1.
Operational land imager
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The Operational Land Imager is a Ball Aerospace & Technologies built instrument that fly on Landsat Data Continuity Mission. LDCM is the successor to Landsat 7 and was launched in 2013, OLI uses 4-mirror telescope with fixed mirrors. The OLI is a Push broom scanner
2.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
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.
Borough of Swale
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Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England and is bounded by Medway to the west, Canterbury to the east, Ashford to the south and Maidstone to the south west. Its council is based in Sittingbourne, the district is named after the narrow channel called The Swale, a channel that separates the mainland of Kent from the Isle of Sheppey, and which occupies the central part of the district. The Roman Watling Street passed through the area, as witness the straightness of the A2 main road, Swale railway station is at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge. There are four towns in the borough, Sittingbourne and Faversham on the mainland, Swale Borough Council is elected every four years, with currently 47 councillors being elected at each election. After the Conservatives had a majority on the council from 1976 to 1986, no party had overall control from 1986 until the 2002 election when the Conservatives regained control
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.
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
14.
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
15.
Kent Police
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Kent Police is the territorial police force for Kent in England, including the unitary authority of Medway. The force covers an area of 1,443 square miles with a population of 1,660,588. The Chief Constable is currently Alan Pughsley, who was appointed in 2014, Kent Police were the first force in The United Kingdom to be led by a black Chief Constable, Michael Fuller QPM. Due to the Channel Tunnel, Kent Police is unique among English forces in having a station outside of the country, in Coquelles, France. Kent Police work with other UK and European forces as part of the Cross Channel Intelligence Community, the cross channel traffic occasionally causes Kent Police and the Highways Agency to enforce Operation Stack, controlling the freight flow on that part of the M20 motorway closest to the ports. Kent also has the largest strategic road network of any force in the UK, proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006 saw Kent Police stay as a standalone strategic force for Kent and Medway, it had been suggested that Kent should merge with another police force. On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong Kent County Constabulary was formed under Chief Constable John Henry Hay Ruxton. The first headquarters was at Wrens Cross, Stone Street, Maidstone, in 1860, the initial uniform of a frock coat and a high hat was replaced by a long uniform tunic and shako hat and constables were issued with a rattle and truncheon. In 1885 whistles were introduced and in 1897 the recognisable custodian helmet was introduced, on 1 April 1889, Kent County Constabulary absorbed five of the fourteen police forces that policed the county of Kent. The remaining nine were absorbed on 1 April 1943, Ruxton retired on 14 August 1894 and died on 20 April 1897. In terms of mobilisation and communication, Kent Constabulary purchased 20 bicycles in 1896, telephones were given to village police constables in 1925 and by 1931,29 motorcycles had been introduced, along with one police car. The constabulary employed horses until 1943, when the last was retired, in 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,988 attested constables and an actual strength of 1,766, making it the third largest county force in Great Britain. Kent County Constabulary kept this name until the 1990s, when it changed its name to Kent Police, the Kent Police headquarters are currently located at Sutton Road, Maidstone. Kent Police College is located to the rear of the headquarters site, the headquarters houses the Kent Police Museum. Crime investigation and emergency response will be managed at a level from the Force Command. Specialist functions will remain centrally managed, tasers were introduced to Kent police in 2009 for rank and file constables, although only Response vehicle drivers were issued with them. Each Response vehicle had to be crewed with both crew members carrying Taser due to the safety implications, and to allow proper care. On 6 April 2011 it was announced that the 3 new areas will each be commanded by a Chief Superintendent and Superintendent, each individual town within each area will be commanded by a Chief Inspector
16.
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
17.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
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The total coastline covered is 225 km, it has 55 fire stations, and 4 district fire safety offices. The FRS provides emergency cover to a population of nearly 2 million, the area meets the boundaries of the London Fire Brigade to the north of the county, Surrey to the north west and East Sussex to the south west of Kent. The first fire brigade appeared in Kent in 1802 when the Kent Fire Office formed a brigade in Deptford. In the same year, and completely separately from insurance companies, Hythe became the first town in Kent to set up its own fire brigade, by the 20th century, it was quite fashionable for local authorities to have their own fire brigades. Maidstone had seen the formation of its fire brigade in 1901 when the Royal Insurance Company provided a new Shand Mason horse-drawn steam fire engine. This company had taken over the Kent Fire Office in the same year, things often became very competitive between individual town and village brigades, in many instances, each one trying to outdo its neighbour. In 1910, Bromley became the first town in Kent to house motorised fire engines, until 1938, the provision of a fire brigade was a discretionary power, and naturally there were a few local authorities that regarded it as an unnecessary expense. However, due to the threat of war, Parliament enacted the Fire Brigades Act 1938 and made it a duty and so created over 1,600 individual fire authorities across the nation. It was these local brigades and the Auxiliary Fire Service – also formed in 1938 – that valiantly coped with the consequences of the Battle of Britain, in August 1941, local brigades and the AFS were absorbed into one organisation called The National Fire Service. It was in 1941 that the current Headquarters house The Godlands was requisitioned for use by the National Fire Service. World War II brought dark days indeed for Kent fire-fighters, of the 122 Kent names listed,15 were pre-1939,16 were post-1939 and 91 died during World War II. The last death on duty of a Kent fire-fighter was in 1990, the County of Kent and the City and County Borough of Canterbury combined to form Kent Fire Brigade, taking over 79 fire stations from the National Fire Service. Further reorganisation in 1974 saw Canterbury lose its county borough status, in 1998, the structure of local government changed again and Kent combined with the new Medway Towns unitary authority for fire brigade provision. On 1 October 2003, Kent Fire Brigade was renamed Kent Fire and these changes were reflected nationally by the enactment of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which came into effect on 1 October 2004. Each group consists of a number of clusters, which are made up of a number of stations where resources are locally managed. Dymchurch, Eastchurch, Eastry, Hoo, and Paddock Wood, have identified as having a greater need for ambulance cover. The aim of a team is to preserve life until the arrival of either a Rapid Response Vehicle or an Ambulance
18.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
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South East Coast Ambulance Service
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The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is the NHS Ambulance Services Trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent, Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex. It also covers a part of north-eastern Hampshire around Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, sECAmb was made a NHS Foundation Trust on 1 March 2011 - one of only two FTs in England. It is one of 12 ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, and under the Patients Charter, every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The service came into being on 1 July 2006, with the merger of the former Kent Ambulance Service, Surrey Ambulance Service and Sussex Ambulance Service. Until March 2016, the Chief Executive of the Trust was Paul Sutton, who was previously Chief Executive Officer of Sussex Ambulance Service, and the Trusts Chair was Tony Thorne. On 14 March 2016, the BBC announced that Thorne had resigned, at the request of the health regulator for England, Monitor, Thorne was replaced by Sir Peter Dixon who will act as the trusts interim chair. The Trust responds to 999 calls from the public and urgent calls from health professionals, in Kent and Sussex, in addition, the Trust provides the crews and maintains the three ambulances of the Neonatal Transfer Service for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It serves a population of around 4.5 million, during the financial year the three predecessor Trusts responded to about 460,000 emergency calls. It provided paramedics to GP practices across the southeast to take on home visits for a scheme until March 2017 when the scheme was suspended because of a shortage of paramedics. In January 2015 it was reported that the Trust had told paramedics to leave patients at A&E departments if they had not been admitted within 45 minutes of arrival and this delayed the despatch of ambulances to up to 20,000 patients. It was condemned by NHS England for putting the public at risk because there was no evaluation built into its design and it was put into special measures in September 2016 after the Care Quality Commission rated it inadequate because of bullying, delayed response times and putting patients at risk. South East Coast Ambulance Service is under financial pressure and faces a £7.1 million deficit. Ambulance crews in the area no longer be paid to interrupt meal breaks. Patients with breathing problems, car crash victims, patients with chest pains, critics fear this will put lives at risk and worsen outcomes for some surviving patients. Jon Ashworth blamed government financial pressure on the Health Service, critics complain money is prioritized over patient care. The ambulance region is served by Kent, Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance and they have two helicopters based at Redhill Aerodrome & Marden Hospital they also have a reserve, based somewhere at Redhill too Official Website, https, //www. kssairambulance. org
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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Thames Estuary
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The Thames Estuary is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, the eastern boundary of the estuary suggested in a Hydrological Survey of 1882-9 is a line drawn from North Foreland, Margate, Kent via the Kentish Knock lighthouse to Harwich in Essex. It is to this line that the typical estuarine sandbanks extend, the estuary downstream of the Tideway has a tidal movement of 4 metres, moving at a speed of 8 miles per hour. The estuary is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain, the traditional Thames sailing barge worked in this area, designed to be suitable for the shallow waters in the smaller ports. More recently one of the largest wind farms in the UK has been developed in the estuary, located 8.5 km north of Herne Bay, the farm contains 30 wind turbines generating a total of 82. 4MW of electricity. The much larger London Array of up to 1GW capacity is also planned and this area has had several proposed sites for the building of a new airport to supplement, or even to replace Heathrow/Gatwick. In the 1960s Maplin Sands was a contender, in 2002 it was to be at Cliffe, the Thames Estuary is the focal part of the 21st-century toponym, the Thames Gateway, designated as one of the principal development areas in Southern England. The appellation Greater Thames Estuary applies to the coast and the lands bordering the estuary itself. These are characterised by the presence of mudflats, low-lying open beaches and salt marshes, namely the North Kent Marshes and the Essex Marshes. There are many smaller estuaries in Essex, including the Rivers Colne, Blackwater and Crouch Small coastal villages depend on an economy of fishing, boat-building, a similar pattern of replacement can be observed with the aquatic plants and invertebrates living in the river. Joseph Conrad lived in Stanford-le-Hope close to the Essex marshes and his The Mirror of the Sea contains a memorable description of the area as seen from the Thames. Accent The form of speech of many of the people of the area, principally the accents of those from Kent, the term is a term for a milder variety of the London Accent. The term London Accent is generally avoided as it can have many meanings
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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Old English
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
24.
Harty
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Harty is a small hamlet on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent consisting of a few cottages, a church and a public house, the Ferry Inn. The find has wider importance from the information it gives into methods used for casting in the bronze age. Evidence of Roman occupation also exists, finds of tesserae, roof, during the middle ages there were extensive salt workings. Remains today consist of groups of mounds which are the waste left over from the process. In 1798 Edward Hasted recorded that a form of the name was Harteigh which he presumes came from the Saxon Heord-tu. Other forms of the name have been Hertei, Heartege, Herteye, Hasted also noted that the islet was part of the hundred of Faversham unlike the rest of the island of Sheppey which came within Milton Hundred. There were also 4000 sheep and six cottages with 20 people, Harty is a few minutes walk from the Swale National Nature Reserve. Public footpaths run from Harty, along the extent of the reserve to the hamlet of Shellness. The church of St. Thomas the Apostle is Grade II* listed, the date of founding cannot be fixed with certainty. The official listing dates it to late 11th or early 12th century, based in part on Pevsner and in part on Patience & Perks. Patience & Perks start by reporting the raid by Harold in 1052, tufa stone was rarely used after the early Norman period, and so the use of it in a window in the north wall would indicate a date of no later than the end of the 11th century. Patience & Perks observe that the date of AD1089 is ascribed to the Norman work, after 1200 the north aisle was built and the original north wall pierced to form the existing arcade. The now blocked off south door was cut at about this time, in the head of the jamb is a scratch dial or primitive sundial. A little later the chancel was rebuilt, extended to create the sanctuary, at what point the Norman chancel arch was removed is unclear, possibly at the time of the rebuilding but certainly prior to the erection of the rood screen. The 14th century saw the construction of the vestry, Lady chapel and buttressing of the south, the existing rood screen probably dates to this period. There is no rood loft but the leading to one are still visible. The stairs lead out of what is now the vestry but was originally the north chapel and this was a 14th-century extension of the north aisle eastwards. Within the vestry is the remains of an aumbry or secure cupboard for holding books, the 19th and 20th centuries have also left their marks
25.
Elmley
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Elmley is the local name for the Isle of Elmley, part of the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England. It was also the name of a village on the Isle of Elmley. Edward Hasted mentions in 1798, that the Isle was two eighths of the Isle of Sheppey, the village of Elmley was a settlement of around 200 people in the late 19th century. It consisted of the Turkey Cement Works, which was the employer for the area, as well as a school, a church. The cement works closed in 1902 and the population dwindled thereafter, Elmley School closed in the 1920s and the church was demolished in the 1960s, although the graves remain as of 2009. There was also once a service crossing the Swale to Murston. The last surviving buildings of the village are the Grade II listed Kingshill Farmhouse and it forms part of the Elmley National Nature Reserve, which is owned and managed by the Elmley Conservation Trust. It covers 3,250 acres and is one of the largest bird reserves in England, media related to Elmley at Wikimedia Commons
26.
London Clay
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The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content, the fossils from the Lower Eocene indicate a moderately warm climate, the tropical or subtropical flora. Though sea levels changed during the deposition of the Clay, the habitat was generally a lush forest – perhaps like in Indonesia or East Africa today – bordering a warm, the London Clay is a stiff bluish clay which becomes brown when weathered. Nodular lumps of pyrite and crystals of selenite frequently exist in the clay and these have been used in the past for making cement. They were once dug for this purpose at Sheppey, near Sittingbourne, and at Harwich, the clay is still used commercially for making bricks, tiles, and coarse pottery in places such as Michelmersh in Hampshire. It is infertile for gardens and crops, the London Clay is well developed in the London Basin, where it thins westwards from around 150 metres in Essex and north Kent to around 4.6 metres in Wiltshire. Though it is not frequently exposed as it is to a great extent covered by more recent Neogene sediments, one location of particular interest is Oxshott Heath, where the overlying sand and the London Clay layers are exposed as a sand escarpment, rising approximately 25 metres. This supported a brick industry in the area until the 1960s. The clay was deposited in a sea up to 200 metres deep at the eastern end, up to five cycles of deposition have been found, most markedly at the shallower, western end. Each cycle begins with coarser material, followed by clay which becomes increasingly sandy, the final cycle ends with the Claygate Beds. The youngest part of the London Clay, known as the Claygate Beds or Claygate Member forms a transition between the clay and the sandier Bagshot Beds above and this is shown separately on many geological maps, and often caps hills. It is up to 15 metres thick at Claygate, Surrey and it is now believed to be diachronous, with the formation at Claygate for example being the same age as the end of the fourth cycle of deposition further east. Erecting tall buildings in London requires very deep, large and costly piled foundations, London Clay is highly susceptible to volumetric changes depending upon its moisture content. As a result, many companies have now increased the cost of premiums for buildings located in the most susceptible areas where damage occurred. London Clay has a time long enough to enable support to be installed without urgency. It is also almost waterproof, resulting in virtually no seepage of groundwater into the tunnel. It is over-consolidated, which means that it is under pressure, due to its impermeability especially when exposed by ploughing, London clay does not make good agricultural soil. In Middlesex, it has historically been called ploughing up poison, notable coastal exposures from which fossils can be collected are on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent and Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex in the London Basin, and Bognor Regis in the Hampshire Basin
27.
Minster, Swale
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Minster is a large village on the north coast of the Isle of Sheppey and in the Swale district of Kent, England. The name of the town derives from the monastery founded in the area, both places are listed in the Ordnance Survey gazetteer as Minster. Royal Mail identifies a locality of Minster on Sea in the ME12 postcode district, minster-on-Sea is a location mentioned in Dickenss The Old Curiosity Shop. The coast here consists of London Clay, and many fossil remains can be found along the beach after the waves have brought down the cliffs. In around AD670 King Ecgberht of Kent gave land at Minster for his mother Seaxburh of Ely to establish a Benedictine nunnery which was burnt down by the Danes in 855. At some point before the Norman invasion the church was rebuilt and refounded as a Benedictine nunnery, incorporating elements of the construction in the north chancel. Between 1123 and 1139 Archbishop Corbeil refounded it as an Augustinian nunnery and they share a wall containing pointed arches and are now used as a single building. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and along with Davington Priory near Faversham it came into the possession of Sir Thomas Cheney, a favourite of Anne Boleyn. He died in 1558 and was first buried in the chapel of Saint Katherine, today the remains of the old abbey gatehouse is a museum and the remaining tower is being restored. In the early 20th century the island was hit by speculative builders, after the Second World War the population of the village had swollen from about 250 people in 100 homes to 5,500 people in 1,800 homes. Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey is located over two sites in the area, and is the secondary school on the Isle of Sheppey. In 2009 eleven pupils were hurt by the collapse of a heating duct during an exam at its predecessor, Minster Cricket Club play at the Gilbert Hall facility, opposite St. Georges School. The club was established in 1931 and is the largest on the Isle of Sheppey, the club also have a junior section with four colts teams, two midweek cricket teams and a Sunday team. The most recent proposal for a Thames Estuary Airport involves a manmade island just north of the village
28.
The Swale
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The Swale is a strip of sea separating North Kent from the Isle of Sheppey. The Swale was originally part of a valley facing eastwards. As sea-levels rose, water occupied the whole length of the valley, the Swale forms both a National Nature Reserve and a Special Protection Area. The name Swale is Old English in origin, and is believed to mean swirling, rushing river, the Swale was originally part of a river. The channel now occupied by the Swale comprised a river valley facing eastwards, as sea-levels rose, water occupied the whole length of the valley, dividing todays Isle of Sheppey from the mainland. When the Romans arrived in Britain, the Swale extended much wider than it does today, two ferry services also crossed the Swale, one between Oare and Harty, and the other between Murston and Elmley. The Isle of Harty is no separate but the marshlands now gradually filling the channel delineate it. The channel needs constant dredging to allow use of the busy waterway, the Swale is crossed at its western end by two bridges, the Kingsferry Bridge and the later Sheppey Crossing. Since 1968, it has also been a Site of Special Scientific Interest
29.
Wantsum Channel
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The Wantsum Channel was a strait separating the Isle of Thanet from the north-eastern extremity of the English county of Kent and connecting the English Channel and the Thames Estuary. It was a shipping route when Britain was part of the Roman Empire. Eilert Ekwall, a 20th-century authority on English place-names, wrote that the name Wantsum derives from an Old English word wandsum, Ekwall compared this to the name of Yantlet Creek, which separates the Isle of Grain from mainland Kent. He suggested an origin in the Old English word gegnlad meaning backwater or the like, very likely the source of the inlet arm of the sea. From prehistory until the Middle Ages, the Wantsum Channel was joined by the River Stour, the southern end of the channel met the sea at Richborough, downstream of Sandwich, while the northern end met the Thames Estuary at Reculver. That the Romans chose both sites for forts indicates the significance of the route, which their shipping commonly used to travel between Britain and continental Europe, vikings raided Canterbury via the Wantsum in 839. Efforts made by the monks of Minster-in-Thanet to manage the Wantsum in the Middle Ages are reflected in two names for parts of the Channel and Stour, Abbots Wall and Monks Wall. During the 18th century, silting threatened the port of Sandwich and efforts were made to create sluices. These ultimately failed, and as a result Sandwich is now some distance from the sea and it may be that sediment from this erosion contributed to the blocking of the north mouth of the Wantsum. The southern section of the Wantsum Channel is represented by the River Stour, the North Sea flood of 1953 led to the flooding of the land where the Wantsum Channel formerly ran, and briefly made the Isle of Thanet an island again. The Wantsum Channel area features in four recreational walking routes, these being the Saxon Shore Way, the Stour Valley Walk, the Wantsum Walk, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-869103-7 Hearne, T. The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary,6, OCLC642395517, archived from the original on 15 April 2012, retrieved 23 May 2014 Jessup, Kent History Illustrated, Kent Education Committee, OCLC12600389 Jessup, R. F
30.
Isle of Thanet
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The Isle of Thanet /ˈθænɪt/ lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the 600-metre Wantsum Channel, archaeological remains testify to the fact that ancient peoples lived here. Today, it is a tourist destination, but it also has an agricultural base. Called Tanatos from the death of serpents, for while it has none of its own, archaeological evidence shows that the area now known as the Isle of Thanet was one of the major areas of Stone Age settlement. A large hoard of Bronze Age implements has been found at Minster-in-Thanet, like their predecessors, the Romans also crossed the sea to invade Britain. Julius Caesar came first, briefly, in both 55 and 54 BC, one hundred years later Claudius sent four legions to Britain, during that time the port of Richborough, on the opposite side of the Wantsum Channel, became one of the chief ports. After the breakup of the Roman Empire and their departure from Britain, vortigern, King of the Britons, was under attack from other tribes and called for assistance. Among them were the Jutes Hengist and Horsa, he is said to have rewarded them with the Isle of Thanet in return for their services, as the following extract from the Historia Brittonum testifies, Then came three keels, driven into exile from Germany. In them were the brothers Horsa and Hengest, vortigern welcomed them, and handed over to them the island that in their language is called Thanet, in British Ruoihm. Throughout this time the Isle remained an island, the Wantsum Channel allowed ships to sail between the mainland and the island in calm waters. Gradually this silted up, and the last ship sailed through the Channel in 1672, in 851 and again in 854, the Vikings wintered on Thanet. Minsters village website states It is widely believed, around 670 AD, whether in truth or legend, the King purportedly asked Domneva which piece of land she wished to take as compensation for the murder of her two brothers. Her answer was that she would no more than her tame deer would run around. This the King granted her with pleasure, and the became the new Minster. Domneva is a variant name for Domne Eafe, by 1334–1335 Thanet had the highest population density in Kent according to Edward IIIs lay subsidy rolls. It acted as a granary for Calais and documents towards the end of that century refer to turreted walls beneath the cliffs needing maintenance, Coastal erosion has long since destroyed these structures. Margate was incorporated as a borough in 1857 and Ramsgate in 1884. Broadstairs and St Peters Urban District and the Isle of Thanet Rural District covered the rest of the island from 1894 until 1974
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Isle of Grain
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The Isle of Grain is the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula in the district of Medway in Kent. No longer an island, the Isle is almost all marshland, the Isle constitutes a civil parish, which at the 2011 census had a population of 1,648, a net decrease of 83 people in 10 years. Extract from the Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland by John Gorton,1833, GRAINE, ISLE OF, the closure of the road caused considerable anger among the residents of the Island and it was later reopened. The goods route from the Medway Towns to the upper Thames Estuary was later shortened by the Thames and Medway Canal, although this route, in 1855, as part of military defences guarding the Thames, Grain Tower, a fort, was built. It remained in use until 1946, having been used during both World Wars, in various warm years the incidence of marsh fever was extremely high. Since the removal of livestock from marshy areas, the population of native mosquitoes has greatly declined, Yantlet Creek at the south of the Yantlet Line was the downstream limit of the City of Londons ownership of the bed of the River Thames. It is marked by a London Stone beside the mouth of the creek, the south of the Isle is an important industrial area. Until 1982 it was home to a oil refinery. Construction of this facility for British Petroleum took from 1948 to 1952, in the 1990s the refinery site was chosen for a purpose-built facility to make concrete lining segments for the Channel Tunnel. Following completion of the Channel Tunnel, the site is now part-occupied by Thamesport, the remainder is allocated for industrial and warehousing use under the Thames Gateway project. Next to the former BP site is Grain Power Station, built in the 1970s and it was mothballed in 2003, but reopened in 2006 to provide up to three percent of the National Grid supply. There are plans to replace Grain power station when it reaches the end of its life, by building a new. Another major installation is a new Grain Liquefied Natural Gas import facility, the Isle of Grain was the site of Grain Fort, built in the 1860s and used for coastal defence until the 1950s. The fort was almost completely demolished about 1960, leaving only the earth rampart. Grain Tower, about a quarter of a mile off-shore and accessible at low tide, later additions, consisting of concrete emplacements and shelters, were added during the World Wars, and the tower was used as a boom control point. The boom was a chain supporting a huge antisubmarine net across the two rivers, preventing entry by German U-boats, the Isle of Grain is the landing point for the Britned undersea power cable between The Netherlands and the UK. An 1801 map shows that the ancient village of Grain was at one time called St James in the Isle of Grain. Like others in the Hundred of Hoo, the village was named after the dedication of its church, compare Allhallows
32.
Chatham, Kent
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Chatham is one of the Medway towns located within the Medway unitary authority, in North Kent, in South East England. Chatham Dockyard closed in 1984, but major naval buildings remain as the focus for a flourishing tourist industry, Chatham also has military connections, several Army barracks were located here, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for the dockyard. Brompton Barracks, located in the town, remains the headquarters of the Corps of Royal Engineers, the town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It is the headquarters of Medway unitary authority, as well as its principal shopping centre. The name Chatham was first recorded as Cetham in 880, the Domesday Book records the place as Ceteham. Most books explain this name as a British root ceto plus Old English ham, however, the river-valley situation of Chatham is more consistent with cet being an Old English survival of the element catu that was common in Roman-era names and meant basin or valley. Chatham stands on the A2 road along the line of the ancient Celtic route, which was paved by the Romans, among finds have been the remains of a Roman cemetery. It was established as a Royal Dockyard by Queen Elizabeth I in 1568, initially a refitting base, it became a shipbuilding yard, from then until the late 19th century, further expansion of the yard took place. In its time, many thousands of men were employed at the dockyard, after World War I many submarines were also built in Chatham Dockyard. In addition to the dockyard itself, defensive fortifications were built to protect it from attack, upnor Castle had been built in 1567, but had proved ineffectual, the Dutch Raid on the Medway in 1667 showed that more was required. The threat of a attack from the south during the 19th century led to the construction of even more forts. The second phase of fort-building included Fort Pitt, the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom ordered, inter alia, a third outer ring of forts, these included Fort Luton, Fort Bridgewood, and Fort Borstal. These fortifications all required military personnel to man them and Army barracks to house those men and these included Kitchener Barracks, the Royal Marine Barracks, Brompton Artillery Barracks and Melville Barracks. In response to the manpower needs, the village of Chatham and other nearby villages. Trams, and later buses, linked those places to bring in the workforce, the area between the High Street and Luton village illustrates part of that growth, with its many streets of Victorian terraces. The importance of Chatham dockyard gradually declined as Britains naval resources were reduced or moved to other locations, the dockyard buildings were preserved as the historic site Chatham Historic Dockyard, which was under consideration as a World Heritage Site the site is being used for other purposes. Part of the St Marys Island section is now used as a marina, under the most recent change, in 1998, and with the addition of the Borough of Gillingham, the Borough of Medway became a unitary authority area, administratively separate from Kent. It remains part of the county of Kent for ceremonial purposes, Medway Council has recently relocated its main administration building to Gun Wharf, the site of the earliest part of the Dockyard, a former Lloyds office building
33.
North Sea
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The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest
34.
Admiralty
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The new Admiralty Board meets only twice a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is controlled by a Navy Board. It is common for the authorities now in charge of the Royal Navy to be referred to as simply The Admiralty. The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom was vested in the monarch from 1964 to 2011, the title was awarded to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Queen Elizabeth II on his 90th birthday. There also continues to be a Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the office of Admiral of England was created around 1400 although there had already been Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546, King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, operational control of the Royal Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State. In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission, the office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709 after which the office was almost permanently in commission. In 1831, the first Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity, in 1964, the Admiralty along with the War Office and the Air Ministry as separate departments of state were abolished, and re-emerged under one single new Ministry of Defence. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are the new Admiralty Board which has a separate Navy Board responsible for the running of the Royal Navy. The Army Board and the Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Board of Admiralty consisted of a number of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. The Lords Commissioners were always a mixture of admirals, known as Naval Lords or Sea Lords and Civil Lords, the quorum of the Board was two commissioners and a secretary. The president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty, after 1806, the First Lord of the Admiralty was always a civilian while the professional head of the navy came to be known as the First Sea Lord. The first real concerted effort to organise the Admiralty was started by Henry VIII. Between 1860 and 1908 there was no study of strategy and of staff work conducted within the naval service. All the navys talent flowed to the great technical universitys and it was perceived by officials within the Admiralty at this time that the running of war was quite a simple matter for any flag officer who required no formal training. The new War Staff had hardly found its feet and it struggled with the opposition to its existence by senior officers they were categorically opposed to a staff. The deficiencies of the system within this department of state could be seen in the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign, there was no mechanisms in place to answer the big strategic questions in 1914 a Trade Division was created. In 1916, Sir John Jellicoe came to the Admiralty, he organized the staff as following, Chief of War Staff, Operations, Intelligence, Signal Section, Mobilization, Trade. This for the first time gave the naval staff direct representation on the Board, the would direct all operations and movements of the fleet, while the would be responsible for mercantile movements and anti-submarine operations
35.
South Eastern and Chatham Railway
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Between 1899 and 1923, the SE&CR had a monopoly of railway services in Kent and to the main Channel ports for ferries to France and Belgium. The companies had competed extensively, with some of the bitterest conflicts between British railway companies, competing routes to the same destinations were built, so many towns in Kent were served by both companies, with a legacy of two stations and services to multiple London termini. By the end of the 19th century, the SER and LC&DR had fought over a small, both were notorious for the poor punctuality of their services and the decrepitude of their rolling stock, and the struggles had driven both companies to the verge of bankruptcy. It became inevitable that they must combine or succumb, the SE&CR was formed on 1 January 1899, when the SER and LC&DR formed a management committee comprising the directors of both companies. This merged the two operations, although they remained legally separate, with receipts split 59% to SER and 41% LC&DR until the Grouping, to avoid the costs. The SE&CR began connecting the two networks and new services were introduced, reaping the benefits of joint working, the overlapping networks on the Isle of Thanet were rationalised by the Southern Railway. Service cuts under BR saw Gravesend lose its second station, after the formation of the SE&CR, three minor lines were built before the formation of the Southern Railway in 1923. They were, Tattenham Corner branch - Kingswood to Tattenham Corner, the Sheppey Light Railway - branch off the Sheerness branch, in 1901. Bexhill branch - Crowhurst, on the Hastings Line, to Bexhill West, on 21 March 1898, a passenger train hauled by F class No.205 was in a rear-end collision with a passenger train at St Johns, London due to a signalmans error. Three people were killed and twenty were injured, in March 1904, a passenger train hauled by C class No.294 was derailed at Gomshall, Surrey. On 6 December 1905, the roof of Charing Cross station collapsed after a tie-rod snapped, six people were killed and eight were injured. On 5 March 1909, a passenger train overran signals and was in collision with a mail train at Tonbridge Junction. Two people were killed and eleven were injured, on 11 March 1913, a passenger train failed to stop at Ramsgate Town station, Kent and crashed into a van, which was pushed through the buffers. The accident was caused by the failure to connect the pipe between the locomotive and its train. On 5 May 1919, a train overran signals and was in collision with a freight train that was being shunted at Paddock Wood. The LC&DRs works at Longhedge, Battersea closed in 1911 and production was concentrated at Ashford, harry Wainwright was replaced by Richard Maunsell as Locomotive Superintendent in 1913. The proposed method was 1500V DC using two additional rails - i. e. four rails like London Underground and the L&NWR and this very high voltage for rail track level systems was used in Britain only on the L&YRs 1200V DC side-contact third-rail line from Manchester Victoria to Bury. Grouping in 1923 led to Southern Railways adopting the L&SWRs standard of 660V DC third rail on the SECRs network, the SE&CR operated ships on cross-channel services
36.
Kingsferry Bridge
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The Kingsferry Bridge is a combined road and railway vertical-lift bridge connecting the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent in South East England. It was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson, and built by John Howard, with Dorman Long, the bridge is a 7 span structure with central lifting span. The first bridge on the site had been a railway bridge built in 1860 as part of the London, Chatham. This was replaced in 1904 by a Scherzer-type bascule bridge, on 17 December 1922, the Norwegian cargo ship Gyp collided with the bridge, damaging it so badly that it took ten months to repair and re-open the bridge. It was eventually replaced in turn by the present bridge, Swale railway station is at the southern end of the bridge which is regarded by Network Rail as a railway crossing. The A249 was carried on the bridge until the opening of a new fixed Sheppey crossing in 2006, although the railway line carried over the bridge is 3rd-rail electrified, there is no electrification over the bridge itself. Electric trains coast over the bridge to overcome this gap in the electrification, riveted longitudinal steel deck girders, supporting riveted cross girders, which in turn support a reinforced concrete slab deck. The bridge has two sets of spans, each of which has three spans, either side of the central main lifting span. Each set of three spans consists of two simply supported end spans which continue as cantilevers approximately 1/5 span into the middle span, the central 3/5 span sections are simply supported drop in spans supported by halving joints. The main span is a structurally independent lifting span, the bearings are inset from the end lifting beams. Spans 1,3,5 and 7 are 24. 994m c/c of bearings, spans 2 and 6 are 26. 213m, with halving joints 5. 334m from both end and a 15. 547m suspended span. The central lifting span, Span 4, is 31. 242m c/c of bearings, the approach spans have cross girders spaced 2. 438m apart, and the lifting girder has cross girders spaced 6. 248m. Substructure, The abutments are of a concrete construction. Pier 1,2,5 and 6 comprise 5 No. reinforced concrete circular caisson piles and they have a diameter of 1. 37m and spaced at 5.49 between centres. A4. 57m high by 1. 83m deep reinforced concrete cap sits above the piers, piers 3 and 4 support the lifting span in addition to the approach spans. They are constructed of a pair of reinforced concrete caissons founded in the river bed. The caissons are linked by a structure at approximately low tide level which accommodates the machinery room. Two concrete towers extend above road level to support the cables and counterweights, in addition to housing the mess rooms
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Vertical-lift bridge
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A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule, generally speaking they cost less to build for longer moveable spans. The counterweights in a lift are only required to be equal to the weight of the deck. As a result, heavier materials can be used in the deck, although most vertical-lift bridges use towers, each equipped with counterweights, some use hydraulic jacks located below the deck. An example is the 52-foot span bridge at St Paul Avenue in Milwaukee, another design used balance beams to lift the deck, with pivoting bascules located on the top of the lift towers. An example of this kind was built at La Salle in Illinois, the biggest disadvantage to the vertical-lift bridge is the height restriction for vessels passing under it. This is a result of the deck remaining suspended above the passageway, Ryde Bridge – road – Ryde, New South Wales – opened 1935, now permanently lowered Hexham Bridge – road – Hexham, New South Wales – opened 1952. In addition, there are also Bridges 13,17 and 18 on the Welland Recreational Waterway, however, these bridges have not been operational since 1973. Bridges 13 and 18 have had their counterweights removed while the machinery for Bridge 17 has been dismantled, in addition, Bridge 18 no longer possesses its towers, they were removed for ease of maintenance. Burlington Canal Lift Bridge, over the Burlington Canal, Burlington, information is available from Built 1962. Second Narrows Bridge Vancouver, BC over Burrard Inlet, Okanagan Lake Bridge in Kelowna, BC across Okanagan Lake – replaced in 2008. Shippagan Bridge Shippagan, NB over Shippagan Bay, sir Ambrose Shea Bridge, Placentia, NL. Pont Gustave-Flaubert – crossing the Seine at Rouen, this bridge is the highest vertical-lift bridge in Europe. It is 670 m long, with a span of 116 metres, a striking design feature, the two road sections are mounted outside the central towers. The bridge was designed by François Gillard and Aymeric Zublena and opened to traffic on 25 September 2008. It is named after the author Gustave Flaubert who was born in Rouen, the central lift span is 117m long and can be lifted vertically up to 53m to let tall ships pass underneath. The bridge is 575m long with the lift span weighing around 2,600 tonnes. Its width varies from 32 to 45m and it will be used by cars, trams, cyclists and it can handle 43,000 vehicles a day and will reduce traffic congestion in Bordeaux
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Sheppey Crossing
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The Sheppey Crossing is a bridge which carries the A249 road across The Swale, linking the Isle of Sheppey with mainland of Kent. The four-lane crossing measures 21.5 m in width, at a height of 35 m over the water, the A249 links the M20 and M2 motorways to Sheppey. The bridge opened in 2006, and it provides an alternative highway to the neighbouring Kingsferry Bridge that was completed in 1959. The Sheppey Crossing is not open to pedestrians, bicycles, or horses, both bridges are monitored by an automatic number plate recognition system to detect lawbreaking vehicles. The bridge was constructed as part of a £100 million plan to improve the A249 between the M2 and the port of Sheerness, secondly, it is a vertical-lift bridge. It needs to be raised regularly to allow traffic to pass under it. Before its opening, it was estimated that 26,000 vehicles a day would use the new crossing, the bridge was designed by Cass Hayward and Capita Symonds, and won the 2007 IStructE Award for Transportation Structures. A jacking mechanism was employed to move the sections of roadway into position from each end of the bridge, the bridge was opened on 3 July 2006, by the Minister of Transport, Stephen Ladyman. A competition held to name the new bridge was won by lifelong Sheppey resident Reginald Grimwade, who was then invited to attend the opening ceremony and presented with an award by Ladyman. On the morning of 5 September 2013, more than 130 vehicles were involved in a series of shunt crashes on the carriageway of the crossing which at the time was covered in heavy fog. Emergency services were called to the crossing at around 07,15 BST according to Kent Police, inappropriate driving in conditions of very poor visibility was suggested as the cause. There were eight serious injuries and 60 minor injuries, but no life-threatening injuries or deaths, following the incident, questions were raised over the safety of the unlit bridge with calls for speed restrictions and overhead lights. The AA suggested matrix warning signs as a minimum, Highways Agency photo gallery Highways Agency article on the opening ceremony
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A249 road
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The A249 is a road in Kent, England, running from Maidstone to Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. It mainly functions as a link between the M2 and M20 motorways, and for vehicle traffic to the port at Sheerness. In 2006 an upgraded dual carriageway section opened between Iwade and Queenborough, including a new fixed crossing over the Swale, the existing lifting Kingsferry Bridge has been retained as an alternative route. On 5 September 2013 more than 100 vehicles were involved in an accident on the crossing, the A249 begins close to Maidstone town centre, where it commences by heading eastwards from the southbound A229 Lower Stone Street along first Mote Road and then along Wat Tyler Way. Due to Maidstones one-way system, the westbound carriageway extends along for a way along Knightrider Street before it then ends. At the top of Wat Tyler Way, where that road meets King Street, from here, the A249 heads north on Albion Place. This very quickly becomes the Sittingbourne Road, after passing Vinters Park, and reaching the north end of the town at the Chiltern Hundreds roundabout. This old route is broken as the old Sittingbourne Road has become a Park and this break occurred during the 1990s, as the result of works to widen and upgrade the former A20 Maidstone Bypass section of the M20 to remove a bottleneck on the newly completed motorway. Instead of following its old course, the route turns east onto the Bearsted Road towards Grove Green, here, the route crosses the M20, rejoining the Sittingbourne Road at the exit of the motorway roundabout. From this point onwards, the route becomes Primary, the road then climbs up onto the Downs via Detling Hill, past the village of Detling and crossing the Pilgrims Way and North Downs Way. After Detling Hill, the road known as the Maidstone road and passes the Kent County Showground. Further on the road passes a large layby on the northbound carriageway, the road passes the village of Stockbury, then heads to a junction coming off the M2. The route now passes the hamlets of Danaway and Chestnut Street, the next junction on the A249, comes at Key Street, where it meets the A2, which heads left to Newington and Rainham to the west or right Sittingbourne to the east. From here the route continues across the plains of Swale, past Bobbing, Kemsley. Non-motorised traffic still uses the old route and rejoins the A249 on the island, once on the Isle of Sheppey, the road follows a new dual carriageway built in conjunction with the new bridge as far as Queenborough. Then it returns to its old single carriageway route along Brielle way into Sheerness, past Blue Town, before ending at a roundabout near the seaport, here the A249 becomes the A250 on Bridge Road. SABRE Roaders Digest - A249 Highways Agency - Iwade-Queenborough improvements Highways Agency - Iwade-Queenborough improvements
40.
Iwade
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Iwade is a village and civil parish 2 miles north of the town of Sittingbourne in the English county of Kent. It lies on the old route of the A249 road to the Isle of Sheppey but was bypassed when the road was upgraded to a dual carriageway in 2006, Iwade is the nearest settlement to Swale railway station. According to Edward Hasted, in 1798, the manor of Warde, was within the hundred of Teynham and it had sixteen houses, and about 60 or 70 inhabitants. Although small, Iwade has a school, nursery, health centre, village hall, public house and post office. The village church is dedicated to All Saints and is a Grade I listed building It is within the diocese of Canterbury, the village also features the Sittingbourne Speedway track, which offers speedway training facilities for riders all over the country. It was the base of the speedway team Sittingbourne Crusaders who raced in the Conference League sporadically from 1995 until 2008, in 2014, during the development of new homes, a henge was discovered. In February 2016 the village council erected its flag pole on the mound, as you enter the village
41.
Lower Halstow
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Lower Halstow is a village and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England. The village is situated to the north west of Sittingbourne on the banks of the Medway Estuary and it lies north of Newington on the A2 Roman road. The village has a long and interesting history, with evidence of constant occupation since the Iron Age, being so close to the water, Lower Halstow has been a village that has made its living from the water. Whether it be ancient pottery making, ancient fishing, barge building, or in the 19th- and 20th-century brick-making, according to Edward Hasted in 1798, two large hospital ships, commonly called lazarettos, were moored in Halstow Creek. The lazarettos monitored ships coming to England which were forced to stay in the creek under quarantine, in 1563, Queen Elizabeth ordered a survey, and Halstow Key, was made up of 24 people in houses and 14 living on boats. There were two hamlets, one beside the wharf and the other around Halstow Green on Lower Street, the rest of the northern lands were salt marsh. Lands heading southwards were heavy clay, all the lands were under the control of the manor of Milton Regis. In 2011, the population of the village was 1,180, the name of the village has developed gradually over the years, Holy Place Pronounced ail-stoo, with a long oo as in through c. 1100, Halgastaw,1160, Halgastow,1199, Halegestowe,1226, Halgesto,1576, Halstowe,1610, Halstoe,1790, Halstow,1810 – Lower Halstow. On the banks of the Medway Estuary is the church of St Margaret of Antioch and this Grade II listed church has a long history that can be traced back to Saxon times. It is in the diocese of Canterbury, and deanery of Sittingbourne, the first recorded parish priest was John de London who was a nephew to St Thomas Becket. The church has features and ancient artifacts that are still in use today, the church can trace its oldest parts back to the 7th century, making it one of the oldest churches still in use in England. Also the Grade II listed Green Farm House, high Halstow on the Hoo Peninsula Media related to Lower Halstow at Wikimedia Commons
42.
Faversham
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Faversham /ˈfævərʃəm/ is a market town and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England. The town is 48 miles from London and 10 miles from Canterbury and lies next to the Swale and it is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The Faversham name is of Latin via Old English origin, meaning the metal-workers village, there has been a settlement at Faversham since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek, and archaeological evidence has shown a Roman theatre was based in the town. It was inhabited by the Saxons and mentioned in the Domesday book as Favreshant, the town was favoured by King Stephen who established Faversham Abbey, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Subsequently, the became an important seaport and established itself as a centre for brewing. The town was also the centre of the industry between the 17th and early 20th century, before a decline following an accident in 1916 which killed over 100 workers. This coincided with a revival of the industry in the town. Faversham has a number of landmarks, with several churches including St Mary of Charity, Faversham Parish Church. Faversham Market has been established for over 900 years and is based in the town centre. There are good road and rail links, including a Southeastern service to the High Speed 1 line at Ebbsfleet International, Faversham was established as a settlement before the Roman conquest. The town was less than 10 miles from Canterbury, and consequently Faversham had become established on this road network by 50 AD following the initial conquest by Claudius in 43 AD. In 2013, the remains of a 2, 000-year-old Roman theatre, the cockpit-style outdoor auditorium, the first of its kind found in Britain, was a style the Romans used elsewhere in their empire on the Continent. There is archaeological evidence to suggest that Faversham was a capital for the Saxon kings of Kent. It was held in royal demesne in 811, and is cited in a charter granted by Coenwulf. Coenwulf described the town as the Kings little town of Fefresham, the name has been documented as meaning the metal-workers village, which may derive from the Old English fæfere, which in turn comes from the Latin faber meaning craftsman or forger. The town had established itself as a seaport by the Middle Ages, the Gough Map of Britain, printed in 1360, shows the Swale as an important shipping channel for trade. The manor was recorded as Terra Regis, meaning it was part of the ancient royal estates. King Stephen gave it to his lieutenant, William of Ypres
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World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded as the Plumage League in 1889 by Emily Williamson, the RSPB has over 1300 employees,18,000 volunteers and more than 1 million members, making it the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe. The RSPB has many groups and maintains 200 nature reserves. The group gained popularity and eventually amalgamated with the Fur and Feather League in Croydon to form the Society for the Protection of Birds, the Society gained its Royal Charter in 1904. At the time that the Society was founded in Britain, similar societies were founded in other European countries. In 1961, the society acquired The Lodge in Sandy, Bedfordshire as its new headquarters, today, the RSPB works with both the civil service and the Government to advise Government policies on conservation and environmentalism. It is one of several organisations that determine the conservation status list for all birds found in the UK. The RSPB maintains over 200 reserves throughout the United Kingdom, covering a range of habitats, from estuaries. The reserves often have bird hides provided for birdwatchers and many provide visitor centres, the RSPB confers awards, including the Presidents Award, for volunteers who make a notable contribution to the work of the society. The RSPB say, The RSPB Medal is the Societys most prestigious award and it is presented to an individual in recognition of wild bird protection and countryside conservation. It is usually awarded annually to one or occasionally two people, Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903. The title changed to Bird Notes in 1947, in the 1950s, there were four copies per year. Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years, for example, volume XXV, number one was dated Winter 1951, and number eight in the same volume was dated Autumn 1953. From the mid-1950s, many of the covers were by Charles Tunnicliffe, from January 1964, publication increased to six per year. Volumes again covered two years, so vol,30, covering 1962–63, therefore included nine issues, ending with the Winter 1963–64 edition instead of eight. The final edition, vol.31 no,12, was published in late 1965. Miss M. G. Davies, BA, MBOU John Clegg Jeremy Boswell Bird Notes successor Birds replaced it immediately, with volume 1, issues were published quarterly, numbered so that a new volume started every other year. The Autumn 2013 edition, dated August–October 2013, being vol.25 no, Birds had eleven credited editors during its 47-year,199 edition run
Anglo Saxon Chronicle (A-Prime). Wikisource. 855. "Her hæþne men ærest on Sceapige ofer winter sætun."
