1.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
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.
Civil parish
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In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. It is a parish, in contrast to an ecclesiastical parish. A civil parish can range in size from a town with a population of around 80,000 to a single village with fewer than a hundred inhabitants. In a limited number of cases a parish might include a city where city status has been granted by the Monarch. Reflecting this diverse nature, a parish may be known as a town, village. Approximately 35% of the English population live in a civil parish, as of 31 December 2015 there were 10,449 parishes in England. On 1 April 2014, Queens Park became the first civil parish in Greater London, before 2008 their creation was not permitted within a London borough. The division of land into ancient parishes was linked to the system, parishes. The manor was the unit of local administration and justice in the early rural economy. Later the church replaced the court as the rural administrative centre. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the authorities by the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601. Both before and after this optional social change, local charities are well-documented, the parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of the parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite, by the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due for instance to the progress of Methodism. The legitimacy of the parish came into question and the perceived inefficiency. Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later, the replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in the parish. The church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868, the ancient parishes diverged into two distinct systems of parishes during the 19th century
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.
Swale
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Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England and is bounded by Medway to the west, Canterbury to the east, Ashford to the south and Maidstone to the south west. Its council is based in Sittingbourne, the district is named after the narrow channel called The Swale, a channel that separates the mainland of Kent from the Isle of Sheppey, and which occupies the central part of the district. The Roman Watling Street passed through the area, as witness the straightness of the A2 main road, Swale railway station is at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge. There are four towns in the borough, Sittingbourne and Faversham on the mainland, Swale Borough Council is elected every four years, with currently 47 councillors being elected at each election. After the Conservatives had a majority on the council from 1976 to 1986, no party had overall control from 1986 until the 2002 election when the Conservatives regained control
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.
South East England
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South East England is the most populous of the nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, as with the other regions of England, apart from Greater London, the south east has no elected government. It is the third largest region of England, with an area of 19,096 km², and is also the most populous with a population of over eight. Its proximity to London and connections to several national motorways have led to south east England becoming an economic hub and it is the location of Gatwick Airport, the UKs second-busiest airport, and its coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe. The region is known for its countryside, which includes the North Downs, the River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley. The region has many universities, the University of Oxford is ranked among the best in the world. South east England is host to sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta, Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby. Some of the events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney, the largest city in the region is Brighton & Hove. The dominant influence on the economy is neighbouring London. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 metres, until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region, which also included the counties of Bedfordshire, Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the area as the current government office region. The South East is also used as a synonym for the home counties. The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region, the major conurbations of the region include Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Reading. Settlements closer to London are part of the known as the Greater London Urban Area. The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London. Estimates in 2007 state 87. 2% of people as White British,4. 8% Other White,3. 5% South Asians,1. 5% Mixed Race,1. 6% Black British,0. 7% Chinese,0. 7% Other. The area also has some seats where there is support for other parties, for example, Slough and Oxford for Labour. Buckingham, the seat of Speaker John Bercow, is also in this region, out of 83 parliamentary seats, the Conservatives hold 78
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.
Kent Police
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Kent Police is the territorial police force for Kent in England, including the unitary authority of Medway. The force covers an area of 1,443 square miles with a population of 1,660,588. The Chief Constable is currently Alan Pughsley, who was appointed in 2014, Kent Police were the first force in The United Kingdom to be led by a black Chief Constable, Michael Fuller QPM. Due to the Channel Tunnel, Kent Police is unique among English forces in having a station outside of the country, in Coquelles, France. Kent Police work with other UK and European forces as part of the Cross Channel Intelligence Community, the cross channel traffic occasionally causes Kent Police and the Highways Agency to enforce Operation Stack, controlling the freight flow on that part of the M20 motorway closest to the ports. Kent also has the largest strategic road network of any force in the UK, proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006 saw Kent Police stay as a standalone strategic force for Kent and Medway, it had been suggested that Kent should merge with another police force. On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong Kent County Constabulary was formed under Chief Constable John Henry Hay Ruxton. The first headquarters was at Wrens Cross, Stone Street, Maidstone, in 1860, the initial uniform of a frock coat and a high hat was replaced by a long uniform tunic and shako hat and constables were issued with a rattle and truncheon. In 1885 whistles were introduced and in 1897 the recognisable custodian helmet was introduced, on 1 April 1889, Kent County Constabulary absorbed five of the fourteen police forces that policed the county of Kent. The remaining nine were absorbed on 1 April 1943, Ruxton retired on 14 August 1894 and died on 20 April 1897. In terms of mobilisation and communication, Kent Constabulary purchased 20 bicycles in 1896, telephones were given to village police constables in 1925 and by 1931,29 motorcycles had been introduced, along with one police car. The constabulary employed horses until 1943, when the last was retired, in 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,988 attested constables and an actual strength of 1,766, making it the third largest county force in Great Britain. Kent County Constabulary kept this name until the 1990s, when it changed its name to Kent Police, the Kent Police headquarters are currently located at Sutton Road, Maidstone. Kent Police College is located to the rear of the headquarters site, the headquarters houses the Kent Police Museum. Crime investigation and emergency response will be managed at a level from the Force Command. Specialist functions will remain centrally managed, tasers were introduced to Kent police in 2009 for rank and file constables, although only Response vehicle drivers were issued with them. Each Response vehicle had to be crewed with both crew members carrying Taser due to the safety implications, and to allow proper care. On 6 April 2011 it was announced that the 3 new areas will each be commanded by a Chief Superintendent and Superintendent, each individual town within each area will be commanded by a Chief Inspector
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
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Kent Fire and Rescue Service
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The total coastline covered is 225 km, it has 55 fire stations, and 4 district fire safety offices. The FRS provides emergency cover to a population of nearly 2 million, the area meets the boundaries of the London Fire Brigade to the north of the county, Surrey to the north west and East Sussex to the south west of Kent. The first fire brigade appeared in Kent in 1802 when the Kent Fire Office formed a brigade in Deptford. In the same year, and completely separately from insurance companies, Hythe became the first town in Kent to set up its own fire brigade, by the 20th century, it was quite fashionable for local authorities to have their own fire brigades. Maidstone had seen the formation of its fire brigade in 1901 when the Royal Insurance Company provided a new Shand Mason horse-drawn steam fire engine. This company had taken over the Kent Fire Office in the same year, things often became very competitive between individual town and village brigades, in many instances, each one trying to outdo its neighbour. In 1910, Bromley became the first town in Kent to house motorised fire engines, until 1938, the provision of a fire brigade was a discretionary power, and naturally there were a few local authorities that regarded it as an unnecessary expense. However, due to the threat of war, Parliament enacted the Fire Brigades Act 1938 and made it a duty and so created over 1,600 individual fire authorities across the nation. It was these local brigades and the Auxiliary Fire Service – also formed in 1938 – that valiantly coped with the consequences of the Battle of Britain, in August 1941, local brigades and the AFS were absorbed into one organisation called The National Fire Service. It was in 1941 that the current Headquarters house The Godlands was requisitioned for use by the National Fire Service. World War II brought dark days indeed for Kent fire-fighters, of the 122 Kent names listed,15 were pre-1939,16 were post-1939 and 91 died during World War II. The last death on duty of a Kent fire-fighter was in 1990, the County of Kent and the City and County Borough of Canterbury combined to form Kent Fire Brigade, taking over 79 fire stations from the National Fire Service. Further reorganisation in 1974 saw Canterbury lose its county borough status, in 1998, the structure of local government changed again and Kent combined with the new Medway Towns unitary authority for fire brigade provision. On 1 October 2003, Kent Fire Brigade was renamed Kent Fire and these changes were reflected nationally by the enactment of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which came into effect on 1 October 2004. Each group consists of a number of clusters, which are made up of a number of stations where resources are locally managed. Dymchurch, Eastchurch, Eastry, Hoo, and Paddock Wood, have identified as having a greater need for ambulance cover. The aim of a team is to preserve life until the arrival of either a Rapid Response Vehicle or an Ambulance
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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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South East Coast Ambulance Service
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The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is the NHS Ambulance Services Trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent, Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex. It also covers a part of north-eastern Hampshire around Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, sECAmb was made a NHS Foundation Trust on 1 March 2011 - one of only two FTs in England. It is one of 12 ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, and under the Patients Charter, every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The service came into being on 1 July 2006, with the merger of the former Kent Ambulance Service, Surrey Ambulance Service and Sussex Ambulance Service. Until March 2016, the Chief Executive of the Trust was Paul Sutton, who was previously Chief Executive Officer of Sussex Ambulance Service, and the Trusts Chair was Tony Thorne. On 14 March 2016, the BBC announced that Thorne had resigned, at the request of the health regulator for England, Monitor, Thorne was replaced by Sir Peter Dixon who will act as the trusts interim chair. The Trust responds to 999 calls from the public and urgent calls from health professionals, in Kent and Sussex, in addition, the Trust provides the crews and maintains the three ambulances of the Neonatal Transfer Service for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It serves a population of around 4.5 million, during the financial year the three predecessor Trusts responded to about 460,000 emergency calls. It provided paramedics to GP practices across the southeast to take on home visits for a scheme until March 2017 when the scheme was suspended because of a shortage of paramedics. In January 2015 it was reported that the Trust had told paramedics to leave patients at A&E departments if they had not been admitted within 45 minutes of arrival and this delayed the despatch of ambulances to up to 20,000 patients. It was condemned by NHS England for putting the public at risk because there was no evaluation built into its design and it was put into special measures in September 2016 after the Care Quality Commission rated it inadequate because of bullying, delayed response times and putting patients at risk. South East Coast Ambulance Service is under financial pressure and faces a £7.1 million deficit. Ambulance crews in the area no longer be paid to interrupt meal breaks. Patients with breathing problems, car crash victims, patients with chest pains, critics fear this will put lives at risk and worsen outcomes for some surviving patients. Jon Ashworth blamed government financial pressure on the Health Service, critics complain money is prioritized over patient care. The ambulance region is served by Kent, Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance and they have two helicopters based at Redhill Aerodrome & Marden Hospital they also have a reserve, based somewhere at Redhill too Official Website, https, //www. kssairambulance. org
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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
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Canterbury
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Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, a journey of pilgrims to Beckets shrine served as the frame for Geoffrey Chaucers 14th century classic The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury is a popular tourist destination, consistently one of the cities in the United Kingdom. The city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci, modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and the St Lawrence Ground, home of the Kent County Cricket Club. Canterbury remains, however, a city in terms of geographical size and population. In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint, occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh, which developed into its present name. The Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area. Canterbury was first recorded as the settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci. In the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement, the Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, and public baths. In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres. Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived, in 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelberht to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the centre for his see in Kent. Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, the towns new importance led to its revival, and trades developed in pottery, textiles, and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint, in 672, the Synod of Hertford gave the see of Canterbury authority over the entire English Church. In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids, in 978, Archbishop Dunstan refounded the abbey built by Augustine, and named it St Augustines Abbey. A second wave of Danish attacks began in 991, and in 1011 the cathedral was burnt, remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conquerors invasion in 1066. William immediately ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall, in the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone. After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe and this pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucers 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales
21.
The Swale
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The Swale is a strip of sea separating North Kent from the Isle of Sheppey. The Swale was originally part of a valley facing eastwards. As sea-levels rose, water occupied the whole length of the valley, the Swale forms both a National Nature Reserve and a Special Protection Area. The name Swale is Old English in origin, and is believed to mean swirling, rushing river, the Swale was originally part of a river. The channel now occupied by the Swale comprised a river valley facing eastwards, as sea-levels rose, water occupied the whole length of the valley, dividing todays Isle of Sheppey from the mainland. When the Romans arrived in Britain, the Swale extended much wider than it does today, two ferry services also crossed the Swale, one between Oare and Harty, and the other between Murston and Elmley. The Isle of Harty is no separate but the marshlands now gradually filling the channel delineate it. The channel needs constant dredging to allow use of the busy waterway, the Swale is crossed at its western end by two bridges, the Kingsferry Bridge and the later Sheppey Crossing. Since 1968, it has also been a Site of Special Scientific Interest
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Isle of Sheppey
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The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some 46 miles to the east of London. It has an area of 36 square miles, the island forms part of the local government district of Swale. Todays island was known as the Isles of Sheppey which were Sheppey itself, the Isle of Harty to the south east. Over time the channels between the isles have silted up to make one continuous island, Sheppey, like much of north Kent, is largely formed from London Clay and is a plentiful source of fossils. The Mount near Minster rises to 250 feet above sea level and is the highest point on the island, the rest of Sheppey is low-lying and the southern part of the island is marshy land criss-crossed by inlets and drains. Sheppey is separated from the mainland by a called the Swale. Three ferries have operated between the mainland and the isle, one to the west, called the Kings Ferry, one at Elmley, and another, giving access from Faversham, All had long histories, particularly the last. None operate today, the Harty Ferry ceased operation at the start of the First World War and that at Harty is below the Ferry House Inn, while seeing the one at Elmley requires a walk of about a mile and a half from the RSPB car park. Additionally the South Eastern Railway operated a passenger ferry to Sheerness from Port Victoria railway terminus on the Grain Peninsula for some years. Several ferry services to Southend have also tried but proved short-lived. An attempt to start a small hovercraft service between the Harty Ferry Inn and Oare Creek near Faversham in 1970 by the landlord, Ben Fowler. A number of ferry services have operated from the Isle of Sheppey. A large ferry terminal was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway at Queenborough Pier in 1876 and operated a service to Flushing in the Netherlands. These services ceased during the First World War but it was used for military traffic. The port there was closed and dismantled in the 1930s, a passenger, car and lorry ferry operated to Vlissingen from Sheerness through the 1980s and 1990s, but there has been no ferry service of any kind in recent years. The Kingsferry Bridge was first built in 1860, thus eliminating the need for ferries, over time, there have been four bridges built over the Swale at this point. It had a central span raised between two towers, trains and road traffic were able to use it, as with the next two bridges. 6 November 1906, The South Eastern and Chatham Railway replaced the first bridge with one having a rolling lift design and it was originally worked by hand, but later by electricity
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Thames Estuary
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The Thames Estuary is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, the eastern boundary of the estuary suggested in a Hydrological Survey of 1882-9 is a line drawn from North Foreland, Margate, Kent via the Kentish Knock lighthouse to Harwich in Essex. It is to this line that the typical estuarine sandbanks extend, the estuary downstream of the Tideway has a tidal movement of 4 metres, moving at a speed of 8 miles per hour. The estuary is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain, the traditional Thames sailing barge worked in this area, designed to be suitable for the shallow waters in the smaller ports. More recently one of the largest wind farms in the UK has been developed in the estuary, located 8.5 km north of Herne Bay, the farm contains 30 wind turbines generating a total of 82. 4MW of electricity. The much larger London Array of up to 1GW capacity is also planned and this area has had several proposed sites for the building of a new airport to supplement, or even to replace Heathrow/Gatwick. In the 1960s Maplin Sands was a contender, in 2002 it was to be at Cliffe, the Thames Estuary is the focal part of the 21st-century toponym, the Thames Gateway, designated as one of the principal development areas in Southern England. The appellation Greater Thames Estuary applies to the coast and the lands bordering the estuary itself. These are characterised by the presence of mudflats, low-lying open beaches and salt marshes, namely the North Kent Marshes and the Essex Marshes. There are many smaller estuaries in Essex, including the Rivers Colne, Blackwater and Crouch Small coastal villages depend on an economy of fishing, boat-building, a similar pattern of replacement can be observed with the aquatic plants and invertebrates living in the river. Joseph Conrad lived in Stanford-le-Hope close to the Essex marshes and his The Mirror of the Sea contains a memorable description of the area as seen from the Thames. Accent The form of speech of many of the people of the area, principally the accents of those from Kent, the term is a term for a milder variety of the London Accent. The term London Accent is generally avoided as it can have many meanings
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A2 road (Great Britain)
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The A2 is a major road in southern England, connecting London with the English Channel port of Dover in Kent. This route has always been of importance as a connection between the British capital of London and sea routes to Continental Europe. It was formerly known as the Dover Road, unlike the other single digit A-roads in Great Britain, the A2 does not form a zone boundary. The Zone 1/2 boundary is the River Thames, the route of the current A2 follows a similar route to that of a Romano-British ancient trackway. It was an important route for the Romans linking London with Canterbury and it had river crossings at Rochester over the River Medway, Dartford and Crayford. The Romans paved the road and constructed the first Rochester Bridge across the Medway, access to London was via London Bridge which was first constructed by the Romans in AD50. The road was known as Item a Londinio ad portum Dubris and appeared in the Antonine Itinerary, in Anglo-Saxon times it became part of a longer road known as Wæcelinga Stræt. By the 17th century the road had fallen into disrepair and sections were converted into roads by various Turnpike Acts passed by Parliament. Rochester Bridge was rebuilt in cast iron in 1856, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway completed a railway route from London to Dover in the 1860s. Access to London from the A2 across Thames was improved with the completion of Tower Bridge, Blackwall Tunnel, the road was given the reference A2 within the Great Britain road numbering scheme in the 1920s. The Dartford Southern By-pass, which relieved chronic congestion on the old route through Dartford provided considerable local employment during the Post–World War I recession and it was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1924. It is estimated that the project provided 63,500 days work to unemployed people. The 3-lane stretch of the A2 between Falconwood and Cobham was built in stages from around 1963 until 1973, a section of Ringway 3 (part of the proposed M16 motorway linking to the A2, which later formed part of the M25 motorway opened between 1974 and 1977. The Rochester Way Relief Road, was opened in 1988, the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge opened in 1991. A new flyover for A2 Westbound to M25 Northbound traffic was completed late 2007, in 2008, a section of the A2 beside Gravesend was widened to 3/4 lanes between Pepperhill to Cobham. It was also re-routed away from the houses of Gravesend/Singlewell to make room for the new lanes, the old route of the A2 has been made into a footpath/cyclepath. The new road was opened in 2009, a section of the old road has been turned into Cyclopark, with footpaths, cyclepaths and an equestrian route along the old road. A new Lower Thames Crossing down river from the Dartford Crossing linking to the A2 has been proposed by the Department for Transport in 2009 and its original alignment roughly followed a mix of the ancient Celtic route and the turnpike road to Dover
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Watling Street
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The Romans later paved the route, which then connected the Kentish ports of Dubris, Rutupiae, Lemanis, and Regulbium to their bridge over the Thames at Londinium. The continuation northwest passed Verulamium on its way to Viroconium, Watling Street was the site of Boudicas defeat by the Romans and the southwestern border of the Danelaw. In the early 19th century, the course between London and the sea was paved and became known as the Great Dover Road, today, the route from Dover to London forms part of the A2 road and the route from London to Wroxeter forms much of the A5 road. The original Celtic and Roman name for the road is unknown, the modern name instead derives from the Old English Wæcelinga Stræt, from a time when street referred to any paved road and had no particular association with urban thoroughfares. The Waeclingas were a tribe in the St Albans area in the medieval period. It is uncertain whether they were considered part of Middlesex or Essex or a British remnant, the original Anglo-Saxon name for the section of the route between Canterbury and London was Casingc Stræt or Key Street, a name still borne by a hamlet on the road near Sittingbourne. This section only later became considered part of Watling Street, the broad, grassy trackway found by the Romans had already been used by the Britons for centuries. The main path led from Richborough on the English Channel to a ford in the Thames at Thorney Island near Westminster to a site near Wroxeter. The western continuation went on to Holyhead while the northern ran to Chester, the Romans began constructing paved roads shortly after their invasion in AD43. The London portion of Watling Street was rediscovered during Christopher Wrens rebuilding of St Mary-le-Bow in 1671–73, modern excavations date its construction to the winter from AD47 to 48. Around London, it was 7. 5–8.7 m wide and it was repeatedly redone, including at least twice before the sack of London by Boudicas troops in 60 or 61. Some of this route is preserved beneath Old Kent Road, suetonius Paulinuss victory over Boudicas Iceni in AD61. They only differ in the distance to Durovernum,14 and 17 Roman miles, the route to Lemanis was sometimes distinguished by the name Stone Street, it now forms most of the B2068 road that runs from the M20 motorway to Canterbury. The Sixth Route also recorded an alternate path stopping at Tripontium between Venonis and Bannaventa, it is listed as taking 24 Roman miles rather than 17, the more direct route north from Londinium to Eboracum was Ermine Street. The stations between Eboracum and Cataractonium were shared with Dere Street, which branched off to the northeast. Durocobrivis was the site of the intersection with the Icknield Way. The Maiden Way ran from Bravoniacum to the lead and silver mines at Epiacum, by the time of the Saxon invasions, the Roman bridge across the Thames had presumably fallen into disrepair or been destroyed. The Saxons abandoned the walled Roman site in favour of Lundenwic to its west and they did not return to Lundenburh until forced to do so by the Vikings in the late 9th century
26.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
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Old English
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
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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
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Stephen, King of England
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Stephen, often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, Stephens reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda. He was succeeded by Matildas son, Henry II, the first of the Angevin kings. Stephen was born in the County of Blois in middle France, his father, Count Stephen-Henry, died while Stephen was still young, placed into the court of his uncle, Henry I of England, Stephen rose in prominence and was granted extensive lands. He married Matilda of Boulogne, inheriting estates in Kent. Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry Is son, William Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120, in 1138 the Empresss half-brother Robert of Gloucester rebelled against Stephen, threatening civil war. Together with his advisor, Waleran de Beaumont, Stephen took firm steps to defend his rule. When the Empress and Robert invaded in 1139, however, Stephen was unable to crush the revolt rapidly, captured at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, Stephen was abandoned by many of his followers and lost control of Normandy. Stephen became increasingly concerned with ensuring that his son Eustace would inherit his throne, in 1153 the Empresss son, Henry FitzEmpress, invaded England and built an alliance of powerful regional barons to support his claim for the throne. The two armies met at Wallingford, but neither sides barons were keen to fight another pitched battle, Stephen began to examine a negotiated peace, a process hastened by the sudden death of Eustace. Later in the year Stephen and Henry agreed to the Treaty of Winchester, in which Stephen recognised Henry as his heir in exchange for peace, passing over William, Stephens second son. Modern historians have debated the extent to which Stephens personality, external events. Stephen was born in Blois in France, in either 1092 or 1096 and his father was Stephen-Henry, Count of Blois and Chartres, an important French nobleman, and an active crusader, who played only a brief part in Stephens early life. During the First Crusade Stephen-Henry had acquired a reputation for cowardice, Stephens mother, Adela, was the daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, famous amongst her contemporaries for her piety, wealth and political talent. She had a strong influence on Stephen during his early years. France in the 12th century was a collection of counties and smaller polities. The kings power was linked to his control of the province of Île-de-France. In the west lay the three counties of Maine, Anjou and Touraine, and to the north of Blois was the Duchy of Normandy, Williams children were still fighting over the collective Anglo-Norman inheritance
30.
Faversham Abbey
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Faversham Abbey was a Cluniac style monastery immediately to the north-east of the town of Faversham, in Kent, England. It was founded by King Stephen and his wife Matilda of Boulogne in 1148, a party of monks from Bermondsey Abbey provided the nucleus and the first abbot. It is the place of King Stephen, Queen Matilda. All three tombs were lost after the Dissolution of the Monasteries
31.
Dissolution of the Monasteries
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Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henrys military campaigns in the 1540s. Professor George W. Bernard argues, The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. one adult man in fifty was in religious orders. Very few English houses had been founded later than the end of the 13th century, there was a Medieval proverb in England that said if the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the heir would have more land than the King of England. The 200 houses of friars in England and Wales constituted a distinct wave of foundations almost all occurring in the 13th century. Friaries, for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas, however, the religious changes in England under Henry VIII and Edward VI were of a different nature from those taking place in Germany, Bohemia, France, Scotland and Geneva. Bernard says there was concern in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries about the condition of the monasteries. Pastoral care was seen as more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer. English monasticism in the 1530s may have faced grave and urgent problems, Henry wanted to change this, and in November 1529 Parliament passed Acts reforming apparent abuses in the English Church. These Acts sought to demonstrate that establishing royal jurisdiction over the Church would ensure progress in religious reformation where papal authority had been insufficient, the monasteries were next in line. The stories of monastic impropriety, vice and excess that were to be collected by Thomas Cromwells visitors may have been biased and exaggerated. Levels of monastic debt were increasing, and average numbers of professed religious were falling, only a minority of houses could now support the twelve or thirteen professed religious usually regarded as the minimum necessary to maintain the full canonical hours of the Divine Office. Extensive monastic complexes dominated English towns of any size, but most were less than half full, renaissance princes throughout Europe were facing severe financial difficulties due to sharply rising expenditures, especially to pay for armies, fighting ships and fortifications. Most tended, sooner or later, to resort to plundering monastic wealth, protestant princes would justify this by claiming divine authority, Catholic princes would obtain the agreement and connivance of the Papacy. Monastic wealth, regarded everywhere as excessive and idle, offered a standing temptation for cash-strapped secular, in terms of popular esteem however, the balance tilted the other way. By the time Henry VIII turned his mind to the business of monastery reform, the first case was that of the so-called Alien Priories. As a result of the Norman Conquest some French religious orders held substantial property through their daughter monasteries in England, some of these were merely granges, agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right. Such estates were a source of income for the Crown in its French wars. If the property with which a house had been endowed by its founder were to be confiscated or surrendered, then the house ceased to exist, whether its members continued in the religious life or not
32.
Brewing
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Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a brewer, at home by a homebrewer. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies. The basic ingredients of beer are water and a starch source such as malted barley. Most beer is fermented with a brewers yeast and flavoured with hops, less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava. Secondary sources, such as maize, rice, or sugar, may also be used, sometimes to reduce cost, or to add a feature, the proportion of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill. Steps in the process include malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering. There are three main methods, warm, cool and spontaneous. Fermentation may take place in an open or closed fermenting vessel, there are several additional brewing methods, such as barrel aging, double dropping, and Yorkshire Square. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in cuneiform from ancient Mesopotamia. Ethnographic studies and archaeological records indicate that brewing alcohol was primary an activity engaged in by women, chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date, in Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6, 000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanitys ability to develop technology, Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. Ale produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. More than 133 billion litres are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion in 2006
33.
Shepherd Neame Brewery
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Shepherd Neame is an English independent regional brewery founded in 1698 in Faversham, Kent. Evidence has been uncovered showing brewing has taken place continuously on the current site since at least 1573 and it is the oldest brewer in Great Britain and has been family-owned since 1864. The brewery produces a range of ales and filtered beers. Production is around 210,000 brewers barrels a year and it owns 328 pubs and hotels, predominantly in Kent, London and South East England. The company exports to more than 35 countries including Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Shepherd Neame as such is reported as having been established in 1698, in an advertisement of the Kentish Gazette for 11 April 1865. Richard Marsh lived until 1727 when his Brewery was bequeathed to his widow, and then to his daughter, Samuel Shepherd was from Deal, Kent. He had an interest in malting when he moved to Faversham around 1730 and had established himself as a Brewer of Malt by 1734, Henry, his second son, born in 1780, continued the family tradition, and raised his son of the same name into the business. It was this Henry Shepherd who was to be the last of the Shepherds actively involved in the Company, mares had seen the potential of the Brewery’s growth with the arrival of the long delayed railway service in 1858. He pressed the firm to prepare for such growth. The railways soon even outpaced and replaced the steamboats, Shepherd Neame have embraced 21st-century brewing techniques, for instance using PDX Reactor Technology for the heat treatment of wort, rather than the traditional method, using a calandria. This has led to a reduction in consumption of 50%. The brewery itself is located very near to Faversham town centre, Shepherd Neame holds the title of Britain’s oldest brewer, and has been making beer at its historic site in the market town of Faversham, Kent, for more than 500 years. It still uses traditional methods and 100% natural ingredients to create a portfolio of award-winning classic ales, contemporary beers and internationally celebrated lagers. Every beer is brewed with chalk-filtered mineral water from the brewery’s own artesian well, deep below the brewery, core Collection Spitfire Premium Kentish Ale is Shepherd Neames biggest-selling cask conditioned ale. An infusion of three aromatic Kentish hops adorns this blood-orange tinted bitter, first brewed in 1990 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 1990, the beer is named after the legendary Supermarine Spitfire aircraft designed by R. J. Mitchell. Bishops Finger is a fine English Ale that takes its name from the Kentish nickname for an ancient signpost on the Pilgrims Way pointing to Canterbury, the rich, ruby-coloured classic is one of the oldest names in British beer, brewed since 1958. Malt had been strictly rationed during the Second World War, and it has Protected Geographical Indication Master Brew is the Shepherd Neames flagship beer. It is a distinctive, amber ale, with a hoppy aroma
34.
Faversham explosives industry
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The Faversham explosives industry, Faversham, in Kent, England, has claims to be the cradle of the UKs explosives industry, it was also to become one of its main centres. The first gunpowder plant in the UK was established in the 16th century, with their estates and endowments, monasteries were keen to invest in promising technology. It had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for watermills, on its outskirts were low-lying areas ideal for the culture of alder and willow to provide charcoal — one of the three key gunpowder ingredients. The stream fed into a creek where sulphur, another key ingredient, could be imported. The port was also near the Continent where in warfare demand for gunpowder was brisk, the first factories were small, near the town, and alongside the stream, between the London to Dover road and the head of the creek. By the early 18th century, these had coalesced into a plant, subsequently known as the Home Works. At this time the British government was buying its supplies from the sector, but the quality was often poor. Rather than build a new one, it nationalised the Home Works, from this phase dates the Chart Gunpowder Mill, the oldest of its kind in the world. It was rescued from the blade, and then restored by the Faversham Society in 1966. Nearby is Stonebridge Pond, today a picturesque beauty spot at the head of the creek and it served to power some of the works’ watermills, slender remains of which survive. It still features a network of canals along which powder was punted from process to process. In the 1680s a second factory was started by Huguenot asylum-seekers alongside another stream about two kilometres west of the town and it had its own access to the sea via Oare Creek and so became known as the Oare Works, although it was wholly in the parish of Davington. It became a supplier to the British East India Company and it could be argued that without its product English would not have become the lingua franca of India, Pakistan. Gunpowder from Faversham was not just used in warfare and it played a key part in the Industrial Revolution, by enabling routes to be blasted for canals and railways. The third and last gunpowder factory to open was the Marsh Works, built by the British government one km northwest of the town to augment output at its Home Works and it also had access to the sea via Oare Creek. Explosives manufacture continued unabated at both sites under private ownership, all three gunpowder factories shut in 1934. Imperial Chemical Industries, then the owners, sensed that war might break out with Germany and they transferred production, together with key staff and machinery, to Ardeer in Ayrshire, Scotland. The Marsh Works became a site for extraction, as it remains today
35.
Faversham Parish Church
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St Mary of Charity, Faversham Parish Church is the Church of England parish church of the town of Faversham in Kent, England. The church spire dominates the skyline and is visible for some distance. The church itself is larger than might be expected and is reputed to be the second largest in Kent. This gives the church a distinctive acoustic and, unusually among parish churches, makes it large enough to hold an orchestra for concerts. The interior was restored and transformed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, known for his St Pancras Station, in 1950 it was listed Grade I by English Heritage. Music The church supports a strong tradition with a choir of adults and children who sing Anglican Matins, Evensong. The current Director of Music is James Brown, the choir is affiliated with the RSCM and currently has three singers who hold the highest RSCM award, the Gold Award. Faversham Parish Church page on the Faversham website
36.
Maison Dieu, Faversham
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Maison Dieu is a hospital, monastery, hostel, retirement home and royal lodge commissioned by Henry III in 1234. The timber framed building is located beside Watling Street, now the A2 road, in Ospringe, Faversham, in Kent, edward Hasted noted in 1798 that it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The foundation consisted of a master and three regular brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross, there were also two secular clerks, who celebrated mass for the soul of the founder and the souls of his royal predecessors and successors. They were required to be hospitable, and to entertain the poor and needy passers-by, there was a chamber in the building which the king used to rest when he passed this way, it was called Camera Regis, or the kings chamber. The history and records of the building also give insight into the way sick, for example, in 1235 the blind daughter of Andrew of Faversham was admitted to Maison Dieu as a servant of God and sister of the hospital. It is owned by English Heritage and managed by the Faversham Society, currently it is used to display Roman artefacts from the surrounding area including the ruined Church of Our Lady of Elwarton in Stone. But is only open at weekends from April to October, Maison Dieu page at English Heritage Maison Dieu page at The Faversham Society
37.
Southeastern (train operating company)
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London & South Eastern Railway Limited, trading as Southeastern, is a British train operating company in South East England. Southeastern also provides services along High Speed 1 from London St. Pancras, on 1 April 2006 it became the franchisee for the new Integrated Kent franchise, replacing the publicly owned South Eastern Trains on the former South Eastern franchise. Southeastern serves the main London stations of Charing Cross, Victoria, Blackfriars, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Waterloo East, the Southeastern network has a route mileage of 540, with 179 stations. About 70% of its services run to and from London and it is owned by Govia, a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, which also operates the neighbouring Southern franchise, which overlaps with Southeastern in some areas. The companys formal name, under which it mounted its bid for the franchise, is London, the managing director is David Statham, formerly MD of First Capital Connect. Since the privatisation of British Rail, the franchise to run trains in this area has been held by three different companies, the first company to win the South Eastern franchise, on 14 October 1996, was Connex, which operated it under the name Connex South Eastern. Connex gained a reputation for unreliable services, but it was for financial management that its franchise was cut short by the Strategic Rail Authority on 9 November 2003. Train services were taken over by South Eastern Trains, a wholly owned subsidiary of the SRA/Department for Transport created for the purpose. This would see the existing South Eastern franchise combined with the new high-speed services to be operated on High Speed 1 to form a new Integrated Kent Franchise. In December 2008, as part of the agreement, responsibility for the Redhill to Tonbridge Line was handed over to Southern. Southeastern high-speed services began operations on 14 December 2009. In March 2009 the bay platforms at London Blackfriars closed for reconstruction as part of the Thameslink Programme, Southeastern services previously terminating at Blackfriars, mostly from Sevenoaks via the Catford loop, were extended to Kentish Town, St Albans, Luton or Bedford. As a result of change, Southeastern now operates these services jointly with Thameslink using 20 dual-voltage Class 319 sets as well as newly built Class 377 Electrostars. Following the Department for Transports review after the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast franchise process, in 2013, the coalition government extended Southeasterns franchise, without competitive tender, from 31 March 2014 to June 2018. The Southeastern franchise is now set to be extended until December 2018, the Olympic Javelin or Javelin was a high-speed train shuttle service operated by Southeastern over High Speed 1 during the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The service ran for the duration of games, between St Pancras International station and Ebbsfleet International station, via Stratford International station, which is close to the Olympic Park. During the Summer Olympics a service of eight trains an hour ran between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet, calling at Stratford, replacing the usual East Kent highspeed service, two of these were extended to Ashford and one to Faversham. Between 11pm and 1am the service between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet was increased to twelve per hour, the British Olympic Association applied to register Javelin as a UK trademark on 19 July 2005 and this was granted on 2 June 2006
38.
High Speed 1
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High Speed 1, legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, is a 109-kilometre high-speed railway between London and the United Kingdom end of the Channel Tunnel. The line crosses the River Medway, and under the River Thames and it cost £5.8 billion to build and opened on 14 November 2007. Trains reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour on section 1, intermediate stations are at Stratford International in London and Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent. International passenger services are provided by Eurostar, with times of London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord in 2 hours 15 minutes. As of November 2015, Eurostar has used a fleet of 27 Class 373/1 multi-system trains capable of 300 kilometres per hour and 320 kilometres per hour Class 374 trains, domestic high-speed commuter services serving the intermediate stations and beyond began on 13 December 2009. The fleet of 29 Class 395 passenger trains reach speeds of 225 kilometres per hour, DB Cargo UK run freight services on High Speed 1 using adapted Class 92 locomotives, enabling flat wagons carrying continental-size swap body containers to reach London for the first time. The CTRL project saw new bridges and tunnels built, with a combined length nearly as long as the Channel Tunnel itself, in 2002, the CTRL project was awarded the Major Project Award at the British Construction Industry Awards. The line was transferred to government ownership in 2009, with a 30-year concession for its operation being put up for sale in June 2010. The concession was awarded to a consortium of Borealis Infrastructure and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan in November 2010, a high-speed rail line, LGV Nord, has been in operation between the Channel Tunnel and the outskirts of Paris since the Tunnels opening in 1994. This has enabled Eurostar rail services to travel at 300 km/h for this part of their journey, a similar high-speed line in Belgium, from the French border to Brussels, HSL1, opened in 1997. In Britain, Eurostar trains had to run at a maximum of 160 km/h on existing tracks between London Waterloo and the Channel Tunnel and these tracks were shared with local traffic, limiting the number of services that could be run, and jeopardising reliability. The next plan for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link involved a tunnel reaching London from the south-east, and this opened the possibility of reusing the underused St Pancras station as the terminus, with access via the North London Line that crosses the throat of the station. The idea of using the North London line proved illusory, and it was rejected in 1994 by the then Transport Secretary, John MacGregor, as too difficult to construct and environmentally damaging. The idea of using St Pancras station as the core of the new terminus was retained, the original LCR consortium members were National Express Group, Virgin Group, S. G. Warburg & Co, Bechtel and London Electric. While the project was development by British Rail it was managed by Union Railways. On 14 November 2006, LCR adopted High Speed 1 as the name for the completed railway. Official legislation, documentation and line-side signage have continued to refer to CTRL, as the 1987 Channel Tunnel Act made government funding for a Channel tunnel rail link unlawful, construction did not take place as it was not financially viable. Construction was delayed until passage of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 which provided construction powers that ran for the following 10 years, the chief executive of the time Rob Holden stated that it was the largest land acquisition programme since the Second World War
39.
Ebbsfleet International railway station
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Ebbsfleet International railway station is a railway station in Ebbsfleet Valley, in the Borough of Dartford, Kent,10 miles outside the eastern boundary of Greater London, England. It is near Dartford and the Bluewater shopping centre to the west, the station is part of the Thames Gateway urban regeneration, a project of national priority. It stands on the High Speed 1 rail line, around 400 metres south-west of Northfleet railway station, the station lies off the A2 trunk road, about 5 mi from its junction with the M25 motorway. During the London 2012 Olympics, it served as a primary service as it is very close to the M25 motorway. The name Ebbsfleet is a creation of seventeenth-century antiquaries, partly inspired by the name of Ebbsfleet in Thanet,75 km to the east. The station was opened to Eurostar and dedicated in a ceremony by Dame Kelly Holmes on 29 January 2008. The similarity of its name to that of Dartford railway station,6 mi away, was also of concern, the Olympic Javelin or Javelin was a high-speed train shuttle service operated by Southeastern over High Speed 1 during the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The service ran for the duration of games, between St Pancras International station and this station, via Stratford International station, which is close to the Olympic Park. During the Summer Olympics a service of eight trains an hour ran between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet, calling at Stratford, replacing the usual East Kent highspeed service, two of these were extended to Ashford and one to Faversham. Between 11pm and 1am the service between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet was increased to twelve per hour, on High Speed 1 there are avoiding lines in each direction and four platforms, two serving international Eurostar services and two the Southeastern Highspeed services. Southeastern services travelling between London and the North Kent Line use a junction to the north of the station and are served by another pair of platforms that curve away to the east, ticket barriers control access to all platforms. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act allows a total of 9,000 car parking spaces to be constructed, despite being in close proximity to the station, Northfleet has no bus connection to the station. There is a rank directly outside the station entrance/exit. Car rental services for both leisure and business are located in the concourse, the interchange facilities lie at either end of the main station box - taxis, buses and set down at the northern end and coaches to the south of the station box. However, a Crossrail extension from Abbey Wood to Gravesend remains safeguarded, there is a shorter walking route through the car park to the north of Ebbsfleet station, but there are no footpaths provided and this way is obstructed by the car park access barriers. There are no pedestrian or cycle route signs for Ebbsfleet station on any of the possible routes between the stations. As of the Summer 2014 timetable, there are up to five Eurostar services to Paris on Mondays to Fridays, up to four on Saturdays, most of these services run non-stop from Ebbsfleet to Paris, though some also stop at Ashford en route. There are four trains to Brussels on Mondays to Fridays, three on Saturdays and two on Sundays, all Brussels services call at Lille and some also call at Calais
40.
History of Kent
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Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Swanscombe attest, the Swanscombe skull, uncovered at Barnfield Pit, a quarry in Swanscombe, is the oldest skull found in Britain. Identified as Homo heidelbergensis it dates to the Hoxnian Interglacial 400,000 years ago, during the Neolithic the Medway megaliths were built and there is a rich sequence of Bronze Age occupation indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup. The name Kent probably means rim or border, regarding the eastern part of the county as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar described it as Cantium, although he did not record the name for themselves. His writings suggest localised groups of people whose chieftains were flattered by his description of them as kings, the extreme west of the modern county was occupied by other Iron Age tribes, the Regnenses and possibly another ethnic group occupying The Weald known today as the Wealden People. During the late pre-Roman Iron Age the names of a few Welsh kings are known, an Iron Age settlement seems to have formed the basis for the later town of Folkestone, whilst a hillfort of that date seems to be the forerunner of Dover Castle. Although now two miles from the sea amid the marshes of east Kent, Richborough Castle was arguably the Romans main entry point when they invaded Britain in circa AD43. They established a bridgehead and commemorated their success by building an arch whose cross shaped foundations still survive at the site which is now looked after by English Heritage. Roman Britain was under attack by Saxon and other raiders in the 3rd Century, East Kent became one of the kingdoms of the Jutes during the 5th century AD and the area was later known as Cantia in around 730 and Cent in 835. The early Medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara or Kent people, Canterbury is the religious centre of the Anglican faith, and see of Saint Augustine of Canterbury. Augustine is traditionally credited with bringing Christianity to Anglo Saxon England, landing at Ebbsfleet, a lathe was an ancient administration division of Kent, and may well have originated during a Jutish colonisation of the county. These ancient divisions still exist, but have no administrative significance today, Augustine, the lathe of Lympne was renamed the Lathe of Shepway, the lathes of Milton and Wye were merged to form the Lathe of Scray. Each of the lathes were divided into areas called hundreds. Once London was reached, the Normans ignored most of East Kent, as a result, Kent became a semi-autonomous County Palatine under Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, with the special powers otherwise reserved for counties bordering Wales and Scotland. A decade after the Norman conquest, Penenden Heath near Maidstone was the scene of a trial of Odo of Bayeux. Gavelkind was one of the most interesting examples of law in England. After the Norman Conquest, gavelkind was superseded by the law of primogeniture
41.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
42.
Saxon Shore
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The Saxon Shore was a military command of the late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the English Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the Count of the Saxon Shore, in the late 4th century, his functions were limited to Britain, while the fortifications in Gaul were established as separate commands. Several Saxon Shore forts survive in east and south-east England, during the latter half of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire faced a grave crisis. Internally, it was weakened by wars, the violent succession of brief emperors. Most of Britain had been part of the empire since the mid-1st century and it was protected from raids in the north by the Hadrianic and Antonine Walls, while a fleet of some size was also available. However, as the frontiers came under increasing pressure, fortifications were built throughout the Empire in order to protect cities. It is in context that the forts of the Saxon Shore were constructed. Dover was already fortified in the early 2nd century, and the forts in this group were constructed in the period between the 270s and 290s. However, due to the absence of evidence, theories have varied between scholars as to the exact meaning of the name, and also the nature and purpose of the chain of forts it refers to. Two interpretations were put forward as to the meaning of the adjective Saxon, either a shore attacked by Saxons, or a shore settled by Saxons. This view is reinforced by the chain of fortifications across the Channel on the northern coasts of Gaul. Other scholars like John Cotterill however consider the threat posed by Germanic raiders, at least in the 3rd and early 4th centuries and this view, although widely disputed, has found recent support from archaeological evidence at Pevensey, which dates the forts construction to the early 290s. Whatever their original purpose, it is certain that in the late 4th century the forts and their garrisons were employed in operations against Frankish. Britain was abandoned by Rome in 407, with Armorica following soon after, the forts on both sides continued to be inhabited in the following centuries, and in Britain in particular several continued in use well into the Anglo-Saxon period. The nine forts mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum for Britain are listed here, one of the earliest forts, dated to the 230s. It was built to guard the Wash approaches and is of a typical rectangular castrum layout and it was garrisoned by the Equites Dalmatae Brandodunenses, although evidence exists suggesting that its original garrison was the cohors I Aquitanorum. Established between 260 and the mid-270s to guard the River Yare, it was garrisoned by the Equites Stablesiani Gariannoneses, although there is some discussion as to whether this is actually the fort at Caister-on-Sea, and being on the opposite bank of the same estuary as Burgh Castle. Together with Brancaster one of the earliest forts, built in the 210s to guard the Thames estuary and it was garrisoned by the cohors I Baetasiorum since the 3rd century
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Reculver
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Reculver is a village and coastal resort about 3 miles east of Herne Bay in south-east England, in a ward of the same name, in the City of Canterbury district of Kent. It once occupied a location at the north-western end of the Wantsum Channel, a sea lane that separated the Isle of Thanet. The military connection resumed in the Second World War, when the sea off Reculver was used for testing Barnes Walliss bouncing bombs, by the 7th century Reculver had become a landed estate of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent. The site of the Roman fort was given over for the establishment of a dedicated to St Mary in 669 AD. During the Middle Ages Reculver was a township with a weekly market and a yearly fair. The settlement declined as the Wantsum Channel silted up, and coastal erosion claimed many buildings constructed on the sandy cliffs. The village was abandoned in the late 18th century. Protecting the ruins and the rest of Reculver from erosion is an ongoing challenge, the 20th century saw a revival as local tourism developed and there are now two caravan parks. The census of 2001 recorded 135 people in the Reculver area, while nationally scarce plants and insects are found there, the location is also important for migrating birds and is of significant geological interest. The form Raculfceastre includes the Old English place-name element ceaster, which relates to a city or walled town. Stone Age flint tools have been washed out from the cliffs to the west of Reculver, and this was probably an accidental loss, rather than suggesting a human settlement, evidence for which begins with late Bronze Age and Iron Age ditches. These indicate a settlement, where a Bronze Age palstave. A full-size fort, or castrum, was started late in the 2nd century and this date is derived in part from a reconstruction of a uniquely detailed plaque, fragments of which were found by archaeologists in the 1960s. Identified with the shrine of headquarters building, hitherto unmentioned in any inscription. Application of the basilica to. These structures were found by archaeologists, together with probable officers quarters, barracks, a Roman oven found 200 feet south-east of the fort was probably used for drying food such as corn and fish, its main chamber measured about 16 feet by 15 feet overall. The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman administrative document from the early 5th century, also records the presence of the Cohors I Baetasiorum at Reculver, then known as Regulbium. There must also have been a harbour nearby in Roman times, the walls of the fort originally stood about 14.8 feet high and were 10 feet thick at their base, reducing to 8 feet at the top, they were reinforced internally by an earthen bank
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Richborough
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Richborough /ˈrɪtʃbrə, -bərə/ is a settlement north of Sandwich on the east coast of the county of Kent, England. Richborough lies close to the Isle of Thanet, the population of the settlement is included in the civil parish of Ash. Although now some distance from the sea, Richborough stood at the end of the Wantsum Channel from prehistory to the early mediaeval period. The channel provided a safe searoute from the continent to the Thames estuary, the channel has now silted up, prior to this, Richborough was an important natural harbour and was the landing place of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43. The 2008 discovery proved that this was a site of a Roman beachhead. The suffragan bishop of Richborough, in the Diocese of Canterbury, was created in 1995 to provide a provincial episcopal visitor for the Province of Canterbury. The Romans founded the site and, after their withdrawal, the site was occupied by a Saxon religious settlement, the site is managed by English Heritage who run historical events on the site throughout the summer. During the First World War the capacity of Dover and other ports was found to be inadequate. Its purpose was to provide the BEF with its heavy equipment and this was the first time that sea-going Roll-on/roll-off ferries had been used from Britain. Three new train-ferries were built SS Train Ferry No,1, SS Train Ferry No.2 and SS Train Ferry No.3 and operations began on 10 February 1918, conveying nearly 900 tons of cargo at a time between Richborough and Calais and Dunkirk. Although existing barge services were still in operation across the Channel from Richborough, the use of train-ferries greatly reduced the amount of labour required in the transport of these items. It took only 30 to 40 minutes to load or unload the 54 railway wagons, to accommodate for train-ferries, a new type of terminal had to be designed and built at Richbrough, Calais and Dunkirk. By mid-1918 it had become a large site, occupying 2000 acres. After the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, train ferries were used extensively for the return of material from the Front, indeed, according to war office statistics, a greater tonnage of material was transported by train ferry from Richborough in 1919 than in 1918. As the train ferries had space for motor transport as well as rolling stock, thousands of lorries, motor cars. The Richborough Power Station was opened, within the port, in 1962 burning coal as its fuel, then in 1971 it was converted to run on oil before it was finally converted again to burn the controversial fuel Orimulsion during the final years of operation. Orimulsion is an emulsion originating from the Orinoco Basin, which was offloaded here, the plant closed down in 1996, but much of it remained in situ until the demolition of the three cooling towers on 11 March 2012. A new Energy Park is planned for the site, including a Diesel Peak Generator, the Saxon Shore, London, Council for British Archaeology, CBA Research Report 18,1977 Pratt Edwin A
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Faversham travel guide from Wikivoyage
