1.
Humphry Repton
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His first name is often incorrectly rendered Humphrey. Repton was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of a collector of excise, John Repton, in 1762 his father set up a transport business in Norwich, where Humphry attended Norwich Grammar School. At age twelve he was sent to the Netherlands to learn Dutch, however, Repton was befriended by a wealthy Dutch family and the trip may have done more to stimulate his interest in polite pursuits such as sketching and gardening. Returning to Norwich, Repton was apprenticed to a merchant, then, after marriage to Mary Clarke in 1773. He was not successful, and when his parents died in 1778 used his modest legacy to move to a country estate at Sustead. Repton also joined John Palmer in a venture to reform the mail-coach system, Reptons childhood friend was James Edward Smith, who encouraged him to study botany and gardening, Smith reproduces a long letter from Repton in his Letter and Correspondence. He was given access to the library of Windham to read its works on botany and his capital dwindling, Repton moved to a modest cottage at Hare Street near Romford in Essex. He was at first an avid defender of Browns views, contrasted with those of Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price and his first paid commission was Catton Park, to the north of Norwich, in 1788. That Repton, with no experience of practical horticulture, became an overnight success, is a tribute to his undeniable talent. To help clients visualise his designs, Repton produced Red Books with explanatory text and watercolours with a system of overlays to show before, in this he differed from Capability Brown, who worked almost exclusively with plans and rarely illustrated or wrote about his work. Reptons overlays were soon copied by the Philadelphian Bernard MMahon in his 1806 American Gardeners Calendar, to understand what was unique about Repton it is useful to examine how he differed from Brown in more detail. Brown worked for many of the wealthiest aristocrats in Britain, carving huge landscape parks out of old formal gardens, while Repton worked for equally important clients, such as the Dukes of Bedford and Portland, he was usually fine-tuning earlier work, often that of Brown himself. Where Repton got the chance to lay out grounds from scratch it was generally on a more modest scale. Around 1787, Richard Page, landowner of Sudbury, to the west of Wembley decided to convert the Page family home Wellers into a country seat and turn the fields around it into a private estate. In 1792 Page employed Humphry Repton, by then famous as an architect, to convert the previous farmland into wooded parkland. Repton often called the areas he landscaped parks, and so it is to Repton that Wembley Park owes its name, the original site that Repton so transformed was later built on in the construction of the short-lived Watkins Tower. The area landscaped by Repton was larger than the current Wembley Park and it included the southern slopes of Barn Hill to the north, where Repton planted trees and started building a prospect house – a gothic tower offering a view over the parkland. Repton may also have designed the lodge that survives on Wembley Hill Road
2.
Edward the Confessor
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Edward the Confessor, also known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, and usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, Edgar the Ætheling, who was of the House of Wessex, was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but never ruled and was deposed after about eight weeks. As discussed below, historians disagree about Edwards fairly long reign and his nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom, some portray this kings reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, because of the infighting after his heirless death. About a century later, in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the late king, Saint Edward was one of Englands national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George as the national patron saint c. His feast day is 13 October, celebrated by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy. Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, and is first recorded as a witness to two charters in 1005 and he had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, showing that he ranked behind them, during his childhood England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn Forkbeard and his son, Cnut. Following Sweyns seizure of the throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule more justly than before. Æthelred agreed, sending Edward back with his ambassadors, Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edwards older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyns son, Cnut. According to Scandinavian tradition, Edward fought alongside Edmund, as Edward was at most thirteen years old at the time, Edmund died in November 1016, and Cnut became undisputed king. Edward then again went into exile with his brother and sister, in the same year Cnut had Edwards last surviving elder half-brother, Eadwig, executed, leaving Edward as the leading Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne. Edward spent a quarter of a century in exile, probably mainly in Normandy and he probably received support from his sister Godgifu, who married Drogo of Mantes, count of Vexin in about 1024. In the early 1030s Edward witnessed four charters in Normandy, signing two of them as king of England, Edward was said to have developed an intense personal piety during this period, but modern historians regard this as a product of the later medieval campaign for his canonisation. In Frank Barlows view in his lifestyle would seem to have been that of a member of the rustic nobility. He appeared to have a slim prospect of acceding to the English throne during this period, Cnut died in 1035, and Harthacnut succeeded him as king of Denmark. It is unclear whether he was intended to have England as well and it was therefore decided that his elder half-brother Harold Harefoot should act as regent, while Emma held Wessex on Harthacnuts behalf. In 1036 Edward and his brother Alfred separately came to England, Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex who turned him over to Harold Harefoot
3.
Wembley
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Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium, Wembley formed a separate civil parish from 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. In 1965, the merged with the Municipal Borough of Willesden to create the London Borough of Brent. Wembley is derived from the Old English proper name Wemba and the Old English Lea for meadow or clearing, the name was first mentioned in the charter of 825 of Selvin. The village of Wembley grew up on the hill by the clearing with the Harrow Road south of it, much of the surrounding area remained wooded. In 1547 there were but six houses in Wembley, though small, it was one of the wealthiest parts of Harrow. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, the manor of Wembley fell to Richard Andrews and Leonard Chamberlayne, who sold it to Richard Page, Esq. of Harrow on the Hill, the same year. The Page family continued as lords of the manor of Wembley for several centuries, Wembley Park thus derived its name from Reptons habit of referring to the areas he designed as parks. There was a mill on Wembley Hill by 1673, in 1837, the London and Birmingham Railway was opened from London Euston through Wembley to Hemel Hempstead, and completed to Birmingham the following year. The changing names of the local station demonstrated the importance of the Wembley name. Sudbury station opened in 1845, renamed as Sudbury and Wembley in 1882, renamed as Wembley for Sudbury in 1910, renamed as Wembley Central in 1948, at the time of the Olympic Games. To modernise the service, a new Watford DC Line was built alongside the lines and Bakerloo line trains. Electric trains to London Euston began running in 1922, since 1917, there have been six platforms at what is now Wembley Central station. In 1880, the Metropolitan Railway opened its line from Baker Street through the side of Wembley. There are now three separate services, the London to Aylesbury Line, the Metropolitan line, and the Jubilee line. Only the latter two services have platforms at Wembley Park station, in November 1905, the Great Central Railway opened a new route for fast expresses that by-passed the congested Metropolitan Railway tracks. It ran between Neasden Junction, south of Wembley, and Northolt Junction, west of London, where a new joint main line with the Great Western Railway began. After a long planning and redevelopment process dogged by a series of funding problems and construction delays, Wembley Hill station was renamed Wembley Complex in May 1978, before getting its present name of Wembley Stadium in May 1987
4.
Kingsbury tube station
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Kingsbury is a London Underground station in northwest London, England. It is on the Jubilee line, in Zone 4, in the borough of Brent, although now only served by deep-level tube trains, the section of line serving the station is built to surface gauge, and trains to that larger LU loading gauge occasionally pass through. It was opened on 10 December 1932 as part of the Stanmore branch of the Metropolitan Railway and served by that companys electric trains. After the formation of London Transport in 1933 this branch became part of the LU Metropolitan line and was transferred to the Bakerloo line in 1939 then to the Jubilee line in 1979. The design style is similar to that of other Metropolitan Railway buildings of the period rather than to the concrete. The station entrance is in a parade of shops on the side of the A4006 Kingsbury Road. London Buses routes 79,183,204,305 and 324, night route N98 and non-TFL route 644 serve the station
5.
Jubilee line
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The Jubilee line is a London Underground line. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the network, although sections of track date back to 1932. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects being attempts to future-proof the line, the Jubilee line is coloured silver/grey on the Tube map, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II after which the line was named. Between Finchley Road and Wembley Park, the Jubilee line shares its route with the Metropolitan line, between Canning Town and Stratford, the line runs parallel to the Stratford International branch of the Docklands Light Railway. In 1932, the Metropolitan Railway built a branch from its line at Wembley Park to Stanmore. The line, as many others in the northwest London area, was designed to absorb commuter traffic from the new. At first, the Metropolitan had advocated a new line roughly following the line of the Edgware Road between the tube station and a point near Willesden Green. Indeed, construction advanced as far as the rebuilding of Edgware Road station to accommodate 4 platforms of 8-car length, things changed, though, with the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board and the subsequent absorption of the Metropolitan. The solution was now a new branch of the Bakerloo line from Baker Street to serve new stations at St, the new line rose between the Metropolitan tracks at Finchley Road, providing cross-platform interchange with the Metropolitan line. At Wembley Park, the new Bakerloo would run on to serve Kingsbury, Queensbury, Canons Park and Stanmore, the Bakerloo extension, built as above, opened in 1939. The planning for the Tube network immediately before and after World War II considered several new routes, Line C opened as the Victoria line, in stages, from 1968 to 1972. Work on the northeast–southwest route continued, the new line was to have been called the Fleet line after the River Fleet. In 1971, construction began on the new Fleet line, economic pressure and doubt over the final destination of the line had led to a staged approach. Under the first stage, the Baker Street-to-Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line was joined at Baker Street to a new 2, the new tube was to offer cross-platform interchange between the Bakerloo and Fleet at Baker Street, as pioneered on the Victoria line. The work was completed in 1979, as part of the works, Trafalgar Square and Strand stations were combined into a single station complex, Charing Cross. The existing Charing Cross station on the sub-surface District and Circle lines was renamed Embankment, another part of the works included a section of test tunnel, built near New Cross. When the planned route was altered, this section was abandoned as it was effectively useless. However, this idea was rejected because of the costs involved
6.
Cross country running
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Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. Sometimes the runners are referred to as harriers, the course, typically 4–12 kilometres long, may include surfaces of grass, and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road. It is both an individual and a sport, runners are judged on individual times and teams by a points-scoring method. Cross country running is one of the disciplines under the sport of athletics. Although open-air running competitions are pre-historic, the rules and traditions of cross country racing emerged in Britain, the English championship became the first national competition in 1876 and the International Cross Country Championships was held for the first time in 1903. Since 1973 the foremost elite competition has been the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Cross country courses are laid out on an open or woodland area. The IAAF recommends that courses be grass-covered, and have rolling terrain with frequent, courses consist of one or more loops, with a long straight at the start and another leading to the finish line. Because of variations in conditions, international standardization of cross country courses is impossible, part of cross country runnings appeal is the natural and distinct characteristics of each venues terrain and weather. Terrain can vary from open fields to forest hills and even across rivers and it also includes running down and up hills. According to the IAAF, a cross country course has a loop of 1,750 to 2,000 metres laid out on an open or wooded land. It should be covered by grass, as much as possible, while it is perfectly acceptable for local conditions to make dirt or snow the primary surface, courses should minimize running on roads or other macadamized paths. Parks and golf courses often provide suitable locations, a course at least 5 metres full allows competitors to pass others during the race. Clear markings keep competitors from making wrong turns, and spectators from interfering with the competition, markings may include tape or ribbon on both sides of the course, chalk or paint on the ground, or cones. Some classes use colored flags to indicate directions, red flags for left turns, yellow flags for right turns, courses also commonly include distance markings, usually at each kilometer or each mile. The course should have 400 to 1,200 m of level terrain before the first turn, to reduce contact, however, many courses at smaller competitions have their first turn after a much shorter distance. Courses for international competitions consist of a loop between 1750 and 2000 meters, athletes complete three to six loops, depending on the race. Senior men compete on a 12-kilometre course, senior women and junior men compete on an 8-kilometre course. Junior women compete on a 6-kilometre course, in the United States, college men typically compete on 8 km or 10 km courses, while college women race for 5 km or 6 km
