly winds usually bring mild air but chill if coming from further east than Spain, spring is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time is often changeable and occasionally showery, summer is usually warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High usually leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather. The number of storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a tropical storm usually coincides with the location of the jet stream
7.
Non-metropolitan county
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A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.4 million, the term shire county is, however, an unofficial usage. Many of the non-metropolitan counties bear historic names and most end in the suffix -shire such as Wiltshire or Staffordshire, of the remainder, some counties had the -shire ending and have lost it over time, such as Devon and Somerset. Shire county is, strictly, a dual-language tautology since the French-derived county means the same as the older Anglo-Saxon word shire, prior to 1974 local government had been divided between single-tier county boroughs and two-tier administrative counties which were subdivided into municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts. The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London, each county was divided into anywhere between two and fourteen non-metropolitan districts. As originally constituted, the counties were largely based on existing counties. Some counties were based on areas surrounding large county boroughs or were formed by the mergers of smaller counties, examples of the first category are Avon and Cleveland. Examples of the category are Hereford and Worcester and Cumbria. The Royal Mail adopted the counties for purposes in most areas. A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the structure of the non-metropolitan counties. It was anticipated that a system of unitary authorities would entirely replace the two-tier system, the Commission faced competing claims from former county boroughs wishing to regain unitary status and advocates for the restoration of such small counties as Herefordshire and Rutland. The review led to the introduction of local government in some areas. In the majority of unitary authorities an existing district council took over powers from the county council, the 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county, with the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of counties for these purposes. A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government, while a number of new county counties were created, several of the new authorities continued to have the boundaries set in 1974
8.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
9.
Brentwood, Essex
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Brentwood is a town in and the principal settlement of the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt,20 miles east-north-east of Charing Cross, according to the 2011 Census the town had a population of 49,463. It is a town with a small but expanding shopping area. Beyond this are residential developments surrounded by countryside and woodland. Brentwood has been twinned since 1978 with Roth, Germany and since 1994 with Montbazon and it also has a relationship with Brentwood, Tennessee in the United States. The name was assumed by antiquaries in the 1700s to derive from a corruption of the burnt and wood. However, brent was the middle English for burnt, the name describes the presumed reason for settlement in the part of the Forest of Essex that would have covered the area, where the main occupation was charcoal burning. An alternative meaning of brent is holy one, which could refer to the dedicated to Thomas Becket. Rather, it is believed that despite the Roman road between London and Colchester passing through, the Saxons were the earliest settlers of the area. Robert Graves, in his book Claudius the God, refers to Brentwood as the site of the battle where Claudius defeated the Ancient Britons in 44 AD, however, Graves also states that names and places in the book are sometimes fictitious. The borough began as a clearing in the middle of a dense forest, created by fire, giving it the name of Burntwood. A chapel was built in or around 1221, and in 1227 a market charter was granted, the new township, occupying the highest ground in the parish, lay at the junction of the main London-Colchester road with the Ongar-Tilbury road. The ruin stands in the centre of the street, next to the tourist information office. Pilgrims Hatch, or Pilgrims gate, was named from pilgrims who crossed through on their way to the chapel. It is likely, however, that Brentwoods development was due chiefly to its main position, its market. Early industries were connected mainly with textile and garment making, brewing, during the Peasants Revolt of 1381, Brentwood was the meeting place for some of the instigators, such as John Ball and Jack Straw. They, apparently, met regularly in local pubs and inns, Bampton insisted that the peasants pay what was demanded of them. The peasants refused to pay and a riot ensued as Bampton attempted to arrest the peasants, the peasants moved to kill Bampton, but he managed to escape to London
10.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
11.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
12.
UTC0
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UTC±00,00 is the following time, Coordinated Universal Time, the basis for the worlds civil time. Time used there is 2 hours and 12 minutes ahead of time in the summer. The easternmost settlement where UTC with DST is applied is Lowestoft in Suffolk, East Anglia, note that Ireland uses the term standard time in reference to the summer months and winter time during what the rest of the time zone calls standard time. This is the reverse of the practice of most countries in the EU, see also Time in Antarctica The westernmost point where UTC with no DST is applied is Bjargtangar, at the northwest peninsula of Iceland. Time used there is 1 hour and 38 minutes ahead of physical time and this is the greatest deviation from physical time for UTC with no DST. The easternmost locale where UTC with no DST is applied is Bouvet Island, of Norwegian jurisdiction, at the South Atlantic Ocean
13.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
14.
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
15.
Weald Country Park
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Weald Country Park is a 700-year-old,500 acre country park in South Weald in the borough of Brentwood in the English county of Essex. It is on the north-east fringe of Greater London, Weald manor, parts of which dated to the 16th century, was bought by Sir Anthony Browne in 1547 and he died at Weald Hall in 1567. In 1685, Erasmus Smith bought it from Sir William Scroggs, the current layout is largely the result of landscaping carried out in the naturalistic manner of Capability Brown for Hugh Smith, lord of the manor from 1732 to 1745. In 1752, the estate was sold to Thomas Tower of Iver in Buckinghamshire, Christopher Tower succeeded as the owner in 1778 and immediately commissioned Robert Adam to design a new dining room. On his death in 1810, his son, Christopher Thomas Tower, succeeded until 1867, he enlarged the estate, Weald Hall, with 800 acres in 1841, was let to farmers in the 19th century sold by another C. T. Tower in 1946, when the estate was broken up part of the park was retained for the Green Belt of London. Some remnants remain of the Hall, which was demolished in 1950–51 due to war damage, a very large painting of Weald Hall hung in a dining room at nearby Brentwood School. Depicting the house and park before 18th Century alterations it is attributed to Dutch painter Jan Griffier the Elder, the school, which was founded by a former owner of the Hall, Sir Anthony Browne, sold the painting to a private collector at Sothebys in November 1985. The park is now managed by Essex County Council, the park was due to be the venue for the mountain biking events at the 2012 Summer Olympics. However, following a visit by inspectors from the Union Cycliste Internationale, the site was considered challenging for international competition. Hadleigh Country Park was chosen as the replacement venue, Brentwood Parkrun is one of the many Parkrun events that run every Saturday at 9am in the UK. It is a 5km run and is timed and results are recorded on the central Parkrun database, the event was set-up under the guidance of Leigh Norris, with the first event taking place on 6th December 2015. As at the beginning of 2017 there had been 105 weekly events with the largest number of runners totaling 185 for the 2016 Christmas event, the course is considered one of the hardest in the South East and attracts runners beyond Brentwood because of its challenge. It has two significant hills, one famously called Heartbreak Hill which runners face at 4km, the course is hilly, single lap, and has cross-country terrain including grass, paths and woods. In the winter, the course can get muddy and trail shoes are required. In the summer, the course can be hard and dry, history of Weald Park Visitor details from Essex County Council Page from Brentwood Borough Council Panoramic view
16.
Royal charter
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A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as cities or universities, Charters should be distinguished from warrants and letters of appointment, as they have perpetual effect. Typically, a Royal Charter is produced as a high-quality work of calligraphy on vellum, the British monarchy has issued over 980 royal charters. Of these about 750 remain in existence, the earliest was to the town of Tain in 1066, making it the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland, followed by the University of Cambridge in 1231. Charters continue to be issued by the British Crown, a recent example being that awarded to the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to create cities. The date that such a charter is granted is considered to be when a city is founded, at one time, a royal charter was the sole means by which an incorporated body could be formed, but other means are generally used nowadays instead. In the period before 1958,32 higher education institutes had been created by royal charter and these were typically engineering or technical institutions rather than universities. Royal decrees can therefore no longer grant higher education status or university status. A Royal Charter is granted by Order in Council, either creating an incorporated body and this is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative, and, in Canada, there are hundreds of organisations under Royal Charters. Such organisations include charities, businesses, colleges, universities, today, it is mostly charities and professional institutions who receive Royal Charters. Application for a charter is a petition to the Queen-in-Council, however, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issuance of a Royal Charter. Companies, corporations, and societies in Canada founded under or augmented by a Royal Charter include, Royal Charter was issued in August 1826 to purchase and develop lands. Purchased the Crown Reserve of 1,384,413 acres, cities under Royal Charter are not subject to municipal Acts of Parliament applied generally to other municipalities, and instead are governed by legislation applicable to each city individually. The Royal Charter codifies the laws applied to the particular city, the Universitys Pontifical Charter was granted by Pope Leo XIII in 1889. Several Canadian private schools were founded or reconstituted under Royal Charter, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office was granted Royal Charter in 2005. The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club obtained Royal Charter in 1959 and it is one of the three banknote-issuing banks in Hong Kong. The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Chartered originally in 1847, disbanded 1859, the Institution of Engineers was incorporated by royal charter in 1935. A number of Irish institutions retain the Royal prefix, even though Republic of Ireland severed all remaining connections between the state and the British monarch in 1949, the University of South Africa received a Royal Charter in 1877
17.
Liberal Democrats (UK)
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The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, at the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to eight MPs. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election, the party currently has nine MPs, following the Richmond Park by-election. The Alliance was led by David Steel and Roy Jenkins, Jenkins was replaced by David Owen, the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties, although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats with the short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989. The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International. The then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988, at the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party. They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election, over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdowns leadership. They performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990, Ribble Valley in 1991, the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17. 8% of the vote, in the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. The election was, however, something of a point for the Liberal Democrats. Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and the party elected Charles Kennedy as his replacement, the party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, increasing their number of seats to 52 and their share of the vote to 18. 3%. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, under Kennedys leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001. At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance and won 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems breakthrough at Westminster, party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs. Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system, controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats
18.
Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation
19.
Epping Forest District
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Epping Forest is a local government district in Essex, England. It is named after, and contains a part of. Epping Forest District also borders Hertfordshire both to the northeast and southwest of the district of Harlow. The south is more suburban and dominated by Loughton, the largest town in the district, most of the District has a wide range of architectural styles and periods. Loughton is beside Epping Forest to the west and separated by farms, rivers, the settlements here are close to, and in places are contiguous with, Londons conurbation. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Chigwell Urban District, Epping Urban District and Waltham Holy Cross Urban District, along with most of Epping and Ongar Rural District. The district can be traced on maps by reference to the M25 motorway, from the junction the towns of Loughton and Buckhurst Hill are south-west, Chigwell is south, Waltham Abbey is west, Epping north-west, and Ongar north-east. Rail transport in the district is provided by the Central line of the London Underground, which is entirely above ground in the District, further National Rail stations are available at Harlow, and Sawbridgeworth, along the Districts boundary. Unlike the section of the Metropolitan line outside Greater London, where a special fare structure exists, until November 2006, services to Roding Valley, Chigwell and Grange Hill stopped at around 8pm but since then the service has run to around midnight. However, the service to stations is still not as frequent as to those wholly within Greater London or to those between Buckhurst Hill and Epping. The Central line used to have an extension from Epping to Ongar, with stations at North Weald. The line was reopened in 2004 as the Epping Ongar Railway. North Weald Airfield, a Battle of Britain airfield, is owned by the District Council, stapleford Aerodrome is another local airfield, and offers pleasure and charter flights. Eric Pickles - Brentwood and Ongar constituency, mostly covering the part of the district east of the River Roding, including the parish of Ongar and village of North Weald Bassett. Robert Halfon - Harlow constituency, which includes the villages of Roydon and Lower Nazeing to the west of Harlow, the district council is now based in Epping, roughly in the centre of the district. Its offices were located in Loughton. Since 2002, when the boundaries were reorganised resulting in the loss of one council seat. Each ward is represented by one, two or three Councillors, depending on the population, so that each Councillor represents a roughly equal proportion of the districts electorate
20.
City of Chelmsford
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The City of Chelmsford is a local government district in Essex, England. It is named after its settlement, Chelmsford, which is also the county town of Essex. On 1 June 2012 Chelmsford was granted city status to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the current district was formed on 1 April 1974 from the borough of Chelmsford, and most of the Chelmsford Rural District. The mayor of the city for 2016-7 is Councillor Patricia Hughes, and is the first citizen of the borough, a cabinet of ten councillors, from the 57 that constitute the council, are led by Cllr Roy Whitehead. Local elections are every four years in the borough. After being under Liberal Democrat control between 1995 and 1999, the moved to no overall control before the Conservative party gained a majority at the 2003 elections. Following the United Kingdom local elections,2015 the political composition of Chelmsford council is as follows and it shares its eastern border with Maldon. To the south-east its borders the district of Rochford, to the south the district of Basildon, to the west the borough has a boundary with the district of Epping Forest. The total population of the covered by the borough is 157,748. Approximately 60,000 live in the city and over 42,400 in the surrounding suburban, around 16,600 live in South Woodham Ferrers. These communities would be built as an urban village design. The borough has two centres, the principal settlement Chelmsford in the centre and the town of South Woodham Ferrers to the south east. The north west of the borough is predominantly rural, villages are found throughout the borough. The River Cans source is in the north west of the borough, the River Wid flows from the South of the borough through Widford towards the centre past Writtle to join the River Can between Writtle and Chelmsford. The River Crouch flows along the part of the south-eastern border below South Woodham Ferrers, hanningfield Reservoir, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, is located in the south of the borough. The rail links, both national and international, which run through the borough, are all operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, the Great Eastern Main Line runs through the centre, stopping at Chelmsford railway station. Services via Chelmsford operate between London Liverpool Street and Ipswich, Clacton, Harwich, Braintree or Norwich, the Crouch Valley Line also runs through the far south-east tip of the borough, stopping at South Woodham Ferrers running services between Wickford and Southminster. The Amsterdam Express, an international service owned by also stops in the borough at Chelmsford, connecting the town to the Netherlands
21.
Borough of Basildon
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The Borough of Basildon is a local government district in south Essex in the East of England, centred on the town of Basildon. The population of the district as of 2010 is about 172,000, the council made an application for borough status in February 2010 and this was given approval that year, with Cllr Mo Larkin becoming the first mayor in October. The local authority is Basildon Borough Council, elections to Basildon Borough Council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 42 seats on the council being elected at each election. Both the Conservative and Labour parties have controlled the council at different times, the Conservative party has controlled the council since winning a majority at the 2003 election. The council is composed of the following councillors, There are seven town. To the south the district has a boundary with the authority of Thurrock. The district has three population centres. The towns of Billericay and Wickford are two of the areas which both have surrounding villages, occasional proposals have been made to move Billericay and Wickford to other districts, leaving Basildon more focused on the new town. The remaining land, approximately half of the district is designated as green belt, has several sites of scientific interest. Two are around Billericay and the remainder are to the south of Basildon New Town, There are also wildlife areas of varying sizes around most of the district, except in the East. The source of the River Crouch is in the district, the river runs across the district, through Wickford before it leaves the district. The district is linked well by road and rail with significant surrounding destinations, in the west of the Basildon district, the Dunton Plotlands is an area of small plots of land used as weekend cottages or smallholdings inhabited during the mid twentieth century. Throughout Basildon District there are major developments planned estimated to total nearly £2 billion, the sporting village is expected in 2010, and is being highly sought after as an Olympic training base for one of the top teams, including the Russians. Its combined benefits, of having some of the top facilities so close to London, including one of the few Olympic size pools in the UK, the district is connected to London and Southend via two train operators, c2c and Abellio Greater Anglia. The route operated by c2c is the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, trains stop at Billericay and Wickford railway station. At Wickford, the Crouch Valley Line diverges from the Shenfield to Southend line, three primary routes are within the district. The A127 goes through its centre, the A13 goes through the south-east at Pitsea, both these primary routes connect the district with Greater London and Southend-on-Sea. The A130 connects the district with Chelmsford, the A129 is the major road link between Billericay and Wickford, which are linked via A-Roads to the urban area of Basildon, Pitsea and Laindon by the A176 and the A132, respectively
22.
Thurrock
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Thurrock /ˈθʌrək/ is a unitary authority area with borough status in the English ceremonial county of Essex. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone, the local authority is Thurrock Council. It lies on the River Thames just to the east of London, with over 18 miles of riverfront it covers an area of 64 square miles, with more than half defined as Green Belt. With Greater London to the west and the river to the south, the county of Essex abuts the Borough to the north and east, the local authority is Thurrock Council. Elections are held 3 out of every 4 years, in 2016, the Conservative Party took control of the council, albeit as a minority-party administration. Thurrock is covered by two parliamentary constituencies, Thurrock includes most of the borough while South Basildon and East Thurrock includes some wards in the east of the borough. Both seats were Conservative gains from Labour at the 2010 general election, the Council is led by Cllr Rob Gledhill as of May 2016. The Mayor is Cllr Cathy Kent, Thurrock has a population of 157,500 people living in 90,500 homes. The Metropolitan Green Belt covers 70% of the borough, there are 494 acres of land available for industrial use. There are seven areas,19 scheduled ancient monuments, including the dovecote at High House Purfleet. Thurrock Development Corporation took over much of the boroughs planning functions from its creation in 2005 until its demise in March 2011, much of the population and commercial activity is centred along the riverfront. Thurrock is also home to the Lakeside Shopping Centre, there is one multiplex cinema attached to the Lakeside Shopping Centre, and the Thameside Theatre in Grays. Live shows are held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, open space includes Chafford Gorges Nature Park, Langdon Hills Country Park and Grove House Wood, managed by Essex Wildlife Trust. Next to Lakeside Shopping Centre is Arena Essex, a sports complex. Thurrock in Bloom is a group that works in partnership with Thurrock Council and co-sponsors such as Sandown Nursery. It is part of a general in bloom initiative organised by the Royal Horticultural Society. The Thurrock initiative includes a competition and sponsorship of roundabouts. Award winners include Woodside Primary School which has received silver and gold awards for its wildlife garden, mammoths once grazed in the Thurrock area and archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a jungle cat
23.
London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
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The line is also heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas and countryside destinations. Additionally the route provides an artery for traffic to and from the port of Tilbury. The route was extended in phases and partnerships were formed with the Midland Railway, the main line runs from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Basildon over a distance of 39 miles 40 chains. A loop line between Barking and Pitsea provides a route via Grays and Tilbury, and there is a short branch line connecting the two via Ockendon. The line has a speed limit of 75 mph, although the Class 357 electric trains which run on it are capable of a speed of 100 mph. The line forms part of Network Rails strategic route 6 and it is classified as a London and South East commuter line. Passenger services form the Essex Thameside franchise that is operated by train operating company c2c. The construction of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line was authorised by Parliament on 17 June 1852. The first section, built by Peto and Grissell, was opened between Forest Gate junction on the Eastern Counties Railway line and Tilbury, via Barking and Grays on 13 April 1854. Services initially ran from Fenchurch Street and Bishopsgate stations over existing lines to Stratford, further extensions opened in late 1854 to Horndon, to Leigh-on-Sea on 1 July 1855 and finally to Southend on 1 March 1856. Under the management of civil engineer Arthur Lewis Stride, the line was extended from Southend to Shoeburyness in 1884, a more direct route from Barking to Pitsea via Upminster was built between 1885 and 1888, completing the current main route. A single-track branch was constructed between Romford and Grays via Upminster in 1892-93, the connection allowed through-running of District Railway trains from the tunnels under central London to provide local services to Upminster from 2 June 1902. The electrified tracks were extended to Barking and that opened on 1 April 1908. Delayed by World War I, the tracks were eventually extended to Upminster and District line services started to. Of course, the Waterloo & City tunnels would have had to be bored out to size for this proposal to succeed. In 1974 a station was opened to serve the new town of Basildon, platforms were re-established and opened at West Ham in 1999 to provide interchange with the extended Jubilee line. The railway was jointly promoted by the Eastern Counties Railway and London and Blackwall Railway and was leased for 21 years to Peto, Brassey. The lease expired in 1875, leaving the LTSR to take over operation itself, the Midland Railway and LTSR jointly constructed the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, which enabled through-running of trains between St. Pancras and the Tilbury docks
24.
London Borough of Havering
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The London Borough of Havering /ˈheɪvərɪŋ/ is a London borough in East London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in Havering is Romford and the main communities are Hornchurch, Upminster. The borough is mainly characterised by suburban development with large areas of protected open space, romfords urban centre is a major metropolitan retail and night time entertainment centre and to the south the borough extends into the London Riverside redevelopment area of the Thames Gateway. The name Havering is a reference to the Royal Liberty of Havering which occupied the area for several centuries, the local authority is Havering London Borough Council. In 2011 the borough had a population of 237,232 over 43 square miles, there is a high ratio of area per capita as large sections of Havering are parkland and 23 square miles is Metropolitan Green Belt protected land. Those areas of development are extensive but rarely intensive and it has, at 4. 5%, a below average unemployment rate for Greater London, and one of the lowest crime rates. Havering has a higher proportion of residents in white ethnic groups than other outer London boroughs. The Black African population is the most significant minority group in Havering. The Upminster ward of the borough is the third least ethnically diverse in Greater London, there are over 7,000 businesses based in Havering. Romford is the commercial hub of the borough with a small district of mainly office development close to the railway station. There is also some industry to the south between Rainham and the River Thames such as Rainham steel headquarters, on the boundary or Elm Park, light industry elsewhere in the borough has been in decline, with major employers such as the former Star Brewery now closed down. New industrial development is encouraged in the south of the borough has been encouraged by the London Development Agency, the main retail district is also located in Romford with several interconnected or nearby shopping arcades to the main Liberty Shopping Centre. Romford Market is located to the north of Romford and is the largest market within the borough, Hornchurch and Upminster are the other main retail centres with extensive high street shopping areas. Havering London Borough Council applied to the Government to allow a super-casino to be built in the south of the borough, the name originates from the Royal Liberty of Havering which covered broadly, but not exactly the same area, and had been abolished in 1892. Modern settlement originated in Anglo-Saxon times when it consisted of Havering Palace, the palace itself is known to have existed since at least the reign of Edward the Confessor when it was one of his primary residences. The area formed a liberty from 1465 which included the parishes of Havering atte Bower, Hornchurch, the name Havering appears in documents from around the 12th century. The origins of this name have been debated by historians since the Middle Ages when it was linked to the legend of Edward the Confessor, the event being commemorated in stained glass in a chapel at Romford, that was dedicated to the king. Coupled with this have been commercial expansion particularly in Romford and out-of-town, including beyond the M25, the development of the borough came in two distinct phases
25.
Shenfield railway station
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Shenfield railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line and is also the western terminus of the Shenfield to Southend Line in the East of England, serving the town of Shenfield, Essex. It is 20 miles 16 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and is between Brentwood to the west and Ingatestone and Billericay to the east and its three-letter station code is SNF. The station was opened in 1843 and has expanded from its original three platforms to the current five. From 2019 Shenfield will also become the terminus of the Crossrail line to Reading. Shenfield station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway company on 29 March 1843 on the extension from Brentwood to Colchester, as it was situated in a rural area, patronage was low, so it was closed in March 1850. There were three platforms, two up and one down, under the London and North Eastern Railway, two extra tracks for terminating local trains opened in 1934, resulting in the current five platforms. The 1920 survey of the shows good sidings and a turntable on the London side of the up platforms. The goods yard was closed on 4 May 1964 and it became the car park. The Hutton Junction suffix in the name was removed on 20 February 1969. The station is 20 miles 16 chains down line from Liverpool Street, immediately west of the station is Brentwood bank, which descends steeply in the up direction. This bank presented a significant climb to steam trains, there are extensive sidings on the London side of the station just before the start of the descent down the bank. To the east of the station, the lines for Southend diverge with the line passing under the main line towards Norwich. West of Shenfield there are five tracks, but to the east these split, oyster card readers were installed for pay-as-you-go journeys in 2013. Today, Shenfield is served by fast trains on the line towards London. From 2019, Shenfield will additionally form the terminus of Crossrail. The two remaining western sidings and three new eastern sidings will also be used by Crossrail and it is estimated that Crossrail will cut morning peak journey times by up to seven minutes although there will be no reduction to some journey times. During peak times, service frequencies may be increased and calling patterns varied, service frequencies are generally reduced on Sundays. Train times and station information for Shenfield railway station from National Rail Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06
26.
Ingatestone railway station
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Ingatestone railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the village of Ingatestone, Essex. It is 23 miles 50 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Shenfield to the west and Chelmsford and to the east and its three-letter station code is INT. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. The first station at Ingatestone was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway in July 1843, sited just below Stock Lane, the station consisted of wooden platforms on each side of the railway, connecting to the road carried above by wooden steps up the embankment. The railway obtained consent for the construction of an adjacent to Old Hall Lane, adjacent to the level crossing. Despite this, in August 1842 the railway requested permission to relocate the station to the adjacent to the Stock Lane bridge. Despite this, a station was constructed on the alternative site, following the legal case of Lord Petre v Eastern Counties Railway Company in August 1843, an injunction was issued by the High Court prohibiting use of the Stock Lane station. As a result, a permanent station on the present site was opened in 1844 and certainly given the present main building, in Tudor style with diaper brickwork. The up-side buildings were provided by the Great Eastern Railway in 1885 to a domestic design by W. N. Ashbee. Ingatestone station and the area around it form one of the first conservation areas to be designated in Essex, the railway station is a Grade II listed building. The typical off peak service on Monday-Saturday is two trains per hour to London Liverpool Street, and one each to Clacton-on-Sea and Braintree, on Sundays, there is one train per hour to London Liverpool Street, and one to Ipswich. The services are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia
27.
Colchester railway station
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Colchester railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, and is the primary station serving the town of Colchester, Essex. Its three-letter station code is COL and it is 51 miles 52 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and on the GEML is situated between Marks Tey to the west and Manningtree to the east. The junction is grade-separated so trains branching to and from Colchester Town or the Sunshine Coast Line do not cross the main line, Colchester station was opened in 1843 by the Eastern Counties Railway. It is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which operates all trains serving the station. The station was opened on 29 March 1843 by the Eastern Counties Railway and was named simply as Colchester, locally, however, it is also known as Colchester North to distinguish it from Colchester Town station. Buses also use this unofficial name, Colchester station is not particularly conveniently sited for the town, but buses connect to the town centre. Colchester Town station is closer to the town centre, as passenger numbers passing through the station increased, particularly with growth on the Sunshine Coast Line, the layout of the station became inadequate. This problem was heightened on summer weekends when large numbers of holiday trains destined for Clacton-on-Sea were added to the schedules, the station had also been built on a relatively sharp curve. Prior to electrification of the lines, Colchester was modernised in 1962, following the reconstruction the station has two main platforms. The junction is protected by a trap leading to friction buffer stops, there are also bay platforms at both ends of the up main platform. The London-end bay is used for trains to and from London. Previously this platform was used for frequent services for the Sudbury Branch Line, however, most of these services were truncated to terminate at Marks Tey from the mid-1990s. The other bay platform is used for services to Colchester Town, the down side platform is an island platform with two faces, one on the down main, and one on the down branch line. Platform 1 is mainly used for Clacton-on-Sea trains and occasionally for Norwich trains, the main ticket office is a modern glass-fronted design, sited on the north side of the station, and access to the platforms is via a subway. The previous station building is on the side and provides access to the up platform for those with tickets or wanting to buy tickets from a machine. Both entrances to the station have automatic ticket gates, former train operating company Anglia Railways operated services known as London Crosslink from Norwich to Basingstoke via Stratford. This service started in 2000 and ended in 2002, on 12 July 1913, at approximately 3 pm, an express passenger train travelling at high speed collided with a light engine at Colchester due to a signalmans error. Part of the train was derailed
28.
Ipswich railway station
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Ipswich railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. It is 68 miles 65 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street, Ipswich is also the terminus of the East Suffolk Line to Lowestoft, a branch line to Felixstowe, and a branch line to Ely, Cambridgeshire. Its three-letter station code is IPS, the station is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving it. The Ipswich Steam Navigation Company had been formed in 1824/25 during a period of steamship mania, the current station is just to the north of Stoke tunnel, which was constructed as part of the Ipswich to Ely Line which opened as far as St. Edmunds in late 1846. The station was re-sited to its present location in 1860 and the building was thought to be principally the work of Peter Bruff. The actual design was in the Italianate style and submitted by architect Sancton Wood as part of a competition, when the new station was completed, a new road linking the station to the town was also opened. By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, although they wished to amalgamate formally, they could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway was formed by the amalgamation. The island platform at Ipswich was added by the GER in 1883, Ipswich engine shed opened in 1846 and was at the south end of Stoke tunnel. It was the third-largest shed in the Great Eastern area during the era, after those at Stratford. At the beginning of World War 1 soldiers of the Norfolk Yeomanry regiment were deployed to Ipswich to guard key railway bridges in the area and they were relieved by the 9th field company Royal Engineers. In 1923 the GER amalgamated with other railways to form the London, on 30 April 1932 the LNER arranged an exhibition of railway stock at Ipswich. The show was opened by Sir Arthur Churchman, of tobacco family fame, the proceeds were divided between the Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital and railway charities. The exhibits were, Hush Hush W1 class 4-6-4 No,10000, A1 Class 4-6-2 No.4476 Royal Lancer with corridor tender and Flying Scotsman headboard, Class D49 4-4-0 No.201 The Braham Moor. This last locomotive was brand new and had not been in service, the show also included a sleeping car and a new composite corridor coach. In 1948 following nationalisation of the railways Ipswich became part of the British Railways Eastern Region, in the early 1980s the railway through Ipswich was electrified and in May 1985 electric services operated by class 86 locomotives started to operate to London Liverpool Street. At this point the line from Norwich had not been electrified and for a year diesel locomotives were detached, during 1985-86 the line to Norwich was electrified and through electric working commenced. The stations original lifts were removed in 1983 when the line was electrified, following the privatisation of British Rail, services from Ipswich were operated by Anglia Railways from 1997 until 2004, after which the franchise was won by National Express East Anglia. In the five years between 2004–05 and 2008–09, patronage rose by 50% from 2 million per year to 3 million per year, ticket barriers were installed in the station building in 2009 and the exit gate on platform 2 was closed permanently
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Brentwood railway station
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Brentwood railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Brentwood, Essex. It is 18 miles 16 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Harold Wood and Shenfield and its three-letter station code is BRE. The station was opened in 1840 by the Eastern Counties Railway and it is currently managed by TfL Rail. The vast majority of call at Brentwood as part of the Liverpool Street-Shenfield stopping metro service. From 2019 the station will be served by Crossrail, linking it to additional stations in central London, as well as Reading. TfL Rail, the precursor of Crossrail, took over the running of the Shenfield metro in May 2015, the Great Eastern Railway took over in 1862 and renamed the station as Brentwood & Warley for Billericay in 1882, shortened to Brentwood & Warley in 1889. After the grouping of 1923 the station passed to the London and North Eastern Railway, in 1969 the stations name was changed back to Brentwood. The station is sited at the bottom of a bank which ascends to the east towards Shenfield and this presented a significant climb to down-steam trains. Until 2001, embankment ladders were present to allow workmen to access the tracks, on 19 September 1850, nine workmen were killed when they were struck by a train at Brentwood station in dense fog. The ECR was criticised by the jury for not adequately protecting the men. On 20 November 1902, approximately 80 passengers were injured on an Ipswich-Liverpool Street service waiting at Brentwood & Warley station when it was rear-ended by a train that was not in service. A Board of Trade report stated that the empty trains speed was not more than four or five miles an hour at the time of the collision. On 8 July 1926,12 people were injured when a passenger and mail train from Liverpool Street was approaching Brentwood & Warley, at the moment of impact the speed of the passenger train had been about 10 mph, whilst the light engine was almost or completely stationary. The primary causes of the accident were recorded as driver and shunter errors, on 10 February 1941, six passengers and one crew member were killed in a collision on the track between Harold Wood and Brentwood. The speed of the Southend train was reported to have been around 30 mph, the driver of the Southend train was fully fit, highly experienced and should have noticed both the red signal and the stopped train ahead. Trains serving Brentwood are currently operated by TfL Rail and some on Sundays only are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, the typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service from the station is six trains per hour in each direction on the stopping metro service between Shenfield and Liverpool Street. On Sundays the TfL Rail service is reduced to two and two Abellio Greater Anglia Southend services call, the following services typically call at Brentwood, In 2017 new Class 345 trains will enter service as Crossrail partially opens. The route will be extended through central London to London Heathrow Airport, the platforms at Brentwood will be extended from their current length of between 184 metres and 187 metres to accommodate the Crossrail trains which will be over 200 metres long
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TfL Rail
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It is operated by MTR Corporation Ltd under contract to Transport for London, and forms part of the future Crossrail route from Shenfield to Reading and Heathrow Airport. TfL Rail took control of the Liverpool Street to Shenfield metro service in May 2015, in May 2018 Heathrow Connect services between Paddington and the airport and the Heathrow Express shuttle from Heathrow Central to Terminal 4 will also come under TfL Rail operation. TfL Rail will then be re-branded as the Elizabeth line in December 2018, between opening in May 2015 and the end of the 2015/2016 period TfL Rail carried over 38 million passengers. In July 2014 TfL awarded the contract to MTR, with a duration of eight years with an option to extend by a two years. The existing Class 315 trains were re-painted in the TfL Rail livery, every station is also staffed from first train to last of the day. TfL Rail utilises the existing 20 miles 16 chains of track on the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, during peak times, service frequency is increased and calling patterns vary, with some stations omitted on certain services. On Sundays there are two trains per hour between Liverpool Street and Shenfield and two trains per hour between Liverpool Street and Gidea Park. TfL Rail operations commenced with the fleet of Class 315 rolling stock. These units will be replaced by 66 new Class 345 trains built by the Canadian firm Bombardier Transportation, the Class 315 trains will continue to be maintained at the existing Ilford depot. The Class 345 fleet will be maintained at a new depot at Old Oak Common
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Liverpool Street station
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The station opened in 1874 as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railways main London terminus. By 1895 it had the largest number of platforms on any railway station in London. During the First World War, an air raid on the station in 1917 led to 162 deaths, in the build-up to the Second World War, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. Liverpool Street was built as a station with provision for the Underground. A tube station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway, and the station today is served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, Liverpool Street is the third-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom after Waterloo and Victoria, both also in London. It is managed directly by Network Rail, a few daily express trains to Harwich International provide a connection with the Dutchflyer ferry to Hook of Holland. Stansted Express trains provide a link to Stansted Airport and Southend Victoria-bound services stop at Southend Airport, most passenger services on the Great Eastern Main Line are operated by Greater Anglia. Since 2015, the Shenfield metro service has been controlled by TfL Rail, a small number of late-evening and weekend services operated by c2c run via Barking. The station is split into two halves, the west side for the Lea Valley Lines services and the east side for services via Stratford. The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Liverpool Street is, Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway which served Norwich, the GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheriting Bishopsgate as its London terminus. Consequently, the GER planned a more central station, the station was planned to be around 630 by 200 ft in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street. The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway Act 1864, the station was built on a 10 acres site previously occupied by the Bethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent to Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmens trains from the station. The station was designed by GER engineer Edward Wilson and built by Lucas Brothers, the overall design was approximately Gothic, built using stock bricks and bath stone dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the offices of the GER, including chairmans, board, committee, secretary. The station was built with a connection to the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway, with the platform sunk below ground level, the Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875, their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875. Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874, the original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881
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Southend Victoria railway station
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Southend Victoria railway station is the eastern terminus of the Shenfield to Southend Line in the East of England, and one of the primary stations serving the resort town of Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It is 41 miles 42 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and its three-letter station code is SOV. It is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which operates all trains serving it. The typical Monday to Saturday off-peak service is of three trains per hour to Liverpool Street, on Sundays there are typically two trains per hour to Liverpool Street. The towns other station is the nearby Southend Central and provides services westbound to London Fenchurch Street and eastbound to Shoeburyness. Train times and station information for Southend Victoria railway station from National Rail
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Southend Airport railway station
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Southend Airport railway station is on the Shenfield to Southend Line in the East of England, serving London Southend Airport, the village of Sutton and northern parts of Southend-on-Sea. It is 39 miles 44 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Rochford and Prittlewell, the station is managed by Stobart Rail but the trains are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. Its three-letter station code is SIA, the station was opened by the Transport Minister Theresa Villiers in 2011, it was designed by Atkins and constructed by Birse Rail. A new terminal building adjoining the station opened in 2012, passengers requiring the airport previously had to alight at Rochford and then take road transport. The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is,2 trains per hour to London Liverpool Street, calling at all stations to Shenfield then Stratford,1 tph to London Liverpool Street, calling at all stations to Shenfield then Romford, Stratford and Liverpool Street. 3 tph to Southend Victoria, calling at Prittlewell and Southend Victoria, media related to Southend Airport railway station at Wikimedia Commons
34.
Southminster railway station
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Southminster railway station is on the Crouch Valley Line in the East of England, serving the town of Southminster, Essex. It is 45 miles 42 chains down-line from London Liverpool Street and is the terminus of the branch line. The preceding station to the west is Burnham-on-Crouch and its three-letter station code is SMN. The station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway in 1889, the line and station were passed to the London and North Eastern Railway following the Grouping of 1923. It then passed to the Eastern Region of British Railways upon nationalisation in 1948, the branch was electrified in 1986. When sectorisation was introduced, Southminster was served by Network South East until the privatisation of British Railways, a nuclear flask handling facility operated to the south of the station during the operation and decommissioning of Bradwell nuclear power station. Today the station is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which operates all trains serving it. The typical off-peak service is of one train every 40 minutes to Wickford, some peak services continue to or from Shenfield and/or London Liverpool Street via the Great Eastern Main Line. Services are typically formed of Southend-based Class 321 rolling stock, built by BREL York and first introduced in 1988
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West Horndon railway station
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West Horndon railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line, serving the village of West Horndon situated on the boundary of the boroughs of Brentwood and Thurrock, Essex. It is 19 miles 15 chains down-line from London Fenchurch Street and is situated between Upminster and Laindon and its three-letter station code is WHR. The station was opened in 1886 as East Horndon on a new route from Barking to Pitsea. It was renamed West Horndon in 1949, the station and all trains serving it are currently operated by c2c. The stations ticket office is open Monday to Saturday, due to the low patronage it is closed on Sunday, the ticket office has one serving window and uses the TRIBUTE issuing system. The ticket hall has three ticket gates. During the latter part of 2008 the ticket hall, customer toilets, automatic doors were provided between the street and the ticket hall, and to and from the platform. Previously in the part of the 20th century in about 1998 the station building on the London-bound platform had been demolished. A more modern structure was erected, which very little shelter. The typical off-peak service is,2 trains per hour to London Fenchurch Street,2 trains per hour to Shoeburyness via Basildon. Train times and station information for West Horndon railway station from National Rail
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Fenchurch Street railway station
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Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City, the station and all trains are operated by c2c. The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was rebuilt in 1854 when the LTSR, the ECR also operated trains out of Fenchurch Street to relieve congestion at its other London terminus at Bishopsgate. The line from the station was electrified in 1961, and controversially closed for seven weeks in 1994, Fenchurch Street is one of the smallest railway termini in London in terms of platforms, but one of the most intensively operated. It has no interchange with the London Underground. The station frontage is on Fenchurch Place, adjacent to Fenchurch Street in the City of London, the station has two entrances, one on Fenchurch Place and another on Coopers Row, near Tower Hill. It has four platforms arranged on two islands elevated on a viaduct, the station has been Grade II listed since 1972 and the conference venue One America Square is built adjacent to it. Following privatisation in 1994, the station was run by Network Rail, since 1996, the station has been served by the National Express Groups c2c who have a franchise to run services until 2029. Fenchurch Street is in the central London Travelcard zone 1 like other stations in the city. The nearest is Tower Hill about 0.2 miles to the southeast, London Buses route 40 passes the station. Services from Fenchurch Street run towards East London and south Essex, including Barking, Upminster, Chafford Hundred Lakeside, Tilbury Town Basildon, Southend Central, the typical off-peak service consists of eight trains per hour, During peak periods services are increased up to 20 tph. Most peak services have 12 cars, although the stations capacity is small compared to other London terminals, it has a high footfall, averaging around 16 million passengers annually. The area around Fenchurch Street is one of the oldest inhabited parts of London, the station was the first to be granted permission by the Corporation of London to be constructed inside the City of London, following several refusals against other railway companies. The original building, designed by William Tite opened on 20 July 1841, serving the London and Blackwall Railway and it had two platforms connected via a stairway to the booking hall. Steam locomotives did not use the station until 1849 because before this time trains were dragged uphill from Blackwall to Minories, the reverse journey eastwards required a manual push from railway staff. William Marshalls railway bookstall established at the station in 1841 was the first to be opened in the City of London, following the opening of the London and Blackwall Extension Railway on 2 April 1849, services operated from Fenchurch Street to Bow & Bromley. Some were extended to Victoria Park & Bow where an interchange existed with the Eastern Counties Railway from Bishopsgate, the station had two heavily used platforms and a double track line from Stepney onwards. Following a reduced income at Blackwall, LBR shareholders voted to align with the ECR and jointly construct the London, Tilbury, services would split at Stratford, one service to Bishopsgate and the other to Fenchurch Street along the reopened line via Bow & Bromley
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Southend Central railway station
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Southend Central railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line and is one of two primary stations serving the town of Southend-on-Sea, Essex. The towns other station is called Southend Victoria which is the terminus of a branch line off the Great Eastern Main Line. Southend Central is 35 miles 55 chains down line from London Fenchurch Street via Basildon and its three-letter station code is SOC. It was opened in 1856 as the eastern terminus of the line. The station and all trains serving it are operated by c2c. It was formerly disused but is now occasionally required, platform 2 is typically for eastbound services towards Shoeburyness. Platform 3 is typically for westbound services towards London Fenchurch Street via Basildon, platform 4 is a bay platform typically for westbound services towards London Fenchurch Street via the Ockendon branch or via Rainham. Facilities at the station include a partially sheltered bicycle storage rack, the ticket office has two serving positions, one of which is fully accessible, and uses the Tribute ticket issuing system. Following the successful refurbishment of Benfleet railway station, c2c implemented a project at Southend Central. The work cost £460,000 and was funded by c2c. It was completed in 2007 after around four weeks of work
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A12 road (England)
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The A12 is a major road in England. It runs north-east /south-west between London and the town of Lowestoft in Suffolk. A section of the road between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth became the A47, and the part of the unsigned Euroroute E30. Unlike most A roads, a significant portion of the A12 has junction numbers as if it were a motorway, the 84 km section of the A12 through Essex has sections of dual two lanes and dual three lanes with eight changes in width between the M25 to Ipswich. It was named as Britains worst road because of potholes and regular closures due to roadworks in a 2007 survey by Cornhill Insurance, the A12 is covered by the Highways Agency A12 and A120 Route Management Strategy. This section in London was rerouted to run on Eastern Avenue by the mid-1940s, and extended to follow the current route from Blackwall Tunnel along the East Cross Route, the M11 link road in 1999. The route from London to Essex has long been important, with Old Ford being the location of an ancient Celtic crossing of the River Lea. The crossing of the Lea moved to its current location at Bow around 1110 when Matilda, wife of Henry I, a map from 1766 shows a route from London to Great Yarmouth which follows much of the current A12. The Ipswich to South Town and Bungay Turnpike Trust was established in 1785, the trust was wound up in 1872 following the arrival of the East Suffolk Line which was fully operational between the two towns in 1859. Following the demise of the Turnpike trust, responsibility reverted to parish responsibility until the new county took over in 1889. A new section of the A12, known as the M11 link road or A12 Hackney-M11 Link Road, was built in the early 1990s in the face of the major M11 link road protest and finally opened in October 1999. The section of road had originally proposed in 1903 in a Royal Commission on London Traffic. A public inquiry had been held in September 1961 and a further three public inquiries, a Parliamentary Bill and a High Court challenge had been required before the work started, initiated in 2000, the London to Ipswich Multi-modal study reported its conclusions late in 2002. The bascule bridge in Lowestoft, built in 1972, was refurbished in spring 2008, Essex County Council carried out its own inquiry into the road in 2008. Work on a £12. 4m scheme for the a new junction on the A12 at Cuckoo Farm and it was promoted by Essex County Council who prepared plans in 2001. and received funding from the Community Infrastructure Fund. It opened on 16 December 2010, the Eastern Avenue was built in the 1920s as a bypass for the section between Romford and Ilford, meeting what was the A11 at Leytonstone. It was numbered A106 until the 1930s when it became part of the A12, the 5-mile long Brentwood bypass was opened in November 1965. A bypass for Chelmsford was first included in the programme in 1968
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
