1.
Lydiard Tregoze
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Lydiard Tregoze is a small village and civil parish on the western edge of Swindon in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. It has in the past been spelt as Liddiard Tregooze and in other ways. The parish includes the village of Hook and the hamlet of Hook Street. Mentioned in Doomsday as a manor belonging to Alfred of Marlborough Baron of Ewyas, however, the original village of Lydiard Tregoze disappeared, giving way to the grounds of an important country house, although St Marys church survives and contains important monuments. Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was the stepdaughter of Oliver St John of Lydiard Tregoze, in 1615, Lucy St John, daughter of Sir John St John of Lydiard Tregoze, married Sir Allen Apsley, one of the founders of the New England Company. In 1644, Anne St John of Lydiard, the daughter of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet, married Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, Anne St John was the grandmother of Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield. Parish registers survive from 1666 and are kept in the Wiltshire, in 1801, the total population of the parish was 578, in 1901 it was 618, and in 1971549. John Bartholomews Gazetteer of the British Isles describes Lydiard Tregoze as, Liddiard Tregooze, par. wilts,1 mile SE. of Liddiard Millicent,5142 ac. pop. Lydiard Tregoze is one of two suggested locations for the 9th century Battle of Ellandun, Lydiard House was the home of the St John family for more than five hundred years. Almost none of the original furnishings then remained, in the 1950s, the Corporation began to collect suitable contents for the house, aiming in particular to restore the 18th century State Rooms. These efforts were helped in 1955 when some good furniture arrived on loan from the National Art Collections Fund. During the 1960s Lord Bolingbroke loaned several St John family portraits to the house, when he died in 1975, he bequeathed to the trustees of the house everything he owned which had come from it. Lydiard House now belongs to Swindon Borough Council, the successor of the former Corporation, open to the public, the house now has a significant art collection, and one room has fine painted panels by Lady Diana Beauclerk. The Great Western Main Line railway follows a route, there are no local stations. Between 1840 and 1841, as the railway was being built in stages from London, the M4 motorway also crosses the parish, where Junction 16 provides routes to West Swindon, Royal Wootton Bassett and Wroughton
2.
Swindon
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Swindon is a large town in Wiltshire, South West England, midway between Bristol,35 miles to the west and Reading,35 miles to the east. London is 78 miles to the east, and Cardiff is 78 miles to the west, at the 2011 census, it had a population of 185,609. Swindon became an Expanded Town under the Town Development Act 1952, Swindon railway station is on the line from London Paddington to Bristol. Swindon Borough Council is an authority, independent of Wiltshire Council since 1997. Residents of Swindon are known as Swindonians, the town and wider borough also has the headquarters of the Nationwide Building Society and a Honda car manufacturing plant. The original Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the Domesday Book as Suindune, believed to be derived from the Old English words swine and dun meaning pig hill or possibly Sweyns hill, Swindon was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, the Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindons growth. It started with the construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810, the canals brought trade to the area and Swindons population started to grow. Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunels Swindon Works was built for the repair, the GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Steam Railway Museum and English Heritage, including the English Heritage Archive, in 1878 the fund began providing artificial limbs made by craftsmen from the carriage and wagon works, and nine years later opened its first dental surgery. In his first few months in post the dentist extracted more than 2000 teeth, from the opening in 1892 of the Health Centre, a doctor could also prescribe a haircut or even a bath. The cradle-to-grave extent of service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. The Mechanics Institute, formed in 1844, moved into a building looking rather like a church and included a covered market, on 1 May 1855. The New Swindon Improvement Company, a co-operative, raised the funds for this path self-improvement and it was a groundbreaking organisation that transformed the railways workforce into some of the countrys best-educated manual workers. It had the UKs first lending library, and a range of improving lectures, access to a theatre, the Institute also nurtured pioneering trades unionists and encouraged local democracy. During the second half of the 19th century, Swindon New Town grew around the line between London and Bristol. In 1900, the market town, Old Swindon, merged with its new neighbour at the bottom of the hill to become a single town
3.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
4.
M4 motorway
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The M4 is a motorway which runs between London and South Wales in the United Kingdom. Major towns and cities along the route include Slough, Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, a new Severn bridge, known as the Second Severn Crossing, was opened in 1996 with the M4 rerouted to use it. The M4 runs close to the A4 from London to Bristol, after crossing the River Severn it follows the A48 through South Wales, using the Brynglas Tunnels at Junction 25a, Newport and terminates just north of Pontarddulais. It is one of three motorways in Wales, the other two, the A48 and M48, branch off it. The area of land along the M4, with its towns, european route E30 includes most of the M4, although it is not signed as such. The Maidenhead bypass opened in 1961 whilst J1-J5 opened in 1965, the stretch from J18 to the west of Newport was opened in 1966, including the Severn Bridge. The Port Talbot by-pass, also built in the 1960s and now part of the M4, was originally the A48 motorway, the English section of the motorway was completed on 22 December 1971 when the 50-mile stretch between Junctions 9 and 15 was opened to traffic. The Welsh section was completed in 1993, when the Briton Ferry motorway bridge opened, the Second Severn Crossing opened in 1996, together with new link motorways on either side of the estuary to divert the M4 over the new crossing. The existing route over the Severn Bridge was redesignated the M48, in June 1999 the section of the third lane between Junctions 2 and 3 was converted to a bus lane, first as a pilot scheme and then permanently in 2001. A lower speed limit was introduced along the bus lane section at the same time, between 2007 and January 2010 the section from Castleton to Coryton was widened to six lanes. The scheme was opened on 25 January 2010 by Ieuan Wyn Jones the Deputy First Minister for Wales. During 2009 the Newport section of the motorway between Junctions 23a and 29 was upgraded with a new concrete central barrier. A similar claim was made for a 30-mile section of road in Scotland close to Aberdeen in September 2009 with refuelling points at Bridge of Don, Ellon and Peterhead. Between 2008 and 2010, Junction 11, near Reading, was remodelled with a new four-lane motorway junction. It also involved the movement of the local Highways Agency and Fire Service offices, and the construction of a footbridge network, a new bus-lane. Sound barriers for nearby areas were also installed. In April 2008, the decision to preserve a rare Vickers machine gun pillbox, the table below shows the timeline for the construction of the motorway on a section by section basis. Tolls are charged in one only, westbound
5.
Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth
6.
Henry III of England
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Henry III, also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assumed the throne when he was nine in the middle of the First Barons War. Cardinal Guala declared the war against the barons to be a religious crusade and Henrys forces, led by William Marshal, defeated the rebels at the battles of Lincoln. Henry promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, which limited royal power and his early rule was dominated first by Hubert de Burgh and then Peter des Roches, who re-established royal authority after the war. In 1230 the King attempted to reconquer the provinces of France that had belonged to his father. A revolt led by William Marshals son, Richard, broke out in 1232, following the revolt, Henry ruled England personally, rather than governing through senior ministers. He travelled less than previous monarchs, investing heavily in a handful of his palaces and castles. He married Eleanor of Provence, with whom he had five children, in a fresh attempt to reclaim his familys lands in France, he invaded Poitou in 1242, leading to the disastrous Battle of Taillebourg. After this, Henry relied on diplomacy, cultivating an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Henry supported his brother Richard in his bid to become King of the Romans in 1256 and he planned to go on crusade to the Levant, but was prevented from doing so by rebellions in Gascony. The baronial regime collapsed but Henry was unable to reform a stable government, in 1263 one of the more radical barons, Simon de Montfort, seized power, resulting in the Second Barons War. Henry persuaded Louis to support his cause and mobilised an army, the Battle of Lewes occurred in 1264, where Henry was defeated and taken prisoner. Henrys eldest son, Edward, escaped captivity to defeat de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham the following year. Henry initially enacted a harsh revenge on the rebels, but was persuaded by the Church to mollify his policies through the Dictum of Kenilworth. Reconstruction was slow and Henry had to acquiesce to various measures, including suppression of the Jews, to maintain baronial. Henry died in 1272, leaving Edward as his successor and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt in the second half of his reign, and was moved to his current tomb in 1290. Some miracles were declared after his death but he was not canonised, Henry was born in Winchester Castle on 1 October 1207. He was the eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, little is known of Henrys early life
7.
Deer park (England)
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In medieval and Early Modern England, a deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was on the increasing the effective height. Some parks had deer leaps, where there was an external ramp, some deer parks were established in the Anglo-Saxon era and are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon Charters, these were often called hays. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 William the Conqueror seized existing game reserves, Deer parks flourished and proliferated under the Normans, forming a forerunner of the deer parks that became popular among Englands landed gentry. The Domesday Book of 1086 records thirty-six of them, initially the Norman kings maintained an exclusive right to keep and hunt deer and established forest law for this purpose. In due course they also allowed members of the nobility and senior clergy to maintain deer parks, at their peak at the turn of the 14th century, deer parks may have covered 2% of the land area of England. James I was an enthusiast for hunting but it became less fashionable, the number of deer parks then declined, contemporary books document other more profitable uses for such an estate. Deer parks are notable features in their own right. To establish a park a royal licence was required, known as a licence to empark—especially if the park was in or near a royal forest. Because of their cost and exclusivity, deer parks became status symbols, thus the ability to eat venison or give it to others was also a status symbol. Consequently, many parks were maintained for the supply of venison. Small deer parks which functioned primarily as household larders were attached to many smaller manors, such grants acted as common features of the mediaeval social machinery. King Henry VIII appointed Sir William Denys an Esquire of the Body at some date before 5 June 1511. This grant is witnessed by a charter on parchment, to which is affixed a rare example of a great seal of Henry VIII. It clearly was handed down with the deeds of the manor on the termination of the Denys era at Dyrham. The charter is of exceptional interest as it is signed as witnesses by men of the greatest importance in the state, also that they may have free warren in all their demesne lands within the said manor. Thomas Surrey, Treasurer of England and George Shrewsbury, steward of our household, Charles Somerset Lord Herbert, our chamberlain and George Neville of Abergavenny, barons
8.
Viscount Bolingbroke
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Viscount Bolingbroke is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1712 for the Hon. Henry St John and he was made Baron St John, of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts, at the same time, also in the Peerage of Great Britain. Since 1751 the titles are merged with the titles of Viscount St John and Baron St John, in the County of Surrey, margaret Beauchamp was maternal grandmother of Henry VII through her second marriage. His uncle was Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison, on 22 May 1611 he was created a Baronet, of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts, in the Baronetage of England. St John later represented Wiltshire in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I during the Civil War. His younger son, the third Baronet, represented both Wiltshire and Wootton Bassett in Parliament and his son, the fourth Baronet, also represented these constituencies in the House of Commons. Lord St John was succeeded according to the remainder by his second son. He also represented Wootton Bassett in Parliament, in 1751 his son, the 3rd Viscount, succeeded his uncle as 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke and 2nd Baron St John according to a special remainder in the letters patent. The titles have remained united ever since and his son, the 3rd and 4th Viscount, briefly represented Cricklade in Parliament. As of 2014 the titles are held by his great-great-great-great-grandson, the 8th Viscount Bolingbroke, as of 28 February 2014 the present Baronet has not successfully proven his succession and is therefore not on the Official Roll of the Baronetage, with the baronetcy considered dormant since 1974. The peerages were created with remainder to his father and his male heirs, lord Bolingbroke died childless and was succeeded according to the special remainder by his nephew, the second Viscount, who had already succeeded as third Viscount St John in 1749. The titles are pronounced bullingbrooke and sinjn respectively, the family seat was, until its sale, Lydiard House, near Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire The heraldic blazon for the armorials of the St John family is, Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or. This can be translated as, a shield with a red rectangle at the top holding two golden stars. The heir presumptives heir apparent is Henry William St John, Henry William St Johns heir apparent is German Andres St John. New York, St Martins Press,1990, leigh Rayments Peerage Pages Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Kenneth Oliver Musgrave St John, 7th Viscount Bolingbroke
9.
Battersea
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Battersea is a largely residential inner-city district of south London in the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It has Battersea Park, one of southwest Londons main parks, noted for the long-awaited bringing of the London Underground in the 21st century, two main railway lines cross here at what was the countrys busiest station. Elsewhere in Battersea are a growing proportion of private architecturally-acclaimed riverside, parkside, in 2001, Battersea had a population of 75,651 people. Landmarks include New Covent Garden Market and the Royal Academy of Dance, Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common border parts of this large district, which traditionally also includes Nine Elms. Railway stations in Battersea are in fare zone 2, Battersea is mentioned in Anglo-Saxon times as Badrices īeg = Badrics Island and later Patrisey. As with many former parishes beside major rivers some land was reclaimed by draining marshland, the original village nucleus is marked by St. Marys Church, which is on a site that has featured churches since the 9th century. The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Patricesy, held by St Peters Abbey and its Domesday Assets were,18 hides and 17 ploughlands of cultivated land,7 mills worth £42 9s 8d per year,82 acres of meadow, woodland worth 50 hogs. The former parish of Battersea included, in a detached part, the borough dates from the London Government Act of 1899, and includes the greater part of the original ecclesiastical parish of St. Mary Battersea. Penge was a district, over which the tenants of Battersea Manor had common of pasture. At the end of the 18th century, above 300 acres of land in the parish of Battersea were occupied by some 20 market gardeners, who rented from five to near 60 acres each. Bridges erected across the Thames encouraged growth, Putney Bridge, a mile to the west, was built in 1729, inland from the river, the rural agricultural community persisted. Between these were numerous wharfs for shipping, in 1929, construction started on Battersea Power Station, being completed in 1939. Factories have been demolished and replaced with apartment buildings. Some of the council owned properties have been sold off and several working mens pubs have become more fashionable bistros. Battersea neighbourhoods close to the railway have some of the most deprived local authority housing in the Borough of Wandsworth, an area which saw condemned slums after their erection in the Victoria era. Battersea was radically altered by the coming of railways, over the next 22 years five other lines were built, across which all trains from Londons Waterloo and Victoria termini would as today travel. An interchange station was built in 1863 towards the north west of the area, taking the name of a fashionable village a mile and more away, the station was named Clapham Junction, a campaign to rename it Battersea Junction fizzled out as late as the early twentieth century. The area was served by a vast music hall – The Grand – opposite the station as well as a theatre next to the town hall
10.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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