Land reclamation
Land reclamation known as reclamation, known as land fill, is the process of creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation land fill. In a number of other jurisdictions, including parts of the United States, the term "reclamation" can refer to returning disturbed lands to an improved state. In Alberta, for example, reclamation is defined by the provincial government as "The process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses." In Oceania it is referred to as land rehabilitation. Land reclamation can be achieved with a number of different methods; the most simple method involves filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. The process is called "infilling" and the material used to fill the space is called "infill". Draining of submerged wetlands is used to reclaim land for agricultural use. Deep cement mixing is used in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated and hence needs to be contained.
Land dredging is another method of land reclamation. It is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of a body of water, it is used for maintaining reclaimed land masses as sedimentation, a natural process, fills channels and harbors naturally. Instances where the creation of new land was for the need of human activities. Notable examples include: Some of the coastlines of Saadiyat Island, in the UAE. Used for commercial purposes. Much of the coastlines of Mumbai, India, it took over 150 years to join the original Seven Islands of Bombay. These seven islands were lush, thickly wooded, dotted with 22 hills, with the Arabian Sea washing through them at high tide; the original Isle of Bombay was only 24 km long and 4 km wide from Dongri to Malabar Hill and the other six were Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Parel and Mazgaon.. Much of the coastlines of Mainland China, Hong Kong, North Korea and South Korea, it is estimated. Inland lowlands in the Yangtze valley, including the areas of important cities like Shanghai and Wuhan.
Much of the coastline of Karachi, Pakistan. The shore of Jakarta Bay. Land is reclaimed to create new housing areas and real estate properties, for the expanding city of Jakarta. So far, the largest reclamation project in the city is the creation of "Golf Island", still ongoing. A part of the Hamad International Airport in Qatar, around 36 square kilometres; the entire island of The Pearl-Qatar situated in Qatar. Haikou Bay, Hainan Province, where the west side of Haidian Island is being extended, off the coast of Haikou City, where new land for a marina is being created; the Cotai Strip in Macau, where most of the major casinos are located Nagoya Centrair Airport, Japan Incheon International Airport, Korea Beirut Central District, Lebanon The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen The shore of Manila Bay in the Philippines along Metro Manila, has attracted major developments such as the Mall of Asia Complex, Entertainment City and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex. The city-state of Singapore, where land is in short supply, is famous for its efforts on land reclamation.
The Palm Islands, The World and hotel Burj al-Arab off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates The Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Hulhumalé Island, Maldives, it is one of the six divisions of Malé City. Giant Sea Wall Jakarta Colombo International Financial City, Sri Lanka Airport of Nice, France Large parts of the Netherlands Almost half of the microstate of Monaco Parts of Dublin, Ireland Most of Belfast Harbour and areas of Belfast, Northern Ireland Parts of Saint Petersburg, such as the Marine Facade Helsinki Barceloneta area, Barcelona, in Spain The port of Zeebrugge in Belgium The southwestern residential area in Brest, Belarus Majority of left-bank and some right-bank residential areas of Kiev were built on a reclaimed fens and floodplains of the Dnieper river. Most of Fontvieille, Monaco Parts surrounding Port Hercules in La Condamine, Monaco The airport peninsula, the industrial area of Cornigliano, the PSA container terminal and other parts of the port in Genoa, Italy The Fens in East Anglia Venice, Italy Rione Orsini, part of Borgo Santa Lucia, Naples A big part of Kavala, city in Greece Fucine Lake, ItalyWaterfront Centre, Jersey The Foreshore in Cape Town The Hassan II Mosque in Morocco is built on reclaimed land.
The Eko Atlantic in Lagos, Nigeria. Large parts of Rio de Janeiro, most notably several blocks in the new docks area, the entire Flamengo Park and the neighborhood of Urca Parts of Florianópolis. Parts of New Orleans Parts of Montevideo, Rambla Sur and several projects still going on in Montevideo's Bay. Much of the urbanized area adjacent to San Francisco Bay, including most of San Francisco's waterfront and Financial District, San Francisco International Airport, the Port of Oakland, large portions of the city of Alameda has been reclaimed from the bay. Mexico City. Parts of Panama City urban and street development are based on reclaimed land, using material extracted from Panama Canal excavations; the Chicago shoreline The Northwestern University Lakefill, part of the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois Back Bay, Massachusetts Battery Park City, Ma
All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints, is a Christian festival celebrated in honour of all the saints and unknown. In Western Christianity, it is celebrated on 1 November by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church, other Protestant churches; the Eastern Orthodox Church and associated Eastern Catholic Churches and Byzantine Lutheran Churches celebrate it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Oriental Orthodox churches of Chaldea and associated Eastern Catholic churches celebrate All Saints' Day on the first Friday after Easter. In the Western Christian practice, the liturgical celebration begins at Vespers on the evening of 31 October, All Hallows' Eve, ends at the close of 1 November, it is thus the day before All Souls' Day. In many traditions, All Saints' Day is part of the season of Allhallowtide, which includes the three days from 31 October to 2 November inclusive and in some denominations, such as Anglicanism, extends to Remembrance Sunday.
On All Saints Day, it is common for families to attend church, as well as visit cemeteries in order to lay flowers and candles on the graves of their deceased loved ones. In Austria and Germany, godparents gift their godchildren Allerheiligenstriezel on All Saint's Day, while the practice of souling remains popular in Portugal, it is a national holiday in many Christian countries. The Christian celebration of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven, the living. In Catholic theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. In Methodist theology, All Saints Day revolves around "giving God solemn thanks for the lives and deaths of his saints", including those who are "famous or obscure"; as such, individuals throughout the Church Universal are honoured, such as Paul the Apostle, Augustine of Hippo and John Wesley, in addition to individuals who have led one to faith in Jesus, such as one's grandmother or friend.
In the British Isles, it is known that churches were celebrating All Saints on 1 November at the beginning of the 8th century to coincide with or replace the Celtic festival of Samhain. James Frazer suggests that 1 November was chosen because it was the date of the Celtic festival of the dead. However, Ronald Hutton points out that, according to Óengus of Tallaght, the 7th/8th century church in Ireland celebrated All Saints on 20 April, he suggests. The Eastern Orthodox Church, following the Byzantine tradition, commemorates all saints collectively on the first Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday; the feast of All Saints achieved great prominence in the 9th century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI "the Wise". His wife, Empress Theophano – commemorated on 16 December – lived a devout life. After her death in 893, her husband built a church; when he was forbidden to do so, he decided to dedicate it to "All Saints", so that if his wife were in fact one of the righteous, she would be honoured whenever the feast was celebrated.
According to tradition, it was Leo who expanded the feast from a commemoration of All Martyrs to a general commemoration of All Saints, whether martyrs or not. This Sunday marks the close of the Paschal season. To the normal Sunday services are added special scriptural readings and hymns to all the saints from the Pentecostarion. In the late spring, the Sunday following Pentecost Saturday is set aside as a commemoration of all locally venerated saints, such as "All Saints of America", "All Saints of Mount Athos", etc; the third Sunday after Pentecost may be observed for more localised saints, such as "All Saints of St. Petersburg", or for saints of a particular type, such as "New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke". In addition to the Mondays mentioned above, Saturdays throughout the year are days for general commemoration of all saints, special hymns to all saints are chanted from the Octoechos; the celebration of 1 November in Lebanon as a holiday is the influence of Western Catholic orders present in Lebanon and is not Maronite in origin.
The traditional Maronite feast equivalent to the honor of all saints in their liturgical calendar is one of three Sundays in preparation for Lent called the Sunday of the Righteous and the Just. The following Sunday is the Sunday of the Faithful Departed. In East Syriac tradition the All Saints Day celebration falls on the first Friday after resurrection Sunday; this is because all departed faithful are saved by the blood of Jesus and they resurrected with the Christ. In east Syriac liturgy the departed souls are remembered on Friday. Church celebrates All souls day on Friday before the beginning of Great Fast; the Christian holiday of All Saints' Day falls on 1 November, followed by All Souls' Day on 2 November, is a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, as well as a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion. In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnise the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom.
In the 4th century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, to join in a common feast.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty agencies; these are known as a fire and rescue service, the term used in modern legislation and by government departments. The older terms of fire brigade and fire service survive in informal usage and in the names of a few organisations. England and Wales have local fire services which are each overseen by a fire authority, made up of representatives of local governments. Fire authorities have the power to raise a Council Tax levy for funding, with the remainder coming from the government. Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire services, so their authorities are committees of the devolved parliaments; the total budget for fire services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. Central government maintains national standards and a body of independent advisers through the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser, created in 2007, while Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services provides direct oversight.
The devolved government in Scotland has HMFSI Scotland. Firefighters in the United Kingdom are allowed to join unions, the main one being the Fire Brigades Union, while chief fire officers are members of the National Fire Chiefs Council, which has some role in national co-ordination; the fire services have undergone significant changes since the beginning of the 21st century, a process, propelled by a devolution of central government powers, new legislation and a change to operational procedures in the light of terrorism attacks and threats. See separate article History of fire safety legislation in the United Kingdom Comprehensive list of recent UK fire and rescue service legislation: Fire services are established and granted their powers under new legislation which has replaced a number of Acts of Parliament dating back more than 60 years, but is still undergoing change. 1938: Fire Brigades Act 1938. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain and made it mandatory for local authorities to arrange an effective fire service.
1947: Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. 1959: Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act. It was repealed in 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 national fire strikes, with much of the discontent caused by the aforementioned report into the fire service conducted by Prof Sir George Bain. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the industrial action still ongoing. Bain's report led to a change in the laws relating to firefighting. 2002: Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004: Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 only applying to England and Wales. 2006: The Regulatory Reform Order 2005 This piece of secondary legislation or statutory instrument replaces several other acts that dealt with fire precautions and fire safety in premises, including the now defunct process of issuing fire certificates.
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 and rescue services. 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, its website outlines future changes, specific projects: "The aim of the Fire Modernisation Programme is to adopt modern work practices within the Fire & Rescue Service to become more efficient and effective, while strengthening the contingency and resilience of the Service to react to incidents. " 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.
Committee report The committee's brief is described on its website: The Communities and Local Government Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure and policy of the Department for Communities and Local Government and its associated bodies. Government response This document, the subsequent government response in September 2006, are important as they outlined progress on the FiReControl, efforts to address diversity and the planned closure of HMFSI in 2007 among many issues. Both documents are interesting as they refer back to Professor Bain's report and the many recommendations it made and continue to put forward the notion that there is an ongoing need to modernise FRSs. For example, where FRSs were 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 Governm
Chantry
A chantry or obiit was a form of trust fund established during the pre-Reformation medieval era in England for the purpose of employing one or more priests to sing a stipulated number of masses for the benefit of the soul of a specified deceased person the donor who had established the chantry in his will, during a stipulated period of time following his death. It was believed such masses would speed the deceased's soul through its undesirable and indeterminate period in Purgatory onwards to eternal rest in Heaven. Once the soul had reached Heaven the ideal state for the Christian human soul had been attained, the saying of masses would serve no further function, thus the concept of Purgatory was central to the perceived need for chantries. Chantries were established in England and were endowed with lands, rents from specified properties and other assets by the donor in his will; the income from these assets maintained the chantry priest. A chantry chapel is a building on private land or a dedicated area or altar within a parish church or cathedral, set aside or built for the performance of the chantry duties by the priest.
A chantry may occupy as premises a single altar, for example in the side aisle of a church, rather than an enclosed chapel within a larger church dedicated to the donor's favourite saint. Many such chantry altars became richly endowed with gold furnishings and valuable vestments. Over the centuries, chantries increased their wealth by attracting new donors. Sometimes this led to corruption of the consecrated life expected of clerics, it led in general to an accumulation of great wealth and power by the Church, beyond the feudal control of the Crown. This evident corruption was one of the factors used by King Henry VIII to order the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England. At that time, chantries were abolished and their assets were sold or granted to persons at the discretion of Henry and his son King Edward VI, via the Court of Augmentations. Many Tudor businessmen, such as Thomas Bell of Gloucester, thus acquired chantries as financial investments producing income streams derived from rents, or "unbundled" the assets and sold them piecemeal at a profit.
The Roman Catholic practice of saying masses to benefit the soul of a deceased person supposed to be in Purgatory is recorded as early as the 8th century. The most common form was the anniversarium or missa annualis, a mass said annually on the date of the person's death. Catholics believe that the more prayer the better, including the offering of the Mass. At the Council of Attigny in 765, about 40 abbots and bishops agreed to say masses and recite the psalter for the souls of deceased members of their'confraternity'. Ninth-century France and England have records of numerous confraternity agreements between monasteries or greater churches, by which each would offer prayers for the souls of dead members of the other's communities. Before the year 1000 in Italy and England, great churches extended the benefits of such associations to lay persons. Kings and great magnates asked that prayers for their souls be said in the monasteries they founded on their estates; the word "chantry" derives, via Old French chanter, from the Latin cantare and its mediaeval derivative, cantaria.
The French term for this commemorative institution is chapellenie. The Latin word obiit, used in English as a noun with the same meaning as a chantry, means "he is dead", from the verb obire, from the verb ire "to go" plus the prefix ob- "away", thus to die. Current theories locate the origins of the chantry in the rapid expansion of regular monasteries in the 11th century; the abbey of Cluny and its hundreds of daughter houses were central to this. The Cluniac order emphasised an elaborate liturgy as the centre of its common life. By the 1150s, the order had so many demands for multiple masses for the dead that Peter the Venerable placed a moratorium on further endowments. Other monastic orders benefited from this movement, but became burdened by commemoration; the history of the Cistercian house of Bordesley, a royal abbey, demonstrates this: in the mid-12th century, it offered the services of two priest monks to say mass, for the soul of Robert de Stafford. This sort of dedication of prayers towards particular individuals was a step towards the institutional chantry.
Another theory points to the parallel development of communities or colleges of secular priests or canons as an influence on the evolution of the chantry. Such communities were not monastic foundations. Like the monasteries, they offered dedicated prayers for the dead. An example is the collegiate church of Marwell, founded by Bishop Henry of Winchester in the early 1160s; the priests of the college were to pray for the souls of the bishops of Winchester and kings of England. Perpetual masses for the dead were delegated to one altar and one secular priest within a greater church; the family of King Henry II of England contributed to religious patronage. Henry II founded at least one daily mass for his soul by his gift of the manor of Lingoed in Gwent to Dore Abbey in Herefordshire. In 1183 the king lost his eldest son, He
Prime meridian (Greenwich)
A prime meridian, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, was established by Sir George Airy in 1851. By 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In October of that year, at the behest of US President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D. C. United States, for the International Meridian Conference; this conference selected the meridian passing through Greenwich as the official prime meridian due to its popularity. However, France abstained from the vote, French maps continued to use the Paris meridian for several decades. In the 18th century, London lexicographer Malachy Postlethwayt published his African maps showing the "Meridian of London" intersecting the Equator a few degrees west of the meridian and Accra, Ghana; the plane of the prime meridian is parallel to the local gravity vector at the Airy transit circle of the Greenwich observatory. The prime meridian was therefore long symbolised by a brass strip in the courtyard, now replaced by stainless steel, since 16 December 1999, it has been marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky.
Global Positioning System receivers show that the marking strip for the prime meridian at Greenwich is not at zero degrees, zero minutes, zero seconds but at 5.3 seconds of arc to the west of the meridian. In the past, this offset has been attributed to the establishment of reference meridians for space-based location systems such as WGS 84 or that errors crept into the International Time Bureau timekeeping process; the actual reason for the discrepancy is that the difference between precise GNSS coordinates and astronomically determined coordinates everywhere remains a localized gravity effect due to the deflection of the vertical. Before the establishment of a common meridian, most maritime countries established their own prime meridian passing through the country in question. In 1721, Great Britain established its own meridian passing through an early transit circle at the newly established Royal Observatory at Greenwich; the meridian was moved around 10 metres or so east on three occasions as transit circles with newer and better instruments were built, on each occasion next door to the existing one.
This was to allow uninterrupted observation during each new construction. The final meridian was established as an imaginary line from the north pole to the south pole passing through the Airy transit circle; this became Great Britain's meridian in 1851. For all practical purposes of the period, the changes as the meridian was moved went unnoticed. Transit instruments are installed to be perpendicular to the local level. In 1884, the International Meridian Conference took place to establish an internationally recognised single meridian; the meridian chosen was that which passed through the Airy transit circle at Greenwich and it became the prime meridian. At around the time of this conference, scientists were making measurements to determine the deflection of the vertical on a large scale. One might expect that plumb lines set up in various locations, if extended downward, would all pass through a single point, the centre of the Earth, but this is not the case due to the Earth being an ellipsoid, not a sphere.
The downward extended plumb lines don't all intersect the rotation axis of the Earth. To make computations feasible, scientists defined ellipsoids of revolution; the difference between the direction of a plumb line or vertical, a line perpendicular to the surface of the ellipsoid of revolution—a normal to said ellipsoid—at a particular observatory, is the deflection of the vertical. When the Airy transit circle was built, a mercury basin was used to align the telescope to the perpendicular, thus the circle was aligned with the local vertical or plumb line, deflected from the normal, or line perpendicular, to the reference ellipsoid used to define geodetic latitude and longitude in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame. While the local vertical defined at the Airy transit circle still points to the modern celestial meridian, it does not pass through the Earth's rotation axis; as a result of this, the ITRF zero meridian, defined by a plane passing through the Earth's rotation axis, is 102.478 metres to the east of the prime meridian.
A 2015 analysis by Malys et al. shows the offset between the Airy transit circle and the ITRF/WGS 84 meridians can be explained by this deflection of the vertical alone. The astronomical longitude of the Greenwich prime meridian was found to be 0.19″ ± 0.47″ East, i.e. the plane defined by the local vertical on the Greenwich prime meridian and the plane passing through the Earth's rotation axis on the ITRF zero meridian are parallel. However, the claim, found, e.g. in a BBC article that this difference between astronomical and geodetic coordinates means that any measurements of transit time across the IRTF zero meridian will occur 0.352 seconds before t
The Wash
The Wash is a square bay and estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire, both border the North Sea. One of the broadest estuaries in the United Kingdom, it is fed by the rivers Witham, Welland and Great Ouse, it is a 62,046-hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site, a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, it is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of it is the Snettisham Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve. The Wash is a large indentation in the coastline of Eastern England that separates the curved coast of East Anglia from Lincolnshire, it is a large bay with three straight sides meeting at right angles, each about 15 miles in length. The eastern coast of the Wash is within Norfolk, extends from a point a little north of Hunstanton in the north to the mouth of the River Great Ouse at King's Lynn in the south.
The opposing coast, parallel to the east coast, runs from Gibraltar Point to the mouth of the River Welland, all within Lincolnshire. The southern coast runs north-west to south-east, connecting these two river mouths and is punctuated by the mouth of a third river, the River Nene. Inland from the Wash the land is flat, low-lying and marshy: these are the Fens of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. To the east is the North Sea. Owing to deposits of sediment and land reclamation, the coastline of the Wash has altered markedly within historical times. Much of the Wash itself is shallow, with several large sandbanks, such as Breast Sand, Bulldog Sand, Roger Sand and Old South Sand, which are exposed at low tide along the south coast. For this reason, navigation in the Wash can be hazardous. Two commercial shipping lane channels lead inland from The Wash, the River Nene leading to Sutton Bridge Docks in Lincolnshire and further inland to the Port of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, the River Great Ouse leading to King's Lynn Docks in Norfolk.
Both shipping lanes have their own maritime pilot stations to guide and navigate incoming and outgoing cargo ships in The Wash. A re-survey of the coastline of The Wash carried out by The Ordnance Survey in 2011 revealed that an estimated additional 3,000 acres on the coastline of The Wash had been created by accretion since the previous surveys carried out between 1960 and 1980; the Wash varies enormously in water temperature throughout the year. Winter temperatures are brought near freezing from the cold North Sea flows. Summer water temperatures can reach 20 -- 23 °C after sun; this effect, which happens in the shallow areas around beaches, only in pockets of water, is exaggerated by the large sheltered tidal reach. At the end of the latest glaciation, while the sea level remained lower than it is today, the rivers Witham, Glen and Great Ouse joined into a large river; the deep valley of the Wash was formed, not by the interglacial river, but by ice of the Wolstonian and Devensian stages flowing southwards up the slope represented by the modern coast and forming tunnel valleys, of which the Silver Pit is one of many.
It was this process that narrowness. When the tunnel valley was free of ice and seawater, it was occupied by the river; this kept it free of sediment, unlike most of the tunnel valleys. Since the sea flooded it, the valley seems to have been kept open by tidal action. During the Ipswichian Stage, though the Wash River flowed by way of the site of the Silver Pit, the tunnel valley will not have been formed at this stage, as its alignment seems inconsistent; the Wash is made up of extensive salt marshes, major intertidal banks of sand and mud, shallow waters and deep channels. As understanding of the importance of the natural marshes has increased, in the 21st century the seawall at Freiston has been breached in three places to increase the saltmarsh area, in order to provide an extra habitat for birds waders, as a natural flood prevention measure; the extensive creeks in the salt marsh, the vegetation that grows there, help dissipate wave energy, thus improving the protection afforded to land behind the saltmarsh.
This last aspect is an example of the developing exploration of the possibilities of sustainable coastal management by adopting soft engineering techniques rather than dykes and drainage. The same scheme includes new brackish lagoon habitat. On the eastern side of the Wash, low chalk cliffs, with a noted stratum of red chalk, are found at Hunstanton. Gravel pits are found at Snettisham RSPB reserve, which are an important roost for waders at high tide; this SPA borders onto the North Norfolk Coast Special Protection Area. To the north-west, the Wash extends to another Special Protection Area; the confined nature of the Wash habitats, combined with the ample tidal flows, allows shellfish to breed shrimp and mussels. Some water birds such as oystercatchers feed on shellfish, it is an important breeding area for common tern, a feeding area for marsh harriers. Migrating birds, such as geese and wading birds, come to the Wash in huge numbers to spend the winter, with an average total of around 400,000 birds present at any one time.
It has been estimated that about two million birds a year use the Wash for feeding and roosting during their annual migrations. The Wash is recognised as being internationally important for 17 species of bi
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, with a population of 196,640 in 2015. Part of Northamptonshire, it is 75 miles north of London, on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea 30 miles to the north-east; the railway station is an important stop on the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh. The city is 70 miles east of Birmingham, 38 miles east of Leicester, 81 miles south of Kingston upon Hull and 65 miles west of Norwich; the local topography is flat, in some places the land lies below sea level, for example in parts of the Fens to the east of Peterborough. Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the current city centre with evidence of Roman occupation; the Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, which became Peterborough Cathedral. The population grew after the railways arrived in the 19th century, Peterborough became an industrial centre noted for its brick manufacture.
After the Second World War, growth was limited until designation as a New Town in the 1960s. Housing and population are expanding and a £1 billion regeneration of the city centre and surrounding area is under way; as in much of the United Kingdom, industrial employment has fallen, with a significant proportion of new jobs in financial services and distribution. EtymologyThe town's name changed to Burgh from the late tenth century after Abbot Kenulf had built a defensive wall around the abbey, developed into the form Peterborough; the contrasting form Gildenburgh is found in the 12th century history of the abbey, the Peterborough version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and in a history of the abbey by the monk Hugh Candidus. Present-day Peterborough is the latest in a series of settlements which have at one time or other benefited from its site where the Nene leaves large areas of permanently drained land for the fens. Remains of Bronze Age settlement and what is thought to be religious activity can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the city centre.
The Romans established a fortified garrison town at Durobrivae on Ermine Street, five miles to the west in Water Newton, around the middle of the 1st century AD. Durobrivae's earliest appearance among surviving records is in the Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century. There was a large 1st century Roman fort at Longthorpe, designed to house half a legion, or about 3,000 soldiers. Peterborough was an important area of ceramic production in the Roman period, providing Nene Valley Ware, traded as far away as Cornwall and the Antonine Wall, Caledonia. Peterborough is shown by its original name Medeshamstede to have been an Anglian settlement before AD 655, when Sexwulf founded a monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by Peada of Mercia, who converted to Christianity and was ruler of the smaller Middle Angles sub-group, his brother Wulfhere murdered his own sons converted and finished the monastery by way of atonement. Hereward the Wake rampaged through the town in 1069 or 1070. Outraged, Abbot Turold erected a fort or castle, from his name, was called Mont Turold: this mound, or hill, is on the outside of the deanery garden, now called Tout Hill, although in 1848 Tot-hill or Toot Hill.
The abbey church was rebuilt and enlarged in the 12th century. The Peterborough Chronicle, a version of the Anglo-Saxon one, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman conquest, written here by monks in the 12th century; this is the only known prose history in English between the conquest and the 14th century. The burgesses received their first charter from "Abbot Robert" – Robert of Sutton; the place suffered materially in the war between King John and the confederate barons, many of whom took refuge in the monastery here and in Crowland Abbey, from which sanctuaries they were forced by the king's soldiers, who plundered the religious houses and carried off great treasures. The abbey church became one of Henry VIII's retained, more secular, cathedrals in 1541, having been assessed at the Dissolution as having revenue of £1,972.7s.0¾d per annum. When civil war broke out, Peterborough was divided between supporters of King Charles I and the Long Parliament; the city lay on the border of the Eastern Association of counties which sided with Parliament, the war reached Peterborough in 1643 when soldiers arrived in the city to attack Royalist strongholds at Stamford and Crowland.
The Royalist forces were defeated within a few weeks and retreated to Burghley House, where they were captured and sent to Cambridge. While the Parliamentary soldiers were in Peterborough, they ransacked the cathedral, destroying the Lady Chapel, chapter house, high altar and choir stalls, as well as mediaeval decoration and records. Housing and sanitary improvements were effected under the provisions of an Act of Parliament passed in 1790. After the dissolution the dean and chapter, who succeeded the abbot as lords of the manor, appointed a high bailiff and the constables and other borough officers were elected at their court leet. Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of ha
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