Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford and Wolverhampton Railway was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot Junction near Oxford to Worcester, Stourbridge and Wolverhampton, as well as some branches, its main line was opened in stages between 1852 and 1853. When the West Midland Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1860, the OW&WR was the dominant partner, but the West Midland company amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1863. Several branches and extensions were built in the West Midlands, the main line was developed as an important trunk route. Much of the original main line is in use at present. In 1841 the GWR opened its first main line between Bristol, it was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the track was on the broad gauge, in contrast to most of the railways in existence in Great Britain. The broad gauge would, give greater stability to trains running at speed. In 1844 a branch line from Didcot to Oxford was opened, preparatory to extending the GWR system into the West Midlands.
It too was designed by Brunel, used the broad gauge. Birmingham and the industrial area of the Black Country were served, by the London and Birmingham Railway of 1838, the Grand Junction Railway; the GJR had opened in 1837, ran north from Birmingham, skirting Wolverhampton to reach the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Approaching Birmingham from the south was the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, opened in 1840. In 1845 it became part of the Midland Railway, linked with the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, forming a through route to Bristol, although with a break of gauge at Gloucester initially; the opening of these lines gave an enormous impetus to the heavy industry of the areas they served, representing a considerable move forward from the canal-based transport, a near-monopoly. At the same time, the limited network generated a demand for further lines serving areas remote from the existing lines, if possible competition. Against this background, there was considerable interest in a railway crossing the Black Country to Wolverhampton, its largest town.
A line from Oxford could be made, running through Worcester and Stourbridge to Wolverhampton, this would connect into a great many locations of industry. The proposed line fell into the Great Western Railway's area of dominance, Brunel was commissioned to undertake a survey for a broad gauge line. A prospectus was issued on 22 May 1844. In fact this was provisionally agreed in September; the necessary Bill incorporating the company went to the 1845 session of Parliament, received the Royal Assent on 4 August 1845. The OW&WR Act required the track gauge to be the same as on the GWR: the broad gauge, but with qualifications; the line was to start from a junction off the mixed gauge Oxford and Rugby Railway north of Oxford, at Wolvercot Junction. However, at the northern end it was to terminate by a junction on to the Grand Junction Railway at Bushbury Junction; the Grand Junction was a solidly narrow gauge railway, any "junction" must have been a transhipment point. The waters were muddied by a possible change of heart by the GJR.
They had relied on the London and Birmingham Railway for access to London, but relationships had soured when the L&BR planned amalgamation with the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. Fearing that this would by-pass their own line, the GJR flirted with the idea of converting to the broad gauge, or at least mixed gauge; this would give it access to London over the OW&WR, by-passing the L&BR. Webster says that this alarmed the L&BR, but "whether the Grand Junction Board seriously contemplated relaying their tracks with the broad gauge is doubtful."The next issue was that the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had been built passing at some distance from Worcester, a fact that had caused resentment in the city. A spur at Abbots Wood between the two lines would enable B&GR trains to reach Worcester, it was contemplated that a connecting line from Droitwich to the B&GR line at Stoke Works would form a loop line for the B&GR; the B&GR was a narrow gauge line, the loop line would need to be mixed gauge.
In 1846 Francis Rufford, the Chairman of the OW&WR saw that the inflation of construction costs brought about by the Railway Mania, now at its height, meant that the £1.5 million estimate they had used would be inadequate, he asked the GWR to increase its rent in proportion to the anticipated cost, thought to be £2.5 million at least. The GWR was not opposed to this, the OW&WR may have understood that the GWR had formally agreed; the OW&WR Board improperly represented to prospective shareholders that the GWR guaranteed 4% interest on the whole construction cost whatever that might prove to be, this led to soured relations between the two companies for a long period on. In 1847 a review of the northern termination of the line was made; this was authorised by Act of 14 August 1848. As the economy
Temple Grafton
Temple Grafton is a village and civil parish in the Stratford district of Warwickshire, situated about 4 miles east of Alcester and 14 miles West of the county town of Warwick. The place name is misleading, the Knights Templar never having any association with the place but owing to a naming error made in the time of Henry VIII the mistake has been perpetuated. During the reign of Richard I the estate in fact belonged to the Knights Hospitaller. During the reign of Edward III in 1347 the village was recorded as Grafton Superior while neighbouring Ardens Grafton was named Inferior Temple Grafton was alleged to have been granted to Evesham Abbey by Ceolred King of Mercia in 710, but it is said to have been given by Edward the Confessor in 1055, is included among the 36 manors acquired by Abbot Ethelwig. Of these 36 manors, 28, including Grafton, were seized by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, quasi lupus rapax, after Ethelwig's death; the village is recorded in the Domesday Book as part of the lands of Osbern son of Richard, having been given to him by Odo, where the entry states, "In Ferncombe Hundred Gilbert holds 5 hides in Temple Grafton.
Land for 5 ploughs. In lordship 2. Meadow, 24 acres; the value was £3. Merwin,Scroti and Tosti held it before 1066."The first mention of the Knights Hospitallers here occurs in 1189, when they received a grant of land from Henry de Grafton. In 1275–6 they were holding 2 carucates belonging to Ralph and Bernard de Grafton, which were declared to have evaded taxation for forty years. In 1316 they held the manor for a knight's fee of Guy de Earl of Warwick. By 1338 they had a Preceptory here, united with that of Balsall, they continued lords of the manor until the suppression of their Order in 1540 when the manor passed to the crown, it is known as one of the Shakespeare villages. William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon, as a result of his labours in that regard to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's tree; when morning dawned his friends wished to renew the encounter but he wisely said "No I have drunk with "Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro', Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford" and so I will drink no more."
The story is said to date from the 17th century but of its truth or of any connection of the story or the verse to Shakespeare there is no evidence. The hungry ephitet refers to the poverty of the soil. Temple Grafton is part of the Bardon ward of Stratford on Avon District Council and represented by Councillor Valerie Hobbs, Conservative. Nationally it is part of Stratford-on-Avon, whose current Member of Parliament is Nadhim Zahawi of the Conservative Party, it is included in the West Midlands electoral region of the European Parliament, following the 2014 elections the seven members are. The land rises to an altitude of over 300 ft. in the northern part of the parish and slopes down to about 180 ft. by the river-bank at Hillborough, 2 miles to the south. The village, with the church, stands on the edge of the hill, commanding views across the valley to Bredon Hill and the Cotswolds; the parish church of St. Andrew was rebuilt in 1875 to a design by Frederick Preedy on the site of an older edifice.
Consisting of a chancel with a north organ chamber and vestry, north aisle, a south-west tower serving as a porch, it is built of lias stone with sandstone dressings, has tiled roofs. On the north wall of the chancel is a repainted stone shield of arms of the 17th century with the six quarterings of the Woodchurch-Clarke family, impaling the quarterly coat of De la Hay, Winterbourne and Ruding. In the organ chamber is a 17th-century oak chest with panelled sides, a carved top-rail, a panelled lid. Another chest is of early 19th century; the blunder regarding the Knights Templar is repeated in the symbols of that order being depicted in the glass and encaustic tiles of the interior. Many scholars believe it to be the place where William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, since records of the marriage do not appear in Stratford itself, a licence was issued for Shakespeare to marry in Temple Grafton; however marriage records for the period have been lost. Grafton Court is a nineteenth century Gothic revival house with lodge gatehouses, set off New Road.
It was built on the site of an older moated manor house. The house was used for some time as a hotel before being converted into apartments, it has a Pub and a Bus stop. Situated on New Road is Graftons village hall serving both Temple Grafton & Ardens Grafton, it is a large hall which seats 120 people in rows or 100 at 60 if stage is in place. The reception porch has access for the disabled. Located on Church Bank is Temple Grafton Church of England Primary School having 102 pupils on its roll; the nearest secondary schools are located in Alcester 4 miles or Stratford-upon-Avon 6 miles
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian New Model Army, 28,000 strong, defeated King Charles II's 16,000 Royalists, of whom the vast majority were Scottish; the King was aided by Scottish allies and was attempting to regain the throne, lost when his father Charles I was executed. The commander of the Scots, David Leslie, supported the plan of fighting in Scotland, where royal support was strongest. Charles, insisted on making war in England, he calculated that Cromwell's campaign north of the River Forth would allow the main Scottish Royalist army, south of the Forth to steal the march on the Roundhead New Model Army in a race to London. He hoped to rally not the old faithful Royalists, but the overwhelming numerical strength of the English Presbyterians to his standard, he calculated that his alliance with the Scottish Presbyterian Covenanters and his signing of the Solemn League and Covenant would encourage English Presbyterians to support him against the English Independent faction which had grown in power over the last few years.
The Royalist army was kept well in hand, no excesses were allowed, in a week the Royalists covered 150 miles in marked contrast to the Duke of Hamilton's ill-fated expedition of 1648. On 8 August the troops were given a well-earned rest between Kendal, but the Royalists were mistaken in supposing. Everything had been foreseen both by the Council of State in Westminster; the latter had called out the greater part of the militia on 7 August. Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood began to draw together the midland contingents at Banbury; the London trained-bands turned out for field service no fewer than 14,000 strong. Every suspected Royalist was watched, the magazines of arms in the country-houses of the gentry were for the most part removed into the strong places. On his part Cromwell had made his preparations. Perth passed into his hands on 2 August and he brought back his army to Leith by 5 August. Thence he dispatched Lieutenant-General John Lambert with a cavalry corps to harass the invaders.
Major-General Thomas Harrison was at Newcastle picking the best of the county mounted-troops to add to his own regulars. On 9 August, Charles was at Kendal, Lambert hovering in his rear, Harrison marching swiftly to bar his way at the Mersey. Thomas Fairfax emerged for a moment from his retirement to organize the Yorkshire levies, the best of these as well as of the Lancashire and Staffordshire militias were directed upon Warrington, which Harrison reached on 15 August, a few hours in front of Charles's advanced guard. Lambert too, slipping round the left flank of the enemy, joined Harrison, the English fell back and without letting themselves be drawn into a fight, along the London road. Cromwell meanwhile, leaving George Monck with the least efficient regiments to carry on the war in Scotland, had reached the river Tyne in seven days, thence, marching 20 miles a day in extreme heat with the country people carrying their arms and equipment, the regulars entered Ferrybridge on 19 August, at which date Lambert and the north-western militia were about Congleton.
It seemed probable that a great battle would take place between Lichfield and Coventry on or just after 25 August and that Cromwell, Harrison and Fleetwood would all take part in it. But the scene and the date of the denouement were changed by the enemy's movements. Shortly after leaving Warrington the young king had resolved to abandon the direct march on London and to make for the Severn valley, where his father had found the most constant and the most numerous adherents in the first war, and, the centre of gravity of the English Royalist movement of 1648. Sir Edward Massey the Parliamentary governor of Gloucester, was now with Charles, it was hoped that he would induce his fellow Presbyterians to take arms; the military quality of the Welsh border Royalists was well proved, that of the Gloucestershire Presbyterians not less so, and, in basing himself on Gloucester and Worcester as his father had done on Oxford, Charles II hoped to deal with the Independent faction minority of the English people more effectually than Charles I had earlier dealt with the majority of the people of England who had supported the Parliamentary cause.
But the pure Royalism which now ruled in the invading army could not alter the fact that it was a foreign, army, it was not an Independent faction but all England that united against it. Charles arrived at Worcester on 22 August and spent five days in resting the troops, preparing for further operations, gathering and arming the few recruits who came in; the delay was to prove fatal. Worcester itself had no particular claim to being loyal to the King. Throughout the First Civil War it had taken the pragmatic position of declaring loyalty to whichever side had been in occupation; the epithet'Faithful City' arose out of a cynical claim at the Restoration for compensation from the new king. Cromwell, the lord general, had during his march south thrown out successively two flying columns under Colonel Robert Lilburne to deal with the Lancashire Royalists under the Earl of Derby. Lilburne routed a Lancashire detachment of the enemy on their way to join the main Royalist army at the Battle of Wigan Lane on 25 August and as affair
Nave
The nave is the central part of a church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for clergy; the nave extends from the entry—which may have a separate vestibule —to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three naves, it provides the central approach to the high altar. The term nave is from navis, the Latin word for ship, an early Christian symbol of the Church as a whole, with a possible connection to the "ship of St. Peter" or the Ark of Noah.
The term may have been suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. In many Scandinavian and Baltic countries a model ship is found hanging in the nave of a church, in some languages the same word means both'nave' and'ship', as for instance Danish skib, Swedish skepp or Spanish; the earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with the form of the Roman basilica, a public building for business transactions. It had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is an early church, it was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I, replaced in the 16th century. The nave, the main body of the building, is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen. Medieval naves were divided into the repetition of form giving an effect of great length. During the Renaissance, in place of dramatic effects there were more balanced proportions.
Longest nave in Denmark: Aarhus Cathedral, 93 m Longest nave in England: St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, 85 m Longest nave in Ireland: St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 91 m, externally Longest nave in France: Bourges Cathedral, 91 m, including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts Longest nave in Germany: Cologne cathedral, 58 m, including two bays between the towers Longest nave in Italy: St Peter's Basilica in Rome, 91 m, in four bays Longest nave in Spain: Seville, 60 m, in five bays Longest nave in the United States: Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, United States, 70 m Highest vaulted nave: Beauvais Cathedral, France, 48 m, but only one bay of the nave was built. Highest completed nave: Rome, St. Peter's, Italy, 46 m Abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram List of highest church naves
Abbots Leigh
Abbots Leigh is a village and civil parish in Somerset, about 3 miles west of the centre of Bristol. The original Middle English name was Lega, the village became Abbots Leigh in the mid-12th century when Robert Fitzharding purchased the manor, having been rewarded as Lord of the Manor of Portbury by the king, he purchased Bedminster and Billeswick manors. He went on to found the Abbey of St Augustine at what was Billeswick, bequeathed the income from the parish to support the abbey; because of this connection to the abbey, when the Diocese of Bristol was carved out of the Bath and Wells and Worcester diocesan territories the new diocese's boundary was drawn to include the parish, including the Saxon enclosure at Hamgreen, part of Portbury manor lands until then. All the surrounding parishes in Somerset are in Wells diocese; the parish map shows this meandering historic boundary which puts St Katherine's School and Chapel Pill Farm both within the parish. The parish of Abbots Leigh was part of the Portbury Hundred.
The manor house here named Abbot's Leigh or Leigh Court, was a resting place of Charles II during his escape to France in 1651. He arrived on the evening of 12 September, stayed at the home of Mr and Mrs George Norton, who were friends of the King's travelling companion, Jane Lane; the Nortons were unaware of the King's identity during his three-day stay. A description of the house appears in the book The Escape of Charles II, After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard: "Abbots Leigh was the most magnificent of all the houses in which Charles was sheltered during his escape. A drawing made in 1788, only twenty years before it was pulled down, shows a main front of twelve gables, surmounting three storeys of cowled windows. While staying at Abbots Leigh, Charles deflected suspicion by asking a trooper, in the King's personal guard, to describe the King's appearance and clothing at the Battle of Worcester; the man looked at Charles and said, "The King was at least three inches taller than you."The King's escape route is commemorated in the Monarch's Way long distance footpath which passes through the village.
In 1942, during World War II, Rev. Cyril Vincent Taylor a producer of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC and stationed here, wrote a hymn tune which he named after the village; the tune was written for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken". This hymn had been sung to the tune "Austrian Hymn", or Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, but since the German national anthem was sung to that tune, new music was needed in wartime Britain. Other hymn texts now sung to the same tune include "Father Lord of All Creation", "God is Here", "Go My Children, With my Blessing" and "Lord, You Give the Great Commission"; the parish is in the unitary authority of North Somerset, created in 1996, under the Local Government Act 1992. It provides a single tier of local government with responsibility for all local government functions within its area, including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health and fairs, refuse collection, cemeteries, leisure services and tourism.
It is responsible for education, social services, main roads, public transport, Trading Standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service. North Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county, its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, it was the Woodspring district of the county of Avon. Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Long Ashton Rural District; the parish is represented in the House of Commons as part of the North Somerset county constituency, which elects one MP Liam Fox of the Conservative Party. The Church of England parish church of the Holy Trinity is a 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic building and rebuilt in 1847–48 after a fire; the tower has six bells.
English Heritage has designated Holy Trinity a Grade II* listed building. Abbots Leigh on Google Local
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick; the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Rugby and Stratford-on-Avon; the current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The historic county boundaries include Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham; the county is bordered by Leicestershire to the northeast, Staffordshire to the northwest and the West Midlands to the west, Northamptonshire to the east and southeast, Gloucestershire to the southwest and Oxfordshire to the south. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire; the majority of Warwickshire's population live in the centre of the county.
The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, include Atherstone, Bedworth and Rugby. Of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles and cement production, but heavy industry is in decline, being replaced by distribution centres, light to medium industry and services. Of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well known outside of Warwickshire; the prosperous towns of central and western Warwickshire including Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Alcester and Wellesbourne harbour light to medium industries and tourism as major employment sectors. The north of the county, bordering Staffordshire and Leicestershire, is mildly undulating countryside and the northernmost village, No Man's Heath, is only 34 miles south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point; the south of the county is rural and sparsely populated, includes a small area of the Cotswolds, at the border with northeast Gloucestershire.
The plain between the outlying Cotswolds and the Edgehill escarpment is known as the Vale of Red Horse. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour; the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the county's southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves; the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were: Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry and Birmingham, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden", such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden.
Areas part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Sutton Coldfield and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. In 1986 the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Birmingham and Solihull became effective unitary authorities, however the West Midlands county name has not been altogether abolished, still exists for ceremonial purposes, so the town and two cities remain outside Warwickshire; some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, still observe the historic county boundaries. The flag of the historic county was registered in October 2016, it is a design of a bear and ragged staff on a red field, long associated with the county. Coventry is in the centre of the Warwickshire area, still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as a single area and share a single Chamber of Commerce and BBC Local Radio Station.
Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history. In 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire. In recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this; the county's population would increase by a third-of-a-million overnight should this occur, Coventry being the UK's 11th largest city. The town of Tamworth was divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, but since 1888 has been in Staffordshire. In 1931, Warwickshire gained the town of Shipston-on-Stour from Worcestershire and several villages, including Long Marston and Welford-on-Avon, from Gloucestershire. Warwickshire contains a large expanse of green belt area, surrounding the West Midlands and Coventry conurbations, was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.
The following towns and villages in Warwickshire have populations of over 5,000. Warwickshire came into being as a divisio
Pebworth
Pebworth is a village and civil parish in the county of Worcestershire, lying about 8 km north-north-west of the town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Until 1931, the parish – which includes the hamlet of Broad Marston – was itself in Gloucestershire, as part of Pebworth Rural District. Pebworth is bordered to the north and north-east by the parishes of Dorsington and Long Marston, which are today in Warwickshire. Pebworth is mentioned in the Domesday Book "Hugh de Grandmesnil holds Pebworth. There are one virgate. Two thegns held it as two manors. There are one bordar and seven slaves; the same Hugh holds Broad Marston. There are two hides." Pebworth is known as one of the Shakespeare villages. William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon, as a result of his labours in that regard to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's Tree; when morning dawned his friends wished to renew the encounter but he wisely said "No I have drunk with “Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford” and so I will drink no more.
The story is said to date from the 17th century but of its truth or of any connection of the story or the verse to Shakespeare there is no evidence. Pebworth has a fire station. Pebworth has twenty-five ponds, the biggest and best belonging to The Birches. At least one of these is heart-shaped. St Peter's Church has large ring of ten bells, unusual for a small rural church. A closed-circuit television camera in the belfry, enables the movement of the bells to be seen in real time view on a monitor in the ringing chamber. An active Morris dancing side has existed in Pebworth since early 1979; the side first performed in public on 16 June 1979 to mark the 25th anniversary of Pebworth Village Hall. Pebworth Parish Council web site Pebworth Village website
