1.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
2.
Elizabethan era
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The Elizabethan era is the epoch in English history marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historians often depict it as the age in English history. In terms of the century, the historian John Guy argues that England was economically healthier, more expansive. This golden age represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, the era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of Englands past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home and it was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland. The Elizabethan Age may be viewed especially highly when considered in light of the failings of the periods preceding Elizabeths reign, the Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end under the weight of Spanish domination of the peninsula, France was embroiled in its own religious battles due to significant Spanish intervention, that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. The one great rival was Spain, which England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 and this drained both the English Exchequer and economy that had been so carefully restored under Elizabeths prudent guidance. English commercial and territorial expansion would be limited until the signing of the Treaty of London the year following Elizabeths death, economically, the country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade, persistent theft of Spanish treasure, and the African slave trade. The Victorian era and the early 20th century idealised the Elizabethan era, the Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that he long reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–1603, was Englands Golden Age. Merry England, in love with life, expressed itself in music and literature, in architecture and this idealising tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. In popular culture, the image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol Flynn, in response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have tended to take a more dispassionate view of the Tudor period. Elizabethan England was not particularly successful in a military sense during the period, having inherited a virtually bankrupt state from previous reigns, her frugal policies restored fiscal responsibility. Her fiscal restraint cleared the regime of debt by 1574, and this general peace and prosperity allowed the attractive developments that Golden Age advocates have stressed. The Elizabethan Age was also an age of plots and conspiracies, frequently political in nature, high officials in Madrid, Paris and Rome sought to kill Elizabeth, a Protestant, and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. That would be a prelude to the recovery of England for Catholicism. In 1570, the Ridolfi plot was thwarted, in 1584, the Throckmorton Plot was discovered, after Francis Throckmorton confessed his involvement in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the Catholic Church in England
3.
Hartshill
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Hartshill is a large village in the borough of North Warwickshire, England. The village is situated 3 miles northwest of Nuneaton town centre but is considered as a suburb of the town despite being in the North Warwickshire borough. In the 2001 census, the parish of Hartshill had a population of 3,611. Hartshill is notable because of the writer Michael Drayton who knew William Shakespeare, Drayton was born at Chapel Cottage in Hartshill Green in 1563. A school in Hartshill bears his name, called Michael Drayton Junior School, other schools in the village include Hartshill School. Photos of Hartshill and surrounding area on geograph
4.
Nuneaton
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Nuneaton /nəˈniːtən/ is a town in Warwickshire, England. The population in 2011 was 81,877, making it the largest town in Warwickshire, the author George Eliot was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for much of her early life. Her novel Scenes of Clerical Life depicts Nuneaton, the Nuneaton built-up area, incorporating Nuneaton and surrounding villages including Hartshill and Bulkington, had a population of 92,968 at the 2011 census. Nuneaton is 9 miles north of Coventry,20 miles east of Birmingham and 103 miles northwest of London, the River Anker runs through the town. Towns close to Nuneaton include Bedworth, Atherstone and Hinckley, with Tamworth and Lutterworth a little further afield, the town lies 3 miles from the Leicestershire border,8 miles from Staffordshire and 12 miles from Derbyshire. Nuneatons name came from a 12th century Benedictine nunnery around which much of the town grew, prior to this it was a settlement known as Etone, which translates literally as water-town. Nuneaton was listed in the Domesday Book as a small hamlet, a market was established in 1233, which is still held. The first recorded use of the name was in 1247 when a document recorded it as Nonne Eton. The nunnery fell into disrepair after 1539, with Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries, king Edward VI School was established by a royal charter in 1552. From 1944 it became a school for boys and, although it was locally known as KEGS. In 1974 it became a sixth form college, the other grammar schools in Nuneaton in the 1944 to 1974 period were Nuneaton High School for Girls and Manor Park. Nicholas Chamberlaine School in Bedworth was a comprehensive school that had a grammar school stream. Nuneaton grew gradually from the 17th century onwards, due to its position at the centre of the Warwickshire coalfields, at the time of the first national census in 1801 Nuneaton was one of the largest towns in Warwickshire, with a population of 5,000. During the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, Nuneaton developed a textile industry. Other industries which developed in the town included brick and tile making and brewing, by 1901 the population of Nuneaton had grown to 25,000. Nuneaton parish included the settlements of Attleborough and Stockingford, the parish was joined with Chilvers Coton parish in 1894 to form an urban district. Nuneaton was upgraded to the status of a borough in 1907. Due largely to munitions factories being located in Nuneaton, the town suffered heavy bombing damage during the Second World War, as a result of the bombing, much of the town centre was rebuilt in the post-war years
5.
Warwickshire
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Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton, the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks, the county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, the historic county boundaries also included Coventry and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border, an average-sized English county covering an area of almost 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 Warwickshires population live in the north and centre of the county. The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, and include Atherstone, Bedworth, Nuneaton, of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles, engineering and cement production, of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well-known outside of Warwickshire. The south of the county is rural and sparsely populated. 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 countys 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, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Warwick, Stratford and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull, 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 historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. Some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which is based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, Coventry is effectively in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as an area and share a single Chamber of Commerce. 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
6.
Collingham, Nottinghamshire
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Collingham is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 2,738, Collingham is located on the banks of the River Trent on the A1133 main road, just off the A46. It is approximately 6 miles from Newark-on-Trent,15 miles from the city of Lincoln, Collingham is close to the old Roman Fort at Brough and there have been several local finds of Roman coins, jewellery and villa remains. It lies close to the Fosse Way on its way to Lincoln, the village name suggests a fairly early Saxon foundation, preceding the occupation of eastern England by the Danes and it is naturally mentioned in the Domesday Book. Many of the villages close by have names which suggest that they were later daughter settlements. It possessed two churches in North and South Collingham from before the Norman Conquest, the parishes extended from the river floodplain onto the uncultivated moorland on the higher ground between Trent and Witham, allowing for good grazing and meadowland throughout the year. The wide square fields and relatively few isolated farms are the result, one field was set aside in the enclosure award of 1790 for lease every year with the revenues being put to the use of the poor of the parish. During the siege of Newark in the English Civil War, the countryside was subject to deprivation from the opposing armies wanting food and fresh horses and the village suffered. In 1664, a mercer of Collingham, one Thomas Ridge, issued his own copper halfpenny tokens, in the nineteenth century Collingham was fairly self-sufficient with its own watchmaker, shoemakers, blacksmiths, dressmakers, schools, grocers and carriers. There were many local societies and the Nonconformist Churches had their own congregations, at one point there was considerable enmity between the Vicar of North Collingham and the Rector of South Collingham with many disputes about the schools in the village. There are a number of listed buildings in the village, from the c16 through to the c19. More information is available on the villages website Collingham Website Local amenities include the Co-op and One-Stop convenience stores, butchers, general store, newsagent, there is a medical centre/dentist/pharmacy complex which serves much of the surrounding area, plus a library in the same building. This will add two to four retail outlets in the Village Centre, and is supported by the majority of the villagers who voted in a Parish Council survey. There are some sporting facilities in Collingham, notably Collingham Football Club, there are also facilities for tennis, bowling and croquet while the nearby River Trent seems very popular with anglers. Collingham is fairly easy to get to by road or railway, Collingham is served by the Nottingham-Lincoln railway line used by East Midlands Trains and you can reach most parts of the Midlands. There is an East Coast station at Newark Northgate from which London can be reached as well as all locations on the East Coast Main Line, a bus service to Newark operates on an irregular basis, with two daily buses running to Lincoln on a daily basis. One ongoing issue affecting the village regards a bypass, the issue is not new, and has surfaced a number of times over the past sixty years or so, the last time being rejected in favour of another project in the county, a new bus station in Mansfield. The proposed bypass is not seen as a priority and in addition would damage the countryside, pressure groups within the village continue to campaign for the bypass to be built, regardless of how remote the possibility
7.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
8.
Polesworth
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Polesworth is a large village and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 8,439, inclusive of the continuous subvillages of St Helena, Dordon, the population had decreased slightly to 8,423 at the 2011 Census. This population technically allows Polesworth market town status, Polesworth is located close to the northern tip of Warwickshire 3 miles northwest of Atherstone and adjacent to the border with Staffordshire, and is only 4 miles from Tamworth. The border with Derbyshire is 5.5 miles to the north, the River Anker and the Coventry Canal run through Polesworth, and the A5 road runs nearby. Polesworth railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, in 2005, Polesworth received no train services due to the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line. Train services were replaced by a replacement bus service, the footbridge to the up platform was removed and has not been replaced. The station in 2011 only receives one northbound service each day, the name Polesworth is derived from pol meaning a pool and worth meaning a dwelling or enclosure in the Old English language. Polesworth was once the site of an abbey, Polesworth Abbey was founded in 827 by King Egbert with his daughter Editha as Abbess. It prospered for 700 years but was disbanded as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1544 the lands of the Abbey were granted by the Crown to Francis Goodere, who used the stones of the Abbey to build a manor house, Polesworth Hall. Henry Goodere, son of Francis, was a patron of the arts, the poet Michael Drayton was in the service of the Goodere family around 1580, and his works contain allusions to Polesworth and the River Anker. It is rumoured that William Shakespeare also spent some time as a page boy here. Polesworth Hall no longer exists, as it was demolished in the 1860s, in around 1509 Thomas Cockayne constructed Pooley Hall, which today includes some of the oldest brickwork in the country. The hall still exists and overlooks Pooley View and that part of the hall known as Pooley Farm was once owned by Edwin Starr, famous for the song War. During the English Civil War, Polesworth and Wilnecote are listed among the towns paying arrears to the Parliamentary garrison at Tamworth. In an account drawn up by a Captain Thomas Layfield for the period from 1 November 1645 to 1 May 1646, Polesworth was assessed at and paid £196.16.0 while Wilnecote paid £50.7.0. When the Coventry Canal was built through Polesworth in the 1770s, the village developed a coal-mining and clay industry, a lime kiln became a focal point along the canal, however, it was demolished in the 1980s. During the Second World War, opencast coal-mining devastated the surrounding countryside, the former opencast site is now a public park and the river now flows on its original course. Industry is now gone and Polesworth serves mainly as a commuter town for nearby towns and cities such as Tamworth, Nuneaton, Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham
9.
Song of Solomon
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The Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, Canticles, or the Canticle of Canticles, is one of the scrolls of the Writings, the last section of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. It is also the book of Wisdom in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The Song of Songs is read on the Sabbath during the Passover, marking the beginning of the grain harvest, scripturally, the Song of Songs is unique in its celebration of sexual love. It gives the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy, the two each desire the other and rejoice in their sexual intimacy. The daughters of Jerusalem form a chorus to the lovers, functioning as an audience participation in the lovers erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel, Christian tradition, in addition to appreciating the literal meaning of a romantic song between man and woman, has read the poem as an allegory of Christ and his bride, the Christian Church. There is widespread consensus that, although the book has no plot, it does have what can be called a framework, the following schema from Kugler & al. It begins with the expression of desire for her lover and her self-description to the daughters of Jerusalem. She says she is black because she had to work in the vineyards, a dialogue between the lovers follows, the woman asks the man to meet, he replies with a lightly teasing tone. The two compete in offering flattering compliments, the section closes with the woman telling the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love such as hers until it is ready. The woman recalls a visit from her lover in the springtime and she uses imagery from a shepherds life, and she says of her lover that he pastures his flock among the lilies. The woman again addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, describing her fervent, when she finds him she takes him almost by force into the chamber in which her mother conceived her. She reveals that this is a dream, seen on her bed at night, the next section reports a royal wedding procession. Solomon is mentioned by name, and the daughters of Jerusalem are invited to come out, the man describes his beloved, Her hair is like a flock of goats, her teeth like shorn ewes, and so on from face to breasts. Place-names feature heavily, her neck is like the Tower of David and he hastens to summon his beloved, saying that he is ravished by even a single glance. The section becomes a poem, in which he describes her as a locked garden. The woman invites the man to enter the garden and taste the fruits, the man accepts the invitation, and a third party tells them to eat, drink, and be drunk with love. The woman tells the daughters of Jerusalem of another dream and she was in her chamber when her lover knocked
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gosse, Edmund (1911). "Drayton, Michael". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 557–558.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
