Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps. RMA Woolwich was known as "The Shop" because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal. An attempt had been made by the Board of Ordnance in 1720 to set up an academy within its Arsenal to provide training and education for prospective officers of its new Regiment of Artillery and Corps of Engineers. A new building was being constructed in readiness for the Academy and funds had been secured through investment in the South Sea Company. After this false start, the Academy was opened by authority of a Royal Warrant in 1741: it was intended, in the words of its first charter, to produce "good officers of Artillery and perfect Engineers". Its'gentlemen cadets' ranged in age from 10 to 30. To begin with they were attached to the marching companies of the Royal Artillery, but in 1744 they were formed into their own company, forty in number overseen by a Captain-Lieutenant.
To begin with the cadets were accommodated in lodgings in the town of Woolwich, but this arrangement was deemed unsatisfactory so in 1751 a Cadets' Barracks was built just within the south boundary wall of the Warren and the cadets had to adjust to a more strict military discipline. Education in the Academy focused at first on mathematics and the scientific principles of gunnery and fortification. In addition to their theoretical studies, the cadets shared in what was called'the Practice' of gunnery, bridge building, magazine technique and artillery work. While an Artillery officer attended each class to keep order, teaching in the Academy was provided by civilians: a First Master, a Second Master and additional tutors in French, Arithmetic and Drawing. In 1764 the Royal Academy had the word'Military' added to its title, at the same time a senior officer was appointed to serve as Lieutenant-Governor. Moreover, the institution was split: younger cadets entered the Lower Academy, where they were taught reading, arithmetic, Latin and drawing.
If they performed well in examinations they were allowed to proceed to the Upper Academy, where they learned military skills and sciences. The possibility of moving the Royal Military Academy out of the Warren was mooted as early as 1783, as it was fast outgrowing the available accommodation. At first costs precluded this possibility, but James Wyatt, the Board of Ordnance Architect, was commissioned to design a new complex of buildings to stand, on a site facing the Royal Artillery Barracks, at the southern edge of Woolwich Common. Wyatt's Academy was built of yellow brick in the Tudor Gothic style, it consisted of a central block flanked by a pair of accommodation blocks, linked by arcaded walkways. The central block contained a library and offices. Behind the central block Wyatt placed a large dining hall flanked by spacious quadrangles having service buildings around the sides.128 cadets moved to the new Academy: these comprised the four senior years. Of the younger cadets, sixty were kept at the Warren and another sixty were sent to a new college for junior cadets at Great Marlow.
Practical teaching continued to be given in the working context of the Arsenal. In 1810, military cadets of the East India Company, educated at the Academy, were moved to a new college at Addiscombe. During the years that followed the status of the cadets changed: rather than being considered military personnel, as had been the case, they were removed from the muster roll and they began to be charged fees for attendance. In this way the Academy took on something of the ethos of an English public school. In 1844 the Academy was described by Edward Mogg as accommodating: "about one hundred and thirty young gentlemen, the sons of military men, the more respectable classes, who are here instructed in mathematics, land-surveying, with mapping, engineering, the use of the musket and sword exercise, field-pieces; this department is under the direction of a lieutenant-general, an instructor, a professor of mathematics, a professor of fortification. Following the demise of the Board of Ordnance in the wake of the Crimean War the Academy was inspected by a commission which recommended changes: the minimum age for cadets was raised to fifteen and more specialist training was added.
As part of these reforms the Academy complex was enlarged in the 1860s, with a view to accommod
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in eastern England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north, it borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards, England's shortest county boundary. The county town is the city of Lincoln; the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire and the area covered by the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Part of the ceremonial county is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, most is in the East Midlands region; the county is the second-largest of the English ceremonial counties and one, predominantly agricultural in land use. The county is fourth-largest of the two-tier counties, as the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are not included.
The county has several geographical sub-regions, including the rolling chalk hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds. In the southeast are the Lincolnshire Fens, the Carrs, the industrial Humber Estuary and North Sea coast around Grimsby and Scunthorpe, in the southwest of the county, the Kesteven Uplands, comprising rolling limestone hills in the district of South Kesteven. During the Pre-Roman times most of Lincolnshire was inhabited by the Brythonic Corieltauvi people; the Iceni covered the area around modern day Grimsby. The language of the area at that time would have been the precursor to modern Welsh; the name Lincoln derives from the old Welsh ‘Lindo’ meaning Lake. Modern-day Lincolnshire is derived from the merging of the territory of the Brythonic Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the entire county was called "Lindsey", it is recorded as such in the 11th-century Domesday Book; the name Lindsey was applied to the northern core, around Lincoln.
This emerged as one of the three Parts of Lincolnshire, along with the Parts of Holland in the south east, the Parts of Kesteven in the south west, which each had separate Quarter Sessions as their county administrations. In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey and Kesteven each received separate ones; these survived until 1974, when Holland and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire. The northern part of Lindsey, including Scunthorpe Municipal Borough and Grimsby County Borough, was incorporated into the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Humberside, along with most of the East Riding of Yorkshire. A local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside; the land south of the Humber Estuary was allocated to the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes, such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police; the remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven, West Lindsey.
They are part of the East Midlands region. The area was shaken by the 27 February 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake, reaching between 4.7 and 5.3 on the Richter magnitude scale. Lincolnshire is home to Woolsthorpe Manor and home of Sir Isaac Newton, he attended Grantham. Its library has preserved his signature, carved into a window sill. Bedrock in Lincolnshire features Cretaceous chalk. For much of prehistory, Lincolnshire was under tropical seas, most fossils found in the county are marine invertebrates. Marine vertebrates have been found including ichthyosaurus and plesiosaur; the highest point in Lincolnshire is Wolds Top, at Normanby le Wold. Some parts of the Fens may be below sea level; the nearest mountains are in Derbyshire. The biggest rivers in Lincolnshire are the Trent, running northwards from Staffordshire up the western edge of the county to the Humber estuary, the Witham, which begins in Lincolnshire at South Witham and runs for 132 kilometres through the middle of the county emptying into the North Sea at The Wash.
The Humber estuary, on Lincolnshire's northern border, is fed by the River Ouse. The Wash is the mouth of the Welland, the Nene and the Great Ouse. Lincolnshire's geography is varied, but consists of several distinct areas: Lincolnshire Wolds - area of rolling hills in the north east of the county designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The Fens - dominating the south east quarter of the county The Marshes - running along the coast of the county The Lincoln Edge/Cliff - limestone escarpment running north-south along the western half of the countyLincolnshire's most well-known nature reserves include Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, Whisby Nature Park Local Nature Reserve, Donna Nook National Nature Reserve, RSPB Frampton Marsh and the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve. Although the Lincolnshire countryside is intensively farmed, there are many biodiverse wetland areas, as well as rare limewood forests. Much of the county was once wet. From bones, we can tell that animal species found in Lincolnshire include wooly mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, wild horse, wild boar and beaver.
Species which have returned to Lincolnshire after extirpation include little egret, Eurasian spoonbill, European otter and red kite. This is a chart
Guildford
Guildford is a large town in Surrey, England, 27 miles southwest of London on the A3 trunk road midway between the capital and Portsmouth. The town has a population of about 80,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford which had an estimated 146,100 inhabitants in 2015. Guildford has Saxon roots and historians attribute its location to the existence of a gap in the North Downs where the River Wey was forded by the Harrow Way. By AD 978 it was home to an early English Royal Mint. With the building of the Wey Navigation and the Basingstoke Canal, Guildford was connected to a network of waterways that aided its prosperity. In the 20th century, the University of Surrey and Guildford Cathedral, an Anglican cathedral, were added. Due to recent development running north from Guildford, linking to the Woking area, Guildford now forms the southwestern tip of the Greater London Built-up Area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics; the root of the first part may be the word'gold' rather than Guild, a society or meeting of tradesmen: the only known 10th-century record uses Guldeford and in the 11th century Geldeford.
Local historians with an interest in toponyms cite the lack of gold in the region's sedimentary rocks and have suggested that the mention of'gold' may refer to golden flowers found by the ford itself, or the golden sand. Rural Celtic Bronze Age pieces have been found in the town; some of the tiles built into Guildford Castle may be Roman, a Roman villa has been found on Broad Street Common at the end of Roman Farm Road just west of Guildford's Park Barn neighbourhood. It is proven by archaeology and contemporary accounts that Guildford was established as a small town by Saxon settlers shortly after Roman authority had been removed from Britain; the settlement was most expanded because of the Harrow Way crosses the River Wey by a ford at this point. Alfred the Great referred to the town in his will. Guildford was the location of the Royal Mint from 978 until part-way through the reign of William the Conqueror. Guildford Castle is of Norman design, its situation overlooks the pass through the hills taken by the Pilgrims' Way, once overlooked the ancient ford across the Wey, thus giving a key point of military control of this long distance way across the country..
Guildford appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Geldeford and Gildeford, a holding of William the Conqueror. The King held the 75 hagae in which lived 175 homagers and the town rendered £32. Stoke, a suburb within today's Guildford, appears in the Book as Stoch and was held by William, its Domesday assets were: 1 church, 2 mills worth 5s, 16 ploughlands with two Lord's plough teams and 20 mens plough teams, 16 acres of meadow, woodland worth 40 hogs. Stoke was listed as being in the King's park, with a rendering of £15. William the Conqueror had the castle built in the classic Norman style. A major purpose of Norman castle building was to overawe the conquered population, it had £26 spent on it in 1173 under the regency of the young Henry II. As the threat of invasion and insurrection declined, the castle's status was demoted to that of a royal hunting lodge: Guildford was, at that time, at the edge of Windsor Great Park, it was visited on several occasions by King John, Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry III.
In 1611 the castle was granted to Francis Carter whose grandson's initials EC and the year 1699 were above the entrance way. The surviving parts of the castle were restored in Victorian times and again in 2004. In 1995, a chamber was discovered in the High Street, considered to be the remains of the 12th-century Guildford Synagogue. While this remains a matter of contention, it is to be the oldest remaining synagogue in Western Europe. Guildford elected two members of the Unreformed House of Commons. From the 14th century to the 18th century the borough corporation prospered with the wool trade. In the 14th century the Guildhall was constructed and still stands today as a noticeable landmark of Guildford; the north end was extended in 1589 and the Council Chamber was added in 1683. In 1683 a projecting clock was made for the front of the building: it can be seen throughout the High Street; the town's Royal Grammar School was built in 1509 and became Royal gaining the patronage of Edward VI in 1552.
In the years around 1550, a pupil at the school was John Derrick who in life became a Queen's Coroner for the county of Surrey. In 1597, Derrick made a legal deposition that contains the earliest definite reference to cricket being played anywhere in the world. In 1619 George Abbot founded the Hospital of the Holy Trinity, now known as Abbot's Hospital, one of the finest sets of almshouses in the country, it is sited at the top end of the High Street, opposite Holy Trinity church. The brick-built, three-storey entrance tower faces the church. On each corner of the tower there is an octagonal turret rising an extra floor, with lead ogee domes. One of the greatest boosts to Guildford's prosperity came in 1653 with the completion, after many wrangles, of the Wey Navigation; this allowed Guildford businesses to access the Thames at Weybridge by boat, predated the major canal building program in Britain by more than a century. In 1764 the navigation was extended as far as Godal
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Hampden is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over 3 miles east of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Since 1932 the civil parish has included the village of Burcot, 1 mile east of Clifton Hampden; the 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 662. The toponym was simply "Clifton", meaning "tun on a cliff" in Old English. There is no documentation for the "Hampden" part of the name from before 1726. In the Anglo-Saxon era Clifton belonged to the Bishop of Dorchester. After the Norman conquest of England William the Conqueror transferred the see to Lincoln, with its properties including Clifton; the Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels was a chapel of Dorchester parish until the 19th century. The oldest parts of the church include the arcade of the south aisle, built in about 1180. Elsewhere in the church are three 13th century Early English lancet windows; the south aisle ends in a Decorated Gothic chapel, added in the 14th century. The Perpendicular Gothic arcade of the north aisle is later.
In 1843–44 the church was rebuilt to the designs of George Gilbert Scott, who ornamented the chancel as a memorial to the benefactor who funded the restoration. By the early part of the 13th century the parish was being farmed with an open field system. In the 15th century it was a three-field system and the fields were called East and Ham. In 1726 the same fields were called Upper and Lower, respectively; the land was inclosed in 1770. From at least the early part of the 14th century there was a ferry across the Thames between the village and Long Wittenham. Several cottages in the village survive from the part of the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries. By 1726 the village had three public houses. By 1786 there was one called the Fleur de Lys, this was still in business by 1864; the Plough beside Abingdon Road was a public house by 1821. In 1736 the Parliament passed the first of several Acts to turn the main road between Abingdon and Dorchester into a turnpike; the section through Clifton Hampden ceased to be a turnpike in 1873.
In 1922 the Ministry of Transport classified it as the A415 road. In 1928, Oxfordshire County Council built a new bridge for the A415 beside the 15th century one. In 1822 the Thames Navigation Commissioners built the 1⁄2 mile long Clifton Cut, a navigation that bypasses a shallow and difficult stretch of river, it ends with 1⁄2 mile above Clifton Hampden ferry. In 1867 the ferry was replaced by Clifton Hampden Bridge, a brick structure designed by George Gilbert Scott; this was a toll bridge until 1946, when Oxfordshire county councils took it over. The Barley Mow just on the far side of Clifton Hampden Bridge is in Long Wittenham parish. In 1889 the novelist Jerome K. Jerome featured the village and the Barley Mow, in his book Three Men in a Boat. Round Clifton Hampden, itself a wonderfully pretty village, old-fashioned and dainty with flowers, the river scenery is rich and beautiful. If you stay the night on land at Clifton, you cannot do better than put up at the "Barley Mow." In 1844, the Great Western Railway opened an extension from Didcot to Oxford.
The GWR opened a station on the main road between Culham. The station is closest to Clifton Hampden but it is in Culham parish and the GWR called it Culham; the Church of England school was built in 1847 and affiliated to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. It had only one schoolroom until 1909. In 1934 the school was reorganised as a junior school, with senior pupils being schooled in Dorchester. Since 1951 it has been a Church of England voluntary controlled primary school; the village hall was built in 1896. When the band Radiohead formed, at that time called itself "On A Friday", it practiced in this hall. In 1941, the Fleet Air Arm opened Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Hornbill, between Culham railway station and Clifton Hampden village. Most of the airfield is in Clifton Hampden parish, but Hornbill was called RNAS Culham; the Admiralty closed the airfield in 1956 and transferred it to the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 1960. The former airfield is now the Culham Science Centre, an 800,000 square metre scientific research site that includes two nuclear fusion experiments: JET and MAST.
The START Nuclear Fusion Experiment was conducted on the site until MAST succeeded it in 1999. Clifton Hampden has a village shop and sub-post office and a GPs' practice, Clifton Hampden and Burcot have a Women's Institute. Clifton Hampden Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division Two; the village has a longbow archery society. A pedigree herd of alpacas, the "Lost City Alpacas", is kept at the village. On 20 July 1944 a USAAF Lockheed P-38F Lightning photoreconnaissance aircraft from nearby RAF Mount Farm attempted a forced landing at Clifton Hampden, but hit treetops in The Coppice and crashed into a field; the aircraft, carrying drop tanks and burned on impact. Witnesses reported that one of the Lightning's twin engines had stopped and the other was turning; the pilot, 2nd Lieut Robert Mitchell of the 22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Reconnaissance Group, was killed. He is buried at the US military cemetery near Cambridge. Chiselhampton, where an RAF Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V bomber aircraft crashed in 1941, killing all six people aboard Little Baldon air crash, in which an RAF Handley Page Hastings crashed in 1965, killing all 41 people aboard Jerome, Jerome K..
Three Men in a Boat. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith. ISBN 0-7653-4161-1. Lobel, Mary D, ed.. A History of the County of Oxford. Victoria C
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved, which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a "site" can vary depending on the period studied and the theoretical approach of the archaeologist, it is invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must define the limits of human activity around the settlement. Any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development. In this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site.
According to Jess Beck in "How Do Archaeologists find sites?" the areas with a large number of artifacts are good targets for future excavation, while areas with small number of artifacts are thought to reflect a lack of past human activity.” Many areas have been discovered by accident. The most common person to have found artifacts are farmers who are plowing their fields or just cleaning them up find archaeological artifacts. Many people who are out hiking and pilots find artifacts they end up reporting them to archaeologist to do further investigation; when they find sites, they have to first record the area and if they have the money and time for the site they can start digging. There are many ways to find sites, one example can be through surveys. Surveys involve walking around analyzing the land looking for artifacts, it can involve digging, according to the Archaeological Institute of America, “archaeologists search areas that were to support human populations, or in places where old documents and records indicate people once lived.”
This helps archaeologists in the future. In case there was no time, or money during the finding of the site, archaeologists can come back and visit the site for further digging to find out the extent of the site. Archaeologist can sample randomly within a given area of land as another form of conducting surveys. Surveys are useful, according to Jess Beck, “it can tell you where people were living at different points in the past.” Geophysics is a branch of survey becoming more and more popular in archaeology, because it uses different types of instruments to investigate features below the ground surface. It is not as reliable, because although they can see what is under the surface of the ground it does not produce the best picture. Archaeologists have to still dig up the area in order to uncover the truth. There are two most common types of geophysical survey, which is, magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. Magnetometry is the technique of mapping patterns of magnetism in the soil, it uses an instrument called a magnetometer, required to measure and map traces of soil magnetism.
The ground penetrating radar is a method. It uses electro magnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures. There are many other tools that can be used to find artifacts, but along with finding artifacts, archaeologist have to make maps, they do so by taking data from surveys, or archival research and plugging it into a Geographical Information Systems and that will contain both locational information and a combination of various information. This tool is helpful to archaeologists who want to explore in a different area and want to see if anyone else has done research, they can use this tool to see what has been discovered. With this information available, archaeologists can expand their research and add more to what has been found. Traditionally, sites are distinguished by the presence of both features. Common features include the remains of houses. Ecofacts, biological materials that are the result of human activity but are not deliberately modified, are common at many archaeological sites.
In the cases of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, a mere scatter of flint flakes will constitute a site worthy of study. Different archaeologists may see an ancient town, its nearby cemetery as being two different sites, or as being part of the same wider site; the precepts of landscape archaeology attempt to see each discrete unit of human activity in the context of the wider environment, further distorting the concept of the site as a demarcated area. Furthermore, geoarchaeologists or environmental archaeologists would consider a sequence of natural geological or organic deposition, in the absence of human activity, to constitute a site worthy of study. Archaeological sites form through human-related processes but can be subject to natural, post-depositional factors. Cultural remnants which have been buried by sediments are in many environments more to be preserved than exposed cultural remnants. Natural actions resulting in sediment being deposited include aeolian natural processes. In jungles and other areas of lush plant growth, decomposed vegetative sediment can result in layers of soil deposited over remains.
Colluviation, the burial of a site by sediments moved by gravity can happen at sites on slopes. Human a
World War I
World War I known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history, it is one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23 July Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe.
By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28th, partial mobilisation was approved. General Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; when Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6th. German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within four weeks shift forces to the East before Russia could mobilise. On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France; when this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on France the same day. On 12 August and France declared war on Austria-Hungary.
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe; the Entente and its allies would become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of Austria-Hungary and their allies would become known as the Central Powers. The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917. In 1915, Italy opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans; the United States remained neutral, although by doing nothing to prevent the Allies from procuring American supplies whilst the Allied blockade prevented the Germans from doing the same the U. S. became an important supplier of war material to the Allies.
After the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the revelation that the Germans were trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States, the U. S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops. Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, Romania joined the Allied Powers in 1916 only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war until 1918; the 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent at the cost of the war led to the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war. This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive.
This offensive was successful, but the Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive. Bulgaria was the first Central Power to sign an armistice—the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated. On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti after being decisively defeated by Italy in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, the military no longer willing to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11 November 1918. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural and social climate of the world; the war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, the United States, It
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in the south east of England. It is bordered by Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region. In 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 in an area of 634 square miles; the four towns that have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents are Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the main market town for the medieval agricultural county, derives its name from a hart and a ford, used as the components of the county's coat of arms and flag. Elevations are high for the region in the west; these reach over 800 feet in the western projection around Tring, in the Chilterns. The county's borders are the watersheds of the Colne and Lea. Hertfordshire's undeveloped land is agricultural and much is protected by green belt; the county's landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, to Leavesden Film Studios.
The volume of intact medieval and Tudor buildings surpasses London, in places in well-preserved conservation areas in St Albans which includes some remains of Verulamium, the town where in the 3rd century an early recorded British martyrdom took place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill, his martyr's cross of a yellow saltire on a blue field is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with railways, providing good access to London; the largest sector of the economy of the county is in services. Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from meaning deer crossing; the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems. There is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period, it was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age.
This was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, the aboriginal Catuvellauni submitted and adapted to the Roman life. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill, his martyr's cross of a yellow saltire on a blue field is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire as the yellow field to the stag or Hart representing the county. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire. With the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the modern county was part of the East Saxon kingdom; this short lived kingdom collapsed in the 9th century, ceding the territory of Hertfordshire to the control of the West Anglians of Mercia. The region became an English shire in the 10th century, on the merger of the West Saxon and Mercian kingdoms. A century William of Normandy received the surrender of the surviving senior English Lords and Clergy at Berkhamsted, resulting in a new Anglicised title of William the Conqueror before embarking on an uncontested entry into London and his coronation at Westminster.
Hertfordshire was used for some of the new Norman castles at Bishop's Stortford, at King's Langley, a staging post between London and the royal residence of Berkhamsted. The Domesday Book recorded the county as having nine hundreds. Tring and Danais became one—Dacorum—from Danis Corum or Danish rule harking back to a Viking not Saxon past; the other seven were Braughing, Cashio, Hertford and Odsey. The first shooting-down of a zeppelin over Great Britain during WW1 happened in Cuffley; as London grew, Hertfordshire became conveniently close to the English capital. However, the greatest boost to Hertfordshire came during the Industrial Revolution, after which the population rose dramatically. In 1903, Letchworth became the world's first garden city and Stevenage became the first town to redevelop under the New Towns Act 1946. From the 1920s until the late 1980s, the town of Borehamwood was home to one of the major British film studio complexes, including the MGM-British Studios. Many well-known films were made here including the first three Star Wars movies.
The studios used the name of Elstree. American director Stanley Kubrick not only used to shoot in those studios but lived in the area until his death. Big Brother UK and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? have been filmed there. EastEnders is filmed at Elstree. Hertfordshire has seen development at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. On 17 October 2000, the Hatfield rail crash killed four people with over 70 injured; the crash exposed the shortcomings of Railtrack, which saw speed restrictions and major track replacement. On 10 May 2002, the second of the Potters Bar rail accidents occurred killing seven people.
