1.
Oxfordshire
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Oxfordshire is a county in South East England bordering on Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. The county has major education and tourist industries and is noted for the concentration of performance companies and facilities. Oxford University Press is the largest firm among a concentration of print and publishing firms, the main centre of population is the city of Oxford. The highest point is White Horse Hill, in the Vale of White Horse, oxfordshires county flower is the Snakes-head Fritillary. Historically the area has always had some importance, since it contains valuable agricultural land in the centre of the county, largely ignored by the Romans, it was not until the formation of a settlement at Oxford in the eighth century that the area grew in importance. Alfred the Great was born across the Thames in Wantage, Vale of White Horse, the University of Oxford was founded in 1096, though its collegiate structure did not develop until later on. The university in the county town of Oxford grew in importance during the Middle Ages, the area was part of the Cotswolds wool trade from the 13th century, generating much wealth, particularly in the western portions of the county in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Morris Motors was founded in Oxford in 1912, bringing industry to an otherwise agricultural county. The importance of agriculture as an employer has declined rapidly in the 20th century though, nonetheless, Oxfordshire remains a very agricultural county by land use, with a lower population than neighbouring Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which are both smaller. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the army unit in the area, was based at Cowley Barracks on Bullingdon Green. Conversely, the Caversham area of Reading, now administratively in Berkshire, was part of Oxfordshire as was the parish of Stokenchurch. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Oxfordshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Oxfordshire has a comprehensive education system with 23 independent schools and 35 state secondary schools. Only eight schools do not have a form, these are mostly in South Oxfordshire. The county has two universities, the ancient University of Oxford and the modern Oxford Brookes University, both located in Oxford, in addition, Wroxton College, located in Banbury, is affiliated with Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey. The dreaming spires of the buildings of the University of Oxford are among the reasons for Oxford being the sixth most visited city in the United Kingdom for international visitors. Among many notable University buildings are the Sheldonian Theatre, built 1664–68 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren, Blenheim Palace close to Woodstock was built by the great architect John Vanbrugh for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, after he had won the battle of Blenheim. The gardens, which can be visited, were designed by the landscape gardener Capability Brown, in the palace, which can also be visited by the public, Sir Winston Churchill was born in 1874
2.
United Kingdom Census 2011
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A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011 and it was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National Statistics is the office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department formed in 2008. ONS designs, manages and runs the census in England and Wales, the first results from the 2011 census, age and sex, and occupied households estimates for England and Wales and Northern Ireland, were released on 16 July 2012. The first results for Scotland, and the first UK-wide results, were published on 17 December 2012, more detailed and specialised data were published from 2013. The Registrar General John Rickman conducted the first census of Great Britains population, from 1911 onwards rapid social change, scientific breakthroughs, and major world events affected the structure of the population. The 1971 census was run by the newly created Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, in 1996 the Office for National Statistics was formed by merging the Central Statistical Office, OPCS and the statistics division of the Department of Employment, the first census it ran was in 2001. In 2008 the UK Statistics Authority was established as an independent body, a population census is a key instrument for assessing the needs of local communities. When related to data sources such as housing or agricultural censuses, or sample surveys. Most countries of the world take censuses, the United Nations recommends that countries take a census at least once every ten years, other organisations that use census data include healthcare organisations, community groups, researchers and businesses. The 2011 census for England and Wales included around 25 million households, people could complete and submit their questionnaire online, or fill it in on paper and post it back in a pre-addressed envelope. Guidance was provided online and through the census helpline, completed questionnaires were electronically tracked and field staff followed up with households that did not return a questionnaire. In these cases field staff delivered and collected questionnaires and, where needed, provided advice or assistance in completing the questionnaire, there was a legal requirement to complete the 2011 census questionnaire, under the terms of the Census Act 1920. As at 27 March 2011 everyone who had lived or intended to live in the country for three months or more was required to complete a questionnaire, failure to return a completed questionnaire could lead to a fine and criminal record. The contract is valued at £150 million, approximately one third of the total £482 million census budget, concerns were raised during contract negotiations that the US PATRIOT Act could be used to force Lockheed Martin to reveal census data to US authorities. The Cabinet Office state that Lockheed Martin will develop the systems used to process census data, neither Lockheed Martin UK nor any Lockheed Martin employee will have access to personal Census data. The Office for National Statistics stated that no census information will ever leave the UK or be seen by any American-owned company. Several groups called for a boycott of the census over the involvement of Lockheed Martin, including the Stop the War Coalition, and the Christian thinktank Ekklesia
3.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Cherwell District
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Cherwell is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford. Towns in Cherwell include Banbury and Bicester, kidlington is a contender for largest village in England. The Northern half of the Cherwell district consists mainly of rolling hills vallying down towards to River Cherwell. Much of the district is soft rolling hills with the northwest of the district lying at the extremity of the Cotswolds. Much of the district is within reach of the M40. It also has rail links with London, Birmingham, Oxford. Adderbury, Ambrosden, Ardley, Arncott Banbury, Barford St. John, the district used to have a recycling rate of just 9%. This changed with the introduction of the blue box scheme for recycling paper, kidlington has its own freecycling group. Cherwell District came top of a Which, study that ranked 395 local authorities in Britain on their record of enforcement of food safety regulations. Cherwell local elections History of Banbury, Oxfordshire
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
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
13.
Banbury
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It had a population of 46,853 at the 2011 census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area, Banburys main industries are car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing, and printing. Banbury is home to the worlds largest coffee-processing facility, built in 1964, the town is famed for Banbury cakes – similar to Eccles cakes but oval in shape. The name Banbury derives from Banna, a Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade there in the 6th century, the name appears as Banesberie in Domesday Book. Another known spelling was Banesebury in Medieval times, during excavations for the construction of an office building in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone, later there was a Roman villa at nearby Wykham Park. The area was settled by the Saxons around the late 5th century, in about 556 Banbury was the scene of a battle between the local Anglo-Saxons of Cynric and Ceawlin, and the local Romano-British. It was a centre for Anglo-Saxon settlement by the mid-6th century. Banbury developed in the Anglo-Saxon period under Danish influence, starting in the late 6th century and it was assessed at 50 hides in the Domesday survey and was then held by the Bishop of Lincoln. The Saxons built Banbury on the west bank of the River Cherwell, on the opposite bank they built Grimsbury, which was part of Northamptonshire but was incorporated into Banbury in 1889. Neithrop was one of the oldest areas in Banbury, having first been recorded as a hamlet in the 13th century and it was formally incorporated into the borough of Banbury in 1889. It continued through what is now Banburys High Street and towards the Fosse Way at Stow-on-the-Wold, Banburys mediæval prosperity was based on wool. Banbury Castle was built from 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, and survived into the Civil War, due to its proximity to Oxford, the Kings capital, Banbury was at one stage a Royalist town, but the inhabitants were known to be strongly Puritan. The castle was demolished after the war, the town was pro-Parliamentarian, but the castle was manned by a Royalist garrison who supported King Charles I. In 1645 during the Civil War, Parliamentary troops were billeted in nearby Hanwell for nine weeks, the opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787 the Oxford Canal was extended southwards, finally opening to Oxford on 1 January 1790, the canals main boat yard was the original outlay of todays Tooleys Boatyard. Peoples Park was set up as a park in 1890 and opened in 1910. The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe and Easington Farm were mostly farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordnance Survey maps of 1964,1955 and 1947
14.
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
15.
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
16.
Thames Valley Police
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It is one of the largest territorial police forces in England covering 2,200 square miles and a population of over 2.1 million people. The police force consists of 4,244 constables,506 special constables,466 Police Community Support Officers and 2,576 police staff, the force was one of around twenty borough forces that amalgamated with their county police force. These were Buckinghamshire Constabulary, Oxfordshire Constabulary, Berkshire Constabulary, Reading Borough Police, under the Police Act 1964 these five forces were amalgamated on 1 April 1968 to form Thames Valley Constabulary. The incumbent commissioner is Anthony Stansfeld, a Conservative Party candidate elected with 34. 7% of the votes in the first round of voting and 57. 2% of the votes after the second round. The police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Thames Valley Police, Thames Valley was previously overseen by a police authority consisting of 19 members, made up of councillors, members from unitary authorities, independents and a magistrate. Following the implementation of the Local Policing Model in April 2011 and these are coterminous with local authority boundaries. These in turn are split into a number of neighbourhoods which are coterminous with parish boundaries and this alignment is to ensure that local policing services are delivered in an accountable manner. Other functions that used to be held at Basic Command Unit level are now delivered at Force Headquarters level using a service approach. These teams consist of officers, community support, special constables and police staff who work to patrol and they use marked vans which read neighbourhood policing on the side rear panel under the Thames Valley police corporate logo. These officers will typically be unarmed and rarely carry taser weapons, the neighbourhood police vans double up as prisoner transport vans when the larger detention van is off-area or busy. However most LPA police vehicles are available to this unit, LPA Response units work out of most major stations in the force area. These officer are often issued with Taser weapons. These officers may be tasked to high crime areas for an increased police presence or to conduct follow up investigations. Both the Neighbourhood Policing Group and Incident Response Unit units all share the LPA standard Vauxhall Astra police car, some rural police offices make use of Vauxhall Antaras as a more effective vehicle. However most divisions with the exception of the Slough, South Oxfordshire and Vale, Thames Valley Police have approximately 52 operational police dogs. The dogs are donated from the RSPCA or public, and are trained at the force headquarters. They usually serve until they are 8 years old, receiving refresher training every year, Thames Valley Police patrols 196 miles of motorways including the M1, M4, M40, A329, A404 and M25, as well as many other A route roads including the busy A43. Thames Valleys Roads Policing Team typically operate a diverse array of vehicles and these may include the Volvo S70 marked vehicles, S80 unmarked and marked Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4
17.
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
18.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
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The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the Fire Service serving the county of Oxfordshire, England. Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters is based in Kidlington, Oxford and this is also the location of the fire service control room and workshops. The current Chief Fire Officer is David Etheridge, the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service currently operates out of 24 fire stations, located across Oxfordshire
19.
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
20.
South Central Ambulance Service
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It is one of 10 NHS Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, as an ambulance service, SCAS primarily responds to emergency 999 calls, in addition to calls from the NHS non-emergency number. The service also provides a transport service for patients in life-threatening condition. The NEPTS transports patients unable to use public transport due to their conditions, patients using outpatient clinics. The Trust also has a division, which provides first aid training to members of the public. It has a resilience and specialist operations department which plans for major or hazardous incidents and this includes a Hazardous Area Response Team, which responds to emergencies involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials, as well as major incidents. The Trust also trains and supports volunteer community first responders and it is the only NHS ambulance organisation in the UK to be supported by its own League of Friends, a registered charity. This group had founded in 1982 to raise funds for the former Oxfordshire Ambulance NHS Trust. The Trust achieved Foundation status on 1 March 2012, becoming known as South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. In June 2011 it was named Englands top performing ambulance service, managing to respond to 77. 5% of Cat A calls within the 8 minute target time, compared to the national average of 74. 9%. In October 2011 the BBC discovered that SCAS spent more on private ambulance services to cover 999 calls than any other service in the country, on 1 March 2012, the Trust became an NHS Foundation Trust. In October 2013 the Trust accidentally published on its website a document listing the age, sexuality and it took over patient transport services in Hampshire in October 2014. In 2014 the trust held a recruitment drive in Poland to help fill vacancies, on November 1st 2016, it was announced that the trust would take over the running of NEPTS in the south-east of England from April 2017. Performance of SCAS is provided by national NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators,1. ^ A Red 1 call is assigned to patients in cardiac arrest. 2. ^ A Red 2 call is assigned to other potentially life-threatening incidents, such as stroke,3. ^ A Red 19 call is assigned to other incidents in which patient transport is needed
21.
Banbury (UK Parliament constituency)
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Banbury is an Oxfordshire constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Victoria Prentis of the Conservative Party. The constituency is commonly, but erroneously, referred to as the North Oxfordshire constituency, in terms of electorate, Banbury was the 13th largest constituency in the United Kingdom and the largest in Oxfordshire at the time of the 2010 general election. The constituency was created January 26,1554 through the efforts of Henry Stafford, until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting only of the town of Banbury, since then it has been a county constituency, consisting of the northern part of Oxfordshire. It was the constituency represented by Lord North, the Prime Minister during the American War of Independence, due to its nature as a safe Conservative seat, its MPs since 1922 have all served long terms in office. Every MP for Banbury since 1922 has been knighted, at the 2010 election, the constituency had the second largest population of any constituency in the United Kingdom after the Isle of Wight. The constituency is heavily involved in agriculture, as well as modern industry, Research and Development, public services. Despite a close election in 1923, the largest vote since 1922 has at each election been for a Conservative Party candidate to serve it, in 2010 Tony Baldry almost doubled his large majority as the second party became the Liberal Democrats. The Conservative vote share and majority were increased at the 2015 general election, 1885-1918, The Municipal Borough of Banbury, and the Sessional Divisions of Banbury and Bloxham, Chadlington, and Wootton North. 1918-1950, The Municipal Boroughs of Banbury, Chipping Norton, and Woodstock, the Urban District of Witney, and the Rural Districts of Banbury, Chipping Norton, Witney, General Election 1914/15, Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The Times House of Commons 1929,1931,1935, the Times House of Commons 1945. The Times House of Commons 1950, the Times House of Commons 1955. Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament Stanley T. Bindoff et al, the House of Commons,1509 –1558,1, Appendices, constituencies, members A – C, Volume 4. D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 The Constitutional Year Book for 1913
22.
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
23.
Chipping Norton
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Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about 12 miles southwest of Banbury and 18 miles northwest of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the population as 6,337. The Rollright Stones, a stone circle 2.5 miles north of Chipping Norton, is evidence of habitation in the area. The towns name means market town, with Chipping meaning market. Chipping Norton began as a settlement at the foot of a hill on which stand the motte-and-bailey Chipping Norton Castle. Only the earthworks of the castle remain, the Church of England parish church of St. Mary the Virgin was built on the hill next to the castle. Parts of the present building may date from the 12th century and it retains features from the 13th and 14th centuries. The nave was rebuilt in about 1485 with a Perpendicular Gothic clerestory. This rebuilding is believed to have been funded by John Ashfield, the rising was brutally put down by Lord Grey de Wilton, Joyes was captured and subsequently hanged in chains from the tower of his own church. The bell tower was rebuilt in 1825, the tower has a ring of eight bells, all of which were cast in 1907 by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. St Marys has also a Sanctus bell cast in 1624 by Roger I Purdue of Bristol, in the Middle Ages wool made the Cotswolds one of the wealthiest parts of England. Many mediaeval buildings built in the town as a result of that trade survive and they became the centre of town and remain so. There is still a market every Wednesday and the mop fair in September, in 1205 a new market place was laid out higher up the hill. Sheep farming was largely displaced by arable but agriculture remained important in part of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Many of the houses around the market place were re-faced in the 18th century with fashionable Georgian facades. An inscription on the records that they were founded in 1640 as The work and gift of Henry Cornish. In 1796 James and William Hitchman founded Hitchmans Brewery in West Street, in 1849 the business built a larger brewery in Albion Street that included a malthouse and its own water wells. Three generations of Hitchmans ran the brewery, but in 1890 Alfred Hitchman sold the business as a limited company, the new company grew by buying other breweries in 1891 and 1917
24.
Cotswolds
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The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat rare in the UK and that is quarried for the golden coloured Cotswold stone. It contains unique features derived from the use of this mineral, the well-established boundaries of the Cotswolds have expanded considerably since moving out of the cities and into the countryside gained popularity. Now the Cotswolds boundaries are roughly 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties, mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the hills give their name to the Cotswold local-government district in Gloucestershire, which administers a large part of the area. The highest point of the region is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft, there is evidence of Neolithic settlement from burial chambers on Cotswold Edge, and there are remains of Bronze and Iron Age forts. Later the Romans built villas, such as at Chedworth, settlements such as Gloucester, the area still preserves numerous large, handsome Cotswold Stone wool churches. The affluent area in the 21st century has attracted wealthy Londoners and others who own homes there or have chosen to retire to the Cotswolds. The name Cotswold is popularly attributed the meaning sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides, incorporating the term, wold, compare also the Weald from the Saxon/German word Wald meaning wood. Cod was interpreted as an Old English personal name, which may be recognised in further names, Cutsdean, Codeswellan, the spine of the Cotswolds runs southwest to northeast through six counties, particularly Gloucestershire, west Oxfordshire and south western Warwickshire. The northern and western edges of the Cotswolds are marked by steep escarpments down to the Severn valley and this feature, known as the Cotswold escarpment, or sometimes the Cotswold Edge, is a result of the uplifting of the limestone layer, exposing its broken edge. This is a cuesta, in geological terms, the dip slope is to the southeast. On the eastern boundary lies the city of Oxford and on the west is Stroud, to the southeast, the upper reaches of the Thames Valley and towns such as Lechlade, Tetbury and Fairford are often considered to mark the limit of this region. To the south the Cotswolds, with the uplift of the Cotswold Edge, reach beyond Bath. The area is characterised by small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone. This limestone is rich in fossils, particularly of fossilised sea urchins, Cotswold towns include Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Burford, Chipping Norton, Dursley, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Stroud and Winchcombe. Bath, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester and Stroud are larger urban centres that border on, or are surrounded by. The town of Chipping Campden is notable for being the home of the Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris at the end of the 19th, William Morris lived occasionally in Broadway Tower, a folly, now part of a country park. Chipping Campden also is known for the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games, Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic Jurassic limestone
25.
Ironstone
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This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely banded, nonbanded, and noncherty sedimentary rocks of post-Precambrian age. The Precambrian deposits, which have a different origin, are known as banded iron formations. Freshly cleaved ironstone is usually grey, the brown external appearance is due to oxidation of its surface. Ironstone, being a rock is not always homogeneous, and can be found in a red and black banded form called tiger iron. Sometimes ironstone hosts concretions or opal gems, Ironstone occurs in a variety of forms. The various forms of ironstone include siderite nodules, deeply weathered saprolite, i. e. Ironstone, although widespread, is a limited source of iron. Historically, most of British iron originated from ironstone, but it is now used for this purpose because it is far too limited in quantity to be an economic source of iron ore. Its iron quality is in its resistance to chipping, not in any ingredient in its manufacture, the stone can also be used as a building material. Examples include the churches at Kirby Bellars and South Croxton in Leicestershire. Iron ore Iron-rich sedimentary rocks Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway
26.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were independently updated. In one case, the Chronicle was still being updated in 1154. Nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part, though not all are of historical value. The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfreds reign and these manuscripts collectively are known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Taken as a whole, however, the Chronicle is the single most important historical source for the period in England between the departure of the Romans and the following the Norman conquest. Much of the information given in the Chronicle is not recorded elsewhere, in addition, the manuscripts are important sources for the history of the English language, in particular, the later Peterborough text is one of the earliest examples of Middle English in existence. Seven of the nine surviving manuscripts and fragments now reside in the British Library, the remaining two are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. All of the manuscripts are copies, so it is not known for certain where or when the first version of the Chronicle was composed. It is generally agreed that the version was written in the late 9th century by a scribe in Wessex. After the original Chronicle was compiled, copies were made and distributed to various monasteries, additional copies were made, for further distribution or to replace lost manuscripts, and some copies were updated independently of each other. Some of these copies are those that have survived. The earliest extant manuscript, the Winchester Chronicle, was written by a single scribe up to the year 891, the scribe wrote the year number, DCCCXCII, in the margin of the next line, subsequent material was written by other scribes. It is known that the Winchester manuscript is at least two removes from the original Chronicle, as a result, there is no proof that the Chronicle was compiled at Winchester. The Chronicle, as well as the distribution of copies to other centres of learning, of the nine surviving manuscripts, seven are written entirely in Old English. One, known as the Bilingual Canterbury Epitome, is in Old English with a translation of each annal into Latin, another, the Peterborough Chronicle, is in Old English except for the last entry, which is in early Middle English. The oldest is known as the Winchester Chronicle or the Parker Chronicle, six of the manuscripts were printed in an 1861 edition for the Rolls Series by Benjamin Thorpe with the text laid out in columns labelled A to F. He also included the few remnants of a burned seventh manuscript
27.
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
28.
Vikings
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The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. Facilitated by advanced seafaring skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century, current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning creek, inlet, various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Viken, meaning a person from Viken. According to this theory, the word simply described persons from this area, however, there are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called Viking in Old Norse manuscripts, in addition, that explanation could only explain the masculine and ignore the feminine, which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly vice versa. The form also occurs as a name on some Swedish rune stones. There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age and this is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, ‘to turn’, similar to Old Icelandic víkja ‘to move, to turn’, with well-attested nautical usages. In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. A víkingr would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterized by the shifting of rowers, in that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, in Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general, the word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ashmen by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, Lochlannach by the Gaels, the modern day name for Sweden in several neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Ruotsi in Finnish and Rootsi in Estonian. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were known as Danes or heathen. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon, similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history, Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century, in that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe
29.
Parish church
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A parish church in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. The church building reflects this status, and there is variety in the size. Many villages in Europe have churches that date back to the Middle Ages, in England, it is the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches. Nearly every part of England is in a parish, and most parishes have an Anglican parish church, in cities without a cathedral of a certain Christian denomination, the parish church may have administrative functions similar to that of a cathedral. However, the diocese will still have a cathedral, while smaller villages may only have a parish church, larger towns may have a parish church and then also smaller churches in various districts which do not have the status of parish church. Often the parish church will be the one to have a full-time minister. One sign of this is that the church is the only one to have a baptismal font. The Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church, also uses a system of parish churches, in Massachusetts, towns elected publicly funded parish churches from 1780 until 1834. Toward the end of the 20th century, a new resurgence in interest in parish churches emerged across the United States and this has given rise to efforts like the Slow Church Movement and The Parish Collective which focus heavily on localized involvement across work, home, and church life. Theologically, many Protestants have embraced the model as having roots in a Reformed view of eschatology. It’s a way of saying ‘I believe in the Incarnation, ’” says pastor Raymond F. Cannata, “Having an earthy eschatology is part of it. ”Roman Catholic parish church Church of England parish church Smith, C. Slow Church, Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus
30.
Gristmill
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A gristmill grinds grain into flour. The term can refer to both the mechanism and the building that holds it. The Greek geographer Strabo reports in his Geography a water-powered grain-mill to have existed near the palace of king Mithradates VI Eupator at Cabira, Asia Minor, before 71 BC. The early mills had horizontal paddle wheels, an arrangement which became known as the Norse wheel. The paddle wheel was attached to a shaft which was, in turn, the turning force produced by the water on the paddles was transferred directly to the runner stone, causing it to grind against a stationary bed, a stone of a similar size and shape. This dependence on the volume and speed of flow of the water meant that the speed of rotation of the stone was highly variable. Vertical wheels were in use in the Roman Empire by the end of the first century BC, and these were described by Vitruvius. The peak of Roman technology is probably the Barbegal aqueduct and mill where water with a 19-metre fall drove sixteen water wheels, giving a grinding capacity estimated at 2.4 to 3.2 tonnes per hour. Water mills seem to have remained in use during the post-Roman period, from this time onward, water wheels began to be used for purposes other than grist milling. In England, the number of mills in operation followed population growth, limited extant examples of gristmills can be found in Europe from the High Middle Ages. An extant well-preserved waterwheel and gristmill on the Ebro River in Spain is associated with the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda, the Cistercians were known for their use of this technology in Western Europe in the period 1100 to 1350. Geared gristmills were built in the medieval Near East and North Africa. Gristmills in the Islamic world were powered by water and wind. The first wind-powered gristmills were built in the 9th and 10th centuries in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, early mills were almost always built and supported by farming communities and the miller received the millers toll in lieu of wages. Most towns and villages had their own mill so that farmers could easily transport their grain there to be milled. These communities were dependent on their local mill as bread was a part of the diet. Classical mill designs are usually water powered, though some are powered by the wind or by livestock, in a watermill a sluice gate is opened to allow water to flow onto, or under, a water wheel to make it turn. In most watermills the water wheel was mounted vertically, i. e. edge-on, in the water, later designs incorporated horizontal steel or cast iron turbines and these were sometimes refitted into the old wheel mills
31.
Turret clock
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A turret clock or a public clock is a clock that is larger than a domestic clock and has a mechanism designed to drive a visual time indicator such as dials and or bells as a public amenity. Turret clocks specifically had mechanisms mounted high in a building often a purpose built tower such as churches, town halls, clocks were not referred to as turret clocks by clockmakers until recent times, often old clocks were recognised as turret clocks by their location. A true turret clock has mechanical and latterly electrical power and therefore sits late in the history of timekeeping, the following timeline of clocks is not comprehensive but does indicate the placement of turret clocks. Water clocks are reported as early as 4000 B. C, in Europe, water clocks were used from around 1000 A. D. to around 1350 A. D. Mercury clocks used a drum with several chambers that were connected through calibrated holes, a rope was wound around the drum with a weight connected to one end. The movement of the drum could be used to measure time, the first all-mechanical clocks which emerged in the 14th century kept time with a verge escapement and foliot. In the second half of the 14th century, over 500 striking turret clocks were installed in buildings all over Europe. This was the first time public clocks became easy to maintain, as water clocks needed more or less constant attention, the verge and foliot mechanical clocks were relatively easy to maintain and so found their way into many churches, bell towers and town halls. This new technology spread quite fast, the fourth generation of clocks were mechanical clocks with a pendulum, which was invented in 1657 by Christiaan Huygens. As the pendulum was more exact than the foliot, some clocks were converted to pendulum. Again, this new technology was adopted quickly throughout Europe, with many clocks being converted, electric turret clocks and hybrid mechanical/electric and were introduced in the late 19th century. Some mechanical turret clocks are wound by electric motor and these still are considered mechanical clocks. This table shows some of the clocks which were installed throughout Europe. It is not complete and mainly serves to illustrate the rate of adoption, there are hardly any surviving turret clock mechanisms that date before 1400, and because of extensive rebuilding of clocks the authenticity of those that do survive is disputed. What little is known of their mechanisms is mostly gleaned from manuscript sources, the country column refers to the present international boundaries. For example, Colmar was in Germany in 1370, but is now in France, during the fourteenth century, the emergence of the foliot replaced the high-maintenance water clocks. It is not known when that happened exactly and which of the early 14th century clocks were water clocks, the Heinrich von Wieck clock in Paris dating from 1362 is the first clock of which it is known with certainty that it had a foliot and a verge escapement. The fact that there is a increase in the number of recorded turret clock installations points to the fact that these new clocks use verge & foliot
32.
Wigginton, Oxfordshire
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Wigginton is a village and civil parish about 6 miles southwest of Banbury in Oxfordshire. The village is beside the River Swere, which forms the boundary of the parish. About 300 metres northeast of the church is the site of a Iron Age enclosure. The occupied part of the villa seems to have reduced in size in the 4th century AD. The site is a scheduled monument, the nave and north and south aisles of the Church of England parish church of Saint Giles were built late in the 13th century. The chancel is early Decorated Gothic, built in about 1300, each aisle is linked with the nave by an arcade of three bays. The Perpendicular Gothic porch and west tower were added in the 15th or late 14th century, the nave clerestory is also a Perpendicular addition. The tower and the clerestory are crenellated, monuments in St Giles include some early 14th century effigies in the chancel, of a recumbent knight on the north side, and of a civilian with two wives or daughters on the south. The stained glass of the east window was added in 1908, St Giles is a Grade I listed building. The tower has a ring of six bells, the bells were then rehung in a new frame by Whites of Appleton. St Giles has also a Sanctus bell that was cast in about 1599, St Giles has an early clock. Its date is unknown but its characteristics suggest it was early in the 17th century. St Giles parish is now part of the Benefice of Hook Norton with Great Rollright, Swerford, Wigginton has a public house, The White Swan, that is controlled by Hook Norton Brewery. There is a Swerford and Wigginton Womens Institute, simcock, A. V. ed. Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400–1850. Oxford, Museum of the History of Science, booth, Paul, Cameron, Esther, Crerar, Belinda. A Roman Lead Tank from Wigginton, North Oxfordshire, lobel, Mary D. Crossley, Alan, eds. A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 9, Bloxham Hundred
33.
Brailes
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Brailes is a civil parish about 3 miles east of Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, England. It includes the two villages of Lower and Upper Brailes but is referred to as one village as the two adjoin each other. The parish includes the village of Winderton about 1.5 miles northeast of Brailes, the parish is bounded to the east by Ditchedge Lane and Beggars Lane, which are an historic ridgeway that also form part of the county boundary with Oxfordshire. The northeastern boundary is a road, part of which follows the course of a Roman road. The River Stour forms part of the boundary, and another part is formed by Sutton Brook. To the west, north and the remainder of the south the parish is bounded by field boundaries, Upper Brailes is on the side of Brailes Hill, which at 761 feet high is the second-highest point in Warwickshire. The east side of the village is bordered by Mine Hill, which is over 620 feet high and is topped by a television mast, between Holloway Hill and the Oxfordshire Boundary the B4035 passes near the top of Gallow Hill, which is 679 feet high. Castle Hill Motte in the middle of the village is a knoll that was made higher in the Norman era to form the motte of a motte-and-bailey castle. Its construction may have ordered by Roger de Beaumont, who was Earl of Warwick 1123–53. Earthworks of both the motte and the bailey survive, and the site is a Scheduled Monument, Brailes was the home of William de Brailes, a 13th-century medieval painter of illuminated manuscripts. Of the many artists who painted such manuscripts, William is one of two whose name has been recorded. On the other side of Stocks Hill is Brailes House, former home to the Sheldon family, the Sheldons have held the manor of Brailes since 1547. The Church of England parish church of Saint George is the largest in the Kington Hundred and is called the Cathedral of the Feldon. Feldon is an Old English word meaning the land from which the timber has been cleared away, excavations in 1879 beneath the arcade between the nave and south aisle are said to have found 12th century foundations. The south aisle was added in about 1280 and is the oldest part of the present church building, the western part of the south arcade was added in about 1330–40 when the nave seems to have been extended westwards to its present length of six bays. At the same time the clerestory was added to the nave, the north aisle may also be 14th century, but rebuildings and alterations in 1649 and 1879 have obscured the evidence for its original appearance. In the 15th century an additional window was inserted in the wall of the chancel. St Georges is a Grade I listed building, the bell tower is 120 feet high and has the third-heaviest ring of six bells in England
34.
Warwickshire
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Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton, the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks, the county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, the historic county boundaries also included Coventry and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border, an average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire, the majority of Warwickshires population live in the north and centre of the county. The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, and include Atherstone, Bedworth, Nuneaton, of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles, engineering and cement production, of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well-known outside of Warwickshire. The south of the county is rural and sparsely populated. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour, the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the countys southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves, the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were, Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Warwick, Stratford and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase -in-Arden, such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden, areas historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. Some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which is based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, Coventry is effectively in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as an area and share a single Chamber of Commerce. Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history, in 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire, in recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this
35.
Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway
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The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway is a former railway in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, England. The railway was built and opened in stages, the Chipping Norton Railway opened in 1855, linking the town of Chipping Norton with the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway at Kingham. The Bourton-on-the-Water Railway between Kingham and Bourton-on-the-Water opened in 1862, by 1881 two further sections of railway had been completed, one between Chipping Norton and Kings Sutton and the other between Bourton-on-the-Water and Cheltenham. Together these four sections of railway formed a line between Cheltenham and Kings Sutton. The BCDR company did not operate services on the line, it contracted the Great Western Railway to do so in return for a share of the receipts, in 1891 the Midland and South Western Junction Railway built a junction with the BCDR at Andoversford. The M&SWJR paid for running rights on the BCDR between Andoversford and Cheltenham, the BCDR remained a separate company until the GWR absorbed it in 1897. All services along the BCDR used to have to change directions at Kingham until 1906, there were two tunnels between Chipping Norton and Hook Norton, Chipping Norton Tunnel,685 yards long, and Hook Norton Tunnel,418 yards long. Hook Norton Tunnel is actually nearer the village of Swerford and is sometimes called Swerford Park Tunnel, there were two viaducts at Hook Norton, Hook Norton no.1 and Hook Norton no.2. In 1951 British Railways withdrew passenger services between Chipping Norton and Kings Sutton and closed all passenger stations on that section of line. In 1958 a landslide at Hook Norton caused freight services to be discontinued between Hook Norton and Chipping Norton, in 1963 Richard Beechings report The Reshaping of British Railways recommended the withdrawal of passenger services between Cheltenham and Chipping Norton. BR had withdrawn all passenger services between Cheltenham and Kingham on 15 October 1962 and between Kingham and Chipping Norton on 1 December 1962. and all services on 7 September 1964. Brown, Bob, Parkhouse, Neil, Jenkins, Stanley C, the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway
36.
Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
37.
British Rail
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British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies and lasted until the privatisation of British Rail. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, the period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the national railway network. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotion had been replaced by diesel and electric traction. Passengers replaced freight as the source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching Axe of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatisation, responsibility for track, signalling and stations was transferred to Railtrack, the British Rail double arrow logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed the arrow of indecision. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century, during World War I the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II, under the Transport Act 1947. This Act made provision for the nationalisation of the network, as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlees Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few railways to consider. Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, the London Underground – publicly owned since 1933 – was also nationalised, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government, the electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation. The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, however, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer, until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the time included the return of road haulage to the private sector. British Railways was divided into regions which were based on the areas the former Big Four operated in, later. Western Region of British Railways, former Great Western Railway lines, London Midland Region of British Railways, former London Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England
38.
Viaduct
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A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley, dry or wetland, or forming a flyover. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere, the ancient Romans did not use the term, it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of equal length. Viaducts may span land, water or both, a viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley or a gorge. The term is conventional for a flyover as opposed to a flying junction or a rail bridge which crosses one feature. In Romance languages, the word refers to a bridge which spans only land. A bridge spanning water is called ponte, the longest viaduct in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in southern France. Viaducts are commonly used in cities that are railroad centers, such as Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, London. These viaducts cross the railroad yards that are needed for freight trains there. These viaducts keep highway and city street traffic from having to be interrupted by the train traffic. Likewise, some viaducts carry railroads over large valleys, or they carry railroads over cities with many cross-streets, many viaducts over land connect points of similar height in a landscape, usually by bridging a river valley or other eroded opening in an otherwise flat area. Often such valleys had roads descending either side that become inadequate for the traffic load, such bridges also lend themselves for use by rail traffic, which requires straighter and flatter routes. Some viaducts have more than one deck, such that one deck has vehicular traffic, others were built to span settled areas, crossing over roads beneath—the reason for many viaducts in London. Viaducts over water use of islands or successive arches. The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France and it was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later. The viaduct Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China is the longest bridge in the according to Guinness World Records as of 2011. Where a viaduct is built across land rather than water, the space below the arches may be used for such as car parking, vehicle repairs, light industry, bars. In the United Kingdom, many lines in urban areas have been constructed on viaducts
39.
Hook Norton ironstone quarries (Brymbo)
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The Hook Norton ironstone quarries were ironstone quarries near Hook Norton in Oxfordshire, England. The original Brymbo Ironworks was founded near Wrexham in Wales in 1798 by John Wilkinson, Wilkinson was a pioneer of the industrial revolution and made a significant fortune from his ironworks. When he died in 1808 his company was held in trust for many due to a legal dispute over his will. In 1842 a new company was formed to run the Brymbo Ironworks, by 1897 the works was close to exhausting its source of ironstone near Wrexham and sought an alternative quarry to feed its furnaces. Ironstone fields near Hook Norton were bought and a set up to calcine the ore. A second kiln was brought into service in June 1900, a narrow gauge internal tramway system was built to serve the quarry and works. This grew to be the largest 2 ft gauge railway in the British steel-making industry, the kilns were sited next to the standard gauge Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway at Council Hill Sidings, three quarters of a mile east of Hook Norton Station. Six cottages were built near the works to house skilled personnel, Brymbo had little hope of obtaining skilled workers locally, stating, labour will have to be imported, as there has been no unemployment here for a long time past. The first section of the tramway was built, running south from the works, through a tunnel under the Hook Norton to Milcombe Road, the tramway was soon extended to the west passing under the B&CDR viaduct to a new quarry near the village. This quarry was exhausted by 1903 and a new quarry at Manor Farm east of the viaduct was opened, trains of calcined ore ran from Hook Norton to Brymbo on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week. Ore was also supplied by the independent Hook Norton ironstone quarries of H. W. Baker, initially this ore was delivered direct to Hook Norton Station by horse and cart. Later the Bakers ore was taken to the Brymbo works site where it could be emptied into wagons or calcined as desired, in 1909 there was a major expansion when Brymbo was able to purchase the land and property of the bankrupt Hook Norton Ironstone Partnership. This included the area known as north of the works on the far side of the B&CDR. A new tramway route was built, passing under a bridge carrying the B&CDR. With the opening of the Redlands quarry, shipments of ore to Wrexham consisted of 50% Park Farm ore and 50% Redlands, owing to the different properties of the stone, this produced a “self-fluxing” charge in the blast furnace. The outbreak of the First World War saw a significant increase in demand for iron, a second locomotive, Joan, was obtained in 1915 and a third kiln built at an unknown date early in the war. Ironstone output rose to 5000 tons per week, more land was acquired to expand the Redlands quarry with the purchase of Whitehills Farm in 1916. In 1917 a new company, the Oxfordshire Ironstone Company, was formed as a joint venture by Baldwins Steel and this company controlled operations at Hook Norton and also the quarries at Wroxton
40.
Narrow-gauge railway
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A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than the 1,435 mm of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm, narrow-gauge railways also have specialized use in mines and other environments where a very small structure gauge makes a very small loading gauge necessary. Narrow-gauge railways also have general applications. Many narrow-gauge street tramways are used, particularly in Europe, where 1,000 mm metre gauge tramways are common, the earliest recorded railway is shown in the De re metallica of 1556, which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about 2 ft gauge. During the 16th century, railways were mainly restricted to hand-pushed narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe, during the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were industrial, connecting mines with nearby transportation points and these railways were usually built to the same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed. The worlds first steam locomotive on rails, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, during the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives. In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the 1,100 mm gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium, historically, many narrow-gauge railways were built as part of specific industrial enterprises and were primarily industrial railways rather than general carriers. Some common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways were mining, logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of the world for these purposes. For example, mountain logging operations in the 19th century often used narrow-gauge railways to transport logs from mill sites to market, significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Fiji, Java, the Philippines, and Queensland. Narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in use for the construction of tunnels. Extensive narrow-gauge railway systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I and they were a short-lived military application, and after the end of the war, the surplus equipment from these created a small boom in narrow gauge railway building in Europe. Narrow-gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. It is also used in populated areas where the potential demand is too low for broader gauge railways to be economically viable. This is the case in some of Australia and most of Southern Africa, the use of such railways has almost vanished due to the capabilities of modern trucks. In many countries, narrow gauge railways were built as feeder or branch lines to feed traffic to more important standard gauge lines, the choice was often not between a narrow-gauge railway and a standard gauge one, but between a narrow-gauge railway and none at all. Some bulk commodities, such as coal, ore, and gravel, can be transshipped, but this still incurs time penalties
41.
Hook Norton Brewery
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Hook Norton Brewery is a regional brewery in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England, several miles outside of the Cotswold Hills. Until 2006, the process was powered by steam. Beer is still delivered in the village by horse-drawn dray, visitors can take a tour of the brewery and visit the museum with historic brewery artifacts and local history displays. Hook Norton Brewery uses a Buxton & Thornley steam engine that has powered most of the machinery in the brewery since 1899 and it is the last commercially working open crank stationary steam engine in the UK. It is a small, simple engine consisting of a cylinder, flywheel, connecting rods, where there are gears in the lineshafting, each pair consists of one iron and one wooden wheel. Thus, if any machinery should jam, only a few wooden teeth will be damaged, the machinery once powered by the steam engine includes, Pumps, both for liquor and wort. The pumps are located next to the engine and are original, the grist mill, which crushes the grains of malt by a precisely-regulated amount. This is also an original 1899 machine, the mashing and raking equipment in the mash tun. A lift for filled casks, dating from 1900, the sack hoist for loading malt. The steam engine now only powers the mashing equipment, mill, the mashing rakes and cask lift have been removed. It is worth noting that, though use of traditional machinery provides a beneficial image of the brewery, it is a commercial enterprise. This practical attitude extends to the rest of the equipment in the brewery, original vessels and machinery are used because they work, not because they are sacred relics that can never be changed. Some modern equipment is used, too, and the mechanics are as likely to be seen welding stainless-steel ducting as carving wooden gear teeth. Outlets for Hook Norton ales include supermarkets, off licences and free houses, the brewery also has a network of 47 tied houses spread across a region from Thame in the east to Worcester in the west and Grove in the south to Napton-on-the-Hill in the north. In total there are 23 Hook Norton pubs in Oxfordshire, nine each in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, list of breweries in England Hook Norton Brewery website Directory of beers at Brewmad
42.
Church of England parish church
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In England, there are parish churches for both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. References to a church, without mention of a denomination, will, however. This is generally true also for Wales, although the Church in Wales is dis-established, the Church of England is made up of parishes, each one forming part of a diocese. Almost every part of England is within both a parish and a diocese and these ecclesiastical parishes are often no longer the same as the civil parishes in local government. Larger towns and cities, even those with cathedrals, still have ecclesiastical parishes, each parish is ministered to by a parish priest, usually called a vicar, rector or priest-in-charge. More rarely the parish priest is known as a perpetual curate, in one instance only the priest is also, by historical custom, officially known as an archpriest. A parish may also be served by a number of chapels of ease, unused redundant parish churches may exist in parishes formed by the merging of two or more parishes, or because of the cost of upkeep. These redundant churches may survive as ruins, remain empty, or be converted for alternative uses, Church of England parish churches are the oldest churches to be found in England, often built before the 16th-century reformation, and so originally Roman Catholic. A number are substantially of Anglo-Saxon date and all subsequent periods of architecture are represented in the country, most parishes have churches that date back to the Middle Ages, though often with many later additions and/or alterations. The parish churches of the City of London are particularly famous for their Baroque architecture, each building reflects its status and there is considerable variety in the size and style of parish churches. Some very large former monastic or collegiate churches are now parish churches, as well as their architecture, many Church of England parish churches are known for their interesting and beautiful church fittings which are often remarkable survivals. These may include monuments, hatchments, wall paintings, stained glass, floor tiles, carved pews, choir stalls, lecterns and fonts, the Church of England parish church was always fundamental to the life of every community, especially in rural areas. Notable Church of England parish churches include, Ashmanhaugh, Norfolk, St. Swithin, bodmin, Cornwall, St Petrocs Church, the church building is late medieval and the largest parish church in Cornwall. Boston, Lincolnshire, St Botolphs Church, The Stump, lantern interior,62 misericords, brent, London, St Gabriels, Cricklewood, a New Wine church which is home to an historic organ used in BBC radio recitals. Bristol, St Mary Redcliffe Church, Twin porches, Perpendicular interior,1,200 roof bosses, brompton, Kensington, London, Holy Trinity, Evangelical Anglican church where the Alpha course was first developed. Burford, Oxfordshire, St Johns Church, Merchants guild chapel, Red Indian memorial, canterbury, Kent, St Martins, oldest surviving CofE parish church of English origin Cheadle, Staffordshire, St Giless Church, Pugins complete 13th-century recreation. Christchurch, Dorset, Christchurch Priory, Norman exterior, Decorated screen, Perpendicular tombs, cirencester, Gloucestershire, St John the Baptists Church, Perpendicular porch, fan vaults, merchants tombs. City of London, St Magnus the Martyr, Wren church situated at the end of old London Bridge, Crediton, Devon, Crediton Parish Church, a former collegiate church which was rebuilt in the 15th century and has some fine monuments
43.
Saint Peter
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Saint Peter, also known as Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simōn pronunciation, according to the New Testament, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, leaders of the early Christian Great Church. Hippolytus of Rome, a 3rd-century theologian, gave him the title of Apostle of the Apostles, according to Catholic teaching, Peter was ordained by Jesus in the Rock of My Church dialogue in Matthew 16,18. He is traditionally counted as the first Bishop of Rome and by Eastern Christian tradition also as the first Patriarch of Antioch. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a saint and as founder of the Church of Antioch. The New Testament indicates that Peter was the son of John and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee or Gaulanitis and his brother Andrew was also an apostle. According to New Testament accounts, Peter was one of twelve apostles chosen by Jesus from his first disciples, originally a fisherman, he played a leadership role and was with Jesus during events witnessed by only a few apostles, such as the Transfiguration. According to the gospels, Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, was part of Jesuss inner circle, thrice denied Jesus and wept bitterly once he realised his deed, according to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, Tradition holds that he was crucified at the site of the Clementine Chapel. His remains are said to be contained in the underground Confessio of St. Peters Basilica. According to Catholic doctrine, the direct successor to Saint Peter is the incumbent pope. Two general epistles in the New Testament are ascribed to Peter, the Gospel of Mark was traditionally thought to show the influence of Peters preaching and eyewitness memories. Peters original name was Shimon or Simeon and he was later given the name Peter, New Testament Greek Πέτρος derived from πέτρα, which means rock. In the Latin translation of the Bible this became Petrus, a form of the feminine petra. Another version of this name is Aramaic, , after his name in Hellenised Aramaic. The English, Dutch and German Peter, French Pierre, the Italian Pietro, the Spanish and Portuguese Pedro, the Syriac or Aramaic word for rock is kepa, which in Greek became Πέτρος, also meaning rock. He is also known as Simon Peter, Cephas and Kepha, both Cephas and Kepha also mean rock. In the New Testament, he is among the first of the disciples called during Jesus ministry, Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early church. Peter was a fisherman in Bethsaida and he was named Simon, son of Jonah or John
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Norman architecture
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The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is used for English Romanesque architecture. Ancient Romes invention of the arch is the basis of all Norman architecture, the more inclusive term romanesque was used of the Romance languages in English by 1715, and was applied to architecture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries from 1819. The Norman arch is a point of Norman architecture. Grand archways are designed to evoke feelings of awe and are commonly seen as the entrance to large religious buildings such as cathedrals. Viking invaders arrived at the mouth of the river Seine in 911, at a time when Franks were fighting on horseback and Frankish lords were building castles. Over the next century the population of the territory ceded to the Vikings, now called Normans, adopted these customs as well as Christianity and the langue doïl. Norman Barons built timber castles on earthen mounds, beginning the development of motte-and-bailey castles, by 950 they were building stone keeps. The Normans were among the most travelled peoples of Europe, exposed to a variety of cultural influences including the Near East, some of which became incorporated in their art. In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence before the Norman Conquest of 1066, edward the Confessor was brought up in Normandy, and in 1042 brought masons to work on Westminster Abbey, the first Romanesque building in England. In 1051 he brought in Norman knights who built castles as a defence against the Welsh. The Norman arch is the round arch, Norman mouldings are carved or incised with geometric ornament, such as chevron patterns, frequently termed zig-zag mouldings, around arches. The cruciform churches often had deep chancels and a crossing tower which has remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. Hundreds of parish churches were built and the great English cathedrals were founded from 1083, after a fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 Norman masons introduced the new Gothic architecture. Around 1191 Wells Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral brought in the English Gothic style, nicholas Church, Pyrford, Surrey Southwell Minster St. Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxfordshire St. Swithuns in Nately Scures, Hampshire, an example of a Norman single-cell apsidal church. His successor Máel Coluim III overthrew him with English and Norman assistance, the Benedictine order founded a monastery at Dunfermline. Her sixth and youngest son who became King David built St. Margarets Chapel at the start of the 12th century, Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline grid reference NT089872 St Andrew Cathedral grid reference NO516166 St. With rare examples of late 12th century Norman Transitional architecture[3 The Normans first landed in Ireland in 1169, within five years earthwork castles were springing up, and in a further five, work was beginning on some of the earliest of the great stone castles
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English Gothic architecture
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English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished in England from about 1180 until about 1520. As with the Gothic architecture of other parts of Europe, English Gothic is defined by its arches, vaulted roofs, buttresses, large windows. The earliest large-scale applications of Gothic architecture in England are at Canterbury Cathedral, many features of Gothic architecture had evolved naturally from Romanesque architecture. This evolution can be seen most particularly at the Norman Durham Cathedral, English Gothic was to develop along lines that sometimes paralleled and sometimes diverged from those of continental Europe. Historians traditionally divide English Gothic into a number of different periods, Gothic architecture continued to flourish in England for a hundred years after the precepts of Renaissance architecture were formalised in Florence in the early 15th century. Many of the largest and finest works of English architecture, notably the medieval cathedrals of England are largely built in the Gothic style, so also are castles, palaces, great houses, universities, and many smaller unpretentious secular buildings, including almshouses and trade halls. Another important group of Gothic buildings in England are the parish churches, historians sometimes refer to the styles as periods, e. g. Perpendicular period in much the same way as an historical era may be referred to as the Tudor period. The various styles are seen at their most fully developed in the cathedrals, abbey churches, according to the originator of the term in 1817, Thomas Rickman, the period ran from 1189 to 1307, Rickman based his defining dates on the reigns of certain English monarchs. In the late 12th century, the Early English Gothic style superseded the Romanesque or Norman style, during the late 13th century, it developed into the Decorated Gothic style, which lasted until the mid-14th century. With all of early architectural styles, there is a gradual overlap between the periods. As fashions changed, new elements were used alongside older ones, especially in large buildings such as churches and cathedrals. It is customary, therefore, to recognise a transitional phase between the Romanesque and Early English periods from the middle of the 12th century, although usually known as Early English, this new Gothic style had originated in the area around Paris before spreading to England. There it was first known as the French style and it was first used in the choir or quire of the abbey church of St Denis, dedicated in June 1144. Even before that, some features had been included in Durham Cathedral, showing a combination of Romanesque, by 1175, with the completion of the Choir at Canterbury Cathedral by William of Sens, the style was firmly established in England. The most significant and characteristic development of the Early English period was the pointed arch known as the lancet, pointed arches were used almost universally, not only in arches of wide span such as those of the nave arcade, but also for doorways and lancet windows. It also allows for greater variation in proportions, whereas the strength of round arches depends on semicircular form. The barrel vaults and groin vaults characteristic of Romanesque building were replaced by rib vaults, the arched windows are usually narrow by comparison to their height and are without tracery. For this reason Early English Gothic is sometimes known as the Lancet style, although arches of equilateral proportion are most often employed, lancet arches of very acute proportions are frequently found and are highly characteristic of the style
