1.
Kent
–
Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
Kent
Kent
–
Kent shown within England
Kent
–
Title page of
William Lambarde 's Perambulation of Kent (completed in 1570, and published in 1576), a historical description of Kent and the first published
county history
Kent
–
The
White Cliffs of Dover
2.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
–
The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
Ordnance Survey National Grid
–
Grid square TF. The map shows
The Wash and the
North Sea, as well as places within the counties of
Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and
Norfolk.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
–
Geodesy
3.
Civil parishes in England
–
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. It is a parish, in contrast to an ecclesiastical parish. A civil parish can range in size from a town with a population of around 80,000 to a single village with fewer than a hundred inhabitants. In a limited number of cases a parish might include a city where city status has been granted by the Monarch. Reflecting this diverse nature, a parish may be known as a town, village. Approximately 35% of the English population live in a civil parish, as of 31 December 2015 there were 10,449 parishes in England. On 1 April 2014, Queens Park became the first civil parish in Greater London, before 2008 their creation was not permitted within a London borough. The division of land into ancient parishes was linked to the system, parishes. The manor was the unit of local administration and justice in the early rural economy. Later the church replaced the court as the rural administrative centre. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the authorities by the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601. Both before and after this optional social change, local charities are well-documented, the parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of the parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite, by the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due for instance to the progress of Methodism. The legitimacy of the parish came into question and the perceived inefficiency. Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later, the replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in the parish. The church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868, the ancient parishes diverged into two distinct systems of parishes during the 19th century
Civil parishes in England
–
Map of English parishes and Welsh communities
4.
Districts of England
–
The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
Districts of England
–
Districts (England)
5.
Thanet
–
Thanet /ˈθænɪt/ is a local government district of Kent, England, which was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, and came into being on 1 April 1974. The Isle of Thanet makes up the part of the District. The district, which is governed by Thanet District Council, is located on the eastern tip of Kent. It is bordered by the City of Canterbury district to the west, the main towns in the district are Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs. The Isle of Thanet is the part of the Thanet District. Formed over 7,000 years ago and separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, an Isle of Thanet Rural District had existed from the Local Government Act 1894 until it was abolished in 1935 to form part of Eastry Rural District. The current District was formed in 1974, by the addition of the area over which was once the Wantsum Channel, including the settlement of Sarre. The current District is held by a UKIP majority, who hold 33 seats, compared to the 18 seats held by the Conservatives, there are two MPs for Thanet, Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet, Craig MacKinlay, Conservative MP for South Thanet. A town council was created for Ramsgate in 2009, the town of Margate is an unparished area, it has a charter maintained by charter trustees, having been a municipal borough before 1974. In 2005 the estimated population of the District stood at 128,100 and it is not helped by poor overall indicators for health. In a study of resilience to economic downturns, Thanet was poorly rated at 295th out of 324 districts. Unemployment levels are twice the South East of England as a whole. The Thanet & East Kent Chamber produces a weekly business digest, the Thanet & East Kent Insider, new projects under way include, A new community centre for Broadstairs. Redevelopment and renovations are to be undertaken at Margates Dreamland, Cliftonville, a large retail and residential development on Ramsgate seafront started construction in 2011. Margate has been chosen as a Mary Portas retail town, massive investment and building work is taking place in schools across the island. In addition, the District Council has introduced an empty property initiative and has compulsory purchased empty, the Thanet Offshore Wind Project, near North Foreland, began operating in September 2010. The project is expected to have a capacity of up to 300 MW which. The project will make a significant contribution to the government’s national and regional renewable energy targets
Thanet
–
It is hoped that the new
Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate will encourage tourism to the area.
Thanet
–
Thanet shown within Kent
Thanet
–
Thanet is now linked to London by high-speed
"Javelin" trains.
6.
Regions of England
–
The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
Regions of England
–
Regions of England English regions
7.
South East England
–
South East England is the most populous of the nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, as with the other regions of England, apart from Greater London, the south east has no elected government. It is the third largest region of England, with an area of 19,096 km², and is also the most populous with a population of over eight. Its proximity to London and connections to several national motorways have led to south east England becoming an economic hub and it is the location of Gatwick Airport, the UKs second-busiest airport, and its coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe. The region is known for its countryside, which includes the North Downs, the River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley. The region has many universities, the University of Oxford is ranked among the best in the world. South east England is host to sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta, Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby. Some of the events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney, the largest city in the region is Brighton & Hove. The dominant influence on the economy is neighbouring London. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 metres, until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region, which also included the counties of Bedfordshire, Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the area as the current government office region. The South East is also used as a synonym for the home counties. The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region, the major conurbations of the region include Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Reading. Settlements closer to London are part of the known as the Greater London Urban Area. The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London. Estimates in 2007 state 87. 2% of people as White British,4. 8% Other White,3. 5% South Asians,1. 5% Mixed Race,1. 6% Black British,0. 7% Chinese,0. 7% Other. The area also has some seats where there is support for other parties, for example, Slough and Oxford for Labour. Buckingham, the seat of Speaker John Bercow, is also in this region, out of 83 parliamentary seats, the Conservatives hold 78
South East England
–
Uffington White Horse on the
Berkshire Downs
South East England
–
South East England region in England
South East England
–
A notice in
Oxford from the Government Office for the South East.
South East England
–
Redhill with the diesel
Class 166 service run by
First Great Western to
Reading as the line has not got the
Third rail electrification fully installed on the
North Downs Line.
8.
Countries of the United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
Countries of the United Kingdom
9.
England
–
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
England
–
Stonehenge, a
Neolithic monument
England
–
Flag
England
–
Boudica led an uprising against the
Roman Empire
England
–
Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial
helmet from the
Kingdom of East Anglia, found at
Sutton Hoo
10.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
11.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
–
Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
–
Street name signs on Birdbrook Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, showing old "Birmingham 22" (top) and modern "B44" postcodes.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
12.
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
–
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
–
Location of the United Kingdom (dark green)
13.
Kent Police
–
Kent Police is the territorial police force for Kent in England, including the unitary authority of Medway. The force covers an area of 1,443 square miles with a population of 1,660,588. The Chief Constable is currently Alan Pughsley, who was appointed in 2014, Kent Police were the first force in The United Kingdom to be led by a black Chief Constable, Michael Fuller QPM. Due to the Channel Tunnel, Kent Police is unique among English forces in having a station outside of the country, in Coquelles, France. Kent Police work with other UK and European forces as part of the Cross Channel Intelligence Community, the cross channel traffic occasionally causes Kent Police and the Highways Agency to enforce Operation Stack, controlling the freight flow on that part of the M20 motorway closest to the ports. Kent also has the largest strategic road network of any force in the UK, proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006 saw Kent Police stay as a standalone strategic force for Kent and Medway, it had been suggested that Kent should merge with another police force. On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong Kent County Constabulary was formed under Chief Constable John Henry Hay Ruxton. The first headquarters was at Wrens Cross, Stone Street, Maidstone, in 1860, the initial uniform of a frock coat and a high hat was replaced by a long uniform tunic and shako hat and constables were issued with a rattle and truncheon. In 1885 whistles were introduced and in 1897 the recognisable custodian helmet was introduced, on 1 April 1889, Kent County Constabulary absorbed five of the fourteen police forces that policed the county of Kent. The remaining nine were absorbed on 1 April 1943, Ruxton retired on 14 August 1894 and died on 20 April 1897. In terms of mobilisation and communication, Kent Constabulary purchased 20 bicycles in 1896, telephones were given to village police constables in 1925 and by 1931,29 motorcycles had been introduced, along with one police car. The constabulary employed horses until 1943, when the last was retired, in 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,988 attested constables and an actual strength of 1,766, making it the third largest county force in Great Britain. Kent County Constabulary kept this name until the 1990s, when it changed its name to Kent Police, the Kent Police headquarters are currently located at Sutton Road, Maidstone. Kent Police College is located to the rear of the headquarters site, the headquarters houses the Kent Police Museum. Crime investigation and emergency response will be managed at a level from the Force Command. Specialist functions will remain centrally managed, tasers were introduced to Kent police in 2009 for rank and file constables, although only Response vehicle drivers were issued with them. Each Response vehicle had to be crewed with both crew members carrying Taser due to the safety implications, and to allow proper care. On 6 April 2011 it was announced that the 3 new areas will each be commanded by a Chief Superintendent and Superintendent, each individual town within each area will be commanded by a Chief Inspector
Kent Police
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Kent Police
Kent Police
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Logo of the Kent Police
14.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
–
The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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A fire engine of the
London Fire Brigade, the second-largest service in the country after the
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in action
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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A 1951 Dennis P12 fire appliance belonging to the
Wiltshire Fire Brigade
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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Fire on
West Pier in
Brighton, England
15.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
–
The total coastline covered is 225 km, it has 55 fire stations, and 4 district fire safety offices. The FRS provides emergency cover to a population of nearly 2 million, the area meets the boundaries of the London Fire Brigade to the north of the county, Surrey to the north west and East Sussex to the south west of Kent. The first fire brigade appeared in Kent in 1802 when the Kent Fire Office formed a brigade in Deptford. In the same year, and completely separately from insurance companies, Hythe became the first town in Kent to set up its own fire brigade, by the 20th century, it was quite fashionable for local authorities to have their own fire brigades. Maidstone had seen the formation of its fire brigade in 1901 when the Royal Insurance Company provided a new Shand Mason horse-drawn steam fire engine. This company had taken over the Kent Fire Office in the same year, things often became very competitive between individual town and village brigades, in many instances, each one trying to outdo its neighbour. In 1910, Bromley became the first town in Kent to house motorised fire engines, until 1938, the provision of a fire brigade was a discretionary power, and naturally there were a few local authorities that regarded it as an unnecessary expense. However, due to the threat of war, Parliament enacted the Fire Brigades Act 1938 and made it a duty and so created over 1,600 individual fire authorities across the nation. It was these local brigades and the Auxiliary Fire Service – also formed in 1938 – that valiantly coped with the consequences of the Battle of Britain, in August 1941, local brigades and the AFS were absorbed into one organisation called The National Fire Service. It was in 1941 that the current Headquarters house The Godlands was requisitioned for use by the National Fire Service. World War II brought dark days indeed for Kent fire-fighters, of the 122 Kent names listed,15 were pre-1939,16 were post-1939 and 91 died during World War II. The last death on duty of a Kent fire-fighter was in 1990, the County of Kent and the City and County Borough of Canterbury combined to form Kent Fire Brigade, taking over 79 fire stations from the National Fire Service. Further reorganisation in 1974 saw Canterbury lose its county borough status, in 1998, the structure of local government changed again and Kent combined with the new Medway Towns unitary authority for fire brigade provision. On 1 October 2003, Kent Fire Brigade was renamed Kent Fire and these changes were reflected nationally by the enactment of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which came into effect on 1 October 2004. Each group consists of a number of clusters, which are made up of a number of stations where resources are locally managed. Dymchurch, Eastchurch, Eastry, Hoo, and Paddock Wood, have identified as having a greater need for ambulance cover. The aim of a team is to preserve life until the arrival of either a Rapid Response Vehicle or an Ambulance
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
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Kent Fire and Rescue Service
16.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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A
Mercedes Sprinter ambulance of the
South Western Ambulance Service responds to an emergency call
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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The
London Air Ambulance in action
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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A paramedic's motorcycle in Birmingham
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Device of the
Scottish Ambulance Service
17.
South East Coast Ambulance Service
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The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is the NHS Ambulance Services Trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent, Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex. It also covers a part of north-eastern Hampshire around Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, sECAmb was made a NHS Foundation Trust on 1 March 2011 - one of only two FTs in England. It is one of 12 ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, and under the Patients Charter, every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The service came into being on 1 July 2006, with the merger of the former Kent Ambulance Service, Surrey Ambulance Service and Sussex Ambulance Service. Until March 2016, the Chief Executive of the Trust was Paul Sutton, who was previously Chief Executive Officer of Sussex Ambulance Service, and the Trusts Chair was Tony Thorne. On 14 March 2016, the BBC announced that Thorne had resigned, at the request of the health regulator for England, Monitor, Thorne was replaced by Sir Peter Dixon who will act as the trusts interim chair. The Trust responds to 999 calls from the public and urgent calls from health professionals, in Kent and Sussex, in addition, the Trust provides the crews and maintains the three ambulances of the Neonatal Transfer Service for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It serves a population of around 4.5 million, during the financial year the three predecessor Trusts responded to about 460,000 emergency calls. It provided paramedics to GP practices across the southeast to take on home visits for a scheme until March 2017 when the scheme was suspended because of a shortage of paramedics. In January 2015 it was reported that the Trust had told paramedics to leave patients at A&E departments if they had not been admitted within 45 minutes of arrival and this delayed the despatch of ambulances to up to 20,000 patients. It was condemned by NHS England for putting the public at risk because there was no evaluation built into its design and it was put into special measures in September 2016 after the Care Quality Commission rated it inadequate because of bullying, delayed response times and putting patients at risk. South East Coast Ambulance Service is under financial pressure and faces a £7.1 million deficit. Ambulance crews in the area no longer be paid to interrupt meal breaks. Patients with breathing problems, car crash victims, patients with chest pains, critics fear this will put lives at risk and worsen outcomes for some surviving patients. Jon Ashworth blamed government financial pressure on the Health Service, critics complain money is prioritized over patient care. The ambulance region is served by Kent, Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance and they have two helicopters based at Redhill Aerodrome & Marden Hospital they also have a reserve, based somewhere at Redhill too Official Website, https, //www. kssairambulance. org
South East Coast Ambulance Service
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Map of the South East Coast Ambulance Service's coverage
18.
List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
–
There are 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, each electing a single Member of Parliament to the House of Commons every five years. Voting last took place in all 650 of those constituencies at the United Kingdom general election on 7 May 2015, in addition there is the constituency of the Speaker, which by tradition does not belong to any party. The number of seats rose from 646 at the 2005 general election after proposals made by the commissions for England, Wales. Constituencies in Scotland remained unchanged, as the Boundary Commission for Scotland had completed a review just before the 2005 general election, for the 2013 review this was primarily the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011. The Sainte-Laguë formula method is used to form groups of seats split between the four parts of the United Kingdom and the English Regions, the electorate figures given in the second column of the tables below are those used by the commissions during their reviews. These electorate figures date from the start of the review in each country, England, February 2000, Scotland, June 2001, Wales, December 2002, and Northern Ireland, May 2003. Of the 650 seats listed below,533 are in England,59 in Scotland,40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland, Scotland – No changes from 2005 election. Wales – Number of seats unchanged, three seats were abolished and three were created, Aberconwy, Arfon, and Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Northern Ireland – No extra or fewer seats allocated. England, North Yorkshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Norfolk, Essex, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, isle of Wight maintained its status as one constituency, the largest by electorate. The City of York was divided into two seats, neither overlapping part of North Yorkshire, North London, Birmingham and the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire lost a seat each. Herefordshire and Worcestershire, to reflect their full reinstatement as separate counties, were considered in separate reviews, bath, Bristol and Somerset underwent arguably the most significant changes to reflect the abolition of Avon. Updated electorate figures from December 2010 have been added for the English, lists of electoral districts by nation Boundary Commission for N. I. Fifth Periodical Report – Parliamentary Constituencies of Northern Ireland
List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
–
United Kingdom
19.
South Thanet (UK Parliament constituency)
–
South Thanet is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK parliament since 2015 by Craig Mackinlay MP, a Conservative. Tourism is an important economic activity with entertainment and beaches, particularly at Broadstairs, the constituency also includes part of the Stour Valley Walk, which passes through Sandwich on its way to Canterbury and beyond. There are picturesque villages with oast houses, the amount of fishing and coastal trade is much reduced relative to the 19th century, and is small compared to many other British ports. The seat has a proportion of retired people than the national average. Economic developments have included the nearby Thanet Offshore Wind Project as well as commercial, recreational, farming, trades, and Ramsgate harbour provide much of the employment. Pharmaceuticals received a blow when Pfizer withdrew from the area, the unemployed claimant count, at 5. 4%, was the highest of the South Easts 84 constituencies at the end of 2010, and greater than the national average of 3. 8%. Since its creation in 1983 the seat has been a bellwether, Kent Police began an investigation into the spending returns of Craig Mackinlay following the Channel 4 report. On 14 March 2017, it was reported that Mackinlay had been interviewed under caution by officers investigating the allegations. South Thanet consists of the southern and eastern part of Thanet district together with the part of Dover district, comprising the ancient Cinque Port of Sandwich. 1, Murray appeared on the paper without any description. List of Parliamentary constituencies in Kent Notes References
South Thanet (UK Parliament constituency)
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Boundary of South Thanet in Kent.
20.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
21.
Seaside resort
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A seaside resort is a resort town or resort hotel, located on the coast. Sometimes it is also an officially accredited title, that is awarded to a town when the requirements are met. Where a beach is the focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort. The coast has always been a recreational environment, although until the mid-nineteenth century, even in Roman times, the town of Baiae, by the Tyrrhenian Sea in Italy, was a resort for those who were sufficiently prosperous. Mersea Island, in Essex, England was a holiday destination for wealthy Romans living in Colchester. The development of the beach as a leisure resort from the mid-19th century was the first manifestation of what is now the global tourist industry. The first seaside resorts were opened in the 18th century for the aristocracy, the first rolling bathing machines were introduced by 1735. In 1793, Heiligendamm in Mecklenburg, Germany was founded as the first seaside resort of the European continent and this trend was praised and artistically elevated by the new romantic ideal of the picturesque landscape, Jane Austens unfinished novel Sanditon is an example of that. The extension of this form of leisure to the middle and working class began with the development of the railways in the 1840s, in particular, the completion of a branch line to the small seaside town Blackpool from Poulton led to a sustained economic and demographic boom. The growth was intensified by the practice among the Lancashire cotton mill owners of closing the factories for an every year to service. These became known as wakes weeks, each towns mills would close for a different week, allowing Blackpool to manage a steady and reliable stream of visitors over a prolonged period in the summer. A prominent feature of the resort was the promenade and the pleasure piers, in 1863, the North Pier in Blackpool was completed, rapidly becoming a centre of attraction for elite visitors. Central Pier was completed in 1868, with a theatre and a large dance floor. Many popular beach resorts were equipped with bathing machines because even the all-covering beachwear of the period was considered immodest, by the end of the century the English coastline had over 100 large resort towns, some with populations exceeding 50,000. The development of the seaside resort abroad was stimulated by the well developed English love of the beach, the French Riviera alongside the Mediterranean had already become a popular destination for the British upper class by the end of the 18th century. In 1864, the first railway to Nice was completed, making the Riviera accessible to visitors all over Europe. By 1874, residents of foreign enclaves in Nice, most of whom were British, the coastline became renowned for attracting the royalty of Europe, including Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. Continental European attitudes towards gambling and nudity tended to be more lax than in Britain, the place was renamed Monte Carlo
Seaside resort
–
Heiligendamm in
Mecklenburg (Germany), established in 1793, is the oldest seaside resort in
continental Europe.
Seaside resort
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Brighton, The Front and the Chain Pier Seen in the Distance, early 19th century.
Seaside resort
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The
Blackpool Promenade c. 1898.
Seaside resort
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Seaside facade at
Monte Carlo, 1870s.
22.
Port of Ramsgate
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The Port of Ramsgate is a harbour situated in Ramsgate, south-east England, serving cross-Channel freight traffic and smaller working and pleasure craft. It is run on behalf of the public by the local authority, the two most influential architects of the Harbour were father and son John Shaw and John Shaw Jr, who designed the clockhouse, the obelisk, the lighthouse and the Jacobs Ladder steps. The Harbour has the distinction of being the only harbour in the United Kingdom awarded the right to call itself a Royal Harbour. This was bestowed by King George IV after he was taken by the hospitality shown by the people of Ramsgate when he used the harbour to depart and return with the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1821. Because of its proximity to mainland Europe, Ramsgate was an embarkation point both during the Napoleonic Wars and for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. The ferry terminal area is built upon reclaimed land, Port Ramsgate has provided cross-Channel crossings for many years. It is situated 35 miles from the French coast, previously Sally Ferries provided a service of passenger and car ferries to Dunkirk. Between November 1998 and April 2013 a predominantly freight service was provided to Ostend by TransEuropa Ferries, passenger services were only available on certain crossings, and then only with vehicles. Ramsgate port has its own access tunnel avoiding town centre congestion, Hoverlloyd ran a crossing from Ramsgate Harbour to Calais Harbour from 6 April 1966 using small, passenger-only SR. N6 hovercraft. When the much larger SR. N4 craft, capable of carrying 30 vehicles and 254 passengers, were delivered in 1969, Hoverlloyd moved operations to a purpose built hoverport in Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate. The marina has a number of facilities for sailors, including refuelling, utility hook ups, the lighthouse situated on the West harbour arm was built in 1842 and is 11m high. It is active and emits a red light. A lifeboat station was first established at Ramsgate Harbour in 1802 by the trustees of the harbour, the original was built by lifeboat pioneer Henry Greathead, in the same year that he was recognised by parliament for the lifeboat being deemed a fit subject for national munificence. After a lapse in service between 1824 and 1851 a station was re-established by the trustees, with the named in honour of the lifeboat sponsor. The new and prized boat had been built in accordance with the plans of a model that had been the prize-winner in the 1851 national competition for the best design for such a craft. In 1859 Jerimiah Walker, as a seaman of the lugger Petrel assisted in the rescue of the crew of the Spanish vessel Julia, on New Years Day 1861 an event at sea of considerable loss of life occurred with the wreck of the Guttenburg. Then, as now, the most hazardous area around the Kent coastline for any navigator was the Goodwin Sands. In 1865, the lifeboat was taken over by the Board of Trade and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and was taken completely by the RNLI
Port of Ramsgate
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View of the inner and outer marina from land, at high tide.
Port of Ramsgate
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Port of Ramsgate
Port of Ramsgate
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A map of Ramsgate from 1945
Port of Ramsgate
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A Sally Lines ferry at Ramsgate Harbour
23.
History of Ramsgate
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For Ramsgate as a whole, see the main article Ramsgate. Ramsgate as a name has its earliest reference as Ramisgate or Remmesgate in 1275, from Anglo-Saxon Hraefns geat, or Ravens cliff gap, later to be rendered Ramesgate from 1357. At the turn of the 20th century, the Isle of Thanet saw the introduction of about 11 miles of track, ltd, which began its service with electric trams on 4 April 1901, linking the towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs. On 3 August 1905, an unseasonably wet summers day, Car No. Providentially, only a few passengers were travelling on Car No.41 that day, and they came out of the ordeal unscathed, but the driver, who was new to the job, sustained some injury. This was one of the few inter-urban tramways in Britain, owned by a private company, much of the route was on its own right of way, and this only became public roads when the tramway was abandoned. The line started in Westbrook west of Margate, at the junction of Canterbury, a little tram-shed survived there until recently, and the tram-tracks were to be preserved in the housing development replacing it. Along Canterbury Road and the sea-front, then dividing in two, in the Broadstairs direction, up Paradise Street, from Broadstairs, down Fort Hill and along King Street. Then Fort Crescent, Athelstan Road, Northdown Road to private track connecting to Lower Northdown Road and this bit is now a public footpath. Lower Northdown Road eastwards to the Wheatsheaf, then cuts across country to Northdown Hill and this bit is a rough track now. Past the main tramshed on the corner, still there and used as factory units, church Street to St Peters, Albion Road to crossroads, left under railway bridge by Broadstairs station, along Broadstairs High Street to Queens Road, Oscott Road and the seafront. Then along private right of way to Ramsgate, now Dumpton Park Drive, bellevue Road, Plains of Waterloo, Nelson Crescent, down Madeira Walk to Ramsgate Harbour. This was very lightly used and no-one is sure why it was built, Broadstairs town wanted to build a proper town centre at the station crossroads before World War I but could not find the money, and this may have had something to do with it. The company wanted to extend to Birchington, but was defeated by the landowners of housing estates at Westgate who wanted to keep the riff-raff away. Perhaps as a result, Westgate was refused its application to become an urban district because it lacked civic character before World War I. A line to Pegwell village was also proposed. The trams were double-decker, but never had roofs on the upper deck and this was because the track was narrow-gauge and there were many right-angle bends. Twelve could squeeze into the deck, where there were two wooden benches facing each other, but in bad weather the top deck was extremely unpleasant. The service could not hope to compete with all year round
History of Ramsgate
–
Disused railway tunnel at Ramsgate Harbour, Kent. In 1923 the two competing railway companies that served Kent were merged into the newly formed Southern Railway
24.
Photochrom
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The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography, a broader term that refers to color lithography in general. The process was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid, Füssli founded the stock company Photochrom Zürich as the business vehicle for the commercial exploitation of the process and both Füssli and Photoglob continue to exist today. From the mid-1890s the process was licensed by companies, including the Detroit Photographic Company in the US. The photochrom process was most popular in the 1890s, when color photography was first developed but was still commercially impractical. In 1898 the US Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which let private publishers produce postcards and these could be mailed for one cent each, while the letter rate was two cents. Publishers created thousands of prints, usually of cities or landscapes. In this format, photochrom reproductions became popular, the Detroit Photographic Company reportedly produced as many as seven million photochrom prints in some years, and ten to thirty thousand different views were offered. After World War One, which ended the craze for collecting Photochrom postcards, the last Photochrom printer operated up to 1970. A tablet of lithographic limestone called a stone was coated with a light-sensitive surface composed of a thin layer of purified bitumen dissolved in benzene. A worker then pressed a reversed half-tone negative against the coating and exposed it to daylight for 10 to 30 minutes in summer, or up to several hours in winter. The image on the negative caused varying amounts of light to fall on different areas of the coating, causing the bitumen to harden in proportion to the amount of light. The worker then used a solvent such as turpentine to remove the unhardened bitumen and this resulted in an image being imprinted on the stone in bitumen. Each tint was applied using a stone that bore the appropriate retouched image. The finished print was produced using at least six, but more commonly 10 to 15, description of the Photochrom process The Library of Congress Public Domain Photochrom Prints Search Search at the Zurich Central Library Detroit Photographic Company’s Views of North America, ca. 1897-1924 from the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Photochrom
–
An 1890s photochrom print of
Neuschwanstein Castle,
Bavaria,
Germany.
Photochrom
–
A photochrom of
Mulberry Street in New York City c 1900, which shows the evocative coloration characteristic of the process.
Photochrom
–
Photochrom of the old
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre,
Stratford-on-Avon,
England, c. 1890–1900.
25.
Augustine of Canterbury
–
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the Apostle to the English and a founder of the English Church, Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Before reaching Kent, the missionaries had considered turning back, but Gregory urged them on, King Æthelberht converted to Christianity and allowed the missionaries to preach freely, giving them land to found a monastery outside the city walls. Augustine was consecrated as a bishop and converted many of the kings subjects, Roman bishops were established at London and Rochester in 604, and a school was founded to train Anglo-Saxon priests and missionaries. Augustine also arranged the consecration of his successor, Laurence of Canterbury, the archbishop probably died in 604 and was soon revered as a saint. After the withdrawal of the Roman legions from their province of Britannia in 410, before the Roman withdrawal, Britannia had been converted to Christianity and produced the ascetic Pelagius. Britain sent three bishops to the Council of Arles in 314, and a Gaulish bishop went to the island in 396 to help settle disciplinary matters, material remains testify to a growing presence of Christians, at least until around 360. After the Roman legions departed, pagan tribes settled the southern parts of the island while western Britain, beyond the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and this native British Church developed in isolation from Rome under the influence of missionaries from Ireland and was centred on monasteries instead of bishoprics. Other distinguishing characteristics were its calculation of the date of Easter, there is no evidence that these native Christians tried to convert the Anglo-Saxons. The invasions destroyed most remnants of Roman civilisation in the held by the Saxons and related tribes, including the economic. It was against this background that Pope Gregory I decided to send a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, the Kingdom of Kent was ruled by Æthelberht, who married a Christian princess named Bertha before 588, and perhaps earlier than 560. Bertha was the daughter of Charibert I, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, as one of the conditions of her marriage, she brought a bishop named Liudhard with her to Kent. Together in Canterbury, they restored a church dated to Roman times—possibly the current St Martins Church. Æthelberht was a pagan at this point but allowed his freedom of worship. One biographer of Bertha states that under his wifes influence, Æthelberht asked Pope Gregory to send missionaries, the historian Ian N. Wood feels that the initiative came from the Kentish court as well as the queen. Other historians, however, believe that Gregory initiated the mission, the mission may have been an outgrowth of the missionary efforts against the Lombards who, as pagans and Arian Christians, were not on good relations with the Catholic church in Rome. Aside from Æthelberhts granting of freedom of worship to his wife, Kent was the dominant power in southeastern Britain. Since the eclipse of King Ceawlin of Wessex in 592, Æthelberht was the leading Anglo-Saxon ruler, lastly, Kents proximity to the Franks allowed support from a Christian area
Augustine of Canterbury
–
Portrait labelled "AUGUSTINUS" from the mid-8th century
Saint Petersburg Bede, though perhaps intended as
Gregory the Great.
Augustine of Canterbury
–
Map of the general outlines of some of the British kingdoms about 600
Augustine of Canterbury
–
Æthelberht of Kent imagined in a statue from
Canterbury Cathedral
Augustine of Canterbury
–
Augustine's gravesite at Canterbury
26.
Cinque Ports
–
The Confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic series of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex. It was originally formed for military and trade purposes, but is now entirely ceremonial and it lies at the eastern end of the English Channel, where the crossing to the continent is narrowest. The name is Norman French, meaning five ports and they were, Hastings New Romney Hythe Dover Sandwich However, Rye, originally a subsidiary of New Romney, changed to become one of the Cinque Ports once New Romney was damaged by storms and silted up. Other towns also contribute to the confederation, including two Antient Towns, and seven Limbs, the five ports are supported by the two so-called Antient Towns of Rye and Winchelsea, whose councils traditionally maintained defence contingents for the realm of England. Apart from the five ports and the two Antient Towns, there are eight members of the Confederation, which are considered to be Limbs of the other towns. The coastal confederation during its mediaeval period consisted of a confederation of 42 towns and villages in all. Johns, St. Peters, Ringwould, Woodchurch and Kingsdown Limbs of Hythe – West Hythe Walmer, Ramsgate A Royal Charter of 1155 established the ports to maintain ships ready for the Crown in case of need. The chief obligation laid upon the ports, as a duty, was to provide 57 ships for 15 days service to the king annually. The leeway given to the Cinque Ports, and the turning of an eye to misbehaviour, led to smuggling. A significant factor in the need to maintain the authority of the Cinque Ports by the King was the development of the Royal Navy, the associated ports, known as limbs, were given the same privileges. The five head ports and two antient towns were entitled to send two Members to Parliament, the town of Hastings was the head port of the Cinque Ports in mediaeval times. The towns also had their own system of courts, all Freemen of the ports, termed portsmen, were deemed in the age of Feudalism to be barons, and thus members of the baronage entitled to attend the kings parliament. Termed Barons of the Cinque Ports, they reflected an early concept that military service at sea constituted land tenure per baroniam making them quasi feudal barons, writs of summons to parliament were sent to the warden following which representative barons of the Cinque Ports were selected to attend parliament. Thus the wardens duty in this respect was similar to that of the sheriff who received the writs for distribution to the barons in the shires and this no doubt related to their privileges as monopolies. The warden and barons often experienced clashes of jurisdiction, as time went by and some ports declined or silted up, others were added. Rye and Winchelsea were attached to Hastings as Antient Towns in the 12th century, the following corporate limbs were added in the 15th century, Lydd, Faversham, Folkestone, Deal, Tenterden, Margate and Ramsgate. At one time there were 23 limbs, although by the 14th century the confederation faced wider challenges from a greater consolidation of national identity in the monarchy and Parliament, the legacy of the Saxon authority remained. Even after the 15th century, the antient towns continued to serve with the supply of transport ships and it was here that from 1433 the White and Black Books of the Cinque Port Courts were kept
Cinque Ports
–
SIGILLUM COMMUNE BARONUM DE HETHE, common seal of the barons of Hythe
Cinque Ports
–
Location of the Cinque Ports and their limbs.
Cinque Ports
–
SIGILLUM COMMUNE BARONUM DE HASTINGUIS, common seal of the barons of Hastings. 2 standards can be seen flying from the ship: one showing the
Plantagenet arms of 3 lions, the other seemingly showing 3 ships, which arms are combined by
dimidiation in the arms of the Cinque Ports
27.
Sandwich, Kent
–
Sandwich /ˈsændwᵻdʒ/ is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 4,985, Sandwich gave its name to the bread snack by way of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, as described below. The word sandwich is now found in many languages, Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including several listed public houses and gates in the old town walls, churches, almshouses and the White Mill. While once a port, it is now two miles from the sea due to the disappearance of the Wantsum Channel. Its historic centre has been preserved, Sandwich Bay is home to nature reserves and two world-class golf courses, Royal St Georges and Princes. The town is home to educational and cultural events. The place-name Sandwich is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it appears as Sondwic in 851, in the Domesday Book of 1086 it appears as Sandwice. The name means town on sandy soil. In 1028 King Canute granted a charter to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury to operate a ferry across the river, in 1192, returning from the Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart was jailed by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. Henry released Richard in February 1194. On 13 March 1194, Richard landed at the port of Sandwich, the coat of arms of Sandwich is Per pale Gules and Azure three demi-Lions passant guardant in pale Or conjoined with as many sterns of demi-Ships Argent. Before Sandwich became a Cinque Port, the ancient Saxon town of Stonar on the bank of the Wantsum estuary and it remained a place of considerable importance but it disappeared almost without trace in the 14th century. The ruins of the major Roman fort of Richborough are close by and it was the landing place of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43. In 2008, an archaeological dig proved that this was a site of a Roman beachhead. On 21 May 1216, Prince Louis of France landed at Sandwich in support of the war against King John of England. The Port of Sandwich is no stranger to odd events in English history and it was here in 1255 that the first captive elephant was landed in England. The prize beast arrived at Sandwich quayside, delivered as a gift to the English monarch Henry III from the French king, and was then taken on foot to the kings menagerie in the Tower of London. The journey through Kent is reported to have proceeded without incident, except when a bull in a field by the roadside took umbrage at the great beast passing, in one move, the animal was thrown by the elephant and killed outright. The Fisher Gate on the dates from 1384, and has been scheduled as an Ancient Monument
Sandwich, Kent
–
The 14th-century St Thomas' Hospital
Sandwich, Kent
–
The Fisher Gate
Sandwich, Kent
–
A map of Sandwich from 1945
Sandwich, Kent
–
The Guildhall
28.
Napoleonic Wars
–
The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France
Napoleonic Wars
–
Top:
Battle of Austerlitz Bottom:
Battle of Waterloo
Napoleonic Wars
–
"Maniac-raving's-or-Little Boney in a strong fit" by
James Gillray. His caricatures ridiculing Napoleon greatly annoyed the Frenchman, who wanted them suppressed by the British government.
Napoleonic Wars
–
The British
HMS Sandwich fires to the French
flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of
Trafalgar. The Bucentaure also fights
HMS Victory (behind her) and
HMS Temeraire (left side of the picture). In fact, HMS Sandwich never fought at Trafalgar and her depiction is a mistake by
Auguste Mayer, the painter.
Napoleonic Wars
–
European strategic situation in 1805 before the War of the Third Coalition
29.
Operation Dynamo
–
The operation was decided upon when large numbers of Belgian, Canadian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France. In his We shall fight on the speech on 4 June. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Commonwealth, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to aid in the defence of France. After the Phoney War, Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, by 21 May, the German forces had trapped the BEF, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French armies in an area along the northern coast of France. On 22 May 1940, an order was issued by the German High Command. This gave the trapped Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops toward Dunkirk, to fight the Battle of Dunkirk. On the first day of the evacuation, only 7,669 men were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, the BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of their tanks, vehicles, and other equipment. In his speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, wars are not won by evacuations. By May 1940 the force consisted of ten divisions in three corps under the command of General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, working with the BEF were the Belgian Army and the French First, Seventh, and Ninth Armies. During the 1930s, the French had constructed the Maginot Line and this line had been designed to deter a German invasion across the Franco-German border and funnel an attack into Belgium, which could then be met by the best divisions of the French Army. Thus, any war would take place outside of French territory avoiding a repeat of the First World War. He believed that any enemy force emerging from the forest would be vulnerable to a pincer attack, the French commander-in-chief, Maurice Gamelin, also believed the area to be of a limited threat, noting that it never favoured large operations. With this in mind, the area was lightly defended. The initial plan for the German invasion of France called for an encirclement attack through the Netherlands and Belgium, avoiding the Maginot Line. Erich von Manstein, then Chief of Staff of the German Army Group A, prepared the outline of a different plan and submitted it to the OKH via his superior, Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt. Mansteins plan suggested that Panzer divisions should attack through the Ardennes, then establish bridgeheads on the Meuse River, the Germans would thus cut off the Allied armies in Belgium and Flanders. This part of the later became known as the Sichelschnitt. Adolf Hitler approved a version of Mansteins ideas, today known as the Manstein Plan
Operation Dynamo
–
British troops evacuating Dunkirk's beaches
Operation Dynamo
–
Lord Gort (gesturing, at centre) was commander of the
British Expeditionary Force.
Operation Dynamo
–
"Dunkirk Beaches" by
Richard Eurich
Operation Dynamo
–
Isle of Man Steam Packet Company vessel
Mona's Queen shortly after striking a mine on the approach to Dunkirk. 29 May 1940
30.
A W Pugin
–
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, artist, and critic who is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival style of architecture. His work culminated in designing the interior of the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London, Pugin designed many churches in England and some in Ireland and Australia. He was the son of Auguste Pugin, and the father of Edward Welby and Peter Paul Pugin, Augustus was born at his parents house in Bloomsbury, London, England. As a child, his mother took Pugin each Sunday to the services of the fashionable Scottish Presbyterian preacher Edward Irving, at his chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, Camden, London, Pugin learned drawing from his father, and for a while attended Christs Hospital. After leaving school he worked in his fathers office, and in 1825 and 1827 accompanied him on visits to France, in 1831, at the age of 19, Pugin married the first of his three wives, Anne Garnet. Anne died a few months later in childbirth, leaving him a daughter and he had a further six children, including the architect Edward Welby Pugin, with his second wife, Louisa Button, who died in 1844. His third wife, Jane Knill, kept a journal of their life, from their marriage in 1848 to Pugins death. Their son was Peter Paul Pugin, following his second marriage in 1833, Pugin moved to Salisbury, Wilshire, England with his wife, and in 1835 bought half an acre of land in Alderbury, circa one and a half miles outside the town. On this he built a Gothic Revival style house for his family, of it, Charles Locke Eastlake said he had not yet learned the art of combining a picturesque exterior with the ordinary comforts of an English home. In 1834, Pugin converted to the Roman Catholic Church and was received into it the following year, a number of reforms in the early 19th century relieved these restrictions, the most important of which was the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which specifically abolished the restrictions. After 1829 it became, at least theoretically, possible for Roman Catholics to have a successful career, however, his conversion also acquainted him with new patrons and employers. Shrewsbury commissioned him to build St, in 1836, Pugin published Contrasts, a polemical book which argued for the revival of the medieval Gothic style, and also a return to the faith and the social structures of the Middle Ages. Each plate in the book selected a type of urban building, each structure was the built expression of a particular view of humanity, Christianity versus Utilitarianism. Pugins biographer, Rosemary Hill, wrote, The drawings were all calculatedly unfair, but the cumulative rhetorical force was tremendous. In 1841 he published his illustrated The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture and he conceived of Christian architecture as synonymous with medieval, Gothic, or pointed, architecture. In the work he wrote that contemporary craftsmen seeking to emulate the style of medieval workmanship should reproduce its methods. In 1841 he left Salisbury, having found it an inconvenient base for his architectural practice. He sold St. Maries Grange at a financial loss
A W Pugin
–
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
A W Pugin
–
The Grange, Ramsgate, designed by Pugin as his family home.
A W Pugin
–
St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham
A W Pugin
–
The northeast chapel at Pugin's St Giles' Roman Catholic Church, Cheadle
31.
The Grange, Ramsgate
–
The Grange in Ramsgate, Kent, on the coast in southern England was the home of the Victorian architect and designer August Pugin. He designed it in the Victorian Gothic style, it is a Grade I listed building, Pugin bought the land for the site at West Cliff, Ramsgate, in 1841. The house was built between 1843 and 1844 by the builder George Myers, pugins second wife died in 1844 and it was only after his third marriage to Jane Knill in 1848 that it became a family home. The interior of the house was completed in 1850. It is built from the inside out in the sense that the layout of the rooms was considered before the outside of the building and this is in contrast to the Georgian style that preceded it. The style was influential on subsequent English architecture designed by architects like Edwin Lutyens, Pugin died in the house in 1852 at the age of only 40. It was re-opened in 2006 for up to eight temporary residents at a time, in October 2010, The Grange was awarded the Restoration of the Century award by Country Life magazine. Historic buildings in Ramsgate Landmark Trust information Thanet website
The Grange, Ramsgate
–
The Grange, Ramsgate, designed by August Pugin as his own home.
32.
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate
–
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, Kent, on the southeast coast of England, was a former hotel designed by Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Pugin. The Granville was a hotel between 1869 and 1946 before being sold by proprietors Spiers & Pond, the building is now Granville House, a private residence containing 48 self-contained flats that are managed by Cockett Henderson. Granville House was Grade II listed on 16 October 1973, in 2010 the lease holders of Granville House gained the Right To Manage and are now responsible for looking after the building themselves. On 18 December 2012, at an auction, the freehold of Granville House was purchased by Mr Eliasz Englander for £156,000. The Granville Cinema opposite, is named after the building, after the death of Augusta Emma dEste on 21 May 1866, the remainder of the land from the Mount Albion Estate was sold off to developers. Business partners, Robert Sankey, John Barnet Hodgson and Edward Welby Pugin purchased a plot of land on Ramsgates east cliff for £9,250, in 1867, they built an eight house terrace in the gothic style. These were substantial properties, with four floors and a basement, each house had a private entrance. The houses were marketed as exclusive villas to be let for weeks at a time to visitors to Ramsgate who were expected to arrive at the nearby Ramsgate Sands station below the cliff. In 1869, the decided to convert the building into a hotel that was formally opened with an inaugural ball on 7 December 1869. The new hotel was named The Granville in honour of George Leveson Gower, the Granville was a spa hotel with over 25 different kinds of baths, including Turkish The baths opened in December,1871 and were the main feature of the hotel throughout its life. These baths were demolished in 1980. The Granville may have contributed to Edward Pugins bankruptcy in 1873, in the following years the hotel was owned by the bankers Coutts, an additional hall was designed and completed in July,1874 by the architect J T Wimperis. The hall was demolished in 1982, the hotel was purchased in 1877 by Edmund Francis Davis – a solicitor and business tycoon who twice contested the Isle of Thanet constituency for the Liberals. Davis developed the Granville Marina below the east cliff, and inaugurated the Granville Express – a daily service from Charing Cross to Westgate and Ramsgate Sands. Davis also laid a marble skating rink in the Granville Gardens, the tunnel exits at number 3 Granville Marina. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the hotel suffered frequent bankruptcies before being purchased by Spiers & Pond Ltd in December 1898, the front elevation was altered by the architect Horace Field in 1899, the Granville Tower was lowered and the inside of the building was extensively remodelled. In January 1915, the Granville was requisitioned by the Government and it mainly treated patients suffering from shell shock, nerve injuries and injuries to bones and joints. In April 1917 the hospital accommodated 809 wounded Canadian soldiers, the hospital closed in the same year and was relocated to Buxton, Derbyshire
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate
–
Granville House, Victoria Parade
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate
–
Granville Hotel cup & saucer, pepper shaker, plate and nickel plated tankard.
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate
–
Granville Hotel crest of arms.
33.
Vincent Van Gogh
–
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
Vincent Van Gogh
–
Self-Portrait, Spring 1887, Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 33.7 cm.,
Art Institute of Chicago (F 345)
Vincent Van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1871-1872 aged 18. This photograph was taken at the time when he was working at the branch of
Goupil & Cie 's gallery in
The Hague.
Vincent Van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1866, approx. age 13
Vincent Van Gogh
–
Van Gogh's drawing of
87 Hackford Road
34.
Blue plaque
–
The brainchild of British politician William Ewart in 1863, it is the oldest such scheme in the world. The worlds first blue plaques were erected in London in the 19th century to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. This scheme continues to the present day, having been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council, many other plaque schemes have since been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. The plaques erected by these schemes are manufactured in a variety of designs, shapes, materials, the term blue plaque may be used narrowly to refer to the official English Heritage scheme, but is often used informally to encompass all similar schemes. There are also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Dublin, and in cities in Australia, Canada, Russia. The forms these take vary, and they tend to be known as historical markers, the original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. It is the oldest such scheme in the world, since 1984 English Heritage have commissioned Frank Ashworth to make the plaques which have then been inscribed by his wife, Sue, at their home in Cornwall. English Heritage plans to erect an average of twelve new blue plaques each year in London. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, the first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace,24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889, the earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St Jamess. Byron’s plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, in total the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, in 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since, in 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the shape and design of the Societys plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, in 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed ceramic Doulton ware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCCs Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged
Blue plaque
–
English Heritage blue plaque commemorating
Ian Fleming at 22b
Ebury Street,
Belgravia, London (erected 1996)
Blue plaque
–
Society of Arts plaque on
Samuel Johnson 's
house in Gough Square, London (erected 1876). Many of the early Society of Arts and LCC plaques were brown in colour.
Blue plaque
–
London County Council plaque at 48 Doughty Street,
Holborn, commemorating
Charles Dickens
Blue plaque
–
London County Council plaque at 100
Lambeth Road,
Lambeth, commemorating
William Bligh (erected 1952)
35.
Interurban
–
The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Limited examples existed in Europe and Asia, Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails. The interurban, especially in the United States, was a cultural institution. Most roads and town streets were unpaved, and transportation was by horse-drawn carriages, the interurban provided vital transportation links between the city and countryside. In 1915,15,500 miles of railways were operating in the United States. For a time, interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States, by 1930, most interurbans were gone, with few surviving into the 1950s. The term interurban was coined by Charles L. Henry, a senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes, means between cities, the interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F, Due identified four characteristics of an interurban, Electric power for propulsion. Passenger service as the primary business, equipment heavier and faster than urban streetcars. Operation on tracks in city streets, and in areas on roadside tracks or private right-of-way. The definition of interurban is necessarily blurry, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines following initial construction. In 1905 the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as a railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits. It drew a distinction between interurban and suburban railroads, a suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic. A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to city center. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made frequent stops. The 1880s and saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems, most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague, who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup
Interurban
–
An interurban tram from the
Philadelphia & Western Railroad, which survived long in the interurban business
Interurban
–
Postcard of electric trolley-powered streetcars in
Richmond, Virginia, in 1923, two generations after Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888. The intersection shown is at 8th & Broad Streets
Interurban
–
The last day of electric operation on the
Sacramento Northern Railway, February 1965. At left is the
California Zephyr.
Interurban
–
Overhead lines in
Haubstadt, Indiana, circa 1924
36.
Isle of Thanet
–
The Isle of Thanet /ˈθænɪt/ lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the 600-metre Wantsum Channel, archaeological remains testify to the fact that ancient peoples lived here. Today, it is a tourist destination, but it also has an agricultural base. Called Tanatos from the death of serpents, for while it has none of its own, archaeological evidence shows that the area now known as the Isle of Thanet was one of the major areas of Stone Age settlement. A large hoard of Bronze Age implements has been found at Minster-in-Thanet, like their predecessors, the Romans also crossed the sea to invade Britain. Julius Caesar came first, briefly, in both 55 and 54 BC, one hundred years later Claudius sent four legions to Britain, during that time the port of Richborough, on the opposite side of the Wantsum Channel, became one of the chief ports. After the breakup of the Roman Empire and their departure from Britain, vortigern, King of the Britons, was under attack from other tribes and called for assistance. Among them were the Jutes Hengist and Horsa, he is said to have rewarded them with the Isle of Thanet in return for their services, as the following extract from the Historia Brittonum testifies, Then came three keels, driven into exile from Germany. In them were the brothers Horsa and Hengest, vortigern welcomed them, and handed over to them the island that in their language is called Thanet, in British Ruoihm. Throughout this time the Isle remained an island, the Wantsum Channel allowed ships to sail between the mainland and the island in calm waters. Gradually this silted up, and the last ship sailed through the Channel in 1672, in 851 and again in 854, the Vikings wintered on Thanet. Minsters village website states It is widely believed, around 670 AD, whether in truth or legend, the King purportedly asked Domneva which piece of land she wished to take as compensation for the murder of her two brothers. Her answer was that she would no more than her tame deer would run around. This the King granted her with pleasure, and the became the new Minster. Domneva is a variant name for Domne Eafe, by 1334–1335 Thanet had the highest population density in Kent according to Edward IIIs lay subsidy rolls. It acted as a granary for Calais and documents towards the end of that century refer to turreted walls beneath the cliffs needing maintenance, Coastal erosion has long since destroyed these structures. Margate was incorporated as a borough in 1857 and Ramsgate in 1884. Broadstairs and St Peters Urban District and the Isle of Thanet Rural District covered the rest of the island from 1894 until 1974
Isle of Thanet
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Isle of Thanet.
Isle of Thanet
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A general map showing late Roman Kent. The Isle of Thanet was then known as Tanatus
Isle of Thanet
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A 15th century map of the Isle of Thanet, with north on the left:
Thomas Elmham, Historia Monasterii S Augustini Cantuariensis
37.
Margate
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Margate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in Kent, England. It lies 38.1 miles east-north-east of Maidstone, on the coast along the North Foreland and contains the areas of Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, Margate was recorded as Meregate in 1264 and as Margate in 1299, but the spelling continued to vary into modern times. The name is thought to refer to a gate or gap in a cliff where pools of water are found. The cliffs of the Isle of Thanet are composed of chalk, the towns history is tied closely to the sea and it has a proud maritime tradition. Margate was a limb of Dover in the ancient confederation of the Cinque ports and it was added to the confederation in the 15th century. Margate has been a seaside resort for at least 250 years. Like its neighbour Ramsgate, it has been a holiday destination for Londoners drawn to its sandy beaches. Margate had a Victorian pier which was destroyed by a storm in 1978. Like Brighton and Southend, Margate was infamous for violence between mods and rockers in the 1960s, and mods and skinheads in the 1980s. The Turner Contemporary art gallery occupies a prominent position next to the harbour, the Thanet Offshore Wind Project, completed in 2010, is visible from the seafront. Since 1983, the Member of Parliament for North Thanet, covering northern Thanet and Herne Bay, has been the Conservative, at the 2010 General Election, in North Thanet the Conservatives won a majority of 13,528 and 52. 7% of the vote. Labour won 21. 5% of the vote, Liberal Democrats 19. 4%, Margate was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1857. This was abolished in 1974, since which date Margate has been part of the Thanet district of Kent, the town contains the seven electoral wards of Margate Central, Cliftonville West, Cliftonville East, Westbrook, Garlinge, Dane Valley and Salmestone. These wards have seventeen of the fifty six seats on the Thanet District Council, at the 2007 Local Elections, nine of those seats were held by the Conservatives, seven by Labour and one by an Independent. Margate experiences a climate similar to much of the United Kingdom. Like almost all of southern Britain, Margate experiences mild temperatures, which is complimented by a large amount of sunshine, higher than London. Rainfall is quite low, Margate being one of the drier Kentish towns, at the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386. The urban area had a population of 46,980 at the 2001 census, the ethnicity of the town was 97. 1% white,1. 0% mixed race,0. 5% black,0. 8% Asian,0. 6% Chinese or other ethnicity
Margate
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Margate Clock Tower
Margate
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A
photochrom print of Margate Harbour in 1897
Margate
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Margate Clock Tower and buildings on the sea front
Margate
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Tudor House
38.
Broadstairs
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Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about 80 miles east of London. It is part of the parish of Broadstairs and St Peters. Situated between Margate and Ramsgate, Broadstairs is one of Thanets seaside resorts, known as the Jewel in Thanets crown, the towns crest motto is Stella Maris. The name derives from a flight of steps in the chalk cliff. The town spreads from Haine Road in the west to Kingsgate a hamlet in St Peter parish in the north, the hamlet of Reading Street was established by Flemish refugees in the 17th century. The inland village of St Peters was established after the building of a church in about 1080. The coastal confederation of Cinque Ports during its mediæval period consisted of a confederation of 42 towns and this included St Peters, as a limb of Dover. On the nearby coast was a shrine, the Shrine of Our Lady, at what was then called Bradstow. A fishing settlement developed in the vicinity of the shrine in the 14th century and this came to be called Broadstairs, after a flight of steps which was made in the cliff to give access to the shrine from the bay. Older forms of the name include Brodsteyr Lynch, Brodestyr, Broadstayer, Charles Culmer, son of Waldemar, is supposed to have reconstructed the stairs in 1350. In 1440, an archway was built by George Culmer across a track leading down to the sea, Richard Culmer was the son of Sir Richard Culmer by his first wife and was born in 1640/41. Richard was buried in the church of Monkton, on the Isle of Thanet. Of his legacies was the endowment on Broadstairs of an area of six acres of ground for the poor of the parish, the name survives to this day as Culmers Allotment as does the allotment. In 1823, Broadstairs had a population of about 300, a brief outline of the history of Broadstairs Pier is given in Broadstairs, past and present, which mentions a storm in 1767, during which Culmers work was all but destroyed. At this time, it was of importance to the fishing trade with catches as far afield as Great Yarmouth, Hastings, Folkestone, Dover and Torbay. By 1795, York Gate needed repair to any threat from the French Revolutionary Wars. The subsequent renovation was undertaken by Lord Hanniker in the year as the first lightvessel was placed on the Goodwin Sands. Broadstairs was supposedly the first town in England to learn of this historic victory, smuggling was an important industry in the area, and the men of Broadstairs and St Peters became very good at outwitting customs agents
Broadstairs
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Viking Bay, Broadstairs
Broadstairs
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St Mary's chapel was built on the site of the shrine.
Broadstairs
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Joss Bay in July 2008
Broadstairs
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White cliffs at Kingsgate beach
39.
Manston, Kent
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Manston is a village and civil parish in the Thanet district of Kent, England. The village is situated one mile north-west of Ramsgate, the parish includes four hamlets and the former Manston Airport. The village was originally Mannestone which means farm on top of a hill and was recorded in 1254 as Manneston, in June 1381 the Peasants Revolt reached Manston. The same day a crowd some 200 strong attacked the house, burnt the books and muniments and took away, two road names in the parish give clues to its past. Smuggling was rife in the Isle in the 17th and 18th centuries, Manston Cave, on the road towards Sandwich, was one of the smugglers hideouts. In 1901, the Isle of Thanet Poor Law Union opened a home at Manston. The homes comprised four pairs of houses and could accommodate a total of 120 children, in the 1901 census there were 46 inmates and the Superintendent was Edmund L Martins. One of the orphans, Frank Sidney Smith, an artist and this is now hanging in St Catherines Church. The childrens homes have now converted to residential use. The orphanages school is now the village hall, during both World Wars the Manston area became important as an aircraft base Today the former RAF Manston is home to Kent International Airport. The RAF Manston Museum tells the story of the air station, a large part of it is agricultural land. St Catherines Church was built in 1872 with moneys raised by locals as a Chapel of ease for those of the St Lawrence Parish who were unable to attend the church in St Lawrence. The land was donated by the Vicar of St. Lawrence, there is a war memorial on the village green to those who served and died in the two world wars of the twentieth century. It was leased to its first tenant Keeper, Samuel Packer in March 1739, during the Second World War the Jolly Farmer was a favourite of pilots stationed at RAF Manston. There is a village hall with its own committee, used during elections as a polling station. The erstwhile post office and village store is now closed, the letter box bearing the mark of GR is all that remains, Kent International Airport is located near the village. Plans were announced in October 2013 for a new station to serve the village. The airport closed on 15 May 2014
Manston, Kent
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War memorial and St Catherines church
40.
Royal Flying Corps
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The Royal Flying Corps was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War, until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation, at the start of World War I the RFC, commanded by Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, consisted of five squadrons – one observation balloon squadron and four aeroplane squadrons. These were first used for spotting on 13 September 1914. Aerial photography was attempted during 1914, but again only became effective the next year, by 1918, photographic images could be taken from 15,000 feet, and interpreted by over 3,000 personnel. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, on 17 August 1917, South African General Jan Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. On 1 April 1918, the RFC and the RNAS were amalgamated to form a new service, the RAF was under the control of the new Air Ministry. After starting in 1914 with some 2,073 personnel, by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel in some 150 squadrons. The recommendations of the committee were accepted and on 13 April 1912 King George V signed a royal warrant establishing the Royal Flying Corps, the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers became the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps a month later on 13 May. The Flying Corps initial allowed strength was 133 officers, and by the end of year it had 12 manned balloons and 36 aeroplanes. The RFC originally came under the responsibility of Brigadier-General Henderson, the Director of Military Training, and had branches for the Army. Major Sykes commanded the Military Wing and Commander C R Samson commanded the Naval Wing, the RFCs motto was Per ardua ad astra. This remains the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the RFCs first fatal crash was on 5 July 1912 near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Loraine and his observer, Staff Sergeant R. H. V, an order was issued after the crash stating Flying will continue this evening as usual, thus beginning a tradition. Four months later on 11 December 1912 Parke was killed when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed. The Naval Wing, with pilots and aircraft than the Military Wing. In November 1914 the Royal Flying Corps, even taking the loss of the Naval Wing into account, had expanded sufficiently to warrant the creation of wings consisting of two or more squadrons and these wings were commanded by lieutenant-colonels. In October 1915 the Royal Flying Corps had undergone further expansion which justified the creation of brigades, further expansion led to the creation of divisions, with the Training Division being established in August 1917 and RFC Middle East, being raised to divisional status in December 1917. Finally, the air raids on London and the south-east of England led to the creation of the London Air Defence Area in August 1917 under the command of Ashmore who was promoted to major-general
Royal Flying Corps
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Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
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Sopwith Camel
Royal Flying Corps
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RFC
Bleriot XI monoplanes at Netheravon, 1914
Royal Flying Corps
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Recruiting poster
41.
RAF Manston
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RAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent, at grid reference TR334663 on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. In the winter of 1915-1916 these early aircraft first began to use the open farmlands at Manston as a site for emergency landings, thus was soon established the Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston. By 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was well established and taking a part in the defence of England. The German air raids had lasted for thirteen weeks, the last being on 22 August 1917, shortly after such formation raids and in consequence the Cabinet recommended the creation of a separate Air Ministry. The RAF was officially formed on 1 April 1918, at the start of the Second World War, Manston hosted a School of Air Navigation but this was quickly moved out. On 10 September 1939, No.3 Squadron flew in equipped with Hawker Hurricanes, during an eventful Battle of Britain, Manston was heavily bombed, at its height, diary entries recorded a steady stream of damage to aircraft and buildings. The station was also littered with unexploded bombs and this caused many staff to move to nearby woods for at least a week. Others were dispersed to surrounding housing, for example, WAAFs stationed at Manston were billeted at the nearby Ursuline Convent in Westgate on Sea. Barnes Wallis used the base to test his bouncing bomb on the coast at nearby Reculver prior to the Dambusters raid, a prototype is on public display at the Spitfire & Hurricane Museum. Hawker Typhoon attack aircraft were based there later in the war and it was used as a departure point for airborne forces in Operation Market Garden. It was one of the few airfields installed with the Fog Investigation Dispersal Organisation system designed to remove fog from airfields by burning it off with petrol, along with RAF Carnaby and RAF Woodbridge, Manston was developed as a South coast emergency landing ground for bomber crews. These airfields were intended for use by returning bombers suffering from low-fuel and/or suspected damage to their pneumatic and/or hydraulic systems, all three airfields were equipped with a single runway,9,000 ft long and 750 ft wide. There was a clear area of 1,500 ft at each end of the runway. At each of the three airfields, the runway was divided into three 250 ft lanes, the northern and central lanes were allocated by flying control, while the southern lane was the emergency lane on which any aircraft could land without first making contact with the airfield. The hilltop site was chosen as it was usually fog-free and had no approach obstructions, the museums on site display some startling aerial views dating from this era and the post-war years. After the war, the runway was reconfigured, becoming 200 feet wide with a parallel taxiway. During the Cold War of the 1950s the United States Air Force used RAF Manston as a Strategic Air Command base for its bomber, fighter and fighter-bomber units, in the early 1950s, SACs backbone bombers were the Convair B-36 and Boeing B-47 Stratojet. To support this strategy, the SAC 7th Air Division was established in May 1951, at the time, Manston had only partially recovered from the ravages of the Second World War
RAF Manston
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Station crest
RAF Manston
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A
Luftwaffe aerial photograph of RAF Manston at the outbreak of war in 1939 when it was still an all-
grass airfield
RAF Manston
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USAF Boeing B-47E-50-LM (S/N 52-3363) in flight.
RAF Manston
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Republic F-84E-1-RE Thunderjets of the 512th Fighter-Bomber Squadron. Serial 49-2066 is in the foreground.
42.
Kent International Airport
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Formerly the site of RAF Manston, it was briefly known as London Manston Airport. The single runway was located about 1 mile from the coastline at 178 ft above sea level, originally built with three lanes during the war to handle emergencies, the runway is amongst the widest in Europe. It was announced on 6 May 2014 that the airport would close and this occurred on 15 May 2014 with the loss of 144 jobs. The groups petitioned the council to issue a compulsory purchase order to do so. A US-based investment group, RiverOak, put forward a plan to re-open the airport, with an emphasis on cargo. Riveroak now plan to attempt the same using a Development Consent Order, the proposed development has been named Stone Hill Park. On 2 February 2015, Manston Airport was discussed in a Commons Select Committee evidence session as part of their Smaller Airports Inquiry. In February 2016, Thanet District Council announced that a total of five expressions of interest had been received, in the winter of 1915–1916, early aircraft began to use the open farmlands between Minster and Manston as a site for emergency landings. The Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston was opened in response, a training school, originally set up to instruct pilots in the use of the new Handley Page Type O bombers, was soon established. By the close of 1916, there were two units stationed at Manston, the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley Page Training School. Its location near the Kent coast gave Manston some advantages over other aerodromes, by 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was well established and taking an active part in the defence of Britain. In the Second World War Manston was used as a base by many squadrons due to its location close to the frontline. It was frequently attacked and heavily bombed during the Battle of Britain, barnes Wallis used the base to test his bouncing bomb on the coast at nearby Reculver prior to the Dambusters raid. Hawker Typhoon and Gloster Meteor squadrons were based at Manston during the war, on 27 July 1944 RAF616 Squadron became the first allied jet equipped squadron in the world to become operational, using Meteors to intercept German V-1 flying bombs. The airfield became a graveyard for heavy bombers and less-damaged aircraft, the museum on site displays some aerial views dating from this era and the post-war years. During the Cold War of the 1950s, the United States Air Force used Manston as a Strategic Air Command base for its fighter and fighter-bomber units. The USAF withdrew from Manston in 1960, and the became a joint civilian and RAF airport, employed for occasional package tour and cargo flights. The Air Cadets used the side of the airfield as a gliding site
Kent International Airport
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Manston Airport
Kent International Airport
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Fokker 100 of EUjet on arrival from
Manchester on 31 March 2005
Kent International Airport
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View across part of the airport
Kent International Airport
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A British Airways Airbus A380 undergoing crew training at Manston
43.
Coastal Forces
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Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy instially established during World War I and then again in World War II under the command of Rear-Admiral Coastal Forces. The Royal Navy had previously operated flotillas of small torpedo- and depth-charge-armed craft during World War I and they operated as often in action against the enemy coast as in defence of British coastal areas. During World War II, the first Coastal Forces headquarters was set up at HMS Vernon in 1940 under Rear Admiral Piers Kekewich, Royal Navy Coastal Forces craft operated mainly in the English Channel and North Sea waters, especially in the build up to the Normandy invasion of 1944. They were also used in the Mediterranean and off Norwegian coastline and they raided St. Nazaire and Dieppe. They were used to attack German convoys and their S-boat escorts, carry out raids and landings. The coastal craft were manned by various Allied nationalities including Dutch, Norwegian, Canadian, Australian, a number of Captain-class frigates were configured to operate as Coastal Forces Control Frigates. By 1944 Coastal Forces numbered 3,000 officers and 22,000 ratings, altogether there were 2,000 British Coastal Forces craft. Affectionately known as the Royal Navys Little Ships, they fought over 900 actions and sank around 400 enemy vessels and they fired 1,169 torpedoes, shot down 32 enemy aircraft and carried out many mine laying operations. 170 of the Little Ships were sunk or otherwise destroyed, after World War II, the Royal Navy redesignated all its motor torpedo boats and motor gun boats as fast patrol boats. The Brave-class fast patrol boats were the last craft to be built for the Coastal Forces, and these could typically maintain 40 knots and were armed with two torpedo tubes. They were built mainly by the British Power Boat Company, Vospers, in 1940 a modified craft, the Motor Gun Boat, was introduced. These were armed with such as the 0.5 in Vickers machine gun,2 pounder pom pom. It was also apparent that larger craft were needed as the capability of the short boats was too restricted by sea conditions. Fairmile designed a series of larger craft, up to 120 feet long. The Fairmile A Type and B Type were motor launches and the C Type was a gun boat. In 1943 the Fairmile D Type appeared and it was a motor torpedo boat – nicknamed the Dog Boat – and was designed as a counter to the German S-boat. It could be fitted as either a gun or a boat, so the designation MGB disappeared. It was a sea boat and could maintain 30 knots at full load
Coastal Forces
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Motor Torpedo Boats in the Mediterranean, February 1945
Coastal Forces
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The
Steam Gun Boat Grey Goose
Coastal Forces
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Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 5
Coastal Forces
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Crewmen with a Molins Molins autoloading 57-mm gun on a
Fairmile D motor torpedo boat during World War II
44.
Motor Torpedo Boat
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Motor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. The motor in the designation, referring to the use of petrol engines, was to distinguish them from the majority of other naval craft that used steam turbines or reciprocating steam engines. The capitalised term is used for the Royal Navy boats. During the Second World War, the US Navy boats were called by their hull classification symbol of PT. German motor torpedo boats of the Second World War were called S-boote by the Kriegsmarine, Italian MTBs of this period were known as Motoscafo Armato Silurante. French MTBs were known as vedettes lance torpilles, soviet MTBs were known as торпедные катеры. After the end of the War in 1945, a number of the Royal Navys MTBs were stripped and the empty hulls sold for use as houseboats. MTBs were designed for speed, operating at night, low speed ambush and manoeuvrability on the water. With no significant armour, the boats relied upon surprise and their agility at high speed to avoid being hit by gunfire from bigger ships, the British and Italian navies started developing such vessels in the early 20th century, shortly before the beginning of the First World War. Italian MAS boats were small, at 20-30 tons displacement. MAS15 was the motor torpedo boat in history to sink a battleship. British torpedo boats of the First World War were small at only around 15 tons and were known as Coastal Motor Boats, in the Second World War, British MTBs were operated by Coastal Forces. A similar size boat with a different role in the Second World War was the BPB63 ft High Speed Launch used by the RAF, the last MTBs in the Royal Navy were the two Brave-class fast patrol boats of 1958 which were capable of 50 knots. Many boats were built with a MTB designation but varied substantially, a 55 footer capable of 40 knots was shown in 1930. The Vosper private boat was designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE and she was completed and launched in 1937. She was bought by the Admiralty and taken into service with the Royal Navy as MTB102. Length,68 ft Beam,19 ft 9 in Draft,3 ft 9 in, armament, Two 21 in torpedo tubes MTB102 was the fastest wartime British naval vessel in service. She was at Dunkirk for the evacuation and carried Winston Churchill and they were based on the British Power Boat rescue craft and were originally designed for the Royal Air Force but reduced to 60 ft in length
Motor Torpedo Boat
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MTBs returning from an anti-E-boat patrol, June 1944
Motor Torpedo Boat
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Israeli MTB formation, circa 1967
Motor Torpedo Boat
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MTBs in the Mediterranean, February 1945
45.
Motor Gun Boat
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Motor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. Such boats were similar to Motor Torpedo Boats, but equipped with a mix of guns instead of torpedoes. Their small size and high speed made them targets for E-boats or torpedo bombers. The large number of guns meant the crew was relatively large, mGBs were extremely heavily armed for vessels of their size.303 Vickers machine guns on the bridge wings. They were also equipped with smoke-making equipment, basic radar and depth charges, in the early years of the war, they saw action defending shipping against enemy torpedo boats such as the German E-boats on the southern and eastern coasts of the UK. MGBs were also involved in the protection of shipping after D-Day, in the Mediterranean, they were used offensively to sink Italian and German shipping. They were formed into flotillas which often operated alongside Motor Torpedo Boats, after this campaign, they moved northwards and assisted with the invasion of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Elba. From island bases they patrolled along the western coast of Italy attacking small coastal ships, as Italy was progressively liberated, certain flotillas, such as the 56th, were sent around to the Adriatic to assist partisans in the islands off Yugoslavia. They did not take the prefix HMS as they were only boats, the crews generally referred to them by their numbers. In 1947, MGB2009 was fitted with a Metrovick gas turbine, later re-numbered MGB2009, this boat was subsequently fitted with a Metrovick gas turbine engine in 1947. Fairmile C motor gun boats were 110 ft long boats, the succeeding Fairmile D design could be fitted out either as MGB or MTB. The only fully restored and operational example of a Royal Navy Coastal Forces MGB which saw service in WW2 is MGB-81. She was built by British Power Boat Co Ltd, hythe, launched in 1942, and served at the Normandy landings
Motor Gun Boat
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MGB 314 during
World War II
Motor Gun Boat
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MGB 66 at speed with the crew at action stations, off the coast of Scotland
Motor Gun Boat
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The
gas turbine from MGB 2009 (formerly MGB 509)
Motor Gun Boat
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MGB-81 in
Beaulieu River
46.
Motor Launch
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For other types of launch see Launch A motor launch is a small military vessel in British navy service. It was designed for defence and submarine chasing or for armed high speed air-sea rescue. Although small by standards, it was larger than the preceding Coastal Motor Boats of 40 and 55 ft length. The first motor launches entered service in the First World War and these were 580 80-foot-long vessels built by the US Elco company for the Admiralty, receiving the designations ML-1 to ML-580. They served between 1916 and the end of the war with the Royal Navy defending the British coast from German submarines, after the Armistice of 11 November 1918 a flotilla of 12 RN Motor Launches traveled down the Rhine performing duty as the Rhine Patrol Flotilla. Post-war, many motor launches were taken on as pleasure boats, a number of them are on the National Register of Historic Vessels. Gardiner, Robert, Conways all the fighting ships 1906–1921 Conway Maritime Press,1985. Gardiner, Robert and Chesneau, Roger, Conways all the fighting ships 1922-1946. UK National Register of Historic Vessels Naval Museum of Manitoba Juno Beach website A Short History of HMS St Christopher, Royal Navy Coastal Forces training base, mainly for MLs Stoker Harold Siddall Royal Navy, his service in ML.1030 and capture in Crete 1941
Motor Launch
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Royal Norwegian Navy motor launches off Dover during the Second World War
47.
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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The British Expeditionary Force was the name of the British Army in Western Europe from 1939 to 1940, in the early stages of the Second World War. During the 1930s, the British government planned to deter war by rearming from the low level of readiness of the early 30s. The bulk of the money went to the Royal Navy. The BEF began moving to France in September 1939, the British assembled along the Belgian–French border on the left of the French First Army as part of the French 1er groupe darmées of the Front du Nord-est. Most of the BEF spent the Phoney War digging field defences on the French–Belgian border before the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940, the BEF constituted 10 percent of the Allied forces on the Western Front. The BEF, French and Belgian forces were evacuated from Dunkirk on the French North Sea coast in Operation Dynamo, Saar Force, the 51st Infantry Division, had been detached for service along the Maginot Line as part of a plan for the BEF units to gain experience. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Ten Year Rule had reduced war spending from £766 million in 1920 to £102 million when it was abolished on 23 March 1932. The British army had fewer men than in 1914, no organisation or equipment for a war in Europe and in three weeks, the War Office could only mobilise an infantry division and a cavalry brigade. The committee urged the creation of a Field Force of four infantry divisions, expenditure of £71 million was recommended, half to go in the army, which would be the defence against an invasion. The government accepted the report apart from the price and cut 1⁄3 from the estimate, in March 1937, the Regular Army stood at 121,000 men at home and 89,000 overseas, with some 716 tanks, of which 200 were obsolete First World War models. By the later 1930s, the despatch of an Expeditionary Force to France of Belgium might increase British security, the government also announced that the twelve TA divisions would be brought up to establishment and then another twelve. Anti-Aircraft Command formed seven divisions and early steps were taken to requisition the necessary to carry the Expeditionary Force to France. According to the 1939 Army Estimates, Britain had home forces of 230,000 men in the army,183,000 in reserve and 270,000 part-timers in the TA a total of 683,000 men. One lieutenant stuffed his holster with paper because he had no pistol, there were immense pressures to produce equipment, which led to a rapid increase in output. Clothing items were one example of this, greatcoats and boots being produced at up to fifty times the normal peacetime rates, twenty-five years of greatcoats were produced in six months and 18 months army boots were turned out in one week but shortages remained. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the BEF was despatched to France, German submarines had been limited by Hitlers orders to avoid provoking the Allies and only a few mines were laid near Dover and Weymouth. By 19 October, the BEF had received 25,000 vehicles to complete the first deployment, Belgium and the Netherlands were neutral countries and no troops were stationed in them. Morale was high amongst the British troops but the actions of the Germans by 9 May, had led many into assuming that there would not be much chance of a big German attack in that area
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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British armoured vehicles passing through
Leuven in Belgium on 14 May 1940
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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A
Light Tank Mk.VIA of
3rd The King's Own Hussars training in 1938.
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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The
Coldstream Guards arrive in
Cherbourg in the autumn of 1939
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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Lord Gort with General
Joseph Georges, Commander in Chief of the
French 9th Army
Ramsgate travel guide from Wikivoyage
