Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a British-American actress and humanitarian. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s, she continued her career into the 1960s, remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend. Born in London to wealthy prominent American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939, she was soon given a film contract by Universal Pictures, she made her screen debut in a minor role in There's One Born Every Minute, but Universal terminated her contract after a year. Taylor was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, had her breakthrough role in National Velvet, becoming one of the studio's most popular teenaged stars, she made the transition to adult roles in the early 1950s, when she starred in the comedy Father of the Bride and received critical acclaim for her performance in the drama A Place in the Sun.
Despite being one of MGM's most bankable stars, Taylor wished to end her career in the early 1950s. She disliked many of the films to which she was assigned, she began receiving roles she enjoyed more in the mid-1950s, beginning with the epic drama Giant, starred in several critically and commercially successful films in the following years. These included two film adaptations of plays by Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer. Although she disliked her role as a call girl in BUtterfield 8, her last film for MGM, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Taylor was paid a then-record-breaking $1 million to play the title role in the historical epic Cleopatra, the most expensive film made up to that point. During the filming, Taylor and co-star Richard Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal. Despite public disapproval and Burton continued their relationship and were married in 1964. Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, they starred in 11 films together, including The V.
I. P.s, The Sandpiper, The Taming of the Shrew, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Taylor received the best reviews of her career for Woolf, winning her second Academy Award and several other awards for her performance, she and Burton divorced in 1974, but reconciled soon after, remarried in 1975. The second marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Taylor's acting career began to decline in the late 1960s, although she continued starring in films until the mid-1970s, after which she focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, Senator John Warner. In the 1980s, she acted in her first substantial stage roles and in several television films and series, became the first celebrity to launch a perfume brand. Taylor was one of the first celebrities to take part in HIV/AIDS activism, she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. From the early 1990s until her death, she dedicated her time to philanthropy, for which she received several accolades, including the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Throughout her career, Taylor's personal life was the subject of constant media attention. She was married eight times to seven men, endured several serious illnesses, led a jet set lifestyle, including assembling one of the most expensive private collections of jewelry in the world. After many years of ill health, Taylor died from congestive heart failure in 2011, at the age of 79. Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, at Heathwood, her family's home on 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, she received dual British-American citizenship at birth, as her parents, art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor and retired stage actress Sara Sothern, were United States citizens, both from Arkansas City, Kansas. They moved to London in 1929, opened an art gallery on Bond Street; the family led a privileged life in London during Taylor's childhood. Their social circle included artists such as Augustus John and Laura Knight, politicians such as Colonel Victor Cazalet. Cazalet was Taylor's unofficial godfather, an important influence in her early life.
She was enrolled in Byron House, a Montessori school in Highgate, was raised according to the teachings of Christian Science, the religion of her mother and Cazalet. In early 1939, the Taylor decided to return to the United States due to fear of impending war in Europe. United States ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy contacted Francis and encouraged him to return to the US with his family. Sara and the children left first in April 1939 aboard the ocean liner SS Manhattan, moved in with Taylor's maternal grandfather in Pasadena, California. Francis stayed behind to close the London gallery, joined them in December. In early 1940, he opened a new gallery in Los Angeles, after living in Pacific Palisades with the Chapman family, the family settled in Beverly Hills, where Taylor and her brother were enrolled in Hawthorne School. In California, Taylor's mother was told that her daughter should audition for films. Taylor's eyes in particular drew attention. Sara was opposed to Taylor appearing in films, but after the outbreak of war in Europe made return there unlikely, she began to view the film industry as a way of assimilatin
East of England
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, it includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region, its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. Bedford, Basildon, Southend-on-Sea, Ipswich, Colchester and Cambridge are the region's most populous towns; 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, below 10 metres above sea level; the Fens are in North Cambridgeshire, notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of Holme 2.75 metres below mean sea level, once Whittlesey Mere. The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft, in the far south-western corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills. Basildon and Harlow, with Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead, were main New Towns in the 1950s and 1960s, with much industry located there.
In the late 1960s, the Roskill Commission considered Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, Nuthampstead in Hertfordshire and Foulness in Essex as a possible third airport for London. The East of England succeeded the standard statistical region East Anglia; the East of England civil defence region was identical to today's region. England between the Wash and just south of the town of Colchester has since post-Roman times been and continues to be known as East Anglia, including the county traversing the west of this line, Cambridgeshire; the inclusion of Essex as part of East Anglia is open to debate, notably because it was a Saxon kingdom, separate from the kingdom of the East Angles. Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons formed part of the South East England, as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, a mixture of definite and debatable Home Counties; 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, which are thought in Land Taxes to pay more than their proportion..." cited a list including these four.
The term does not appear to have been 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 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. Winter is cool but non-prevailing cold easterly winds can affect the area from the continent, these can bring heavy snowfall if the winds interact with a low pressure system over the Atlantic or France. Northerly winds can be cold but are not as cold as easterly winds. Westerly winds bring milder and wetter weather. Southerly winds 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 warm by late-April/May; the weather at this time is changeable and showery. Summer is warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather.
The number of summer storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a tropical storm coincides with the location of the jet stream. The East tends to receive much less of their rain than the other regions. Autumn is mild with some days being unsettled and rainy and others warm. At least part of September and early October in the East have warm and settled weather but only in rare years is there an Indian summer where fine weather marks the entire traditional harvest season; the most deprived districts, according to the Indices of deprivation 2007 in the region are, in descending order, Great Yarmouth, Luton and Ipswich. At county level, after Luton and Peterborough, which have a similar level of deprivation, in descending order there is Southend-on-Sea Thurrock; the least deprived districts, in descending order, are South Cambridgeshire, Mid Bedfordshire, East Hertfordshire, St Albans, Rochford, Huntingdonshire, Mid Suffolk, North Hertfordshire, Three Rivers, South Norfolk, East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Coastal.
At county level, the least deprived areas in the region, in descending order, are Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, with all three having a similar level of deprivation Essex. The region has the lowest proportion of jobless households in the UK – 0.5%. In March 2011 the region's unemployment claimant count was 3.0%. Inside the region, the highest rate is Great Yarmouth with 6.2%, followed by Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea on 4.7%. In the 2015 general election, there was an overall swing of 0.25% from the Conservatives to Labour, the Liberal Democrats lost 16% of its vote. All of Hertfordshire and Suffolk is now Conservative; the region's electorate voted 49% Conservative, 22% Labour, 16% UKIP, 8% Liberal Democrat and 4% Green. Like other regions, the division of seats favours th
Norfolk Coast AONB
The Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a protected landscape in Norfolk, England. It covers over 450 km2 of coastal and agricultural land from The Wash in the west through coastal marshes and cliffs to the sand dunes at Winterton in the east, it was designated AONB in 1968, under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The area includes; the AONB boundary on the seaward side is the mean low water mark, corresponding to the limit of the planning authority of its local authority partners. The terrain behind the coast is rolling chalk land and glacial moraine, including the 300 foot high Cromer Ridge. Nature reserves in the area include two National Nature Reserves, Blakeney Point and the Winterton Dunes; the Heritage Coast stretch of the AONB is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a candidate Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail pass through the AONB. East of Weybourne there is severe coastal erosion.
Managed retreat is to be the long-term solution to rising sea levels along much of the rest of the North Norfolk coast, Norfolk Coast AONB Website
St Margaret's, Cley
St Margaret's is the Anglican parish church of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, in the deanery of Holt, the Archdeaconry of Lynn and the Diocese of Norwich. The dedication is to St Margaret of Antioch, it is the largest church in the Blakeney Haven area, with a nave to match, dates from 1320–1340. Before the end of the 14th century, a large south porch was added; the north and south transepts are derelict. The style is Perpendicular, with some Decorated, it has an octagonal font, carved wooden bench ends and Decorated tracery, an carved rood screen. St Margaret's is a nationally important building, with a Grade I listing for its exceptional architectural interest; the church has a large number of war memorials. In 2008 a white-crowned sparrow, an American bird not seen in the United Kingdom, was spotted in Cley. Visiting birders donated more than £3,000 to a collection for the church's restoration. To commemorate the event an image of the bird was included in a window at St Margaret's
Cley Marshes
Cley Marshes is a 176-hectare nature reserve on the North Sea coast of England just outside the village of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk. A reserve since 1926, it is the oldest of the reserves belonging to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, itself the oldest county Wildlife Trust in the United Kingdom. Cley Marshes protects an area of reed beds, freshwater marsh and wet meadows and is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Ramsar Site due to the large numbers of birds it attracts; the reserve is important for some scarce breeding species, such as pied avocets on the islands, western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns and bearded reedlings in the reeds, is a major migration stopoff and wintering site. There are several nationally or locally scarce invertebrates and plants specialised for this coastal habitat, it has five bird hides and an environmentally friendly visitor centre and further expansion is planned through the acquisition of neighbouring land and improvements to visitor facilities.
The site has a long history of human occupation, from prehistoric farming to its use as a prisoner of war camp in the Second World War. The reserve attracts large numbers of visitors, contributing to the economy of Cley village. Despite centuries of embankment to reclaim land and protect the village, the marshes have been flooded many times, the southward march of the coastal shingle bank and encroachment by the sea make it inevitable that the reserve will be lost. New wetlands are being created further inland to compensate for the loss of coastal habitats. Norfolk has a long history of human occupation. Both Modern and Neanderthal people were present in the area before the last glaciation between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, humans returned as the ice retreated northwards; the archaeological record is poor until about 20,000 years ago because of the prevailing conditions, but because the coastline was much further north than at present. As the ice retreated during the Mesolithic, the sea level rose.
This brought the Norfolk coastline much closer to its present line, so that many ancient sites are now under the sea. The oldest signs of habitation on the marshes are prehistoric Clactonian flint blades from 400,000 years ago, but few other prehistoric remains have been recorded here. Fragments of a Roman vase and jug have been found on the beach. A 1797 map showed what was described as the ruins of "Cley Chapel", although it is more that they belonged to a barn. A 1588 map showed "Black Joy Forte", which may have been intended as a defence against the Spanish Armada. There are a number of post-medieval earthworks sea defences, pits which may have been associated with salt-making; until the mid-1600s, much of the area now known as Cley Marshes was part of a vast tidal marsh and was covered by seawater twice a day. The shoreline itself was hundreds of metres north of its present location; the raised area in the north-west corner, called the "Eye", has been farmed since the earliest human habitation.
It is now much reduced by coastal erosion. Access to the Eye was by an ancient causeway, passable at low tide. John Heydon started the process of embanking the marshes to reclaim the land in 1522, his banks were extended and improved by Dutchman Jan van Hasedunch from 1630. Simon Britiff, Lord of the local Manor of Cley, completed the scheme by building the bank on the east side of the Cley channel. Only the east and west banks have survived. Cley and nearby Blakeney had been prosperous and important ports in the Middle Ages, but land reclamation schemes those by Henry Calthorpe in 1640 just to the west of Cley, led to the silting up of the shipping channel and relocation of the wharf. Further enclosure in the mid-1820s aggravated the problem, allowed the shingle ridge at the beach to block the former tidal channel to the Salthouse marshes to the east of Cley. In an attempt to halt the decline, Thomas Telford was consulted in 1822, but his recommendations for reducing the silting were not implemented, by 1840 all of Cley's trade had been lost to Blakeney and other Norfolk ports.
The population stagnated, the value of all property decreased sharply. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Lord of the Manor constructed the present road to the beach in exchange for closing the ancient right of way across the marshes. In the decades preceding World War I, this stretch of coast became famous for its wildfowling. One of the best known of the latter was E. C. Arnold, who collected for more than fifty years, gave his name to the marsh at the north-east corner of the present reserve. Cley Marshes reserve was created in 1926 when Norfolk birdwatcher Dr Sydney Long bought the land which now makes up the reserve for the sum of £5,100, to be held "in perpetuity as a bird breeding sanctuary". Long established the Norfolk Wildlife Trust; the reserve was extended in 1962 through the lease of the adjacent 11-hectare Arnold's Marsh from the National Trust. New pools and hides were created on the reserve from 1964, the sale of permits for access to the hides became a useful source of income for the NWT.
Further pools and hides were established during the 1970s, a visitor centre was built in 1981 on the site of the current
Cley Windmill
Cley Windmill is a grade II* listed tower mill at Cley next the Sea, England, converted to residential accommodation. Cley windmill was built in the early 19th century, it was not marked on William Faden's map of Norfolk published in 1797. The first mention was an advert in the Norfolk Chronicle of 26 June 1819, where the mill was for sale, described as "newly erected" and in the ownership of the Farthing family; the mill was not sold and remained the property of the Farthing family, until 1875, when Dorothy Farthing, the owner, died. The mill was bought by Stephen Barnabas Burroughes, it was worked by the Burroughes family until c. 1912, when the business was transferred to their windmill at Holt. In 1921, the windmill was sold by the Burroughes brothers to Mrs Sarah Maria Wilson for the sum of £350 and she had the mill converted to a holiday home; the architect responsible for the conversion was Cecil Upcher. The machinery was removed, with the gear wheels being cut in half and used as decoration within the mill.
The mill was inherited by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Blount, in 1934. On 31 January 1953, the mill was flooded to a depth of at least 8 feet. In 1960, Norfolk County Council and the Pilgrim Trust both made grants to enable the sails to be replaced, the council granting £500 and the trust granting £300 towards a total cost of £1,500; the work was done by the Alford, Lincolnshire millwrights. Further grants were received by Lt Col Blount from Norfolk County Council in 1963 and 1971. Lt Col Blount died on 1 February 1979 and the mill was inherited by his youngest son, Colonel Charles Blount, father of the singer James Blunt, who spent much time there as a child; the mill did not sell. In 1983, planning permission and listed building consent was sought from North Norfolk District Council to turn the mill and complex into a guesthouse and self-catering units; this was granted, with the mill opening as a guesthouse on 27 April 1983. In 1986-87, the cap gallery and fantail were renewed. Grants totalling £19,000 were given by English Heritage and Norfolk County Council towards an estimated cost of £45,000.
The work was done by millwrights John John Bond. In December 2006 the windmill was put up for sale for the sum of £1,500,000. Cley windmill is a five storey tower mill with a stage at second floor level, twenty feet above ground, it has a dome shaped cap with a gallery, winded by an eight-bladed fantail, ten feet six inches in diameter. The cap is now fixed and unable to turn to wind. There are four double Patent sails with a span of 70 ft, carried on stocks 56 feet long; the inner pair have eight bays of three shutters and the outer pair have nine bays of two shutters and one of three shutters. In 1819 the sails powered two pairs of French burr millstones, a flour mill and jumper but by 1876 this had been increased to 3 pairs of stones and a smut machine had been added. John Farthing 1819-22 John Lee 1822-48 William Edward Powell 1848-50 Lawrence Randall 1853-72 Stephen Barnabas Burroughes 1875-1900 Burroughes Bros 1900-12Reference for above:- Cley windmill is open to the public as a guesthouse on a bed and breakfast basis.
Cley windmill has become one of the enduring icons of North Norfolk. Its image has been used on everything from tea towels through to greetings cards, tins of biscuits and fudge to advertising between programmes for the BBC. In October 1998 the BBC's world logo was replaced with a balloon seen flying over ten different locations in the UK, including Snowdon, the Forth Rail Bridge and Canary Wharf. Included as one of the locations was Cley Windmill; the films cost £500,000 to make. Cley windmill is licensed to hold wedding ceremonies. Cley mill website Windmill World webpage on Cley Mill
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War "The Soldier". He was known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England.” Brooke was born at 5 Hillmorton Road, Warwickshire, He was the third of four children of William Parker "Willie" Brooke, a schoolmaster, Ruth Mary Brooke, née Cotterill, a school matron. Both parents were working at Fettes College in Edinburgh, they married on 18 December 1879. William Parker Brooke had to resign after the couple wed as there was no accommodation there for married masters; the couple moved to Rugby in Warwickshire where Rupert's father became Master of School Field House at Rugby School a month later. His eldest brother was Richard England "Dick" Brooke, his sister Edith Marjorie Brooke was born in 1885 and died the following year, his youngest brother was William Alfred Cotterill "Podge" Brooke.
Rupert Brooke attended preparatory school locally at Hillbrow, went on to Rugby School. In 1905, he became friends with St. John Lucas. While travelling in Europe he prepared a thesis, entitled John Webster and the Elizabethan Drama, which won him a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. There he became a member of the Apostles, was elected as President of the Fabian Society, helped found the Marlowe Society drama club and acted, including the Greek Play; the friendships he made at school and university set the course for his adult life, many of the people he met - including for example George Mallory - fell under his spell. Virginia Woolf boasted to Vita Sackville-West of once going skinny-dipping with Brooke in a moonlit pool when they were in Cambridge together. In 1907, his eldest brother Dick died of pneumonia at age 26. Rupert planned to put his studies on hold to help his parents cope with the loss of his brother, but they insisted he return to school. Brooke made friends among the Bloomsbury group of writers, some of whom admired his talent while others were more impressed by his good looks.
He belonged to another literary group known as the Georgian Poets and was one of the most important of the Dymock poets, associated with the Gloucestershire village of Dymock where he spent some time before the war. He lived in the Old Vicarage, which stimulated one of his best-known poems, named after the house, written with homesickness while in Berlin in 1912. Brooke suffered a severe emotional crisis in 1912, caused by sexual confusion and jealousy, resulting in the breakdown of his long relationship with Ka Cox. Brooke's paranoia that Lytton Strachey had schemed to destroy his relationship with Cox by encouraging her to see Henry Lamb precipitated his break with his Bloomsbury group friends and played a part in his nervous collapse and subsequent rehabilitation trips to Germany; as part of his recuperation, Brooke toured the United States and Canada to write travel diaries for the Westminster Gazette. He took the long way home, staying some months in the South Seas. Much it was revealed that he may have fathered a daughter with a Tahitian woman named Taatamata with whom he seems to have enjoyed his most complete emotional relationship.
Many more people were in love with him. Brooke was romantically involved with the artist Phyllis Gardner and the actress Cathleen Nesbitt, was once engaged to Noël Olivier, whom he met, when she was aged 15, at the progressive Bedales School. Brooke enlisted at the outbreak of war in August 1914, he came to public attention as a war poet early the following year, when The Times Literary Supplement published two sonnets on 11 March. Brooke's most famous collection of poetry, containing all five sonnets, 1914 & Other Poems, was first published in May 1915 and, in testament to his popularity, ran to 11 further impressions that year and by June 1918 had reached its 24th impression. Brooke's accomplished poetry gained many enthusiasts and followers, he was taken up by Edward Marsh, who brought him to the attention of Winston Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty. Brooke was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a temporary Sub-Lieutenant shortly after his 27th birthday and took part in the Royal Naval Division's Antwerp expedition in October 1914.
Brooke sailed with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on 28 February 1915 but developed sepsis from an infected mosquito bite. He died at 4:46 pm on 23 April 1915, on the French hospital ship, the Duguay-Trouin, moored in a bay off the Greek island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea, while on his way to the landing at Gallipoli; as the expeditionary force had orders to depart Brooke was buried at 11 pm in an olive grove on Skyros. The site was chosen by his close friend, William Denis Browne, who wrote of Brooke's death: I sat with Rupert. At 4 o’clock he became weaker, at 4.46 he died, with the sun shining all round his cabin, the cool sea-breeze blowing through the door and the shaded windows. No one could have wished for a quieter or a calmer end than in that lovely bay, shielded by the mountains and fragrant with sage and thyme. Another friend and war poet, Patrick Shaw-Stewart, assisted at his hurried funeral, his grave remains there still, with monument erected by his friend Stanley Casson and archaeologist, who in 1921 published Rupert Brook
