Hillfort
A hillfort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages; some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification follows the contours of a hill, consisting of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, external ditches. Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age the start of the first millennium BC, were used in many Celtic areas of central and western Europe until the Roman conquest; the terms "hill fort", "hill-fort" and "hillfort" are all used in the archaeological literature. They all refer to an elevated site with one or more ramparts made of earth, stone and/or wood, with an external ditch. Many small early hillforts were abandoned, with the larger ones being redeveloped at a date; some hillforts contain houses. Similar but smaller and less defendable earthworks are found on the sides of hills; these may have been animal pens.
They are most common during periods: Urnfield culture and Atlantic Bronze Age Bronze Age Hallstatt culture late Bronze Age to early Iron Age La Tène culture late Iron AgePrehistoric Europe saw a growing population. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe. Outside Greece and Italy, which were more densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in the Iron Age were small, with no more than 50 inhabitants. Hillforts were the exception, were the home of up to 1,000 people. With the emergence of oppida in the Late Iron Age, settlements could reach as large as 10,000 inhabitants; as the population increased so did the complexity of prehistoric societies. Around 1100 BC hillforts in the following centuries spread through Europe, they served a range of purposes and were variously tribal centres, defended places, foci of ritual activity, places of production. During the Hallstatt C period, hillforts became the dominant settlement type in the west of Hungary.
Julius Caesar described the large late Iron Age hillforts he encountered during his campaigns in Gaul as oppida. By this time the larger ones had become more like cities than fortresses and many were assimilated as Roman towns. Hillforts were occupied by conquering armies, but on other occasions the forts were destroyed, the local people forcibly evicted, the forts left derelict. For example, Solsbury Hill was sacked and deserted during the Belgic invasions of southern Britain in the 1st century BC. Abandoned forts were sometimes reoccupied and refortified under renewed threat of foreign invasion, such as the Dukes' Wars in Lithuania, the successive invasions of Britain by Romans and Vikings. Excavations at hillforts in the first half of the 20th century focussed on the defenses, based on the assumption that hillforts were developed for military purposes; the exception to this trend began in the 1930s with a series of excavations undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler at Maiden Castle, Dorset. From 1960 onwards, archaeologists shifted their attention to the interior of hillforts, re-examining their function.
Post-processual archaeologists regard hillforts as symbols of wealth and power. Michael Avery has stated the traditional view of hillforts by saying, "The ultimate defensive weapon of European prehistory was the hillfort of the first millennium B. C.". Beyond the simple definition of hillfort, there is a wide variation in types and periods from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. Here are some considerations of general appearance and topology, which can be assessed without archaeological excavation: Location Hilltop Contour: the classic hillfort. Examples: Brent Knoll, Mount Ipf. Inland Promontory: an inland defensive position on a ridge or spur with steep slopes on 2 or 3 sides, artificial ramparts on the level approaches. Example: Lambert's Castle. Interfluvial: a promontory above the confluence of two rivers, or in the bend of a meander. Examples: Kelheim, Miholjanec. Lowland: an inland location without special defensive advantages, but surrounded by artificial ramparts. Examples: Maiden Castle, Old Oswestry, Stonea Camp.
Sea Cliff: a semi-circular crescent of ramparts backing on to a straight sea cliff. Examples: Daw's Castle, Dinas Dinlle, Dún Aengus. Sea Promontory: a linear earthwork across a narrow neck of land leading to a peninsula with steep cliffs to the sea on three sides. Examples: Huelgoat. Sloping Enclosure or Hill-slope enclosure: smaller earthwork on sloping hillsides. Examples: Goosehill Camp, Plainsfield Camp, Trendle Ring. Area > 20 ha: large enclosures, too diffuse to defend used for domesticated animals. Example: Bindon Hill. 1–20 ha: defended areas large enough to support permanent tribal settlement. Example: Scratchbury Camp < 1 ha: small enclosures, more to be individual farmsteads or animal pens. Example: Trendle Ring. Ramparts and ditches Univallate: a single circuit of ramparts for enclosure and defence. Example: Solsbury Hill. Bivallate: a double circuit of defensive earthworks. Example: Battlesbury Camp. Multivallate: more than one layer of defensive earthworks, outer works might not be complet
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the national fire and rescue service of Scotland. It was formed by the merger of eight regional fire services in the country on 1 April 2013, it thus became the largest fire brigade in the United Kingdom, surpassing the London Fire Brigade After a consultation, the Scottish Government confirmed on 8 September 2011 that a single fire and rescue service would be created in Scotland to replace the eight existing services. Following further consultation on the detailed operation of the service, the Police and Fire Reform Bill was published on 17 January 2012. After scrutiny and debate by the Scottish Parliament, the legislation was approved on 27 June 2012; the Bill duly received royal assent as the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012. This Act created Police Scotland in place of the previous eight regional police forces; the mergers were effective from 1 April 2013. Eight months after the consolidation, an internal report said the reorganisation had not negatively affected operational response.
The service is headquartered in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, which houses a national training centre opened in January 2013. There are a further three service delivery centres in the east and north of the country. On 16 August 2012 the Scottish Government confirmed the first chief fire officer of the new service would be Alasdair Hay acting chief fire officer of Tayside Fire and Rescue Service, following an open recruitment exercise. Pat Watters, former president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was announced as chair of the service, an appointment to run for three years from September 2012. Members of the SFRS Board appointed in October 2012 were Watters, Bob Benson, James Campbell, Kirsty Darwent, Marieke Dwarshuis, Michael Foxley, Robin Iffla, Bill McQueen, Sid Patten, Neil Pirie, Martin Togneri and Grant Thoms; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended 25,002 fires in 2014/15. The service delivers a preventative programme, with 65,343 free home fire safety visits conducted in 2015/16.
As well as fighting fires, the service attends tens of thousands of specialist services such as road traffic collisions, water rescues and flooding incidents. In 2014/15 it attended 10,740 non-fire incidents; the service works alongside other emergency services during flooding events to ensure the safety of communities and rescue people in difficulty, with specialist swift water rescue teams positioned on major waterways and areas of activity. Firefighters are called out to water and boat rescues. For example, during Storm Frank in December 2015 the SFRS received 350 flood related calls in the space of six days. In 2015 the SFRS were called out to 78 wildfire incidents in total, with over half of those taking place in the north of Scotland. In 2015 a national trial was launched, in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service, which has seen firefighters at certain stations receive enhanced CPR training aimed at increasing survival rates for people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
As of March 2016, the SFRS operates 356 stations throughout Scotland. Stations are split into three categories: Wholetime: A station with full-time firefighters. Retained: Part-time, on a call-out basis and predominantly based in some of the more rural areas of Scotland. Volunteer: On a call-out basis and predominantly based in some of the more remote villages and islands; the most northerly station is Baltasound on the Shetland Islands. The most southerly is a volunteer station in the village of Drummore in Galloway; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service National Training Centre opened in January 2013. The facility in Cambuslang features a mock town with realistic motorways, railway tracks and buildings, including a multi-storey tenement structure; the following services were merged to create the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service: Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service, Fife Fire and Rescue Service, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and Islands Fire and Rescue Service and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, Tayside Fire and Rescue Service.
The number of control rooms handling 999 calls was reduced from eight to three. The consolidation of regional call centres has resulted in a number of dispatching errors. For example, in December 2016 a crew from Raasay was mobilised to an incident on Skye – a journey that would have required taking their fire engine on a ferry – despite an alternative crew being able to reach Skye directly via a road bridge. On another occasion, a crew from Beauly was sent to a blaze 10 miles away in Dingwall as the dispatcher was unaware Dingwall had its own fire station, her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty Official website BBC news report, 29 March 2013: Why Grampian is losing its unusual white fire engines, other questions... Consultation document: Keeping Scotland Safe and Strong: A Consultation on Reforming Police and Fire and Rescue Services in Scotland Police and Fire Reform Bill
Meldrum Academy
Meldrum Academy is an Aberdeenshire Council secondary school in Oldmeldrum, Scotland. It was established in 2002; the head teacher is Andrew Travis and was Andrew Sutherland and Linda Evans. Princess Anne opened the building in 2002; the houses are Bruce, Slessor and Wallace. The school has a library, open to the public and to the pupils also. Official website
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England a town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom. Following local government reorganization in 1975 the title of "royal burgh" remains in use in many towns, but now has little more than ceremonial value; the first burgh was Berwick. By 1130, David I had established other burghs including Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Perth, Jedburgh and Lanark. Most of the burghs granted charters in his reign already existed as settlements. Charters were copied verbatim from those used in England, early burgesses invited English and Flemish settlers, they were able to impose fines on traders within a region outside their settlements. Most of the early burghs were on the east coast, among them were the largest and wealthiest, including Aberdeen, Berwick and Edinburgh, whose growth was facilitated by trade with other North Sea ports on the continent, in particular in the Low Countries, as well as ports on the Baltic Sea.
In the south-west, Glasgow and Kirkcudbright were aided by the less profitable sea trade with Ireland and to a lesser extent France and Spain. Burghs were settlements under the protection of a castle and had a market place, with a widened high street or junction, marked by a mercat cross, beside houses for the burgesses and other inhabitants; the founding of 16 royal burghs can be traced to the reign of David I and there is evidence of 55 burghs by 1296. In addition to the major royal burghs, the late Middle Ages saw the proliferation of baronial and ecclesiastical burghs, with 51 created between 1450 and 1516. Most of these were much smaller than their royal counterparts. Excluded from foreign trade, they acted as local markets and centres of craftsmanship. Burghs were centres of basic crafts, including the manufacture of shoes, dishes, joinery and ale, which would be sold to "indwellers" and "outdwellers" on market days. In general, burghs carried out far more local trading with their hinterlands, on which they relied for food and raw materials, than trading nationally or abroad.
Burghs had rights to representation in the Parliament of Scotland. Under the Acts of Union of 1707 many became parliamentary burghs, represented in the Parliament of Great Britain. Under the Reform Acts of 1832, 32 years after the merger of the Parliament of Great Britain into the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the boundaries of burghs for parliamentary elections ceased to be their boundaries for other purposes. There were several types of burgh, including. Burgh of regality, granted to a nobleman or "lord of regality". Burgh of barony, granted to a tenant-in-chief, with narrower powers. Parliamentary burgh or Burgh constituency, a type of parliamentary constituency. Police burgh; until 1833, each burgh had a different constitution or "sett". The government of the burgh was in the hands of a self-nominating corporation, few local government functions were performed: these were left to ad hoc bodies. Two pieces of reforming legislation were enacted in 1834: The Royal Burghs Act and the Burghs and Police Act.
The Royal Burghs Act provided for the election of councillors. Each burgh was to have a common council consisting of a provost and councillors; every parliamentary elector living within the "royalty" or area of the royal burgh, or within seven statute miles of its boundary, was entitled to vote in burgh elections. One third of the common council was elected each year; the councillors selected a number of their members to be bailies, who acted as a magistrates bench for the burgh and dealt with such issues as licensing. The provost, or chief magistrate, was elected from among the council every three years; the Royal Burghs Act was extended to the 12 parliamentary burghs, enfranchised. These were growing industrial centres, apart from the lack of a charter, they had identical powers and privileges to the royal burghs. Royal Burghs retained the right to corporate property or "common good"; this property was used for the advantage of the inhabitants of the burgh, funding such facilities as public parks and civic events.
The Burghs and Police Act allowed the inhabitants of Royal Burghs, Burghs of Regality and of Barony to adopt a "police system". "Police" in this sense did not refer to law enforcement, but to various local government activities summarised in the Act as "paving, cleansing, supplying with water, improving such Burghs as may be necessary and expedient". The Act could be adopted following its approval in a poll of householders in the burgh. Burghs reformed or created under this and legislation became known as police burghs; the governing body of a police burgh were the police commissioners. The commissioners were elected by the existing town council of the burgh, not by the electorate at large; the town council of a burgh could by a three-quarters majority become police commissioners for the burgh. In many cases this led to the existence of two parallel burgh administrations, the town council and the police commissioners, each with the same membership, but separate legal identity and powers. Further legislation in 1850 allowed "populous places" other than existing burghs to become police burghs.
In 1893, most of the anomalies in th
Engineering
Engineering is the application of knowledge in the form of science and empirical evidence, to the innovation, construction and maintenance of structures, materials, devices, systems and organizations. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, types of application. See glossary of engineering; the term engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise". The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination. Engineering has existed since ancient times, when humans devised inventions such as the wedge, lever and pulley; the term engineering is derived from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1390 when an engine'er referred to "a constructor of military engines."
In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine, i.e. a mechanical contraption used in war. Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g. the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers; the word "engine" itself is of older origin deriving from the Latin ingenium, meaning "innate quality mental power, hence a clever invention."Later, as the design of civilian structures, such as bridges and buildings, matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the discipline of military engineering. The pyramids in Egypt, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, Via Appia and the Colosseum, Teotihuacán, the Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of ancient civil and military engineers.
Other monuments, no longer standing, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Pharos of Alexandria were important engineering achievements of their time and were considered among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep; as one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630–2611 BC. Ancient Greece developed machines in both military domains; the Antikythera mechanism, the first known mechanical computer, the mechanical inventions of Archimedes are examples of early mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions as well as the Antikythera mechanism required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial Revolution, are still used today in diverse fields such as robotics and automotive engineering. Ancient Chinese, Greek and Hungarian armies employed military machines and inventions such as artillery, developed by the Greeks around the 4th century BC, the trireme, the ballista and the catapult.
In the Middle Ages, the trebuchet was developed. Before the development of modern engineering, mathematics was used by artisans and craftsmen, such as millwrights, clock makers, instrument makers and surveyors. Aside from these professions, universities were not believed to have had much practical significance to technology. A standard reference for the state of mechanical arts during the Renaissance is given in the mining engineering treatise De re metallica, which contains sections on geology and chemistry. De re metallica was the standard chemistry reference for the next 180 years; the science of classical mechanics, sometimes called Newtonian mechanics, formed the scientific basis of much of modern engineering. With the rise of engineering as a profession in the 18th century, the term became more narrowly applied to fields in which mathematics and science were applied to these ends. In addition to military and civil engineering, the fields known as the mechanic arts became incorporated into engineering.
Canal building was an important engineering work during the early phases of the Industrial Revolution. John Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer and is regarded as the "father" of civil engineering, he was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals and lighthouses. He was a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Using a model water wheel, Smeaton conducted experiments for seven years, determining ways to increase efficiency. Smeaton introduced iron gears to water wheels. Smeaton made mechanical improvements to the Newcomen steam engine. Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse where he pioneered the use of'hydraulic lime' and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse, he is important in the history, rediscovery of, development of modern cement, because he identified the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" in lime.
Hosiery
Hosiery referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; the term is used for all types of knitted fabric, its thickness and weight is defined by denier or opacity. Lower denier measurements of 5 to 15 describe a hose which may be sheer in appearance, whereas styles of 40 and above are dense, with little to no light able to come through on 100 denier items; the first references to hosiery can be found in works of Hesiod, where Romans are said to have used leather or cloth in forms of strips to cover their lower body parts. The Egyptians are speculated to have used hosiery as socks have been found in certain tombs. Most hosiery garments are made by knitting methods. Modern hosiery is tight-fitting by virtue of stretchy fabrics and meshes. Older forms include binding to achieve a tight fit. Due to its close fit, most hosiery can be worn as an undergarment, but it is more worn as a combined under/outer garment.
Hosiery garments are the product of hosiery fabric produced from hosiery yarn. Like the yarn used for making woven fabric, hosiery yarn comes from a separate spinning process, is used with circular knitting machines to form fabric. One or more hosiery yarn is used to make knitted or hosiery fabric, garments produced out of this are referred to as hosiery garments. Bodystockings Compression stockings, a.k.a. support stockings Hold-ups, stay-ups or thigh-high stockings Hosen Knee highs Leggings Socks, tube socks, knee-highs and over-the-knees Stockings, held by a suspender belt Tights or pantyhose Toe socks Legwarmers Hosiery portal Pantyhose for men Undergarment Media related to Hosiery at Wikimedia Commons
Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
