1.
Malvern Hills
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The SSSI notification has 26 units of assessment which cover grassland, woodland and geological sites. The site is listed in the Forest of Dean Local Plan Review as a Key Wildlife Site, management of the hills is the responsibility of the Malvern Hills Conservators. The name Malvern is probably derived from the ancient British moel-bryn, meaning Bare-Hill and it has been known as Malferna, Malverne, and Much Malvern. Jabez Allies, a 19th-century antiquarian from Worcestershire speculated that vern was derived from the British words Sarn or Varn meaning pavement or seat of judgement, the Malvern Hills are part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with scenic views over both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The Hills run north/south for about 13 km, in between Great Malvern and the village of Colwall, and overlook the River Severn valley to the east, the highest point of the hills is the Worcestershire Beacon at 425 metres above sea level. The hills are famous for their mineral springs and wells. Until recently, Malvern water was bottled commercially on a large scale, the site is thought to date back before the Common Era and has been extended subsequently by a medieval castle. The extensive earthworks remain visible today and determine the shape of the hill. It consists of a series of faults and folds which have the effect of bringing old Malvernian rocks to the surface. This line is considered to mark the edge of two terranes – two once separate fragments of the Earths crust now joined as one – the Wrekin Terrane to the west and the Charnwood Terrane to the east. The main face of Gullet Quarry shows a cross-section through the Precambrian rock and exhibits many rock types including diorite, granite, gneiss, schist, pegmatite and dolerite. The evidence of the history of earth movements which formed the Hills can be seen by multiple joints, fractures, faults and shears. Mineral deposits such as haematite, calcite and epidote can be seen within these features, there is a tiny, man-made cave near the ridge of the hills called Clutters Cave. The cave has been excavated into pillow lavas, some of the rounded pillow shapes are still visible around the entrance to the cave. The quality of Malvern water is attributable to its source, the rocks of the Malvern Hills are amongst the oldest and hardest found in England, the geology is responsible for the quality of Malverns spring water. The hills consist of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock, the oldest of which are about 670 million years old, the rocks are characterised by low porosity and high secondary permeability via fissures. When the fissures are saturated, a water table forms and the water emerges as springs around the lines between the strata. Depending on rainfall, the flow can vary from as little as 36 litres per minute to over 350 litres per minute
2.
Alfred Watkins
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Watkins travelled across Herefordshire as an out-rider representing the family businesses and so got to know the area intimately. Watkins was also a respected photographer and he made some cameras himself and manufactured an exposure meter called the Watkins Bee Meter due to its small size and efficiency. An example is in the Museum Resource & Learning Centre, Hereford and he was an active member of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom and served as its President when the Convention was held in Hereford in 1907. In 1910 he was awarded the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, over 3,000 photographs, taken from Alfreds original glass negative plates are held by Hereford Library and can be viewed on request. On 30 June 1921, Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire when he had the idea there was a system of straight lines crossing the landscape dating from Neolithic times. Thereafter he spent a part of his life developing his theory. He published a book on leys and participated in the Old Straight Track Club from 1927 to 1935. Watkins was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an authority on beekeeping and he was also involved in the preservation of Pembridge, Herefordshire Market Hall. Archaeologists in general do not accept Watkins ideas on leys, at first they regarded the ancient Britons as too primitive to have devised such an arrangement, but this is no longer the argument used against the existence of leys. More crucially, there are so many ancient features that some in approximate alignment is highly likely. Watkins was sensitive to arguments and argued for caution. Michell merged Watkins ideas with concepts not present in Watkins own work. He was a rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today. In 2002 Watkins had a named after him, Watkins Triumph. Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps and Sites, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, a previously unpublished manuscript, written in 1931. ALFRED WATKINS 1855–1935, www. herefordwebpages. co. uk, archived from the original on 18 May 2011 Alfred Watkins 1855 to 1935, www. smr. herefordshire. gov
3.
Pseudoscience
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Pseudoscience consists of claims, beliefs, or practices presented as being plausible scientifically, but which are not justifiable by the scientific method. The term pseudoscience is often considered pejorative because it suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively, accordingly, those termed as practicing or advocating pseudoscience often dispute the characterization. The demarcation between science and pseudoscience has philosophical and scientific implications, differentiating science from pseudoscience has practical implications in the case of health care, expert testimony, environmental policies, and science education. The word pseudoscience is derived from the Greek root pseudo meaning false and the English word science, an earlier recorded use of the term was during 1843 by the French physiologist François Magendie. From time to time, though, the usage of the word occurred in a formal, technical manner around a perceived threat to individual and institutional security in a social and cultural setting. A number of principles are accepted by scientists as standards for determining whether a body of knowledge, method. Experimental results should be reproducible and verified by other researchers, statistical quantification of significance, confidence, and error are also important tools for the scientific method. During the mid-20th century, Karl Popper emphasized the criterion of falsifiability to distinguish science from nonscience, falsifiability means a result can be disproved. For example, a statement such as God exists may be true or false, Popper used astrology and psychoanalysis as examples of pseudoscience and Einsteins theory of relativity as an example of science. The point is made there is no physical test to refute the claim of the presence of this dragon. No matter what test you think you can devise, there is then a reason why this does not apply to the invisible dragon, sagan concludes, Now, whats the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all. During 1942, Robert K. Merton identified a set of five norms which he characterized as what makes a real science, If any of the norms were violated, Merton considered the enterprise to be nonscience. These are not broadly accepted by the scientific community and his norms were, Originality, The tests and research done must present something new to the scientific community. Detachment, The scientists reasons for practicing this science must be simply for the expansion of their knowledge, the scientists should not have personal reasons to expect certain results. Universality, No person should be able to easily obtain the information of a test than another person. Social class, religion, ethnicity, or any other factors should not be factors in someones ability to receive or perform a type of science. Skepticism, Scientific facts must not be based on faith, one should always question every case and argument and constantly check for errors or invalid claims. Public accessibility, Any scientific knowledge one obtains should be available to everyone
4.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
5.
Geography
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Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of Earth. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes, Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of the Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. It is often defined in terms of the two branches of geography and physical geography. Geography has been called the world discipline and the bridge between the human and the physical sciences, Geography is a systematic study of the Earth and its features. Traditionally, geography has been associated with cartography and place names, although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the space and the temporal database distribution of phenomena, processes, because space and place affect a variety of topics, such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary. The interdisciplinary nature of the approach depends on an attentiveness to the relationship between physical and human phenomena and its spatial patterns. Names of places. are not geography. know by heart a whole gazetteer full of them would not, in itself and this is a description of the world—that is Geography. In a word Geography is a Science—a thing not of mere names but of argument and reason, of cause, just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they also exist in space and have a geography. Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main fields, human geography and physical geography. The former largely focuses on the environment and how humans create, view, manage. The latter examines the environment, and how organisms, climate, soil, water. The difference between these led to a third field, environmental geography, which combines physical and human geography. Physical geography focuses on geography as an Earth science and it aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns. Physical geography can be divided into broad categories, including, Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns. It encompasses the human, political, cultural, social, and it requires an understanding of the traditional aspects of physical and human geography, as well as the ways that human societies conceptualize the environment. Integrated geography has emerged as a bridge between the human and the geography, as a result of the increasing specialisation of the two sub-fields. Examples of areas of research in the environmental geography include, emergency management, environmental management, sustainability, geomatics is concerned with the application of computers to the traditional spatial techniques used in cartography and topography
6.
Monument
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The term monument is often applied to buildings or structures that are considered examples of important architectural and/or cultural heritage. Monuments have been created for thousands of years, and they are often the most durable, in more recent times, monumental structures such as the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower have become iconic emblems of modern nation-states. The term monumentality relates to the status and physical presence of a monument. Monuments are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location, planned cities such as Washington D. C. New Delhi and Brasília are often built around monuments, for example, the Washington Monuments location was conceived by LEnfant to help organize public space in the city, before it was designed or constructed. Older cities have monuments placed at locations that are important or are sometimes redesigned to focus on one. As Shelley suggested in his famous poem Ozymandias, the purpose of monuments is often to impress or awe. Structures created for purposes that have been made notable by their age. This can happen because of age and size, as in the case of the Great Wall of China. Monuments are also designed to convey historical or political information. They can be used to reinforce the primacy of political power. The social meanings of monuments are rarely fixed and certain and are contested by different social groups. This contention of meaning is a theme of modern post processual archaeological discourse. Until recently, it was customary for archaeologists to study large monuments, New ideas about what constitutes the archaeological record have revealed that certain legislative and theoretical approaches to the subject are too focused on earlier definitions of monuments. An example has been the United Kingdoms Scheduled Ancient Monument laws, recently, more and more monuments are being preserved digitally through organisations as CyArk. Cenotaphs and other memorials to commemorate the dead, usually war casualties, e. g. India Gate and Vimy Ridge Memorial, or disaster casualties, such as the Titanic Memorial, Belfast. Church monuments to commemorate the dead, located above or near their grave, often featuring an effigy, columns, often topped with a statue, e. g. Berlin Victory Column, Nelsons Column in London, and Trajans Column in Rome. Gravestones, small monuments to the deceased, placed at their gravesites, e. g. the tombs and vaults of veterans in Les Invalides, mausoleums and tombs to honor the dead, e. g. the Great Pyramid of Giza and Taj Mahal
7.
Ford (crossing)
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A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading, or inside a vehicle getting its wheels wet. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, a ford is a much cheaper form of river crossing than a bridge, but it may become impassable after heavy rain or during flood conditions. A ford is therefore only suitable for very minor roads. Most modern fords are usually enough to be crossed by cars. In New Zealand, however, fords are a part of major roads, including, until 2010. As most inter-city domestic passengers travel by air and as much cargo goes by sea, long distance road traffic is low, in dry weather, drivers become aware of a ford by crunching across outwash detritus on the roadway. A Bailey bridge may be built off the line of the road to carry emergency traffic during high water. At places where the water is enough, but the material on the riverbed will not support heavy vehicles. In such cases a curb is often placed on the side to prevent vehicles slipping off. Fords may be equipped with a post indicating the water depth. Some have an adjacent footbridge so that pedestrians may cross without getting their feet wet, a road running below the water level of a stream or river is often known as a watersplash. It is a name for a ford or stretch of wet road in some areas. They have become a feature in rallying courses. There are enthusiasts who seek out and drive through these water features, there are many old fords known as watersplashes in the United Kingdom. Examples are at Brockenhurst in Hampshire, Wookey in Somerset, some of these are being replaced by bridges as these are a more reliable form of crossing in adverse weather conditions. The Dean Ford in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, is mentioned in the deeds of this property, the ford has had to be maintained as a property boundary feature, despite several cars a year being washed away. Not just a British phenomenon, some very spectacular versions of the feature can be found in diverse locations. Australia has the Gulf Savannah, and others may be found in Canada, Italy, South Africa and they are also found on some Tennessee backroads, where they are referred to as underwater bridges
8.
Navigation
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Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. The field of navigation includes four categories, land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks, all navigational techniques involve locating the navigators position compared to known locations or patterns. Navigation, in a sense, can refer to any skill or study that involves the determination of position and direction. In this sense, navigation includes orienteering and pedestrian navigation, for information about different navigation strategies that people use, visit human navigation. In the European medieval period, navigation was considered part of the set of seven mechanical arts, early Pacific Polynesians used the motion of stars, weather, the position of certain wildlife species, or the size of waves to find the path from one island to another. Maritime navigation using scientific instruments such as the mariners astrolabe first occurred in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, the perfecting of this navigation instrument is attributed to Portuguese navigators during early Portuguese discoveries in the Age of Discovery. Open-seas navigation using the astrolabe and the compass started during the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, the Portuguese began systematically exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa from 1418, under the sponsorship of Prince Henry. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by this route, in 1492 the Spanish monarchs funded Christopher Columbuss expedition to sail west to reach the Indies by crossing the Atlantic, which resulted in the Discovery of America. In 1498, a Portuguese expedition commanded by Vasco da Gama reached India by sailing around Africa, soon, the Portuguese sailed further eastward, to the Spice Islands in 1512, landing in China one year later. The fleet of seven ships sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Southern Spain in 1519, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, some ships were lost, but the remaining fleet continued across the Pacific making a number of discoveries including Guam and the Philippines. By then, only two galleons were left from the original seven, the Victoria led by Elcano sailed across the Indian Ocean and north along the coast of Africa, to finally arrive in Spain in 1522, three years after its departure. The Trinidad sailed east from the Philippines, trying to find a path back to the Americas. He arrived in Acapulco on October 8,1565, the term stems from 1530s, from Latin navigationem, from navigatus, pp. of navigare to sail, sail over, go by sea, steer a ship, from navis ship and the root of agere to drive. Roughly, the latitude of a place on Earth is its angular distance north or south of the equator, latitude is usually expressed in degrees ranging from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the North and South poles. The height of Polaris in degrees above the horizon is the latitude of the observer, similar to latitude, the longitude of a place on Earth is the angular distance east or west of the prime meridian or Greenwich meridian. Longitude is usually expressed in degrees ranging from 0° at the Greenwich meridian to 180° east and west, sydney, for example, has a longitude of about 151° east. New York City has a longitude of 74° west, for most of history, mariners struggled to determine longitude
9.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
10.
John Michell (writer)
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John Frederick Carden Michell was an English author and esotericist who was a prominent figure in the development of the Earth mysteries movement. Over the course of his life he published over forty books on an array of different subjects, born in London to a wealthy family, Michell was educated at Cheam School and Eton College before serving as a Russian translator in the Royal Navy for two years. After failing a degree in Russian and German at Trinity College, Cambridge, he returned to London and worked for his fathers property business and he followed this with his most influential work, The View Over Atlantis, in 1969. His ideas were at odds with those of academic archaeologists, for whom he expressed contempt, Michell believed in the existence of an ancient spiritual tradition that connected humanity to divinity, but which had been lost as a result of modernity. He believed however that this tradition would be revived and that humanity would enter a Golden Age, keenly interested in the crop circle phenomenon, he co-founded a magazine devoted to the subject, The Cereologist, in 1990, and served as its initial editor. From 1992 until his death he wrote a column for The Oldie magazine and he accompanied this with a column on esoteric topics for the Daily Mirror tabloid. A lifelong marijuana smoker, Michell died of cancer in 2009. Michells impact in the Earth mysteries movement was considerable, and through it he influenced the British Pagan movement. During the 2000s, his ideas also proved an influence on the Radical Traditionalist sector of the New Right, John Frederic Carden Michell was born in London on 9 February 1933. His father, Alfred, was of Cornish descent and worked as a property dealer in the capital, the eldest of three children, Michells siblings were named Charles and Clare. He was raised into the Anglican denomination of Christianity, although in later life rejected the religion, Michell was initially educated as a boarder at the preparatory Cheam School, where he was Head Boy and excelled at the high jump. From there he went to study at Eton College, where he was a contemporary of Lord Moyne and Ian Cameron and he spent his two years of national service in the Royal Navy, during which time he qualified as a Russian translator at the School of Slavonic Studies. He then went on to study Russian and German at Trinity College, Cambridge and he then qualified as a chartered surveyor at a firm in Gloucestershire, before moving back to London to work for his fathers property business. Commenting on this job, he stated that it was quite amusing. In 1966 one of his properties, the basement of his own residence, the Black Power activist Michael X, having previously run a gambling club in the basement, had now become active in the organisation of the LFS and brought Michell into counter-culture activities. Michell began to offer courses in UFOs and ley lines, in 1964, with Jocasta Innes, Michell fathered a son, Jason Goodwin, who also became a writer. The relationship with Innes did not last, Jason Goodwin did not meet his natural father until 1992, at the age of 28, at which they became quite close. Michell developed an interest in Ufology and Earth mysteries after attending a talk given by Jimmy Goddard at Kensington Central Library on the subject of Leys and Orthonies in November 1965
11.
Feng shui
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Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It is closely linked to Taoism, the term feng shui literally translates as wind-water in English. The feng shui practice discusses architecture in terms of invisible forces that bind the universe, earth. There is no scientific evidence that feng shuis mystical claims are real. Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass. Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water, Feng shui was suppressed in mainland China during the state-imposed Cultural Revolution of the 1960s but has since then regained popularity. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience briefly summarizes the history and practice of feng shui and it states that the principles of feng shui related to living harmoniously with nature are quite rational, but does not otherwise lend credibility to the nonscientific claims. Its also a matter to dismiss the mystical energies said to be at its core. As of 2013 the Yangshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest known evidence for the use of feng shui, until the invention of the magnetic compass, feng shui apparently relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe. In 4000 BC, the doors of Banpo dwellings aligned with the asterism Yingshi just after the winter solstice—this sited the homes for solar gain. During the Zhou era, Yingshi was known as Ding and used to indicate the time to build a capital city. The late Yangshao site at Dadiwan includes a building at the center. The building faces south and borders a large plaza and it stands on a north-south axis with another building that apparently housed communal activities. Regional communities may have used the complex, a grave at Puyang that contains mosaics— actually a Chinese star map of the Dragon and Tiger asterisms and Beidou — is oriented along a north-south axis. Cosmography that bears a resemblance to modern feng shui devices and formulas appears on a piece of jade unearthed at Hanshan. Archaeologist Li Xueqin links the design to the astrolabe, zhinan zhen. Beginning with palatial structures at Erlitou, all cities of China followed rules of feng shui for their design. During the Zhou era, the Kaogong ji codified these rules, the carpenters manual Lu ban jing codified rules for builders
12.
Alignments of random points
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The topic has also been studied in the fields of computer vision and astronomy. A number of studies have examined the mathematics of alignment of points on the plane. In all of these, the width of the line - the allowed displacement of the positions of the points from a straight line - is important. It allows the fact that real-world features are not mathematical points, and that their positions need not line up exactly for them to be considered in alignment. Alfred Watkins, in his work on ley lines The Old Straight Track. For example, using a 1 mm pencil line to draw alignments on an 1,50,000 Ordnance Survey map, contrary to intuition, finding alignments between randomly placed points on a landscape gets progressively easier as the geographic area to be considered increases. Note that, in general, any set of points that are aligned in this way will contain a large number of infinitesimally different straight paths. Therefore, only the existence of at least one path is necessary to determine whether a set of points is an alignment. For this reason, it is easier to count the sets of points, the number of alignments found is very sensitive to the allowed width w, increasing approximately proportionately to wk-2, where k is the number of points in an alignment. The following is a very approximate order-of-magnitude estimate of the likelihood of alignments, consider a set of n points in a compact area with approximate diameter L and area approximately L2. Consider a valid line to be one where every point is within distance w/2 of the line, consider all the unordered sets of k points from the n points, of which there are, = n. k. These two points are by definition on this line, so, the expected number of k-point alignments, by this definition, is very roughly, n. k. This phenomenon occurs regardless of whether the points are generated pseudo-randomly by computer and it is easy to find alignments of 4 to 8 points in reasonably small data sets with w =50 m. Choosing large areas or larger values of w makes it easy to find alignments of 20 or more points
13.
Norman Lockyer
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Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, KCB FRS, known simply as Norman Lockyer, was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium, Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal Nature. Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, after a conventional schooling supplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office. He settled in Wimbledon, South London after marrying Winifred James and he was a keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the Sun. In 1885 he became the worlds first professor of physics at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington. At the college, the Solar Physics Observatory was built for him, in the 1860s Lockyer became fascinated by electromagnetic spectroscopy as an analytical tool for determining the composition of heavenly bodies. He conducted his research from his new home in West Hampstead, in 1868 a prominent yellow line was observed in a spectrum taken near the edge of the Sun. With a wavelength of about 588 nm, slightly less than the so-called D lines of sodium and he named this element helium after the Greek word Helios meaning sun. Terrestrial helium was found about 27 years later by the Scottish chemist William Ramsay, in his work on the identification of helium, Lockyer collaborated with the noted chemist Edward Frankland. To facilitate the transmission of ideas between scientific disciplines, Lockyer established the science journal Nature in 1869. He remained its editor shortly before his death. Lockyer led eight expeditions to observe solar eclipses for example in 1870 to Sicily,1871 to India and 1898 to India, in 1903, Lockyer started a second marriage, to suffragist Mary Thomasina Brodhurst. After his retirement in 1913, Lockyer established an observatory near his home in Salcombe Regis near Sidmouth, originally known as the Hill Observatory, the site was renamed the Norman Lockyer Observatory after his death. For a time the observatory was a part of the University of Exeter, but is now owned by the East Devon District Council, Lockyer died at his home in Salcombe Regis in 1920, and was buried there in the churchyard of St Peter and St Mary. Macmillan and Co. Norman Lockyer, George Mitchell Seabroke, report to the Committee on Solar Physics on the Basic Lines Common to Spots and Prominences Joseph Norman Lockyer, Norman Lockyer. The Orientation of Greek Temples, Nature, v.48, n.1228,11 May 1893, the Rules of Golf, Being the St. Andrews Rules for the Game. Recent and Coming Eclipses Norman Lockyer, inorganic Evolution as Studied by Spectrum Analysis. On the Influence of Brain Power on History, stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered Norman Lockyer, Joseph Norman Lockyer
14.
Solstice
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The Solstice occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The seasons of the year are directly connected to both the solstices and the equinoxes, the term solstice can also be used in a broader sense, as the day when this occurs. The day of the solstice has either the most sunlight of the year or the least sunlight of the year for any other than the equator. Alternative terms, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context, are June solstice and December solstice, at latitudes outside the tropics, the summer solstice marks the day when the sun appears highest in the sky. Within the tropics, the sun directly overhead from days to months before the solstice and again after the solstice. For an observer on the North Pole, the sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June, the day this occurs is called the June solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the sun reaches the highest position on December solstice day, when it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is the winter solstice on the other. The suns westerly motion never ceases as the Earth is continually in rotation, however, the suns motion in declination comes to a stop at the moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means sun-standing and this modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman republic of the 1st century BC, solstitium. Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural History with a meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language morphemes, sol, sun, and -stitium, stoppage, the Romans used standing to refer to a component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference, from a fixed position on the ground, the sun appears to orbit around the Earth. To an observer in a frame of reference, the planet Earth is seen to rotate about an axis. The Earths axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earths orbit, an observer on Earth therefore sees a solar path that is the result of both rotation and revolution. At maximum or minimum elevation, the relative motion of the Sun perpendicular to the horizon stops. Outside of the tropics, the maximum occurs at the summer solstice. The path of the Sun, or ecliptic, sweeps north and south between the northern and southern hemispheres, the days are longer around the summer solstice and shorter around the winter solstice. When the Suns path crosses the equator, the length of the nights at latitudes +L° and -L° are of equal length and this is known as an equinox
15.
Herefordshire
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Herefordshire is a historic English county in the West Midlands. It is a county and a unitary non-metropolitan county and district, also named in legislation as the County of Herefordshire. The Welsh unitary county covering the part of Gwent next to Herefordshire is Monmouthshire, Hereford is a cathedral city and is the county town, with a population of approximately 55,800 inhabitants it is also the largest settlement. The county is one of the most rural and sparsely populated in England, the land use is predominantly agricultural and the county is well known for its fruit and cider production, and the Hereford cattle breed. From 1974 to 1998, Herefordshire was part of the former county of Hereford. Herefordshire was reconstituted both as a new district and as a new county by Statutory Instrument as defined in The Hereford and this Order established Herefordshire as a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, combining county and district functions into a single council. Herefordshire is also called a unitary district, but this is not official nomenclature. Herefordshire is officially known as an authority for local government purposes. The Lieutenancies Act 1997 made Herefordshire a ceremonial county, covering the area of the unitary district. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire NUTS2 region. The River Wye, which at 135 miles is the fifth-longest in the United Kingdom and it flows through both Hereford and Ross-on-Wye before returning to Wales. Leominster is situated on the River Lugg, a tributary of the Wye, there are two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the county. The Wye Valley is located in the valleys south of Hereford, while the Malvern Hills are in the east of the county. Herefordshire is one of the 39 historic counties of England, in 1974 it was merged with neighbouring Worcestershire to form the Hereford and Worcester administrative county. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the government districts of South Herefordshire, Hereford. However, the county was dissolved in 1998, resulting in the return of Herefordshire and Worcestershire as counties, the current ceremonial county and unitary district have broadly the same borders as the pre-1974 historic county. However this has been from a base, with only Northumberland. The population is White 98. 2%, Asian 0. 8%, Mixed 0. 7%, Black 0. 2%, gypsies and Travellers have historically been Herefordshires largest minority ethnic group
16.
Causeway
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In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway on top an embankment usually across a broad body of water or wetland. When first used, the word appeared in a such as causey way making clear its derivation from the earlier form causey. This word seems to have come from the source by two different routes. It derives ultimately, from the Latin for heel, calx, anciently, the construction was trodden down, one layer at a time, often by slaves or flocks of sheep. Today, this work is done by machines, the same technique would have been used for road embankments, raised river banks, sea banks and fortification earthworks. The second derivation route is simply the hard, trodden surface of a path, the name by this route came to be applied to a firmly-surfaced road. It is now little-used except in dialect and in the names of roads which were notable for their solidly-made surface. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica states causey, a mound or dam, which is derived, through the Norman-French caucie, from the late Latin via calciata, a road stamped firm with the feet. The word is comparable in both meanings with the French chaussée, from a form of which it reached English by way of Norman French. The French adjective, chaussée, carries the meaning of having given a hardened surface. As a noun chaussée is used on the one hand for a metalled carriageway, other languages have a noun with similar dual meaning. The Welsh is relevant here, as it also has a verb, sarnu, a transport corridor that is carried instead on a series of arches, perhaps approaching a bridge, is a viaduct. In the U. S. a short stretch of viaduct is called an overpass, some low causeways across shore waters become inaccessible when covered at high tide. The modern embankment may be constructed within a cofferdam, two parallel steel sheet pile or concrete retaining walls, anchored to each other with steel cables or rods. This construction may also serve as a dyke that keeps two bodies of water apart, such as bodies with a different water level on each side, or with water on one side. This may also be the purpose of a structure, the road providing a hardened crest for the dike. It also provides access for maintenance as well perhaps, as a public service, notable causeways include those that connect Singapore and Malaysia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Venice to the mainland, all of which carry roadways and railways. In the Netherlands there are a number of prominent dykes which also double as causeways, including the Afsluitdijk, Brouwersdam, in Louisiana, two very long bridges, called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, stretch across Lake Pontchartrain for almost 38 km, making them the worlds longest bridges
17.
Syllable
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A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the water is composed of two syllables, wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a nucleus with optional initial and final margins. Syllables are often considered the building blocks of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter, syllabic writing began several hundred years before the first letters. The earliest recorded syllables are on tablets written around 2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur and this shift from pictograms to syllables has been called the most important advance in the history of writing. A word that consists of a syllable is called a monosyllable. Syllable is an Anglo-Norman variation of Old French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, συλλαβή means what is taken together, referring to letters that are taken together to make a single sound. συλλαβή is a noun from the verb συλλαμβάνω syllambánō, a compound of the preposition σύν sýn with. The noun uses the root λαβ-, which appears in the aorist tense, the present tense stem λαμβάν- is formed by adding a nasal infix ⟨μ⟩ ⟨m⟩ before the β b and a suffix -αν -an at the end. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the period ⟨. ⟩ marks syllable breaks, in practice, however, IPA transcription is typically divided into words by spaces, and often these spaces are also understood to be syllable breaks. When a word comes in the middle of a syllable. The liaison tie is used to join lexical words into phonological words. In the typical theory of structure, the general structure of a syllable consists of three segments. e. Nucleus and coda are grouped together as a rime and onset are only distinguished at the second level, the nucleus is usually the vowel in the middle of a syllable. The onset is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus, and they are sometimes collectively known as the shell. The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda, in the one-syllable English word cat, the nucleus is a, the onset c, the coda t, and the rime at. This syllable can be abstracted as a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, abbreviated CVC, languages vary greatly in the restrictions on the sounds making up the onset, nucleus and coda of a syllable, according to what is termed a languages phonotactics
18.
Philology
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Philology is the study of language in written historical sources, it is a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics. It is more defined as the study of literary texts and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist, in older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Indo-European studies involves the comparative philology of all Indo-European languages, Philology, with its focus on historical development, is contrasted with linguistics due to Ferdinand de Saussures insistence on the importance of synchronic analysis. The contrast continued with the emergence of structuralism and Chomskyan linguistics alongside its emphasis on syntax, the term changed little with the Latin philologia, and later entered the English language in the 16th century, from the Middle French philologie, in the sense of love of literature. The adjective φιλόλογος meant fond of discussion or argument, talkative, in Hellenistic Greek also implying an excessive preference of argument over the love of true wisdom, as an allegory of literary erudition, Philologia appears in 5th-century post-classical literature, an idea revived in Late Medieval literature. The meaning of love of learning and literature was narrowed to the study of the development of languages in 19th-century usage of the term. Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, colleges, position titles, J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that the philological instinct was universal as is the use of language. Based on the critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, US scholars since the 1980s have viewed philology as responsible for a narrowly scientistic study of language. The comparative linguistics branch of philology studies the relationship between languages, similarities between Sanskrit and European languages were first noted in the early 16th century and led to speculation of a common ancestor language from which all these descended. Philology also includes the study of texts and their history and it includes elements of textual criticism, trying to reconstruct an authors original text based on variant copies of manuscripts. Since that time, the principles of textual criticism have been improved and applied to other widely distributed texts such as the Bible. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the Bible from the manuscript variants and this method was applied to Classical Studies and to medieval texts as a way to reconstruct the authors original work. A related study method known as higher criticism studies the authorship, date, as these philological issues are often inseparable from issues of interpretation, there is no clear-cut boundary between philology and hermeneutics. When text has a significant political or religious influence, scholars have difficulty reaching objective conclusions, some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology, especially in historical linguistics, where it is important to study the actual recorded materials. Supporters of New Philology insist on a diplomatic approach, a faithful rendering of the text exactly as found in the manuscript. Another branch of philology, cognitive philology, studies written and oral texts and this science compares the results of textual science with the results of experimental research of both psychology and artificial intelligence production systems. In the case of Bronze Age literature, philology includes the prior decipherment of the language under study and this has notably been the case with the Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic and Luwian languages
19.
Forest
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A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as density, tree height, land use, legal standing. According to the widely used Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered four billion hectares or approximately 30 percent of the land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are distributed across the globe, Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earths biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earths plant biomass. Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones, boreal forests near the poles, tropical forests near the equator, higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes, and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition. Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways, Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect peoples health, human activities, including harvesting forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition, there are three broad categories of forest definitions in use, administrative, land use, and land cover. Land use definitions are based upon the purpose that the land serves. For example, a forest may be defined as any land that is used primarily for production of timber, land cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing on the land. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above some threshold and these thresholds are typically the number of trees per area, the area of ground under the tree canopy or the section of land that is occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks. Under such land cover definitions, and area of land only be defined as forest if it is growing trees, areas that fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. Under land use definitions, there is variation on where the cutoff points are between a forest, woodland, and savanna. Under some definitions, forests require high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, excluding savannas. Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, the term was not endemic to Romance languages, and cognates in Romance languages, such as Italian foresta, Spanish and Portuguese floresta, etc. are all ultimately borrowings of the French word. The exact origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure, uses of the word forest in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered archaic. The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a term denoting an uncultivated area legally set aside for hunting by feudal nobility. These hunting forests were not necessarily wooded much, if at all, however, as hunting forests did often include considerable areas of woodland, the word forest eventually came to mean wooded land more generally
20.
Hereford
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Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately 16 miles east of the border with Wales,24 miles southwest of Worcester, with a population of 58,896, it is the largest settlement in the county. The name Hereford is said to come from the Anglo-Saxon here, an army or formation of soldiers, and the ford, if this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the Wye. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd, meaning old road, much of the county of Herefordshire was Welsh-speaking, as reflected in the Welsh names of many places in the county. An early town charter from 1189 granted by Richard I of England describes it as Hereford in Wales, Hereford has been recognised as a city since time immemorial, with the status being reconfirmed as recently as October 2000. It is now known chiefly as a centre for a wider agricultural and rural area. Products from Hereford include, cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals, hostilities between the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh came to a head with the Battle of Hereford in 760, in which the Britons freed themselves from the influence of the English. Hereford had the only mint west of the Severn in the reign of Athelstan, and it was to Hereford, then a border town, the present Hereford Cathedral dates from the early 12th century, as does the first bridge across the Wye. Former Bishops of Hereford include Saint Thomas de Cantilupe and Lord High Treasurer of England Thomas Charlton. The city gave its name to two suburbs of Paris, France, Maisons-Alfort and Alfortville, due to a manor built there by Peter of Aigueblanche, Bishop of Hereford, in the middle of the 13th century. Hereford, a base for successive holders of the title Earl of Hereford, was once the site of a castle, Hereford Castle, which rivalled that of Windsor in size and scale. This was a base for repelling Welsh attacks and a stronghold for English kings such as King Henry IV when on campaign in the Welsh Marches against Owain Glyndŵr. The castle was dismantled in the 18th century and landscaped into Castle Green, after the Battle of Mortimers Cross in 1461, during the Wars of the Roses, the defeated Lancastrian leader Owen Tudor was taken to Hereford by Sir Roger Vaughan and executed in High Town. A plaque now marks the spot of the execution, Vaughan was later himself executed, under a flag of truce, by Owens son Jasper. During the civil war the city changed several times. On 30 September 1642 Parliamentarians led by Sir Robert Harley and Henry Grey, in December they withdrew to Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a Royalist army under Lord Herbert. The city was occupied briefly from 23 April to 18 May 1643 by Parliamentarians commanded by Sir William Waller. On 31 July 1645 a Scottish army of 14,000 under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven besieged the city but met resistance from its garrison
21.
Dorstone
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Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a community with a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery and it is within the catchment area of the popular Fairfield secondary school. Dorstone once contained a castle, Dorstone Castle, a mile to the south the fragmentary remains of Snodhill Castle can still be seen. Dorstone is home to the Golden Valley Young Farmers Club, in 2006 and 2009 they won the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs pantomime competition in Blackpool making them the only YFC club in the country to have achieved this accolade. St. Faiths parish church in Dorstone was reputedly built by Richard de Brito, one of the knights who murdered Thomas Becket and he also built the Pandy Inn in Dorstone to house the workmen who built the church. During Victorian era rebuilding of the church in the 1890s a tomb to another de Brito was found which contained a pewter chalice and this was housed in the church for many years but was stolen in 2006. An annual Sloe gin competition is held in Dorstone, each year the winner is crowned the Grand Master of the Sloes. The Golden Valley Railway branch line to Hay-on-Wye was opened on 1 September 1881 as far as Dorstone, the new railway station and junction involved considerable addition to the track layout and buildings at Pontrilas. The last passenger train out of Dorstone was on 23 August 1951
22.
Ysgyryd Fawr
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Ysgyryd Fawr is an easterly outlier of the Black Mountains in Wales, and forms the easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The mountain is referred to locally as just The Skirrid. The smaller hill of Ysgyryd Fach or Little Skirrid lies about 4.5 km /2.5 mi to the south and it is 486 m or 1594 feet high and lies just to the north-east of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, about 10 miles from the English border. The Beacons Way passes along the ridge, the distinctive shape of this Old Red Sandstone hill comprises a long ridge oriented nearly north–south, with a jagged western side resulting from ice age landslips. The upper slopes of the hill are composed of Devonian age sandstones assigned to the Senni Formation, there are numerous other landslips of a similar nature on the nearby hills, although that on the Skirrid is perhaps the most well known owing to its visibility from several directions. There are also numerous rock tables on the hill, some of which were formed by the landslide, the ridge is very similar in its rocky edge to that found on the Black Hill to the north in Herefordshire. The Welsh name Ysgyryd meaning split or shattered and Fawr meaning great describes the hills shape, there is a rich mythology attached to the mountain, including a distinctive stone known as the Devils Table. According to legend, part of the mountain is said to have broken off at the moment of the crucifixion of Jesus. There was a tradition that earth from the Skirrid was holy and especially fertile, and it was taken away to be scattered on fields elsewhere, on coffins. Pilgrimages were made, especially on Michaelmas Eve, to the summit, in older literature the spelling Skyrrid is sometimes encountered and the mountain is also referred to locally as the Holy Mountain or Sacred Hill. The ruins of a hill fort and a mediæval chapel, dedicated to St. Michael. Rudolf Hess used to walk here when he was prisoner at nearby Maindiff Court during the early 1940s. There is an pub called The Skirrid Mountain Inn just to the north of the mountain in Llanvihangel Crucorney, which claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Wales. This mountain site. a stark barren monolith. is also mentioned in the recent book by Pete Snapper Winner, Soldier I - The Story of an SAS Hero as part of Sickener 2, Ysgyryd Fawr has belonged to the National Trust since 1939. A rough path follows the perimeter of the hill at a lower level. Images of Ysgyryd Fawr and surrounding area on Geograph website
23.
Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire
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It is located between the villages of Dorstone and Bredwardine, and more generally between Hereford to the east and Hay-on-Wye to the west, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SO318430. The tomb is topped by a capstone, estimated to weigh more than 25 tonnes. The capstone rests on nine uprights and there is a curved,4.6 metre long entrance passageway, to the north, there was once a cup-marked stone called the Quoit Stone. This can no longer be seen, and now a stone to the south of the monument has become known as the Quoit Stone. The stones would originally have been buried within a mound, aligned north-south and of approximately 25 metres in length with an east-facing entrance, the mound is now, however, almost completely eroded and the capstone is broken with a large section fallen from its underside. The site is defined and protected by a wooden fence, the site is seen as a northerly outlier of the well known Severn-Cotswold tomb Group of chambered tombs and one of five Neolithic tombs in the local area. The tomb is one of many monuments in western England. Others suggest the indentations on the Quoit Stone were left by Arthurs knees or elbows as he knelt there to pray, during the Wars of the Roses, a knight named Turberville was killed in a duel here by another knight, Thomas ap Griffith. On 17 September 1645, King Charles gathered his army here, until the mid 19th century, celebrations with dancing were held at the stone, and a Baptist service used to be held there on the fourth Sunday in July. CS Lewis was inspired by the Golden Valley and the Wye Valley particularly when writing his Narnia, children, G, Nash, G Prehistoric Sites of Herefordshire Logaston Press ISBN 1-873827-09-1 Sant, J Stone Spotting in Herefordshire Moondial ISBN 0-9524990-1-0 Arthurs Stone, English Heritage
24.
Hatterrall Hill
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Hatterrall Hill is a rounded peak in the Black Mountains which sits on the Wales-England border, partly in Monmouthshire, Wales and partly in Herefordshire, England. Its summit at 531m is the point of a peaty plateau which falls away steeply on all sides. Broad ridges run to the north, the southeast and southwest, to the north the ridge dips to a col at around 485m elevation before rising gradually over several kilometres towards Crib y Garth / Black Hill and Hay Bluff. The ridge to the southwest ends abruptly at the cliff known as the Darren below which is a considerable landslipped area extending south to the hamlet of Cwmyoy with its mis-shapen church. The Welsh part of the hill falls within the Brecon Beacons National Park, the upper parts of Hatterrall Hill are all designated as open country and so are freely accessible to walkers. Several public footpaths and other rights of way give access onto the open land from the Vale of Ewyas to the west. The Offas Dyke Path long distance trail runs north to south over the hill as does the Beacons Way. The hill is composed from sandstones and mudstones of the Senni Beds Formation of the Old Red Sandstone which is of Devonian age, numerous small quarries adorn its slopes though all are now abandoned. The Vale of Ewyas was occupied by glaciers during the ice ages though the plateau was probably ice-free
25.
Oldcastle, Monmouthshire
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Oldcastle is a small village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Oldcastle is located six miles north of Abergavenny just off the A465 Abergavenny to Hereford road, the village is on the River Monnow and very close to the Black Mountains and sits right next to the Wales-England border. The village is associated with John Oldcastle of an old Herefordshire landowning family through the medieval period, Oldcastle on Vision of Britain Oldcastle church The church entrance Map sources for Oldcastle, Monmouthshire
26.
Longtown Castle
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Longtown Castle, also termed Ewias Lacey in early accounts, is a ruined Norman motte-and-bailey fortification in Longtown, Herefordshire. Built around 1175 by Hugh de Lacy, possibly reusing former Roman earthworks, early in the next century the castle was rebuilt in stone, with a circular keep erected on the motte and a gatehouse constructed between the inner and outer western baileys. By the 14th century, Longtown Castle had fallen into decline, despite being pressed back into use during the Owain Glyndŵr rising in 1403, it became ruined. In the 21st century the castle is maintained by English Heritage and it is uncertain when the first fortification at Longtown was built. The first defences may have built during either the Iron Age or Roman, or Anglo-Saxon periods. Longtown was then built to replace this older castle, probably around 1175, by Hugh de Lacy, a successful favourite of Henry II. Hugh had acquired the lands around Ewias Lacey, an important Marcher Lord territory, in the 1160s. The early castle was also called Ewias Lacey, named after the wider lordship. Longtown Castle was designed as a motte and bailey castle, on high ground alongside the River Monnow, more defensible sites on higher ground existed nearby, but this location was strategically well located close to the River, an important transport route.21 hectares in total. The 12th-century castle was primarily of timber with at least some stone in its design. Two circuits of earthworks to the north and south of the castle, possibly with wooden palisades, the region was troubled for the rest of the century, with revolts by the local Welsh against Anglo-Norman rule. The castle was rebuilt in stone during the early 13th century. This circular design is particular to the Welsh Marches, and is seen at Skenfrith. The reason for this choice is unclear, as it appears to have carried few military advantages, the stonework is made up of shale rubble with cut ashlar detailing, the walls are around 4-metre thick, but the keeps foundations are extremely shallow. Inside the inner western bailey appears to have been the great hall. The work on the castle cost the de Lacys around £37, the settlement of Longtown was probably established at the same time as the castle, and initially prospered. The de Lacy family controlled Longtown Castle until Walter de Lacys death in 1234, John Fitzgeoffrey then acquired the castle, during a period of increased conflict and tension between the Welsh princes Llywelyn the Great and Dafydd ap Llywelyn and the English marcher lords. The castle then passed to John Verdon and his sons, who struggled with local lawlessness, edward temporarily confiscated the castle and estates from Johns son, Theobald Verdon, and in 1316 the castle passed to Bartholomew de Berghersh
27.
Urishay Castle
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Urishay constitutes the remains of a castle located about 2.5 km west of Peterchurch in Herefordshire, England. The first part of the name Urishay is derived from Ulric or Urri who was a tenant of the estate. The second part of the name comes from the word Hay, although the location is referred to as Urishay Castle, there is some doubt as to whether it actually served as such or whether it was just a large house. There are remains of a motte on which lies a ruined house dating back to the 17th or 18th centuries, the ruins of Urishay Castle Chapel, which dates to the 12th century, are owned and maintained by the Friends of Friendless Churches. The chancel contains an altar with five crosses on its surface. Urishay Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and has a listed building status of Not Listed, the Collins Library at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas houses a 15th-century room that came from Urishay Castle. The room, which was installed around 1908, is today as the Urishay Room. Friends of Friendless Churches, Urishay Chapel Historic Herefordshire, Castles of Herefordshire contains a description of Urishay Castle today including an illustration of the remains. The Urishay Castle Room at Baker University Photos of Urishay Castle on geograph Castle Facts - Urishay Castle
28.
Michael (archangel)
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Michael is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, he is called Saint Michael the Archangel, in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox traditions, he is called Taxiarch Archangel Michael or simply Archangel Michael. Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, in the New Testament Michael leads Gods armies against Satans forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan. In the Epistle of Jude Michael is specifically referred to as the archangel Michael, by the 6th century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches. Over time, teachings on Michael began to vary among Christian denominations, Michael is mentioned three times in the Hebrew Scriptures, all in the book of Daniel. The prophet Daniel experiences a vision after having undergone a period of fasting, Daniel 10, 13-21 describes Daniels vision of an angel who identifies Michael as the protector of Israel. At Daniel 12,1, Daniel is informed that Michael will arise during the time of the end, the Book of Revelation describes a war in heaven in which Michael, being stronger, defeats Satan. After the conflict, Satan is thrown to earth along with the fallen angels, in the Epistle of Jude 1,9, Michael is referred to as an archangel when he again confronts Satan. A reference to an archangel also appears in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians 4,16 and this archangel who heralds the second coming of Christ is not named, but is often associated with Michael. Michael, is one of the two mentioned in the Quran, alongside Jibreel. In the Quran, Michael is mentioned only, in Sura 2,98, Whoever is an enemy to God, and His angels and His messengers. Then, God is an enemy to the disbelievers, some Muslims believe that the reference in Sura 11,69 is Michael, one of the three angels who visited Abraham. Michaels enmity with Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven, Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall, but Michael was saved by God. But appeal to Michael seems to have more common in ancient times. Thus Jeremiah is said to have addressed a prayer to him, the rabbis declare that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod. It was Michael, the one that had escaped, who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive, and he announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom. It is said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place, later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob
29.
St. Ann's Well, Malvern
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St. Anns Well is set on the slopes of the Malvern Hills above Great Malvern. It is a site on a path leading up to the Worcestershire Beacon. The spring or well is named after Saint Anne, the grandmother of Christ. A building that dates back to 1813 houses the well or spring, Malvern water flows freely from an elaborately carved water spout. The building also hosts a cafe, during the early 20th century, the now-defunct Burrows company bottled and sold Malvern Water from this source under the St Anns Well brand. St Anns Well is a spring which Palmer suggests may have been dedicated to Anu. A 19th-century antiquarian speculated that St Anns Well — in its primary form means simply the well dedicated to the sun. According to James Nott one of the most important events in the history of Malvern was the arrival of St. Werstan, St. Werstan was a monk of the Saxon monastery of Deerhurst in Gloucestershire which was destroyed by the Northmen. Werstan escaped and fled through the Malvern Chase, finding sanctuary on the Malvern Hills, legend tells that the settlement in Great Malvern began following the murder of St. Werstan. Although the legend may be monastic mythology historians have concluded that he was the original martyr, St Werstans oratory is thought to have been located on the site of St Michaels Chapel which is believed to have stood on the site of Bello Sguardo, a Victorian villa. Bello Sguardo was built on the site of Hermitage Cottage, the cottage was demolished in 1825 and ecclesiastical carvings were found within it. A Mediaeval undercroft, human bones and parts of a coffin were also uncovered, the quality of Malvern spring water was appreciated in the medieval period. The purity of St Anns Well in particular was known in the 15th century as a curative for the many maladies suffered by mediaeval folk. An old song attributed to the Rev. Wall published the results along with accounts of miracle cures in Experiments, the chief aim of the publication was to raise money to make improvements to the primitive building at St Anns Well. It is telling that his research demonstrated that it was necessary for the waters to be drunk on the spot, the Well House was built in 1813 and was owned by Lady Emily Foley who granted the public free access to the spring water. St Anns Well was one of the most popular watering places for wealthy invalids in the days of the Water Cure. The unusual octagonal extension was erected in 1841, queen Adelaide visited St. Anns Well in September 1842. In the 1850s, water from St Anns Well was bottled by John, Bottling ceased here in the 1950s and the former bottling works are now furniture showrooms
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Worcestershire
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Worcestershire is a county in the West Midlands of England. Between 1974 and 1998, it was merged with the county of Herefordshire as Hereford. The cathedral city of Worcester is the largest settlement and county town, other towns in the county include Redditch, Bromsgrove, Stourport-on-Severn, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, and Malvern. The north-east of Worcestershire includes part of the industrial West Midlands, the county is divided into six administrive districts, Worcester, Redditch, Wychavon, Malvern Hills, Wyre Forest, and Bromsgrove. The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, to the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills and the spa town of Malvern. The south of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the edge of the Cotswolds. Two major rivers flow through the county, the Severn and the Avon, Worcestershire was the heartland of the early English kingdom of the Hwicce. It was absorbed by the Kingdom of Mercia during the 7th century and it was a separate ealdormanship briefly in the 10th century before forming part of the Earldom of Mercia in the 11th century. In the years leading up to the Norman conquest, the Church, supported by the cathedral, Evesham Abbey, Pershore Abbey, Malvern Priory, and other religious houses, increasingly dominated the county. The last known Anglo-Saxon sheriff of the county was Cyneweard of Laughern, on 4 August 1265, Simon de Montfort was killed in the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire. In 1642, the Battle of Powick Bridge was the first major skirmish of the English Civil War, during the Middle Ages, much of the countys economy was based on the wool trade. Many areas of its forests, such as Feckenham Forest, Horewell Forest. Droitwich Spa, situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of production from Roman times. These old industries have declined, to be replaced by other. The county is home to the worlds oldest continually published newspaper. Malvern was one of the centres of the 19th century rise in English spa towns due to Malvern water being believed to be very pure, containing nothing at all. The 2011 census found the population of Worcestershire to be 566,169, while this change is in line with the nationwide trend of White British peoples share of the population shrinking, Worcestershire is still much more ethnically homogeneous than the national average. In 2011 England as a whole was 79. 8% White British, the most notable were Dudley, Evenlode, and the area around Shipston-on-Stour
31.
Spring (hydrology)
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A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earths surface. It is a component of the hydrosphere, a spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earths surface, becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissure—openings ranging from intergranular spaces to large caves, the water eventually emerges from below the surface, in the form of a karst spring. The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of an aquifer in which the recharge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells and this is possible even if the outlet is in the form of a 300-foot-deep cave. In this case the cave is used like a hose by the higher elevated area of groundwater to exit through the lower elevation opening. Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation, still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic activity. The result can be water at elevated temperature such as a hot spring, the action of the groundwater continually dissolves permeable bedrock such as limestone and dolomite, creating vast cave systems. The term seep refers to springs with small flow rates in which the water has filtered through permeable earth. Fracture springs, discharge from faults, joints, or fissures in the earth, tubular springs, in which the water flows from underground caverns. Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the springs recharge basin, factors that affect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of precipitation, the size of capture points, and the size of the spring outlet. Water may leak into the system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes. In some cases entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed, grand Gulf State Park in Missouri is an example of an entire creek vanishing into the groundwater system. The water emerges 9 miles away, forming some of the discharge of Mammoth Spring in Arkansas, human activity may also affect a springs discharge--withdrawal of groundwater reduces the water pressure in an aquifer, decreasing the volume of flow. Springs are often classified by the volume of the water they discharge, the largest springs are called first-magnitude, defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second. The scale for spring flow is as follows, Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks and this may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the nature of the geology through which it passes. This is why spring water is bottled and sold as mineral water. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called mineral springs, Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called soda springs
32.
Holy Well, Malvern
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The Holy Well is set on the slopes of the Malvern Hills above Malvern Wells. The well is believed to be the site of the oldest bottling plant in the world, the Malvern spring water was first bottled on a commercial scale at the well and the building houses a modern commercial bottling plant. In 1559 the manor and vicarage of Hanley Castle were bought from the Crown by John Hornyold Esq, within the manor lay a prolific spring known today as the Holy Well spring. In 1743 Dr John Wall analysed the spring water and he published his analysis of the water, stating that the water contained nothing at all. Edward Popham of Tewkesbury was partially cured of his gout at the Holy Well in 1747, in 1853 the Holy Well and nearby Bath Cottage were purchased from squatters by Thomas Charles Hornyold, who extended the building that housed the baths and spa at a cost of £400. The building was listed as Grade II and of Architectural Interest in the 1970s, Malvern water has been bottled and distributed in the UK and abroad from as early as the reign of James I, with water bottling at the Holy Well being recorded in 1622. As official caterers to the Great Exhibition of 1851, Schweppes introduced the water as Malvern Soda, in 1890 Schweppes moved away from Holy Well, entered into a contract with a Colwall family, and built a bottling plant in the village in 1892. The Holy Well was subsequently leased to John and Henry Cuff, in the past Holy Well was dressed on St. Oswalds day by people who had been cured at the well. St Oswald supposedly revealed the properties of the well to a hermit who lived on the hills. Until 2006, religious items, flowers and other objects were left as offerings at the Holy Well. Local Christians and foreign visitors of a range of faiths used to leave prayers. In 2006 concerns were raised in the press about religious messages that had been written on the walls of the building. As a result, tokens are removed with the exception of the official well dressing of the site in May. In Early British Trackways Alfred Watkins theorised that a ley line passed along the Malvern Hills through several wells including Holy Well, St Anns Well, Walms Well and St. Pewtress Well
33.
Glastonbury
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Glastonbury /ˈɡlæstənbri/ is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels,23 miles south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census, Glastonbury is less than 1 mile across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury. Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles west of Glastonbury, centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironsides coronation as King of England in 1016, the Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, the presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the village of Pilton. The Neolithic people continued to exploit the reedswamps for their natural resources, tree-ring dating of the timbers has enabled very precise dating of the track, showing it was built in 3807 or 3806 BC. It has been claimed to be the oldest road in the world, the track was discovered in the course of peat digging in 1970, and is named after its discoverer, Ray Sweet. It extended across the marsh between what was then an island at Westhay, and a ridge of ground at Shapwick. The track is one of a network of tracks that crossed the Somerset Levels. Since the discovery of the Sweet Track, it has determined that it was built along the route of an even earlier track. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue, on the Somerset Levels near Godney, some 3 miles north west of Glastonbury. The village was built in about 300 BC and occupied into the early Roman period when it was abandoned and it was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay. Sharpham Park is a 300-acre historic park,2 miles west of Glastonbury, the origin of the name Glastonbury is unclear but when the settlement is first recorded in the 7th and the early 8th century, it was called Glestingaburg. It may derive from a person or kindred group named Glast, upon arrival there he beholds a hovering mansion inhabited by handsomely dressed courtiers and King Gwyn on a throne of gold, holy water disperses the apparition. This is from Druid mythology, in which the mansion is made of glass so as to receive the spirits of the dead, accordingly, Williamson posits that the Tor was named after the glassy mansion of the dead
34.
Stonehenge
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Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England,2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. Stonehenge consists of ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 4.1 metres high,2.1 metres wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC, one of the most famous landmarks in the UK, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain, the site and its surroundings were added to UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, William Stukeley in 1740 notes, Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire. I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones. Like Stonehenges trilithons, medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, rather than the inverted L-shape more familiar today, the henge portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian use, Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscapes time frame to 6500 years. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below, features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right. Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes and these held pine posts around 0.75 metres in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts were in an east-west alignment which may have had significance, no parallels are known from Britain at the time. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year round spring 1 mile from Stonehenge. Salisbury Plain was then still wooded but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built an enclosure at Robin Hoods Ball. In approximately 3500 BC, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 700 metres north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees, a number of other adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds, previously overlooked, may date as far back as 4000 BC
35.
Goring-on-Thames
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Goring-on-Thames is a relatively large village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 5.5 miles south of Wallingford and 8 miles north-west of Reading. The place-name Goring is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 and it appears as Garingies in a charter formerly held in the British Museum. Goring has a station, which is on the main line between Oxford and London. Most of the land in the parish is farmland, with woodland on the Goring Gap outcrop of the Chiltern Hills. Its riverside plain is made up of the area of the village including its high street. Neighbouring this street are the villages churches, one of these, dedicated to St Thomas Becket, has a nave that was built in the 50 years after his death in the early 13th century, and a later bell tower. The village faces Streatley, which has a population and a large riverside hotel. The two villages are connected by Goring and Streatley Bridge, Goring is on the north bank of the River Thames, in the Goring Gap which separates the Berkshire Downs and the Chiltern Hills. The village is about 8 miles northwest of Reading and 16 miles south of Oxford, immediately across the river is the Berkshire village of Streatley, and the two are often considered as twin villages, linked by Goring and Streatley Bridge and its adjacent lock and weir. The Thames Path, Icknield Way and the Ridgeway cross the Thames at Goring, the Great Western Main Line railway passes through Goring, and Goring & Streatley railway station in the village is served by local First Great Western trains running between Reading and Oxford. The Church of England parish church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury is Norman, the bell-stage of St. Thomass bell tower was added in the 15th century and has a ring of eight bells, one of which dates from 1290. The rood screen is carved from wood taken from HMS Thunderer, the church hall was added in 1901. A priory of Augustinian nuns was built late in the 12th century with its own priory church adjoining St. Thomass, the priory survived until the early part of the 16th century when it was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and then demolished. The foundations of the church, cloister, dormitory, vestry, chapter house. Goring Free Church is a member of the Countess of Huntingdons Connexion, the congregation was founded in 1788 and its first chapel was built in 1793. At its centenary, in 1893, a new building was added. The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and Saint John was designed by the architect William Ravenscroft and it is now part of a single parish with the Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King in Woodcote. Goring United Football Club plays in the Reading Football League, goring-on-Thames Cricket Club was founded in 1876
36.
Llantwit Major
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Llantwit Major is a small coastal town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, on the Bristol Channel coast. It is one of four towns in the Vale of Glamorgan and the third largest by population after Barry and Penarth, and ahead of Cowbridge, which lies about 4.5 miles to the north-east. The towns name in Welsh, Llanilltud Fawr, is derived from the name of Saint Illtud and he founded the monastery of Illtud and the college attached to it, Cor Tewdws, which would grow into one of the most esteemed Christian colleges of the times. At its peak it attracted over 2000 students, including princes and numerous eminent clergymen, the 13th-century St Illtyds Church, built near the ancient monastery, is today a Grade I listed building and one of the oldest parish churches in Wales. Llantwit Major railway station on the Vale of Glamorgan Line reopened in June 2005, Collugh Beach is a popular surfing venue and has the remnants of an Iron Age fort and some of the finest examples of Jurassic Period fossils in Wales. The Welsh placename element llan referred to the community around early Christian settlements in Wales. Llantwit Major has been inhabited for over 3000 years, archaeological evidence has shown that it was occupied in Neolithic times, in the beach area are the remains of an Iron Age fort. The exact date of its founding is unknown, but some sources indicate around the year 500, samson was known to have been summoned by Dyfrig to join the monastery in 521 and he was briefly elected abbot before leaving for Cornwall. King Hywel ap Rhys was buried at the monastery, the college suffered during the invasions of the Saxons and the Danes and was destroyed by the Vikings in 987 and again by the Normans in the late 11th century. However, in 1111, it is documented as being restored and it is known to have continued to function as a monastic school until the 16th-century Reformation. Although nothing of the monastery remains, the present church was originally built between 950 and 1400 and its earliest existing secular buildings date from the 15th century. The church and school became the property of Tewkesbury Abbey around 1130 after becoming part of the Norman kingdom of Glamorgan, after the dissolution of the monasteries by king Henry VIII during the Reformation, it became independent from Tewkesbury in 1539. St Donats Castle,1.5 miles to the west, was built in the 13th century, in the 20th century, Llantwit developed into a dormitory town and grew about 15 times in size to accommodate the Royal Air Force at St Athan. Llantwit Major railway station on the Vale of Glamorgan Line was reopened in June 2005, in 2014, it was rated one of the most attractive postcode areas to live in Wales. Llantwit Major is located in southeast Wales and mid-west along the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan. It is one of four towns in the Vale of Glamorgan and the third largest by population after Barry and Penarth, and ahead of Cowbridge, which lies about 4.5 miles to the northeast. The town centre of Llantwit Major lies about 9 miles from the centre of Bridgend,10 miles from the centre of Barry, Boverton is an eastern suburb of Llantwit. The Llantwit Major area is built on a range of different levels, at the lower coastal level is the flat, glacial Collugh Valley, marked by steep cliffs on both sides, leading to a pebble beach
37.
Severn Estuary
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The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. It is at the mouth of four rivers, being the Severn, Wye, Usk and Avon. Its high tidal range of about 50 feet means that it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy, definitions of the limits of the Severn Estuary vary. The definition used on Admiralty Chart SC1179 and the Bristol Channel and Severn Cruising Guide is that the estuary extends upstream to Aust, the estuary is about 2 miles wide at Aust, and about 9 miles wide between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare. The Estuary forms the boundary between Wales and England in this stretch. On the northern side of the estuary are the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels which are on side of the city of Newport, and, to the west. On the southern, English, side, are Avonmouth, Portishead, Clevedon, denny Island is a small rocky island of 0.24 hectares, with scrub vegetation, approximately three miles north of Portishead. Its rocky southern foreshore marks the boundary between England and Wales, but the island itself is reckoned administratively to Monmouthshire, Wales, the estuary has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world — about 50 feet. The estuarys funnel shape, its range and the underlying geology of rock, gravel and sand, produce strong tidal streams and high turbidity. West of the line between Lavernock Point and Sand Point is the Bristol Channel, which in turn discharges into the Celtic Sea, the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm are located close to that line, in the middle of the estuary. Sometimes the term Severn Estuary is used to include the upstream stretch between Gloucester and Aust. The tidal range results in the estuary having one of the most extensive intertidal wildlife habitats in the UK, comprising mudflats, sandflats, rocky platforms and these form a basis for plant and animal communities typical of extreme physical conditions of liquid mud and tide-swept sand and rock. The estuary is recognised as an area of international importance and is designated as a Ramsar site. The estuary is recognised as a Special Protection Area under the EC Directive on the conservation of Wild Birds, the estuary is recognised as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. Parts of the estuary have also designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The SSSI includes most of the foreshore upstream from Cardiff and Brean Down, the Upper Severn Estuary SSSI covers the tidal river between Purton and Frampton on Severn. The Severn Estuary SSSI original designation involves the English counties of Somerset, Avon and it involves the Welsh counties of Gwent and South Glamorgan. The Severn Estuary SSSI designation overlaps individual site designations for separate sites in Avon, Gloucestershire, the 1976 designation includes two sites previously notified in 1952
38.
Wyche, Worcestershire
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Wyche, often referred to locally as The Wyche, is a village and a suburb of the town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, and part of the civil parish of Malvern Wells. It is situated approximately 1 mile south of Great Malvern, the towns centre, from the 1920s until the 1960s, this road was the A4105, before being re-classified as the B4218. The Wyche village comprises the two areas of Upper Wyche and Lower Wyche, mainly comprising residential properties. The Wyche Inn is a house situated in Upper Wyche and is the countys highest pub. Old Wyche Road is one of the countrys steepest streets, with an incline as great as 17. 54° at Upper Wyche, just on the Herefordshire side of the Cutting is the location of the Wyche Innovation Centre, that was the former Skot Transformers building. This is also the home of the Malvern Hills Geocentre, a visitor centre based entirely on iPads with an attached cafe, also in Upper Colwall is the Wyche Free Church. The nearest railway stations are Great Malvern and Colwall, both are on the same line, the Wyche CE Primary School is located in Lower Wyche
39.
British Camp
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The British Camp is an Iron Age hill fort located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon in the Malvern Hills. The hill fort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is owned and maintained by Malvern Hills Conservators, the fort is thought to have been first constructed in the 2nd century BC. A Norman castle was built on the site, the extensive earthworks remain clearly visible today and determine the shape of the hill. The height of the summit of British Camp is 1,109 feet, the British Camp is composed of extensive earthworks that have been compared to a giant wedding cake. Midsummer Hill fort is a mile south of the British Camp, there are a number of generally round hut platforms on the British Camp, which may well suggest a permanent occupation. However it is unusual to have two major hill forts within such a short distance, the diarist John Evelyn remarked that the view from the hill was one of the godliest vistas in England. The ditch and counterscarp bank around the site covers three hills, although those to north and south are little more than spurs. With a perimeter of 6,800 feet, the defences enclose an area of around 44 acres, the first earthworks were around the base of the central hill otherwise known as the citadel. At least four pre-historic phases of building have so far been identified, original gates appear to have existed to east, west and north-east. There is no evidence about whether the coming of the Romans ended the use of the British Camp. This is unlikely, according to the description of the Roman historian Tacitus who implies a site closer to the river Severn, excavation at Midsummer Hill fort, Bredon Hill and Croft Ambrey all show evidence of violent destruction around 48 AD. This may suggest that the British Camp was abandoned or destroyed around the same time, medieval castles were sometimes built within earlier sites, reusing the earthworks of Iron Age hill forts for instance as was the case at British Camp. A ringwork and bailey castle, known as Colwall Castle as well as The Herefordshire Beacon, was built within the Iron Age hill fort, quite possibly the builder was Earl Harold Godwinson, the future King Harold II of England. Earl Harold is recorded as building another fortress in the county at Longtown Castle, the castle would appear to have been refortified during The Anarchy of the reign of King Stephen. Before 1148 the fortress was held by Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, the castle appears to have changed hands again in 1151 and 1153 when attacked by royalists. At this time it was defended by the men of Earl Walerans brother, Robert de Beaumont, the castle was finally destroyed by King Henry II in 1155 and mentioned in passing by William Langland before 1386. The Shire Ditch, or Red Earls Dyke, runs north and south of the British Camp along the ridge of the hills. It was created in 1287 by Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester, following a dispute with Thomas de Cantilupe
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Midsummer Hill
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Midsummer Hill is situated in the range of Malvern Hills that runs approximately 13 kilometres north-south along the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border. It lies to the south of Herefordshire Beacon with views to Eastnor Castle and it has an elevation of 284 metres. To the north is Swinyard Hill and it is the site of an Iron Age hill fort which spans Midsummer Hill and Hollybush Hill. The hillfort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is owned by Natural England and it can be accessed via a footpath which leads south from the car park at British Camp on the A449 or a footpath which heads north from the car park in Hollybush on the A438. The hillfort is very unusual in that the ramparts enclose two hills and the intervening valley, bowden speculates that the spring within the valley enhance the position of the hillfort as a site of symbolic value. The rampart and ditch were built around 390 BC and it is thought that the settlement was occupied by 1500 people until it was destroyed by fire in AD48, bowden, Mark, Field, David, Winton, Helen. The Malvern Hills, an ancient landscape, Midsummer Hill Camp, alternative name, Midsummer Hill Fort. Midsummer Hill Camp Monument Detail Aerial view of Midsummer Hill
