1.
Lincolnshire
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Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It also borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards, Englands shortest county boundary, the county town is Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters. The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the county of Lincolnshire. Therefore, part of the county is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. The county is the second-largest of the English ceremonial counties and one that is predominantly agricultural in land use, the county is fifth largest of the two-tier counties, as the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are not included. The county can be broken down into a number of geographical sub-regions including, Lincolnshire derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the county was called Lindsey, and it is recorded as such in the 11th-century Domesday Book. In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey, Holland and these survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire. A local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the south of the Humber was allocated to the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police and are in the Yorkshire. The remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven and they are part of the East Midlands region. Lincolnshire is home to Woolsthorpe Manor, birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton and he attended The Kings School, Grantham and its library has preserved his signature, applied to a window sill when he was a teenager. Lincolnshire is an area, growing large amounts of wheat, barley, sugar beet. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers. Most such companies are long gone, and Lincolnshire is no longer an engineering centre, however, as a result of the current economic climate some food production facilities have closed down, this has caused some reduction in the levels of migrant workers. The large number of people from Portugal is still obvious in the town of Boston. A coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents currently controls Lincolnshire County Council, the Conservative Party comfortably controlled the County Council following the 2009 local elections, in which they increased their majority to 43 seats. The Labour Party lost a total of 15 seats including 7 in Lincoln, the Lincolnshire Independents gained a total of four seats, although one of their number moved to the Conservative group during 2010, increasing the number of Conservative seats to 61
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Points of the compass
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The points of the compass, specifically on the compass rose, mark divisions of a compass, such divisions may be referred to as winds or directions. A compass point allows reference to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion. A compass is primarily divided into the four cardinal points—north, south, east and these are often further subdivided by the addition of the four intercardinal directions—northeast between north and east, southeast, southwest, and northwest —to indicate the eight principal winds. In meteorological usage, further intermediate points between cardinal and ordinal points, such as north-northeast between north and northeast, are added to give the sixteen points of a wind compass, for most applications, the fractional points have been superseded by degrees measured clockwise from North. In ancient China 24 points of the compass were used, measuring fifteen degrees between points. The names of the compass directions follow the 32-point wind compass rose follow these rules, The cardinal directions are north, east, south, west, the ordinal directions are northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, formed by bisecting the angle of the cardinal winds. The name is merely a combination of the cardinals it bisects, the eight principal winds are the cardinals and ordinals considered together, that is N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW. Each principal wind is 45° from its neighbour, the principal winds form the basic eight-wind compass rose. The eight half-winds are the points obtained by bisecting the angles between the principal winds, the half-winds are north-northeast, east-northeast, east-southeast, south-southeast, south-southwest, west-southwest, west-northwest and north-northwest. Notice that the name is constructed simply by combining the names of the winds to either side, with the cardinal wind coming first. The eight principal winds and the eight half-winds together yield a 16-wind compass rose, all of the above named points plus the sixteen quarter winds listed in the next paragraph define the 32 points of the wind compass rose. The sixteen quarter winds are the points obtained by bisecting the angles between the points on a 16-wind compass rose. The name of a quarter-wind is X by Y, where X is a principal wind, so northeast by east means one quarter from NE towards E, southwest by south means one quarter from SW towards S. The eight principal winds, eight half-winds and sixteen quarter winds together yield a 32-wind compass rose, in the mariners exercise of boxing the compass, all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order. The title of the Alfred Hitchcock 1959 movie, North by Northwest, is not a direction point on the 32-wind compass. The traditional compass rose of eight winds was invented by seafarers in the Mediterranean Sea during the Middle Ages. This Italianate patois was used to designate the names of the winds on the compass rose found in mariner compasses. Tramutana, Gregale, Grecho, Sirocco, Xaloc, Lebeg, Libezo, Leveche, Mezzodi, Migjorn, Magistro, Mestre, etc
5.
Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
6.
South Holland, Lincolnshire
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South Holland is a local government district of Lincolnshire. The district council is based in Spalding and it was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the Spalding urban district with East Elloe Rural District and Spalding Rural District. All these were previously in the county of Holland. There were 76,512 citizens in the district at the 2001 census, the median age is nearly 43. 82. 6% of people in the claim to be of a Christian religion - the highest proportion for any district in the East Midlands. The district has the lowest unemployment in Lincolnshire and average hours worked per week are the second highest for UK districts, the 2011 census reports 88,270 people at 1.2 per hectare in 37,264 households. Much of the district is low-lying and is free from inundation by land drainage. This is the responsibility of the South Holland Internal Drainage Board, the campaign to leave was partly led by local Conservative MP John Hayes who also campaigned nationally for a Leave vote. The result was declared at Springfields Exhibition Centre in Spalding early on Friday 24 June 2016 by the Counting officer Anna Graves
7.
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
8.
East Midlands
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The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. The eastern part of the Midlands, it consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, the region has an area of 15,627 km2, and was home to over 4.5 million people in 2011. The regions relative proximity to London and its connectivity on the national motorway and it is also the location of East Midlands Airport in north Leicestershire. The high point at 636 m is Kinder Scout, in the Peak District of the southern Pennines in northwest Derbyshire near Glossop. Other upland, hilly areas of 95 to 280 m in altitude, together with lakes and reservoirs, rise in and around the Charnwood Forest north of Leicester, and in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The regions major rivers, the Nene, the Soar, the Trent and the Welland, flow in a direction towards the Humber. The Derwent, conversely, rises in the High Peak before flowing south to join the Trent some 2 miles before its conflux with the Soar, the centre of the East Midlands area lies roughly between Bingham, Nottinghamshire and Bottesford, Leicestershire. The geographical centre of England lies in Higham on the Hill in west Leicestershire, some 88% of the land is rural in character, although agriculture accounts for less than three per cent of the regions jobs. Lincolnshire is the only county of the six, with a true North Sea coastline of about 30 miles due to the protection afforded by Spurn Head. Church Flatts Farm in Coton in the Elms, South Derbyshire, is the furthest place from the sea in the UK, in April 1936 the first Ordnance Survey trig point was sited at Cold Ashby in Northamptonshire. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and The Wildlife Trusts are based next to the River Trent, the National Centre for Earth Observation is at the University of Leicester. The region is home to large quantities of limestone, and the East Midlands Oil Province, Charnwood Forest is noted for its abundant levels of volcanic rock, estimated to be approximately 600 million years old. 25% of the UKs cement is manufactured in the region at three sites in Hope and Tunstead in Derbyshire, and in Ketton Cement Works in Rutland. Of the aggregates that are produced in the region, 25% is from Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire each produce around 30% of the regions sand and gravel output. Barwell in Leicestershire had Britains largest meteorite on 24 December 1965, the 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake was 5.2 magnitude. Rockingham Forest was designated as a hunting forest by William the Conqueror. The National Forest is a project in central England run by The National Forest Company. It stretches from the outskirts of Leicester in the east to Burton upon Trent in the west
9.
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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
13.
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995
14.
Lincolnshire Police
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Lincolnshire Police is the territorial police force covering the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire in the East Midlands of England. Despite the name, the area does not include North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire. In terms of area the force is one of the largest in the United Kingdom covering 2,284 square miles. The population of the covered by the force is 731,500. As of 2010 the force currently employs over 2,500 people, as at May 2016, there were 1,100 police officers,200 Special Constables and 149 PCSOs. Lincolnshire Constabulary was formed in 1856 under the County and Borough Police Act 1856, several other borough police forces used to exist in the county, but these were eventually combined with the Lincolnshire force. Under the Police Act 1946, Boston Borough Police and Grantham Borough Police were merged, while Lincoln City Police, Lincolnshire lost part of its area to the new Humberside Police in 1974. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 918 officers, proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006 would have seen the force merge with the other four East Midlands forces to form a strategic police force for the entire region. These proposals were ended by John Reid in June 2006, the police authority received £287,600 from the Home Office for costs of preparing the ill-fated merger. In 2008 the Lincolnshire Police Authority experienced a funding crisis, the authority decided to reduce the shortfall by making a 79% increase in its precept. The government then announced its intention to cap this demand, resulting in a net 26% increase, in 2015 the constabulary hit controversy when an officer threatened to confiscate four-year-old girls bike on way to school because she was cycling on pavement. The force was forced to apologise. The Chief Constable is Bill Skelly, Lincolnshire Police has an establishment of about 1,100 police officers. The force has just had major changes to its organisation, divisions have gone and front line officers are organised into Neighbourhood Policing Teams, previously there were 3 divisions with Lincoln, Skegness, and Grantham hosting the divisional headquarters of each. The county is now divided into four districts for the purposes of policing and these are Lincoln & West Lindsey, North & South Kesteven, Coast & Wolds, Boston & South Holland. These areas effectively pair 2 district/borough council areas to one policing district, the force currently has round the clock armed response vehicles manned by Roads Policing Officers. Front line officers in Lincolnshire also carry Taser electronic incapacitating devices and these use electricity to cause neuromuscular incapacitation to render subjects incapable of free bodily movement for a short period of time whilst the device is operating. Taser is carried in addition to PAVA incapacitant spray, Officers previously used CS spray, however this was removed from service due to it being flammable
15.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
16.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
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East Midlands Ambulance Service
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In 2011 EMAS received over 776,000 emergency 999 calls. EMAS have a total of 67 ambulance stations, although four are vacant, as of December 2014 EMAS have 522 ambulance vehicles, more than half of which are more than five years old. In 2013 EMAS took on 140 new emergency care assistants, in 2014 EMAS announced they were bringing back the ambulance technician role. In 2010−11 EMAS missed key performance targets after a spell brought snow. By June 2015 EMAS had failed to meet their category 1 response times for the successive year. EMAS previously provided patient transport services until contracts worth £20 million per year were taken over in 2012 by two private sector companies, in 2012−13 EMAS had a budget of £148 million. The Trust spent £4.3 million on voluntary and private services in 2013−14 for support in busy periods. In 2015 the service also faced a drop in funding of around £6 million a year, in October 2014 the Trust decided to spend £88,000 on upgrading its computer equipment. Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom Official website
18.
East Midlands (European Parliament constituency)
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East Midlands is an English constituency of the European Parliament in the United Kingdom. Established in 1999 with six members to replace single-member districts, since 2009 it has returned five MEPs, the constituency was organized as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. Notes,1 Roger Helmer announced on 12 October 2011 his intention to stand down from the European Parliament. After uncertainty whether his place would be taken by the person on the Conservative Partys list for the East Midlands region, he defected to UKIP. This leaves five MEPs to do the work of six and the electorate have been short-changed, the parliament has no power to remove Mr Kilroy-Silk, who is understood to have attended the minimum number of plenary sessions required to be eligible for his parliamentary allowances. Kilroy-Silk refused to comment on it, the European Parliament does not have any power to expel a member, and Borrell took no action. Elected candidates are shown in bold, brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won
19.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
20.
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
21.
Peterborough
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Peterborough is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 183,631 in 2011. Historically part of Northamptonshire, it is 75 miles north of London, on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea 30 miles to the north-east, the railway station is an important stop on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh. The local topography is flat and in some places lies below sea level, human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the current city centre, also with evidence of Roman occupation. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshamstede, the population grew rapidly following the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, and Peterborough became an industrial centre, particularly noted for its brick manufacture. Following the Second World War, growth was limited until designation as a New Town in the 1960s, housing and population are expanding and a £1 billion regeneration of the city centre and immediately surrounding area is underway. In common with much of the United Kingdom, industrial employment has fallen, with a significant proportion of new jobs in financial services and distribution. The contrasting form Gildenburgh is also found in the 12th century history of the abbey, present-day Peterborough is the latest in a series of settlements which have at one time or other benefited from its site where the Nene leaves large areas of permanently drained land for the fens. Remains of Bronze Age settlement and what is thought to be religious activity can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the city centre. The Romans established a garrison town at Durobrivae on Ermine Street, five miles to the west in Water Newton. Durobrivaes earliest appearance among surviving records is in the Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century. There was also a large 1st century Roman fort at Longthorpe, designed to house half a legion, or about 3,000 soldiers, it may have been established as early as around AD 44–48. Peterborough was an important area of production in the Roman period, providing Nene Valley Ware that was traded as far away as Cornwall. His brother Wulfhere murdered his own sons, similarly converted and then finished the monastery by way of atonement, Hereward, the outlaw, wake or exile, set off with supporters from his exile in Flanders and rampaged through the town in 1069 or 1070. The abbey church was rebuilt and greatly enlarged in the 12th century, the Peterborough Chronicle, a version of the Anglo-Saxon one, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman conquest, written here by monks in the 12th century. This is the only prose history in English between the conquest and the later 14th century. The burgesses received their first charter from Abbot Robert – probably Robert of Sutton, the abbey church became one of Henry VIIIs retained, more secular, cathedrals in 1541, having been assessed at the Dissolution as having revenue at £1,972.7. ¾ per annum. When civil war broke out, Peterborough was divided between supporters of King Charles I and supporters of the Long Parliament, the Royalist forces were defeated within a few weeks and retreated to Burghley House, where they were captured and sent to Cambridge. Housing and sanitary improvements were effected under the provisions of an Act of Parliament passed in 1790, among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the Soke of Peterborough
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Spalding, Lincolnshire
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Spalding is a market town with a population of 28,722 at the 2011 census, on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Little London is a hamlet south of Spalding on the B1172, whilst Pinchbeck. The town was known for its annual Spalding Flower Parade, dating from 1959. The parade celebrated the regions vast tulip production and the links between the Fens and the landscape and people of South Holland. At one time, it attracted crowds up more than 100,000 and that year, two local councils announced they would no longer fund the parade, and the 2013 parade was the last. Since 2002 the town has held an annual Pumpkin Festival, not linked to Halloween, at Wygate Park salt making seems to have come to an end by the mid-3rd century AD, climatic change and flooding may have made such activities difficult, causing the practice to die out. The settlements name is derived from an Anglian tribe, the Spaldingas, in John Bartholomews Gazetteer of the British Isles, Spalding was described as a, market town and par. Lincolnshire, on River Welland,14 m, SW. of Boston,12,070 ac. pop. Spalding is an important railway centre, while the river has been navigable to the town for vessels of from 50 to 70 tons. It is situated in an agricultural district, and has a large trade, by river and by rail, in corn, wool, coal. It has also flour, bone, and saw mills, breweries, there are remains of a priory of 1501, a fine old church, a grammar school, a corn exchange, and a spacious market place. Land had been reclaimed from the wetlands in the area since mediaeval times, the Coronation Channel, opened in 1953, diverted the excess waters around Spalding and ended the flooding. The area around the banks has been developed for residential and business use, although this area has become heavily built up, there is much recreational use of the river and fishing is still popular. In July 2005 a Spalding Water Taxi service was launched, running from Easter to late October and its route is from just off Spaldings High Street, upstream along the river, turning into the Coronation Channel, and then to Springfields Outlet Shopping & Festival Gardens, and back. It is mainly used as a recreational tourist attraction, around the north-west of Spalding is a large waterway called Vernatts Drain, named after one of the Adventurers who drained the Fens in the 17th century. Philibert Vernatti was made a baronet on 7 June 1643, a South Holland council nature reserve is situated on part of the old Boston railway line at Vernatts Drain. The Drain runs from the station at Pode Hole to Surfleet Seas End. Fulney Lock is the point where the Welland is no longer tidal, Spalding falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board
23.
Crowland Abbey
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Crowland Abbey is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire. It is a Grade I listed building, a monk named Guthlac came to what was then an island in the Fens to live the life of a hermit, and he dwelt at Croyland between 699 and 714. Following in Guthlac’s footsteps, a community came into being here in the 8th century. Croyland Abbey was dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin, Saint Bartholomew, during the third quarter of the 10th century, Crowland came into the possession of the nobleman Turketul, a relative of Osketel, Archbishop of York. Turketul, a cleric, became abbot there and endowed the abbey with many estates and it is thought that, about this time, Crowland adopted the Benedictine rule. In the 11th century, Hereward the Wake was a tenant of the abbey, despite these representations, the abbey was dissolved in 1539. The town was captured after a siege by Parliamentarian forces in 1643. The nave roof fell in 1720, the south wall was taken down in 1744. The north aisle of the nave was refurbished and remains in use as the parish church, Crowland is well known to historians as the probable home of the Croyland Chronicle of Pseudo-Ingulf, begun by one of its monks and continued by several other hands. The church contains a skull which is identified as the skull of the 9th century Abbot Theodore, the relic used to be on public view until it was stolen from its display case in 1982. The skull was returned anonymously in 1999, john Clare wrote a sonnet entitled Crowland Abbey, which was first published in The Literary Souvenir for 1828 and reprinted in his last book, The Rural Muse in 1835. The abbey has a two manual pipe organ. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register, Crowland Abbey was the first church in England - and among the first in the world - to have a tuned peal or ring of bells. The chimes of the present bells were the first to be broadcast on radio by the BBC on 1 November 1925. At 90 feet, the pull or ropes are the longest in England, waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria Saint Ælfthryth of Crowland The churchyard contains the war grave of an airman of the Second World War
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Trinity Bridge, Crowland
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Trinity Bridge is a unique three-way stone arch bridge that stands at the heart of Crowland, Lincolnshire, England. While it once spanned the confluence of the River Welland and a tributary, the current bridge dates to the 14th century and replaced previous wooden bridges. The earliest known mention of the bridge is by King Æthelbald of Mercia in 716, in 943 it was mentioned in a charter of Eadred. The bridge is now a monument and Grade I listed. The bridge is built from Barnack stone, which was quarried about 16 km to the west of Crowland. This bridge has three stairways that converge at the top, originally it spanned the River Welland and a tributary that flowed through the town, although the rivers have been re-routed and no longer flow anywhere near the bridge. The bridge was an unusual and economical solution to the crossing of two watercourses at their confluence, reducing the need for three bridges to a single structure with three abutments. Dry Bridge in Zrenjanin, Serbia, is another example of a no longer crossing water. Tourism article on Crowland Historic England, report on the repair and stabilisation of Trinity Bridge Trinity Bridge at Structurae
25.
Guthlac of Crowland
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Saint Guthlac of Crowland was a Christian saint from Lincolnshire in England. He is particularly venerated in the Fens of eastern England, Guthlac was the son of Penwalh or Penwald, a noble of the English kingdom of Mercia, and his wife Tette. His sister is also venerated as Saint Pega, as a young man, he fought in the army of Æthelred of Mercia and subsequently became a monk at Repton Monastery in Derbyshire at age twenty-four, under the abbess. Two years later he sought to live the life of a hermit, Guthlac built a small oratory and cells in the side of a plundered barrow on the island, and he lived there the rest of his life until his death on 11 April in AD714. Felix, writing within living memory of Guthlac, described his life as follows, Guthlac suffered from ague. His pious and holy ascetic life became the talk of the land and he gave sanctuary to Æthelbald, future king of Mercia, who was fleeing from his cousin Ceolred. Guthlac predicted that Æthelbald would become king, and Æthelbald promised to him an abbey if his prophecy became true. Æthelbald did become king and, even though Guthlac had died two years previously, kept his word and started construction of Crowland Abbey on St Bartholomews Day 716 AD, Guthlacs feast day is celebrated on 11 April. At the moment of death a sweet nectar-like odour emanated from his mouth, Guthlac had requested a lead coffin and linen winding sheet from Ecgburh, Abbess of Repton Abbey, so that his funeral rites could be performed by his sister Pega. Arriving the day after his death, she found the island of Crowland filled with the scent of ambrosia and she buried the body on the mound after three days of prayer. A year later Pega had a calling to move the tomb and relics to a nearby chapel, Guthlacs body was discovered incorrupt. Subsequently Guthlac appeared in a vision to Æthelbald, prophesying he would be future King of Mercia. The cult of Guthlac continued amongst a community at Crowland. Because of a series of fires at the abbey, few survive from prior to the 12th century. It is known that in 1136 the remains of Guthlac were moved once more, a short Old English sermon and a longer prose translation into Old English are both based on Felixs Vita. There are also two poems in Old English known as Guthlac A and Guthlac B, part of the tenth century Exeter Book, the relationship of Guthlac A to Felixs Vita is debated, but Guthlac B is based on Felixs account of the saints death. At a time when it was being challenged by the crown, the abbey relied significantly on the cult of Guthlac and that is reflected in a shift in the emphasis from the earlier accounts of Felix and others. Formed in 1987, the St. Guthlac Fellowship is a group of churches which share a dedication to St Guthlac, Old English prose translation/adaptation of the Life of St Guthlac by Felix, Gonser, P. Das angelsächsische Prosa-Leben des heiligen Guthlac
26.
Mary, mother of Jesus
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Mary, also known by various titles, styles and honorifics, was a 1st-century Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin, the miraculous birth took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony. She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the Gospel of Luke begins its account of Marys life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to canonical gospel accounts, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to the Catholic and Orthodox teaching, at the end of her life her body was assumed directly into Heaven. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity, and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion and she is claimed to have miraculously appeared to believers many times over the centuries. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, there is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her status as the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, many Protestants minimize Marys role within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references. Mary also has a position in Islam, where one of the longer chapters of the Quran is devoted to her. Marys name in the manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her original Aramaic name ܡܪܝܡ. The English name Mary comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a form of Μαριάμ. Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament, in Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husbands involvement. The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, Aeiparthenos as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions. For example, the title Our Lady of Sorrows has inspired such masterpieces as Michelangelos Pietà, the title Theotokos was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. However, this phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication commonly attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God, some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis. For instance, the title Queen Mother has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, the scriptural basis for the term Queen can be seen in Luke 1,32 and the Isaiah 9,6. Queen Mother can be found in 1 Kings 2, 19-20 and Jeremiah 13, other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals or occasions for calling on Mary
27.
Bartholomew the Apostle
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Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church, his martyrdom is commemorated on the first day of the Coptic Calendar, which currently falls on September 11. His feast is June 11 in Eastern Christianity and August 24 in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, Anglican Communion, Bartholomew comes from the Aramaic meaning son of Talmai or son of the furrows. Nathanael is mentioned only in the Gospel according to John, giuseppe Simone Assemani specifically remarks, the Chaldeans confound Bartholomew with Nathaniel. Some Biblical scholars reject this identification, however, Eusebius of Caesareas Ecclesiastical History states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, popular traditions and legends say that Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India, then went to Greater Armenia. Two ancient testimonies exist about the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India and these are of Eusebius of Caesarea and of Saint Jerome. Both of these refer to this tradition while speaking of the visit of Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century. Along with his fellow apostle Jude Thaddeus, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century, thus, both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He is said to have been martyred in Albanopolis in Armenia, according to one account, he was beheaded, but a more popular tradition holds that he was flayed alive and crucified, head downward. He is said to have converted Polymius, the king of Armenia, astyages, Polymius brother, consequently ordered Bartholomews execution. The 13th century Saint Bartholomew Monastery was a prominent Armenian monastery constructed at the site of the martyrdom of Apostle Bartholomew in the Vaspurakan Province of Greater Armenia. The 6th-century writer in Constantinople, Theodorus Lector, averred that in about 507 Emperor Anastasius gave the body of Bartholomew to the city of Dura-Europos, which he had recently re-founded. A small part of the relics was given in 983 by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II to Rome where it is conserved at the basilica of San Bartolomeo allIsola, in time, the church there inherited an old pagan medical centre. This association with medicine in course of time caused Bartholomews name to become associated with medicine, some of Bartholomews alleged skull was transferred to the Frankfurt Cathedral, while an arm was venerated in Canterbury Cathedral. Of the many miracles performed by Bartholomew before and after his death, the people of Lipari celebrated his feast day annually. The tradition of the people was to take the silver and gold statue from inside the Cathedral of St Bartholomew. On one occasion, when taking the statue down the hill towards the town, when the men carrying the statue regained their strength, they lifted it a second time
28.
Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth
29.
Croyland Chronicle
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The Croyland Chronicle is an important primary source for English medieval history, in particular the late fifteenth century. It was written at the Benedictine Abbey of Croyland, in Lincolnshire, England, on and off from 655 to 1486 and this author is now referred to as Pseudo-Ingulf. Some historians believe that author was John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, others conclude the work was written by a monk of Crowland who has edited a secular source. Over the years, there has been confusion between the second and third continuators, and the fourth continuator claims not to know the identity of the third. This date ties in with the survival of a copy of Titulus Regius in the text, ingulphs Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, With the Continuations by Peter of Blois and Anomymous Writers. 546 pp. London, H. G. Bohn
30.
Henry IV of England
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Henry IV, also known as Henry of Bolingbroke, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1399 to 1413, and asserted the claim of his grandfather, Edward III, to the Kingdom of France. Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, one of Henrys elder sisters, Philippa of Lancaster, married John I of Portugal, and the other, Elizabeth, was the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter. His younger half-sister Catherine, the daughter of his fathers second wife and he also had four half-siblings by Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters governess, then his fathers longstanding mistress, and later his third wife. These four children were given the surname Beaufort after a castle their father held in Champagne, Henrys relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In youth he seems to have close to all of them. His brother-in-law Ralph Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherines first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where King Richard II is said to have died, Henrys half-sister Joan Beaufort through his fathers relationship with Katherine Swynford was the grandmother of Edward IV and Richard III. Joan had married Ralph Neville, the 1st Earl of Westmorland, when their daughter Cecily married Richard Plantagenet, the 3rd Duke of York, and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, Joan became the grandmother of two York kings of England. Henry experienced a rather more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father had, first cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together to the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford, Henry spent the full year of 1390 supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius by Teutonic Knights with his 300 fellow knights. During this campaign he bought 300 captured Lithuanian princes and then took them back to England. Henrys second expedition to Lithuania in 1392 illustrates the benefits to the Order of these guest crusaders. His small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, despite the efforts of Henry and his English crusaders, two years of attacks on Vilnius proved fruitless. In 1392–93 Henry undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he made offerings at the Holy Sepulchre, later he vowed to lead a crusade to free Jerusalem from the infidel, but he died before this could be accomplished. The relationship between Henry Bolingbroke and the king met with a second crisis, in 1398, a remark by Bolingbroke regarding Richard IIs rule was interpreted as treason by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbrays home in Coventry, yet before the duel could take place, Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray himself was exiled for life, John of Gaunt died in 1399
31.
Thorney, Cambridgeshire
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Thorney is a village about 8 miles east of Peterborough in the City of Peterborough unitary authority, England, on the A47. In 2014 it was transferred to the Diocese of Peterborough, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the estate became crown property and it was granted to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1550. At this time only a few hundred acres of the land was cultivatable, in the 1630s Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford spent a reputed £100,000 draining the fens, bringing almost all of the estate and parish of nearly 18,000 acres into agricultural use. The Walloons had expertise in fenland drainage, the Russell familys rents from the Thorney estate increased from £300 in 1629 to £10,000 by the early 19th century. The family, whose seat was at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, occasionally resided at the manor house in Thorney village. The estate was sold to the tenants in 1910, much of the village was built at the command of the Dukes of Bedford, who wished to have a healthy place in which their estate workers could live. In the mid 19th century many buildings were added to the designs of the architect S. S. Teulon and this explains the uniformity of the housing in the original centre of Thorney. The 7th Duke of Bedfords model agricultural village included a water supply. This neo-Jacobean Tankyard building, now known as Bedford Hall, includes a 96 ft high tower, erected in 1855. The building houses Thorney Heritage Museum, part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership, the windmill on the outskirts dates from 1787 and contains six floors, it originally had six sails. During the war four German prisoners of war used it as a base during the day working the land. The village had a station on the old Peterborough to Wisbech line. The station and the line were closed in the early 1960s, little evidence to suggest a rail link now remains, apart from level crossing gates at the side of Station Road, these gates are apparently not the original ones, the originals being much larger. The A47 bypass opened in Winter 2005, the opening of the bypass has made the village much quieter. The villages local school is the Duke of Bedford Primary School which is located next to Wisbech Road, there is also a specialist school at Park House for children with special educational needs. The village has a magazine called the Thorney Post, which is printed three times a year, the magazine has its own website which carries news and an events section for the village. In 2010, planning permission was given for two turbines on land at French Farm, near French Drove in Thorney parish. In 2011 REG WindPower announced plans to install a further four wind turbines at the French Farm site, as of 2013, other windfarms are proposed at Gores Farm, Willow Hall, Nuts Grove and Wryde Croft
32.
Henry III of England
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Henry III, also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assumed the throne when he was nine in the middle of the First Barons War. Cardinal Guala declared the war against the barons to be a religious crusade and Henrys forces, led by William Marshal, defeated the rebels at the battles of Lincoln. Henry promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, which limited royal power and his early rule was dominated first by Hubert de Burgh and then Peter des Roches, who re-established royal authority after the war. In 1230 the King attempted to reconquer the provinces of France that had belonged to his father. A revolt led by William Marshals son, Richard, broke out in 1232, following the revolt, Henry ruled England personally, rather than governing through senior ministers. He travelled less than previous monarchs, investing heavily in a handful of his palaces and castles. He married Eleanor of Provence, with whom he had five children, in a fresh attempt to reclaim his familys lands in France, he invaded Poitou in 1242, leading to the disastrous Battle of Taillebourg. After this, Henry relied on diplomacy, cultivating an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Henry supported his brother Richard in his bid to become King of the Romans in 1256 and he planned to go on crusade to the Levant, but was prevented from doing so by rebellions in Gascony. The baronial regime collapsed but Henry was unable to reform a stable government, in 1263 one of the more radical barons, Simon de Montfort, seized power, resulting in the Second Barons War. Henry persuaded Louis to support his cause and mobilised an army, the Battle of Lewes occurred in 1264, where Henry was defeated and taken prisoner. Henrys eldest son, Edward, escaped captivity to defeat de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham the following year. Henry initially enacted a harsh revenge on the rebels, but was persuaded by the Church to mollify his policies through the Dictum of Kenilworth. Reconstruction was slow and Henry had to acquiesce to various measures, including suppression of the Jews, to maintain baronial. Henry died in 1272, leaving Edward as his successor and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt in the second half of his reign, and was moved to his current tomb in 1290. Some miracles were declared after his death but he was not canonised, Henry was born in Winchester Castle on 1 October 1207. He was the eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, little is known of Henrys early life
33.
Edward VI of England
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Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was Englands first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority, the Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland. Edwards reign was marked by problems and social unrest that, in 1549, erupted into riot. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland as well as Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace, the transformation of the Church into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred under Edward, who took great interest in religious matters. Although his father, Henry VIII, had severed the link between the Church of England and Rome, Henry VIII had never permitted the renunciation of Catholic doctrine or ceremony. The architect of these reforms was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in February 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, he and his Council drew up a Devise for the Succession, Edward named his first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. This decision was disputed following Edwards death, and Jane was deposed by Mary nine days after becoming queen, during her reign, Mary reversed Edwards Protestant reforms, which nonetheless became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559. Edward was born on 12 October 1537 in his mothers room inside Hampton Court Palace and he was the son of King Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour. Throughout the realm, the people greeted the birth of a male heir, te Deums were sung in churches, bonfires lit, and their was shott at the Tower that night above two thousand gonnes. The Queen, however, fell ill on 23 October from presumed postnatal complications, Henry VIII wrote to Francis I of France that Divine Providence. Hath mingled my joy with bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness, Edward was a healthy baby who suckled strongly from the outset. His father was delighted with him, in May 1538, Henry was observed dallying with him in his arms, and so holding him in a window to the sight and great comfort of the people. That September, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Audley, reported Edwards rapid growth and vigour, the tradition that Edward VI was a sickly boy has been challenged by more recent historians. At the age of four, he fell ill with a quartan fever. Edward was initially placed in the care of Margaret Bryan, lady mistress of the princes household and she was succeeded by Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy. Until the age of six, Edward was brought up, as he put it later in his Chronicle, the formal royal household established around Edward was, at first, under Sir William Sidney, and later Sir Richard Page, stepfather of Edward Seymours wife, Anne Stanhope
34.
Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln
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Edward Fiennes de Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, KG was an English nobleman and Lord High Admiral. She was the sister of Thomas Poynings, 1st Baron Poynings, Edward Poynings, after the death of the 8th Baron Clinton in 1517, Jane Poynings married, as his second wife, Sir Robert Wingfield. Clinton succeeded his father in 1517 as 9th Baron Clinton and he joined the retinue of King Henry VIII at Boulogne and Calais in 1532. He attended the Parliament of 1536 and later served in the Royal Navy against French and he was knighted in Edinburgh by Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford for his role in the capture of that city in 1544. He also took part in the Siege of Boulogne in September 1544, under John Dudley, Viscount Lisle he saw action against the French at the Battle of Spearhead in 1545 and was sent as one of the peace commissioners to France the following year. He commanded the English fleet during the invasion of Scotland by Edward Seymour, appointed Governor of Boulogne in 1547, he successfully defended the city against a French siege from 1549 to 1550. He was a Privy Counsellor from 1550 to 1553, and briefly served as an envoy to France in 1551, after appointment as Lord-Lieutenant of Lincolnshire in 1552, Clinton later took part in the defeat of Wyatts Rebellion in Kent in 1554. Following his appointment as Lord General of the expedition of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, upon his return to England, Clinton took command of the English fleet and raided the French coast and in 1558 burnt the town of Le Conquet and the surrounding area. He was created Earl of Lincoln in 1572, and served as ambassador to France and he was a devout Catholic and was declared a martyr after his death. Lady Katherine Clinton, married William Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh of Gainsborough, son of Thomas Burgh and they had issue which included Thomas Burgh, 3rd Baron Burgh. Lady Margaret Clinton, married Charles Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby of Parham, secondly to Ursula Stourton, daughter of William Stourton, 7th Baron Stourton by whom he produced six children Henry Clinton, 2nd Earl of Lincoln, eldest son and heir. William Clinton Thomas Clinton, married Mary Tyrell and she was born at Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire and died at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. She married Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos, Elizabeth Clinton Anne Clinton Thirdly on 1 October 1552 to Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare. He died in London on 16 January 1585, Charles William Chadwick Oman, A History in the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, New York,1937 Michael Sanderson, Sea Battles, London,1975 Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage, edited by H. A, doubleday, Geoffrey H. White and Lord Howard de Walden. Robertson, Mary L. Wingfield, Sir Robert, London, Smith, Elder & Co. Edward CLINTON FIENNES
35.
English Civil War
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The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists over, principally, the manner of Englands government. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, the monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The term English Civil War appears most often in the singular form, the war in all these countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Unlike other civil wars in England, which focused on who should rule, this war was more concerned with the manner in which the kingdoms of England, Scotland, the two sides had their geographical strongholds, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. The strongholds of the royalty included the countryside, the shires, on the other hand, all the cathedral cities sided with Parliament. All the industrial centers, the ports, and the advanced regions of southern and eastern England typically were parliamentary strongholds. Lacey Baldwin Smith says, the words populist, rich, at times there would be two groups of three lines allowing one group to reload while the other group arranged themselves and fired. Mixed in among the musketeers were pikemen carrying pikes that were between 12 feet and 18 feet long, whose purpose was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. The Royalist cavaliers skill and speed on horseback led to early victories. While the Parliamentarian cavalry were slower than the cavaliers, they were better disciplined. The Royalists had a tendency to chase down individual targets after the initial charge leaving their forces scattered and tired, Cromwells cavalry, on the other hand, trained to operate as a single unit, which led to many decisive victories. The English Civil War broke out fewer than forty years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, in spite of this, James personal extravagance meant he was perennially short of money and had to resort to extra-Parliamentary sources of income. Charles hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a new single kingdom, many English Parliamentarians had suspicions regarding such a move because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy. As Charles shared his fathers position on the power of the crown, at the time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, Parliament functioned as an advisory committee and was summoned only if. Once summoned, a continued existence was at the kings pleasure. Yet in spite of this role, Parliament had, over the preceding centuries. Without question, for a monarch, Parliaments most indispensable power was its ability to tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crowns disposal
36.
Cavalier
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It was later adopted by the Royalists themselves. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles Is cavalry, is considered to be an archetypal Cavalier. Cavalier derives from the same Latin root as the French word chevalier, Cavalier is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil War. Charles, in the Answer to the Petition 13 June 1642 speaks of Cavaliers as a word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour, Cavalier was not understood at the time as primarily a term describing a style of dress, but a whole political and social attitude. Most Parliamentarian generals wore their hair at much the length as their Royalist counterparts. The best patrons in the nobility of Charles Is court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, probably the most famous image identified as of a cavalier, Frans Hals Laughing Cavalier, shows a gentleman from the strongly Calvinist Dutch town of Haarlem, and is dated 1624. These derogatory terms also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side – capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large. Although they did not share the same outlook on how to worship God as the English Independents of the New Model Army, if I forget Thee, do not forget me. However, the word was coined by the Roundheads as a propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man. It is this image which has survived and many Royalists, for example Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, fitted this description to a tee. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he so much excelled and this sense has developed into the modern English use of cavalier to describe a recklessly nonchalant attitude, although still with a suggestion of stylishness. Likewise during Exclusion Bill crisis the term Roundhead was replaced with Whig, an example of the Cavalier style can be seen in the painting Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles by Anthony van Dyck. The mascot of Cavalier has been commonly used in the sports world. Most prominently it has been that of the professional Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA since 1970 and it has also been adopted by smaller organizations such as Johnson County Community College, Kankakee Community College, St. Gregorys University, and the University of Virginias College at Wise. Cavaliers have been represented as a class and subclass of role-playing character since 1983 in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Cavalier Generals, King Charles I and His Commanders in the English Civil War, 1642–46. Going to the Wars, The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Goring, George Goring, Lord. Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of, the history of the rebellion and civil wars in England. The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution 1688, the Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660
37.
Roundhead
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Roundhead was the name given to the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against Charles I of England and his supporters, the Cavaliers or Royalists, who claimed rule by absolute monarchy, the goal of the Roundhead party was to give the Parliament supreme control over executive administration. Most Roundheads sought constitutional monarchy in place of the absolutist monarchy sought by Charles I, englands many Puritans and Presbyterians were almost invariably Roundhead supporters, as were many smaller religious groups such as the Independents. However many Roundheads were Church of England, as were many Cavaliers, Roundhead political factions included the proto-anarchist Diggers, the diverse group known as the Levellers and the apocalyptic Christian movement of the Fifth Monarchists. Some Puritans, but by no means all, wore their hair closely cropped round the head or flat, during the war and for a time afterwards, Roundhead was a term of derision—in the New Model Army it was a punishable offence to call a fellow soldier a Roundhead. This contrasted with the term Cavalier to describe supporters of the Royalist cause, Roundheads appears to have been first used as a term of derision toward the end of 1641, when the debates in Parliament in the Clergy Act 1640 were causing riots at Westminster. The demonstrators included London apprentices and Roundhead was a term of derision for them because the regulations to which they had agreed included a provision for closely cropped hair. However, Richard Baxter ascribes the origin of the term to a made by Queen Henrietta Maria of France at the trial of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. Referring to John Pym, she asked who the man was. The principal advisor to Charles II, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, remarked on the matter and they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called Cavaliers, and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of Roundheads. By the end of this period some Independent Puritans were again using the term Roundhead to refer to the Presbyterian Puritans. Likewise during the Exclusion Bill crisis, the term Cavalier was replaced with Tory, an Irish term introduced by their opponents, the History of England from the Accession of James II. Historical Memorials Relating to the Independents Or Congregationalists, From Their Rise to the Restoration of the Monarchy, religious Thought in England, from the Reformation to the End of Last Century, A Contribution to the History of Theology. Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, The Reason Behind Rhyme, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Anonymous
38.
Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Cromwell was born into the gentry, albeit to a family descended from the sister of King Henry VIIIs minister Thomas Cromwell. Little is known of the first 40 years of his life as only four of his letters survive alongside a summary of a speech he delivered in 1628. He became an Independent Puritan after undergoing a conversion in the 1630s. He was a religious man, a self-styled Puritan Moses. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short and he entered the English Civil War on the side of the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles Is death warrant in 1649 and he was selected to take command of the English campaign in Ireland in 1649–1650. Cromwells forces defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country, during this period, a series of Penal Laws were passed against Roman Catholics, and a substantial amount of their land was confiscated. Cromwell also led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651, as a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He died from natural causes in 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Royalists returned to power in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell, sponsored by military historian Richard Holmes was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time. However, his measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal, Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales, Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he use Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell. They had ten children, but Oliver, the child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and great uncle of Henry VIII, Cromwells paternal grandfather Sir Henry Williams was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwells father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class, as a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes, Cromwell himself in 1654 said, I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. He was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St Johns Church and he went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos
39.
River Welland
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The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some 65 miles long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash, the river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. It is a waterway across the part of the Fens called South Holland. There are two channels between widely spaced embankments with the intention that flood waters would have space in which to spread while the tide in the estuary prevented free egress. The canal section was known as the Stamford Canal, and was the longest canal locks in Britain when it was built. Navigation on the river, including the Stamford Canal, had ceased by 1863. The traditional head of navigation was Wharf Road in Stamford, Wildlife in the river varies along its length, the faster headwaters being a habitat for trout and the slower lower reaches for perch. The estuary conditions and flat landscapes beyond Fosdyke favour wading birds, the River Welland, with its tributaries, form a river system with a catchment area of 609 square miles. Within this area,257 miles of waterway are designated as main river, within the catchment area,179 square miles are below sea level, and would be flooded without such defences. The basin runs in a broadly south-west to north-east direction, with an extension to the north around the West Glen, the underlying geology consists of Lias clays at the western end of the catchment, with Lincolnshire limestone in the centre, including the valleys of the Glen. The eastern third is mostly alluvial soils, and it is this part that relies on pumping to prevent flooding. For much of its length the Welland forms the county boundary between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire or Rutland, and lower down between Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, the Welland rises in the Hothorpe Hills, close to the 540-foot contour, near Welland Rise, Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire. Within 2 miles, the stream forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. It flows westwards, before looping round, passing through the grounds of Hothorpe Hall in Theddingworth, now a conference centre, one of the driveways to Thorpe Lubenham Hall is carried over the river by an early nineteenth century ashlar bridge which is a Grade II listed structure. To the east of Lubenham, the river passes Old Lubenham Hall, part of an H-plan house built in the sixteenth century. King Charles I is believed to have stayed there before the Battle of Naseby, three arms of a square moat surround the house, and the site is a scheduled ancient monument. The county border leaves the river on the west side of Market Harborough, as the town is wholly in Leicestershire, the River Jordan joins the Welland in the centre of Market Harborough, flowing northwards to the railway station. Langton Brook and Stonton Brook join from the west near Welham, the county border meanders from side to side across relatively straight sections of the river, suggesting that the channel has been engineered
40.
Meltwater
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Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater can be produced during volcanic eruptions, in a way in which the more dangerous lahars form. When meltwater pools on the rather than flowing, it forms melt ponds. As the weather gets colder meltwater will often re-freeze, Meltwater can collect or melt under the ices surface. These pools of water, known as subglacial lakes can form due to geothermal heat, Meltwater provides drinking water for a large proportion of the worlds population, as well as providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric plants. Some cities around the world have large lakes that collect snow melt to supplement water supply, cities that source water from meltwater include Melbourne, Canberra, Los Angeles, Las Vegas amongst others. Glacial meltwater comes from glaciers that have receded over time, often, there will be rivers flowing through glaciers into lakes. These brilliantly blue lakes get their color from rock flour, sediment that has been transported through the rivers to the lakes and this sediment comes from rocks grinding together underneath the glacier. The fine powder is suspended in the water and absorbs and scatters varying colors of sunlight. Meltwater also acts as a lubricant in the sliding of glaciers. Using GPS measurements to study ice flow has revealed that movement is greatest in summer when the meltwater levels are highest. Meltwater can be an indication of abrupt climate change and it can also destabilize glacial lakes leading to sudden floods, and destabilize snowpack causing avalanches. Dammed glacial meltwater from a lake that is released suddenly can result in the floods. Historically Meltwater pulse 1A was a prominent feature of the last deglaciation, extreme Ice Survey Groundwater Moulin Snowmelt Surface water June 4,2007, BBC, UN warning over global ice loss United Nations Environment Program, Global Outlook for Ice and Snow
41.
Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway
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The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway was a joint railway owned by the Great Northern Railway and its rival, the Great Eastern Railway. It was established in 1879, and the joint company built a line between Spalding and Lincoln to complete a new, primarily freight, route between Cambridge and Doncaster, a distance of about 123 miles. The main purpose was to move Yorkshire coal into East Anglia, the route survives except for the section between March, Cambridgeshire and Spalding, Lincolnshire and the Lincoln by-pass line both of which were closed in the 1980s. The section between Peterborough and Spalding is now regarded as part of the joint line although this is not strictly accurate. The line was amalgamation of existing lines, as well as the construction of some directly as part of the process of opening the joint line. The table below records the opening dates in order from south to north. The first scheme in 1834 would have seen a line built from London to Cambridge and this scheme built the line from London to Cambridge in 1836, but it was not until 1844 that the Eastern Counties Railway proposed to build the line from Cambridge to York. In 1846 a bill was presented but it conflicted with a bill presented to Parliament which called for a line from Peterborough to Bawtry via Boston and Lincoln which got parliamentary consent. In 1847 the Eastern Counties Railway opened a line linking Ely-March, in 1862 the Eastern Counties Railway was merged to become part of the Great Eastern Railway. The Great Northern promoted a bill the following year for the same scheme, after the GER had looked at a link to join the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway north of Doncaster the GN adopted a more conciliatory attitude to the GER. Unfortunately the scheme foundered as the GERs finances were in shape at this time. However, as relations between the GNR and MSLR cooled, Lord Cranborne proposed the building of a joint GER/L&YR line, meanwhile, the GN suggested a total buyout of the GER to amalgamate the two railways. By 1872 the relationship between the GER and GNR had improved and amalgamation looked likely only to be undone on two occasions by the GER directors, in 1878 the GER presented a bill to parliament to build a line from March to Askern to link up with the L&YR. The GNR also presented a bill and this was passed by parliament although the GER was awarded full running powers, the committee consisted of five directors from each company and the GER members were supported by the Company Secretary, a solicitor, an engineer and the General Manager. The direct line from Spalding and Lincoln was opened on 1 August 1882, the junction for this line was Pyewipe Junction near Lincoln. The committee ceased operation in 1909 when the Great Eastern took over management of the end of the line. In 1923 after the grouping the management of the line was again undertaken by a single organization – the London. The most famous services on the line were run by the Great Eastern and linked Liverpool Street Station, marketed as the Cathedrals Express the train used the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint line between March and Doncaster
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crowland". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 514–515.
Blair, David Oswald Hunter (1908). "
