1.
Norwich
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Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in East Anglia and lies about 100 miles north-east of London. It is the administrative centre for East Anglia and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and it remained the capital of the most populous English county until the Industrial Revolution. The urban area of Norwich had a population of 213,166 according to the 2011 Census, the parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local-government districts. A total of 132,512 people live in the City of Norwich, Norwich is the fourth most densely populated local-government district in the East of England, with 3,480 people per square kilometre. In May 2012, Norwich was designated Englands first UNESCO City of Literature, the capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St. Edmund on the River Tas approximately 8 kilometres to the south of modern-day Norwich. Following an uprising led by Boudica around AD60 the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum, literally the market place of the Iceni. According to a rhyme, the demise of Venta Icenorum led to the development of Norwich, Caistor was a city when Norwich was none. There are two suggested models of development for Norwich, the ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, the word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan. The Vikings were a cultural influence in Norwich for 40–50 years at the end of the 9th century. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, the Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5, 000–10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich continued to be a centre for trade, the River Wensum being a convenient export route to the River Yare and Great Yarmouth. Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre and these date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral, the chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy
2.
Norwich School (independent school)
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Norwich School is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a history to 1096 as an episcopal grammar school established by Herbert de Losinga. In the 16th century the school came under the control of the city of Norwich, the school was refounded in 1547 in a royal charter granted by Edward VI and moved to its current site beside the cathedral in 1551. In the 19th century it became independent of the city and its curriculum was broadened in response to the declining demand for classical education following the Industrial Revolution. Early statutes declared the school was to instruct 90 sons of Norwich citizens, for most of its history it was a boys school, before becoming co-educational in the sixth form in 1994 and in every year group in 2010. The school educates the choristers of the cathedral, with which the school has a close relationship, in league tables of British schools it is consistently ranked first in Norfolk and Suffolk and amongst the highest in the United Kingdom. Former pupils are referred to as Old Norvicensians or ONs, the school has maintained a strong academic tradition and has educated a number of notable figures including Lord Nelson, Sir Edward Coke and 17 Fellows of the Royal Society among many others. Several members of the Norwich School of painters, the first provincial art movement in England, were educated at the school, Norwich School traces its origins to the founding of an episcopal grammar school in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich. The continuity of the current Norwich School with the 1096 school would make it one of the oldest surviving schools in the United Kingdom, the newly established school occupied a site on Holmstrete in the parish of St Matthew between the close of Norwich Cathedral and the River Wensum. Until the English Reformation the bishop would appoint the headteacher, though on occasions this role had been fulfilled by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The earliest known headteacher is Vincent of Scarning, who is mentioned in 1240 regarding a dispute with a school in Rudham. Following repairs, the moved to the former friary in 1541, occupying part of the south-west cloister, where it educated 20 boys under a master. The school was refounded as King Edward VI Grammar School in a charter granted by Edward VI dated 7 May 1547. Issued four months into the kings accession, the charter expressly implemented an arrangement designed by Henry VIII and was confirmed by Edward Seymour, unusually for a cathedral city Norwich did not receive a cathedral school following the Reformation, but an endowed city grammar school. Norwich Cathedral was the first of the eight cathedral priories to surrender to the Crown, formally being re-established as a cathedral with a dean. Consequently, negotiations over the charter were between the city, rather than the cathedral, and the Crown. These plans were never realised, however, as the Great Hospital was partially stripped for building materials, the school temporarily occupied St Lukes House, a building north-west of the cathedral. The school moved to the site in the summer of 1551, the chapel was used as the main schoolroom while the other buildings were used to provide a library and accommodation for the master and boarding pupils
3.
J. M. W. Turner
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting and he is commonly known as the painter of light. Joseph Mallord William Turner was baptised on 14 May 1775, and it is generally believed he was born between late April and early May. Turner himself claimed he was born on 23 April, but there is no proof and he was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in London, England. His father, William Turner, was a barber and wig maker and his mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. A younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778, the earliest known artistic exercise by Turner is from this period—a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswells Picturesque View of the Antiquities of England and Wales. Around 1786, Turner was sent to Margate on the north-east Kent coast, here he produced a series of drawings of the town and surrounding area foreshadowing his later work. Turner returned to Margate many times in later life, by this time, Turners drawings were being exhibited in his fathers shop window and sold for a few shillings. His father boasted to the artist Thomas Stothard that, My son, in 1789, Turner again stayed with his uncle who had retired to Sunningwell in Berkshire. A whole sketchbook of work from time in Berkshire survives as well as a watercolour of Oxford. The use of sketches on location, as the foundation for later finished paintings. By the end of 1789, he had begun to study under the topographical draughtsman Thomas Malton. Turner learned from him the tricks of the trade, copying and colouring outline prints of British castles. He would later call Malton My real master, topography was a thriving industry by which a young artist could pay for his studies. In the same year of 1789 he entered the Royal Academy of Art schools, when he was 14 years old, Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy, chaired the panel that admitted him. At first Turner showed a keen interest in architecture, but was advised by the architect Thomas Hardwick to continue painting and his first watercolour painting A View of the Archbishops Palace, Lambeth was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1790 when Turner was 15. As a probationer in the academy, he was drawing from plaster casts of antique sculptures
4.
Thomas Girtin
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Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Girtin was born in Southwark, London, the son of a wealthy brushmaker of Huguenot descent. His father died while Thomas was a child, and his then married a Mr Vaughan. Girtin learnt drawing as a boy, and was apprenticed to Edward Dayes, certainly Dayes did not appreciate his pupils talent, and he was to write dismissively of Girtin after his death. While a youth, Girtin became friends with J. M. W. Turner, Girtin exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794. He went on sketching tours, visiting the north of England, North Wales. By 1799, he had acquired influential patrons such as Lady Sutherland, and he was the dominant member of the Brothers, a sketching society of professional artists and talented amateurs. In 1800, Girtin married Mary Ann Borrett, the 16-year-old daughter of a well-to-do City goldsmith, and set up home in St Georges Row, Hyde Park, next door to the painter Paul Sandby. By 1801, he was a welcome houseguest at his patrons country houses such as Harewood House and Mulgrave Castle, and able to charge 20 guineas for a painting, but his health was deteriorating. In late 1801 to early 1802, he spent five and a months in Paris. They were published as Twenty Views in Paris and its Environs after his death, in spring and summer 1802, Girtin produced a panorama of London, the Eidometropolis,18 feet high and 108 feet in circumference which was exhibited with success that year. It was notable for its treatment of urban light and atmosphere. That November, Girtin died in his room, the cause was variously reported as asthma or ossification of the heart. Girtins early landscapes are akin to 18th-century topographical sketches, but in years he developed a bolder, more spacious, romantic style. The scenery of the north encouraged him to create a new palette of warm browns, slate greys, indigo. Girtins early death reportedly caused Turner to remark, Had Tom Girtin lived I should have starved, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have collections of his work. The British Museum was given significant Girtin watercolours by the collector Chambers Hall, in July 2002 Tate Britain organised an exhibition, Thomas Girtin, The Art of Watercolour which aimed to reveal his technical genius
5.
Surrey
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Surrey is a county in the south east of England. It shares borders with Kent to the east, East Sussex to the south-east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west and south-west, Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, administered as part of Greater London since 1965. With a resident population of 1.1 million, Surrey is the most densely populated and third most populated county in the South East region, after Kent, the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames were part of Surrey until 1965, when they too were absorbed into Greater London. In the same year, the county was extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, due to this expansion, modern Surrey also borders on the London boroughs of Hounslow and Hillingdon. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs, running east-west. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, the geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and it contains a good deal of mature woodland. Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22. 4% coverage compared to an average of 11. 8%. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of woodland in the UK. Surrey also contains Englands principal concentration of lowland heath, on soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with a network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way. Accordingly, Surrey provides much in the way of leisure activities. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking and it is either 293,294 or 295 metres above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill 297 metres in West Berkshire. Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people and its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 66,773, Woking comes a close second with 62,796. They are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155, towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Epsom, Farnham, Staines and Redhill. Guildford is the county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791
6.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
7.
Great Yarmouth
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Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Yare,20 miles east of Norwich, the town has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1960s led to an oil rig supply industry. More recently, the development of energy sources, especially offshore wind power, has created further opportunities for support services. A wind farm of 30 generators is within sight of the town on the Scroby Sands, the town has a beach and two piers. The town itself is on a 3. 1-mile spit sandwiched between the North Sea and River Yare and its well-known features include the historic rows and the main tourist sector on the seafront. The area is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47 and A149 by the Breydon Bridge. The urban area that makes up the town of Great Yarmouth has an area of 8.3 sq mi and it is the main town in the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth. The ONS identify a Great Yarmouth Urban Area, which has a population of 68,317, including the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea, the wider borough of Great Yarmouth has a population of around 92,500, increasing to 97,277 at the 2011 census. Great Yarmouth lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare and its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve, in 1101 the Church of St Nicholas was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, and consecrated in 1119. This was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208, King John granted a charter to Great Yarmouth, a hospital was founded in Yarmouth in the reign of Edward I by Thomas Fastolfe. In 1551, a school founded and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated to its use. The school was closed from 1757 to 1860, was re-established by the charity trustees, in 1552 Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended by James I. In 1668 Charles II incorporated Little Yarmouth in the borough by a charter which with one brief exception remained in force until 1703, in 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War the Zealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the town was the supply base for the North Sea Fleet. The fleet collected at the roadstead, from whence it sailed to the decisive Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch fleet, again in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, the fleet collected at and sailed from the roadstead to the Battle of Copenhagen
8.
King's College School
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Kings College School, commonly referred to as KCS, Kings or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 as the department of Kings College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand. It is a member of the Eton Group of schools, Kings accepts girls into the sixth form. In the sixth form pupils can choose between The International Baccalaureate and A-Levels, a Royal Charter by King George IV founded the School in 1829 as the junior department of the newly established Kings College, London. The School occupied the basement of the College in The Strand, most of its original eighty-five pupils lived in the City within walking distance of the School. During the early Victorian Period, the School grew in numbers, members of the teaching staff included Gabriele Rossetti, who taught Italian. His son, Dante Gabriel, joined the School in 1837, the best known of the early masters was the water-colourist, John Sell Cotman. Nine of his pupils became practising artists and ten architects, by 1843 there were five hundred pupils and the need for larger premises eventually led to the move to Wimbledon in 1897. The school was progressive in its curriculum in areas and appointed its first Science Master in 1855. The first Head Master, John Major, served the school between 1831–1866, ninety-nine of the schools pupils from this period appear in the Dictionary of National Biography. Until the 1880s, the school flourished, in 1882, only Eton College surpassed the total of thirty Oxford and Cambridge Board examination certificates obtained by pupils at KCS. But the schools teaching facilities were becoming inadequate as many competitor schools moved to new sites with modern facilities. In 1897, falling numbers of pupils prompted the move to the present site in Wimbledon. A separate junior school was opened on the campus in 1912. In World War I, many letters were written to the school, during World War II, the schools Great Hall was damaged by bomb shrapnel, and some of the damage can still be seen on the outside of the hall. The only remaining link between KCS and its parent is that one of the KCS Board of Governors is nominated by Kings College London. In the 2015 edition of Tatler Schools Guide, it was commented on that No wonder Oxbridge loves KCS pupils, on 21 November 2014, Kings won the title of Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year. All sixth-formers at Kings currently study either the IB Diploma or the A-Level course, in 201514 pupils obtained the maximum IB score of 45 points, equivalent to 7 A grades at A-Level
9.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt, Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a precursor of the Aesthetic movement. Rossettis art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism and his early poetry was influenced by John Keats. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossettis work. Rossettis personal life was linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth. The son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, Rossetti was born in London, England and his family and friends called him Gabriel, but in publications he put the name Dante first in honour of Dante Alighieri. He was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti and his father was a Roman Catholic, at least prior to his marriage, and his mother was an Anglican, ostensibly Gabriel was baptized as and was a practicing Anglican. During his childhood, Rossetti was home educated and often read the Bible, along with the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, the youthful Rossetti is described as self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic but also ardent, poetic and feckless. Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended Kings College School and he also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. He studied at Henry Sass Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845, when he enrolled in the Antique School of the Royal Academy, after leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life. Following the exhibition of William Holman Hunts painting The Eve of St. Agnes, the painting illustrated a poem by the little-known John Keats. Rossettis own poem, The Blessed Damozel, was an imitation of Keats, together they developed the philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with John Everett Millais. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, the eminent critic John Ruskin wrote, Every Pre-Raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch, in the open air, from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a portrait of some living person. Rossettis first major paintings in oil display the realist qualities of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement and his Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini portray Mary as a teenage girl. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, the mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin, Rossetti only rarely exhibited thereafter, in 1850, Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal, an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters
10.
Samuel Prout
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Samuel Prout was one of the masters of British watercolour architectural painting. Prout secured the position of Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV in 1829, John Ruskin, whose work often emulated Prouts, wrote in 1844, Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout. Prout is often compared to his contemporaries, Turner, Gainsborough, Constable and Ruskin and his nephew is John Skinner Prout He was born at Plymouth, the fourth of fourteen children born to Samuel Prout Senior, a naval outfitter in the dockyard city, and Mary Cater. Attending Plymouth Grammar School he came under the influence of Headmaster Dr. John Bidlake who encouraged the young Prout and they spent whole summer days drawing the quiet cottages, rustic bridges and romantic watermills of the beautiful valleys of Devon. With John Britton, he made a journey through Cornwall to try his hand in furnishing sketches for Brittons Beauties of England, in 1803 he moved to London, where he stayed until 1812. Marrying Elizabeth Gillespie in 1810, they had four children, Rebecca Elizabeth, Elizabeth Delsey, Isabella Anne, in London, Prout saw new possibilities, and endeavoured to correct and improve his style by studying the works of the rising school of landscape. To earn a living, he painted marine pieces for Palser the printseller, took students and he was one of the first to use lithography. It was not however until about 1818 that Prout discovered his niche, happening time to make his first visit to the Continent, and to study the quaint streets and market-places of continental cities, he suddenly found himself in a new and enchanting province of art. His eye caught the picturesque features of the architecture, and his hand recorded them with skill and he established his reputation with these street scenes, and gained praise from his erstwhile student John Ruskin. Whilst often compared, neither Turner nor Prout were vulgar artists, Prout was appointed the coveted title of Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV in 1829, and afterwards to Queen Victoria. At the time of his death there was hardly a place in France, Germany, Italy or the Netherlands where his face had not been searching for antique gables. He died after a stroke at his home,5 De Crespigny Terrace, Denmark Hill, a large quantity of his original sketchbooks, lithographs, account books, letters and family materials are held at the North Devon Athenaeum, Barnstaple, Devon. The collection was sold at auction in 2010, and much was acquired by Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, Samuel Gillespie Prout followed in his fathers footsteps by also painting watercolours. Another member of the family, John Skinner Prout made a career for painting and writing books in Tasmania. By Samuel Prout Picturesque Delineations in the Counties of Devon and Cornwall T. Palser, Prouts Village Scenery T. Palser, London 1813. Rudiments of Landscape in Progressive Studies Picturesque Studies of Cottages R. Ackermann 1816 Sketches of the Thames Estuary T Palser London 1817 Marine Sketches Rowney & Forster, Picturesque Buildings in Normandy Rodwell and Martin, London 1821. Views in the North of England R. Ackermann 1821, Studies from Nature Rodwell & Martin London 1823 Illustrations of the Rhine J. Dickinson 1824. Views in Germany J. Dickinson 1826, interior and Exteriors Ackermann & Co 1834 Hints on Light and ShadowAckermann & Co 1838 Prouts Microcosm Tilt & Bogue, London 1841
Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cotman, John Sell". Dictionary of National Biography. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 285–87.
