The RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that sailed on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line – known as Cunard-White Star Line when the vessel entered service and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Queen Mary, along with RMS Queen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton and New York; the two ships were a British response to the express superliners built by German and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Queen Mary won the Blue Riband that August. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the conflict. Following the war, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with Queen Elizabeth commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were built; the two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s.

By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was operating at a loss. After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967, she left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, United States, where she remains permanently moored. The ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring a museum and a hotel; the ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has accepted the Queen Mary as part of the Historic Hotels of America. With Germany launching Bremen and Europa into service, Britain did not want to be left behind in the shipbuilding race. White Star Line began construction on their 80,000-ton Oceanic in 1928, while Cunard planned a 75,000-ton unnamed ship of their own. Construction on the ship known only as "Hull Number 534", began in December 1930 on the River Clyde by the John Brown & Company shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland. Work was halted in December 1931 due to the Great Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534.

The loan was granted, with enough money to complete the unfinished ship, to build a running mate, with the intention to provide a two ship weekly service to New York. One condition of the loan was that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line, Cunard's chief British rival at the time and, forced by the depression to cancel construction of its Oceanic. Both lines agreed and the merger was completed on 10 May 1934. Work on Queen Mary resumed and she was launched on 26 September 1934. Completion took ​3 1⁄2 years and cost 3.5 million pounds sterling. Much of the ship's interior was constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild. Prior to the ship's launch, the River Clyde had to be deepened to cope with her size, this being undertaken by the engineer D. Alan Stevenson; the ship was named after Mary of Teck, consort of King George V. Until her launch, the name was kept a guarded secret. Legend has it that Cunard intended to name the ship Victoria, in keeping with company tradition of giving its ships names ending in "ia", but when company representatives asked the king's permission to name the ocean liner after Britain's "greatest Queen", he said his wife, Mary of Teck, would be delighted.

And so, the legend goes, the delegation had of course no other choice but to report that No. 534 would be called Queen Mary. This story was denied by company officials, traditionally the names of sovereigns have only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy; some support for the story was provided by Washington Post editor Felix Morley, who sailed as a guest of the Cunard Line on Queen Mary's 1936 maiden voyage. In his 1979 autobiography, For the Record, Morley wrote that he was placed at table with Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Line. Bates told him the story of the naming of the ship "on condition you won't print it during my lifetime." The name Queen Mary could have been decided upon as a compromise between Cunard and the White Star Line, as both lines had traditions of using names either ending in "ic" with White Star and "ia" with Cunard. The name had been given to the Clyde turbine steamer TS Queen Mary, so Cunard made an arrangement with its owners and this older ship was renamed Queen Mary II.

Queen Mary was fitted with 24 Yarrow boilers in four boiler rooms and four Parsons turbines in two engine rooms. The boilers delivered 400 pounds per square inch steam at 700 °F which provided a maximum of 212,000 shp to four propellers, each turning at 200 RPM. Queen Mary achieved 32.84 knots on her acceptance trials in early 1936. In 1934 the new liner was launched by Queen Mary as RMS Queen Mary. On her way down the slipway, Queen Mary was slowed by eighteen drag chains, which checked the liner's progress into the River Clyde, a portion of, widened to accommodate the launch; when she sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on 27 May 1936, she was commanded by Sir Edgar Britten, the master designate for Cunard White Star whilst the ship was under construction at the John Brown shipyard. Queen Mary measured 80,774 gross register tons, her rival Normandie, which grossed 79,280 tonnes, had been modified the preceding winter to increase her size to 83,243 GRT, therefore reclaimed the title of the world's largest ocean liner from the Queen Mary, who held i

Gobannium was a Roman fort and civil settlement or Castra established by the Roman legions invading what was to become Roman Wales and lies today under the market town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire in south east Wales. Gobannium was first recorded in the Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century AD as'Gobannio' sited some 12 miles from Burrium, 22 miles south of Magnis. Gobannium is mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmography as'Bannio', sited between Isca Augusta the major legionary fortress covering South Wales further down the River Usk, Bremia; the name is thought to have a Celtic or Brythonic language origin and linked to Gobannus and Gofannon and may mean'the place of the blacksmiths'. Gobannium lies in the broad valley of the River Usk surrounded by hills and mountains, such as the Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Skirrid and the Blorenge, just before the valley narrows and the site has some archaeological evidence of human activity dating from the British Iron Age and earlier British Bronze Age.

The valley was used as a major prehistoric route through the land of the Silures between the coastal plain of the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels and the Brecon Beacons. The invading Romans, under Publius Ostorius Scapula, needed a suitable staging post at this site between their major legionary bases and a string of forts in the interior, such as Y Gaer and with links northwards to Watling Street, eastwards to Blestium and Glevum; the Romans selected a spur forming a steep incline above the nearby River Usk at a point where the smaller River Gavenny meets it - a defensible site that may well have been settled or fortified and that commands clear views across the surrounding landscape. Level ground on the spur offered the scope for a fort layout and subsequently space for an additional civil settlement. Artefacts from the site include stamped roof tiles showing the stamp of the Legio II Augusta, based at Isca Augusta, well worn Roman currency such as a coin from the Augustan period, sixteen pieces of high status Samian ware pottery sherds, items of bronze military equipment compatible with Celtic Roman auxiliary troops, plus rubbish pits.

The excavations that have taken place have been small in scope and piecemeal in the face of redevelopment of buildings and amenities in the modern town centre. Digs in advance of the building of the new post office and telephone exchange in the centre of Abergavenny between 1962 and 1969 found evidence of a military ditch system, timber buildings with postholes, small granaries for storing grain over winters and turf and timber ramparts. Further explorations over the years since 1970 have revealed wattle and daub walling, clay sling or sling shot ammunition and further rubbish pits. In 2002, a metal detectorist in a field of Pentwyn Triley Farm unearthed an upturned vessel. A zoomorphic handle was found detached at the bottom of the pit; the form of this handle has led to the cup being called the Abergavenny'Leopard Cup'. It was displayed shortly in Abergavenny and is displayed in the National Museum and Galleries Wales. Discussion of its precise origins and usage is ongoing; some of the artefacts recovered to date can be seen at Abergavenny Museum within Abergavenny Castle.

Gobannium on the Roman Britain website

John Scudder Adkins was an American architect who specialized in Beaux Arts and Jacobethan styles in the first half of the 20th century. A majority of his buildings are located in Indiana and Ohio. Five of his projects are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Partnering with some of the leading architects and firms of the area, he served as the designer for the projects, with his partners supervising the actual construction, he appears to have been comfortable designing large scale public buildings, such as churches and courthouses, as well as single family dwellings for wealthy clients. Educated at Washington University's School of Fine Arts, John S. Adkins trained in St. Louis while working for George I. Barnett. While at Peabody & Stearns, he helped with the design of buildings for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. After moving to Cincinnati in 1893, Adkins partnered with Samuel Hannaford & Sons, George S. Werner, Frank M. Andrews, H. E. Kennedy, Christian Weber, Edward Weber, Matthew H. Burton, Hugh M. Garriott.

When partnering with other architects, Adkins did the design work himself while the partner supervised actual construction of the building.“Adkins was a specialist in refined Beaux-Arts or Traditional design, based on a variety of historic styles handled with authenticity and craftsmanship of high quality.” He had “an original manner of so designing a building that its location and design all blend into one complete and harmonious whole. In fact, the genius he displays in creating buildings that harmonize with their surroundings, the material of which they are constructed and the purpose for which they are intended, prove that he is an architect and not a draughtsman or a drawer of tasteful designs.”While specializing in Beaux-Arts design for public building projects, Adkins designed residences for wealthy clients in various styles, notably Tudor-Revival and Jacobethan designs. Spending the majority of his career in the Cincinnati area, Adkins drew upon the skills of local craftsmen, such as the Cincinnati art carvers movement and Rookwood Pottery, as well as using the abundant local timber and limestone.

This use of high-quality craftsmanship and local materials fit beautifully within Adkins' commissions the Tudor and Jacobethan buildings' emphasis on local materials and craftsmanship. Cincinnati Gymnasium & Athletic Club, OhioKentucky Governor’s Mansion, Kentucky Lillybanks residence, Ohio City Hall and Municipal Building, Ohio Scioto County Courthouse, Ohio Audubon Building and Burgundy Streets, New Orleans, Louisiana. Cincinnati Public Library, Norwood Branch, 4325 Montgomery Road, Ohio Grace Episcopal Church, 5501 Hamilton Avenue, Ohio Charles Atkins residence, 4008 Rose Hill Avenue, Ohio First National and Norwood National Banks, Ohio Brighton German Bank and Harrison Avenues, Ohio First Baptist Church, Kentucky. Kanawha National Bank, West Virginia Clinton County Ohio Courthouse, 53 East Main Street, Ohio The General Denver Hotel, 81 West Main Street, Ohio Maplewood, William Ball residence, Indiana, Nurses’ Residence Hall, Ball State University, Indiana Colonel Alvin Owsley residence, Texas Second National Bank Building, 830 Main Street, Ohio First Baptist Church, 548 West Short Street, Kentucky