1.
Axford, Wiltshire
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Axford is a hamlet in the Kennet Valley about 3 miles east of Marlborough in the English county of Wiltshire. Axford was one of seven Saxon settlements along the Kennet Valley in modern-day Wiltshire in the 5th and 6th centuries, during the 15th and 16th century, Axford Manor was centred on Priory Farm a short distance from the village itself. The majority of housing was built to the south of the road through the village. A military camp was located near Axford during the Second World War, Axford contains one listed building, the Grade 1 listed Axford Farmhouse. A church is located in the village and it also contains The Red Lion public house, a 17th-century building. Axford is in Ramsbury and Axford civil parish, which is in the area of Wiltshire Council, the two councils are responsible for different aspects of local government. Axford is located a distance from the A4 road. Bus services to the village are provided by Thamesdown Transport route 48 between Swindon and Marlborough, position, grid reference SU238701 List of places in Wiltshire Media related to Axford, Wiltshire at Wikimedia Commons
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
4.
Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap
5.
River Lambourn
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The River Lambourn is a chalk stream in the English county of Berkshire. It rises in the Berkshire Downs near its namesake village of Lambourn and is a tributary of the River Kennet, the upper reaches of the river are seasonal, with a perennial source derived from a number of springs located upstream of the village of Great Shefford. At times when the table in the chalk aquifer feeding the river is high the source of the river migrates upstream. Below Shaw is the confluence of the River Lambourn with the River Kennet, the River Lambourn itself has a single perennial tributary, the Winterbourne Stream, which joins it at the village of Bagnor. The highest source of the Lambourn is on the Maddle Road in the village of Upper Lambourn and it emerges from a rainwater drain and occasionally flows down a channel between the road and pavement. In the village it runs underground in a pipe until re-emerging alongside the road opposite The Malt Shovel, at this point it is usually little more than a damp, muddy ditch, and remains so until halfway through Lynch Wood. Here it is fed by springs, two of which are close to the Goose Green road, forming a short stream that runs ten feet downhill into the river. These springs quickly fill the channel and the river swells ten to twenty feet wide, although bourne until Great Shefford the river was not dry below Lynch Wood in 2007-08. However, it dried up in June–July 2009 and the riverbed remained dry until January 2010 due to 4-5 inches of snow melting in a thaw. It is constricted by the built on the riverbank, which were partily flooded in July 2007 as numerous weeds clogged the river under the many small bridges built over it. It passes by The Lamb and the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, there is a ford next to the Bockhampton Road bridge which is used by horses and the river leaves the town through Bockhampton Manor Farm. Bernards Ford is found to the west of Eastbury, which is suitable only for tractors. Here the Lambourn forced its banks in July 2007 and flowed down the Newbury Road for over a hundred yards before rejoining the river. The Lambourn runs through the middle of Eastbury, and past The Plough Inn, in East Garston there are many houses are built on one bank with their own bridges from the front door to the road opposite. The river splits into channels at Great Shefford, and is joined by many small streams. From Lambourn to Newbury the river remains roughly parallel to the Newbury Road which crosses it many times, in Newbury it runs between Donnington and Speen and south of Shaw House until it joins the River Kennet to the south of The Nature Discovery Centre. The River Kennet joins the River Thames at Reading, the River Lambourn is almost unique for a chalk stream in southern England in that its flow regime remains near-natural in form, not being significantly modified by groundwater abstraction. Ironically, this situation developed because of a groundwater abstraction project
6.
River Enborne
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The River Enborne is a river that rises near the villages of Inkpen and West Woodhay, to the West of Newbury, Berkshire and flows into the River Kennet. Its source is in the county of Hampshire, and part of its course forms the border between Berkshire and Hampshire, despite the name, the river does not run through the village of Enborne, although it does run through Enborne Row. From its source near the villages of Inkpen and Woodhay, the Enborne flows Eastwards towards Newbury, at Smiths Bridge, near Holtwood the river is also now the boundary between Berkshire and Hampshire. Continuing East the river is crossed by the A34 at Enborne Row to the South of Newbury, near here to the South is The Chase and Great Pen Wood, woodland managed by the National Trust. It flows due east touching part of Wash Common and then along the boundary of Sandleford and Highclere, reaching Newtown, Hampshire. At Sandleford and Newtown, near the Newbury to Whitchurch road, there was a mill and it then passes to the South of Greenham Common, and here, near Headley, the river is joined by a tributary from the South, from Ecchinswell and Watership Down Hill. The river continues meandering its way across open farmland towards Brimpton Common, at Inwood Copse a change in the landscape sends the river to the northeast, and it no longer forms the border between Hampshire and Berkshire. It joins the River Kennet between the villages of Aldermaston and Aldermaston Wharf, the river plays a significant part in Richard Adams novel, Watership Down. Early in the book, the rabbits from Sandleford are threatened by a dog, blackberry realises that they can float across on a wooden board, and thus they make their escape. Media related to River Enborne at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Clayhill Brook
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Clayhill Brook is a small stream in southern England, in the county of Berkshire. It rises at Benhams Gulley in the far West of Burghfield Common and runs through the Northern edge of the Village, the brook, running to the North East, passes through woodland, Omers Gully, at the edge of the village. The woodland and the brook is a haven for wildlife in the area. At the eastern end of Omers Gulley, and to the North Eastern End of Burghfield Common and it continues North to Northeast past another woodland, Clayhill Copse, and then past Stud Farm and towards Burghfield Village. Along this course of the stream is a treatment works which serves the local communities. It joins the River Kennet just to the East of Burghfield Mill, no longer a working mill, but converted to residential apartments
8.
Foudry Brook
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Foudry Brook is a small stream in southern England. It rises near the Hampshire village of Baughurst named as Beaumonts Stream or Beaumonts Brook, chalk is the major aquifer in the Berkshire area. In the areas underlying Foudry Brook an overlying layer of clay, Foudry Brook has a grade of ‘c’ to ‘d’ on the Environment Agency General Quality Assessment scheme for biological and chemical quality. This is possibly as a result of treated effluent being discharged into the lower reaches. Between January 1999 and March 2001 the petrol station lost between 2,000 and 10,000 litres of fuel into the ground following leaks in a petrol tank. In July 2010 a serious leak from sewage works into the Brook near Silchester caused the death of hundreds of fish, media related to Foudry Brook at Wikimedia Commons
9.
Marlborough, Wiltshire
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Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. It boasts the second widest high street in Britain, after Stockton-on-Tees, the town is on the River Kennet. The earliest sign of habitation is a 62 feet high prehistoric tumulus in the grounds of Marlborough College. Recent radiocarbon dating has found it to date from about 2400 BC and it is of similar age to the larger Silbury Hill about 5 miles west of the town. Legend has it that the Mound is the site of Merlin. On John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the name is recorded as Marlinges boroe. The towns motto is Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini - Where now are the bones of wise Merlin, more plausibly, the towns name probably derives from the medieval term for chalky ground marl – thus town on chalk. Roman remains and the large Mildenhall Hoard of coins have found two miles to the east of Marlborough, at Mildenhall. A later Saxon settlement grew up around The Green and two river crossings were made at Isbury Lane and Stonebridge Lane. In 1067 William the Conqueror assumed control of the Marlborough area and set about building a motte and bailey castle. This was completed in around 1100, stone was used to strengthen the castle in around 1175. The first written record of Marlborough dates from the Domesday Book in 1087, William also established a mint in Marlborough, which coined the William I and the early William II silver pennies. The coins display the name of the town as Maerlebi or Maerleber and he also established the neighbouring Savernake Forest as a favourite Royal hunting ground and Marlborough castle became a Royal residence. Henry I observed Easter here in 1110, Henry II stayed at Marlborough castle in talks with the King of Scotland. His son, Richard I gave the castle to his brother John, King John was married here and spent time in Marlborough. He also established that weekly markets may be held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, later Henry III was also married here. Henry III held Parliament here, in 1267, when the Statute of Marlborough was passed and this seven-hundred-year-old law states that no-one shall seize his neighbours goods for alleged wrong without permission of the Court. Apart from Charters, it is the oldest statute in English law which has not yet been repealed, the castle fell into disrepair by the end of the 14th century but remained Crown property
10.
Hungerford
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Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, centred 8 miles west of Newbury,9 miles east of Marlborough,30 miles northeast of Salisbury and 67 miles west of London. Its amenities include shops, cafés, restaurants, schools and sports teams or clubs in the national sports. Hungerford is an abbreviation and vowel shift from a Saxon name meaning Hanging Wood Ford. The town’s symbol is the star and crescent moon. The place does not occur in the Domesday Book of 1086, by 1241, it called itself a borough. In the late 14th century, John of Gaunt was medieval lord of the manor, during the English Civil War, the Earl of Essex and his army spent the night here in June 1644. In October of the year, the Earl of Manchester’s cavalry were also quartered in the town. Then, in the November, the King’s forces arrived in Hungerford on their way to Abingdon, during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William of Orange was offered the Crown of England while staying at the Bear Inn in Hungerford. The Hungerford land south of the Kennet was for the centuries, until an 18th-century widespread growth in cultivation the area, st. Lawrences parish church stands next to the Kennet and Avon Canal. It was rebuilt in 1814–1816 by John Pinch the elder in Gothic Revival style, in the late 19th century, two policeman were shot by poachers in Eddington. Their memorial crosses still stand where they fell, the Hungerford massacre occurred on 19 August 1987. All of his victims were shot in the town or in nearby Savernake Forest, a report on this incident was commissioned by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. It is one of three highly costly firearms atrocities in terms of lives since the invention of such rapid fire weapons, the other two being the Dunblane massacre and Cumbria shootings. The massacre led to the Firearms Act 1988, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles, the Hungerford Report had demonstrated that Ryans collection of weapons was legally licensed. Hungerford is a parish, covering the town of Hungerford. Parish council responsibilities are undertaken by Hungerford Town Council, which consists of fifteen councillors and committee members. The mayor is elected from amongst their numbers, the parish forms part of the district administered by the unitary authority of West Berkshire, and local government responsibilities are shared between the town council and unitary authority. Hungerford is part of the Newbury parliamentary constituency and its MP is the Conservative Richard Benyon, son of Sir William Benyon of Englefield House
11.
Newbury, Berkshire
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Newbury /ˈnjuːbəri/ is a historic market town and the principal town in the west of Berkshire, England and has its own civil parish as well as the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire. It spans both sides of the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre spread around its large market square. Newbury is famous for its racecourse, and as the headquarters of Vodafone UK, the town is located in the valley of the River Kennet,26 miles south of Oxford,25 miles north of Winchester,27 miles south east of Swindon and 20 miles west of Reading. Newbury lies on the edge of the picturesque Berkshire Downs, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of outstanding natural beauty and it lies in south central West Berkshire,3 miles north of the Hampshire/ West Berkshire county boundary. In the suburban village of Donnington lies the part-ruined Donnington Castle, to the south is a narrower range of hills including Walbury Hill and a few private landscape gardens and mansions such as Highclere Castle. Together with the town of Thatcham,3 miles distant. There was a Mesolithic settlement at Newbury, artefacts were recovered from the Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963, and the Faraday Road site in 2002. Additional material was found in excavations along the route of the Newbury Bypass, Newbury was founded late in the 11th century following the Norman conquest as a new borough, hence its name. Although there are references to the borough that predate the Domesday Survey it is not mentioned by name in the survey. However, its existence within the manor of Ulvritone is evident from the rise in value of that manor at a time when most manors were worth less than in Saxon times. In 1086 the Domesday Book assesses the borough as having land for 12 ploughs,2 mills, woodland for 25 pigs,11 villeins,11 bordars, and 51 enclosures rendering 70s 7d. Doubt has been cast over the existence of Newbury Castle, but the town did have connections and was visited a number of times by King John. Historically, the economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the 16th century cloth magnate, Jack of Newbury, the proprietor of what may well have been the first factory in England, and the later tale of the Newbury Coat. The latter was the outcome of a bet as to whether a suit could be produced by the end of the day from wool taken from a sheeps back at the beginning. The local legend was immortalized in a humorous novel by Elizabethan writer Thomas Deloney. Newbury was the site of two battles during the English Civil War, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643, the nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle. The disruption of trade during the war, compounded by a collapse of the local cloth trade in the late 16th century
12.
Silbury Hill
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Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site, and lies at grid reference SU099685. At 39.3 metres high, it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world, Silbury Hill is part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury, which includes the Avebury Ring and West Kennet Long Barrow. Its original purpose is still debated, composed mainly of chalk and clay excavated from the surrounding area, the mound stands 40 metres high and covers about 5 acres. The hill was constructed in stages between c. 2400–2300 BC and displays immense technical skill and prolonged control over labour and resources. Archaeologists calculate that it took 18 million man-hours, equivalent to 500 men working for 15 years to deposit and shape 248,000 cubic metres of earth, the base of the hill is circular and 167 metres in diameter. The summit is flat-topped and 30 metres in diameter, a smaller mound was constructed first, and in a later phase much enlarged. There are indications that the top originally had a rounded profile, the first clear evidence of construction, dated to around 2400 BC consisted of a gravel core with a revetting kerb of stakes and sarsen boulders. There have been excavations of the mound. The site was first illustrated by the seventeenth-century antiquarian John Aubrey, whose notes, later, William Stukeley wrote that a skeleton and bridle had been discovered during tree planting on the summit in 1723. It is probable that this was a later, secondary burial, the excavation came in October 1776 when a team of Cornish miners overseen by the Duke of Northumberland and Colonel Edward Drax sank a vertical shaft from the top. In 1849 a tunnel was dug horizontally from the edge into the centre, other excavations were undertaken in 1867 and 1886. Flinders Petrie investigated the hill after the First World War, in 1968 to 1970 professor Richard J. C. Atkinson undertook work at Silbury which was broadcast on BBC Television. This excavation revealed most of the evidence known about the site. He argued that the hill was constructed in steps, each tier being filled in with packed chalk, Atkinson reported the C14 date for the base layer of turf and decayed material indicated a corrected date for the commencement of Silbury was close to 2750 BC. After heavy rains in May 2002, a collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft caused a hole to form in the top of the hill, English Heritage undertook a seismic survey of the hill to identify the damage caused by earlier excavations and determine the hills stability. Repairs were undertaken but the site remained closed to the public, as part of this remedial work English Heritage excavated two further small trenches and made the important discovery of an antler fragment, the first from a secure archaeological context at the site. This produced a radiocarbon date of c
13.
United Kingdom
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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
14.
River Thames
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The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, the Thames drains the whole of Greater London. Its tidal section, reaching up to Teddington Lock, includes most of its London stretch and has a rise, in Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller. Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs and its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, in 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world – the $350,000 International Riverprize. The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys Thames. It has also suggested that it is not of Celtic origin. A place by the river, rather than the river itself, indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name Thames is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit. It is believed that Tamesubugus name was derived from that of the river, tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography. The rivers name has always pronounced with a simple t /t/, the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. A similar spelling from 1210, Tamisiam, is found in the Magna Carta, the Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as River Thames or Isis down to Dorchester, richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *lowonida. An alternative, and simpler proposal, is that London may also be a Germanic word, for merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the London River. Londoners often refer to it simply as the river in such as south of the river. Thames Valley Police is a body that takes its name from the river. The marks of human activity, in cases dating back to Pre-Roman Britain, are visible at various points along the river
15.
Reading, Berkshire
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Reading is a large, historically important town in Berkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway, Today Reading is a major commercial centre, with involvement in information technology and insurance, and, despite its proximity to London, has a net inward commuter flow. The first evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, by 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the 10th largest town in England when measured by taxable wealth. By 1611, it had a population of over 5000 and had grown rich on its trade in cloth, the 18th century saw the beginning of a major iron works in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. During the 19th century, the town rapidly as a manufacturing centre. It is ranked the UKs top economic area for economic success and wellbeing, according to such as employment, health, income. Reading is also a regional retail centre serving a large area of the Thames Valley. Every year it hosts the Reading Festival, one of Englands biggest music festivals, sporting teams based in Reading include Reading Football Club and the London Irish rugby union team, and over 15,000 runners annually compete in the Reading Half Marathon. In 2015, Reading had an population of 232,662. The town is represented in Parliament by two members, and has been continuously represented there since 1295, for ceremonial purposes the town is in the county of Berkshire and has served as its county town since 1867, previously sharing this status with Abingdon-on-Thames. It is in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway. Reading is 75 miles east of Bristol,25 miles south of Oxford,42 miles west of London,17 miles north of Basingstoke,13 miles south-west of Maidenhead and 20 miles east of Newbury. Reading may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain, possibly as a port for Calleva Atrebatum. However the first clear evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, the name probably comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means Readas People in Old English, or less probably the Celtic Rhydd-Inge, meaning Ford over the River. In late 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex, on 4 January 871, in the first Battle of Reading, King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes defences. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and that account provides the earliest known record of the existence of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when they retreated to their quarters in London. After the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror gave land in, in its 1086 Domesday Book listing, the town was explicitly described as a borough
16.
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
17.
Theale
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Theale is a large village in West Berkshire, England which forms a civil parish. It has a street of small businesses, large business parks beside its railway station. The village is bounded to the south and south-east by the leisure-use Kennet & Avon Canal, within Theale there are large lakes formed by extraction of gravel, 11% of Theales area is fresh water. Theale is centred 5 miles southwest of Reading, the nearest major town, the north of Theale civil parish is a golf course, and the eastern boundary is the M4 motorway where there is a dual carriageway and junction with the local roads. Theale lies in the far east of the West Berkshire local authority area, until the 19th century, Theale was part of Tilehurst and Burghfield ecclesiastical parishes. In September 1643, soon after the First Battle of Newbury, the Royalist forces retreated, and the Earl left Theale on the morning of 23 September, heading to Reading where his units recovered from fatigue. Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron marched through Theale on 1 May 1645, in 1802, topographer James Baker chronicled the village en route from Reading to Newbury, and described it as inconsiderable. As the Bath Road became a trade route and turnpike between SW and SE England, Theale became known for its numerous coaching inns. Many times during the 18th century, Dick Turpin is said to have hidden in a room in The Old Lamb on Theales high street. One suggested origin of the name Theale refers to the villages inns, an alternative explanation is that the name comes from the Old English þelu meaning planks. As with the village of Theale in Somerset, this refers to planks used on marshes or flood plains. Until the 19th century, Theale was a chapelry in Tilehurst, there are many wooded areas within the parish. The River Kennet runs south of the village, cutting through meadows, Theale is relatively flat, with expanses of level ground flanking the main road. Theale has one lake within the built up area to the far west of the village, with privately owned houses flanking it the owners, the south-east and south boundary is the Kennet & Avon Canal. Two weirs on the River Kennet are within its extent, Theale has a Local nature reserve on the edge of the village called Hosehill Lake. As with other parts of the Kennet Valley, soil in Theale is a variety of chalk, flint, gravel and it has narrow peat marshes against the river. Samples of ochra purpurco-rubra, a type of ochre used by painters, have been found in clay pits in the village. According to the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 2,835, of these, 49% were male and 51% were female
18.
Ramsbury
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Ramsbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire. The village is in the Kennet Valley near the Berkshire boundary, the nearest towns are Hungerford about 4.5 miles east and Marlborough about 5.5 miles west. The much larger town of Swindon is about 12 miles to the north, the 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 1,989. Littlecote Roman Villa is in the parish, the earliest written history of Ramsbury can be traced from the Saxon era when the bishopric of Ramsbury was created in 909 AD. The see was moved to Old Sarum in 1075, Church of England parish church of the Holy Cross dates from the 13th century. It has a ghost story, according to legend, if you count the hundred studs on the north door at midnight, it will open. During the Second World War there was a Royal Air Force airfield on a ridge of ground to the south of the village. In Saxon times, Ramsbury was an important location for the Church, the episcopal see of Ramsbury was created in AD909 when Wiltshire and Berkshire were taken from the bishopric of Winchester to form the new diocese of Ramsbury. It was occasionally referred to as the bishopric of Ramsbury and Sonning, in 1058 it was joined with the bishopric of Sherborne to form the diocese of Sarum, and the see was translated to Old Sarum in 1075. Ramsbury has a parish council and also falls within the area of the new Wiltshire Council unitary authority. Throughout the Middle Ages, Ramsbury traditionally held two annual fairs – a livestock fair in the spring, and a fair or Mop Fair at Michaelmas. Nearby Marlboroughs tradition of holding one Mop each side of Michaelmas, was originally a means to accommodate the more prestigious Ramsbury Mop, by the 19th century, both fairs had become Cattle Fairs. The spring Cattle Fair finally ceased in 1939, the Michaelmas Fair slowly lost its original agricultural connections, becoming purely a funfair in 1946 before finally ceasing in the 1950s. The Provident Union Investment Society was founded in Ramsbury 1846, becoming the Ramsbury Building Society in 1928 and it was headquartered in the Square until 1982 and took as its logo the ancient wych-elm which grew immediately opposite. Subsequent mergers saw the Building Society being subsumed into the Regency and West of England Building Society, then the Portman Building Society, for centuries, Ramsbury was famous for its Tree – a large wych-elm which stood in the Square at the heart of the village. The Tree was first mentioned in a report in 1751, by time it must have already been well established. In its prime, its spread was said to have touched the buildings on all sides of the Square, photographs from the early 20th century show the Tree in apparently fine health, although perhaps reduced from its former size. But, by the 1920s, the Tree was in noticeable decline and it gradually succumbed to old age, eventually dying in 1983 by which time it would have been well over 230 years old
19.
Tributary
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A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean, tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out into an ocean. A confluence, where two or more bodies of water together, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary, a river or stream that branches off from, distributaries are most often found in river deltas. Right tributary and left tributary are terms stating the orientation of the relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, where tributaries have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks. These are typically designated by compass direction, for example, the American River receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago Rivers North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork, the South Branch has its South Fork, forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here, the handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream, for instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river, the Strahler Stream Order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third, and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary, another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure, stored as a tree data structure
20.
River Avon, Bristol
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The River Avon /ˈeɪvən/ is an English river in the south west of the country. To distinguish it from a number of rivers of the same name. The name Avon is a cognate of the Welsh word afon, the Avon rises just north of the village of Acton Turville in South Gloucestershire, before flowing through Wiltshire. In its lower reaches from Bath to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth near Bristol, the Avon is the 19th longest river in the UK at 75 miles although there are just 19 miles as the crow flies between the source and its mouth in the Severn Estuary. The catchment area is 2,220 square kilometres, the name Avon is a cognate of the Welsh word afon river, both being derived from the Common Brittonic abona, river. River Avon, therefore, literally means River River, several other English and Scottish rivers share the name, the County of Avon that existed from 1974 to 1996 was named after the river, and covered Bristol, Bath, and the lower Avon valley. The Avon rises east of the town of Chipping Sodbury in South Gloucestershire, running a somewhat circular path, the river drains east and then south through Wiltshire. Its first main settlement is the village of Luckington, two miles inside the Wiltshire border, and then on to Sherston, at Malmesbury it joins up with its first major tributary, the Tetbury Avon, which rises just north of Tetbury in Gloucestershire. This tributary is known locally as the Ingleburn, which in Old English means English river, here, the two rivers almost meet but their path is blocked by a rocky outcrop of the Cotswolds, almost creating an island for the ancient hilltop town of Malmesbury to sit on. Upstream of this confluence the river is referred to as the River Avon to distinguish it from the Tetbury Branch. This was supplemented in Norman times by the bridge that still stands today. The Norman side is upstream, and has pointed arches, the side has curved arches. The Town Bridge and Chapel is a grade I listed building and it was originally a Packhorse bridge, but widened in the 17th century by rebuilding the western side. On the bridge stands a building which was originally a chapel. The Avon Valley between Bradford on Avon and Bath is a classic example of a valley where four forms of ground transport are found, road, rail, river. The river passes under the Avoncliff and Dundas Aqueducts and at Freshford is joined by the Somerset River Frome, Avoncliff Aqueduct was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. The aqueduct consists of three arches and is 110 yards long with an elliptical arch of 60 ft span with two side arches each semicircular and 34 ft across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in courses of ashlar masonry
21.
Kennet and Avon Canal
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The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles, made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks, the two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile canal section was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal fell into disuse after the opening of the Great Western Railway. In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, after decades of dereliction and much restoration work, it was fully reopened in 1990. The Kennet and Avon Canal has been developed as a heritage tourism destination for boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling. Later, around 1626, Henry Briggs made a survey of the two rivers and noted that the land between them was level and easy to dig and he proposed a canal to connect them, but following his death in 1630 the plan was dropped. The main alternative to transport for the carriage of goods between Bristol and London was a hazardous sea route through the English Channel. The small coastal sailing ships of the day were often damaged by Atlantic storms, plans for a waterway were shelved until the early 18th century. However, in 1715, work was authorised to make the River Kennet navigable from Reading to Newbury, work commenced in 1718, under the supervision of surveyor and engineer John Hore of Newbury. In 1723, despite local opposition, the Kennet Navigation opened. The River Avon had historically been navigable from Bristol to Bath, in 1727, navigation was restored, with the construction of six locks, again under the supervision of John Hore. The first cargo of Deal boards, Pig-Lead and Meal reached Bath in December, the two river navigations were built independently of one another, in order to meet local needs, but they eventually led to plans to connect them and form a through route. In 1788 a Western Canal was proposed to trade and communication links to towns such as Hungerford, Marlborough, Calne. The following year the engineers Barns, Simcock and Weston submitted a proposed route for this canal, the name was changed from Western Canal to Kennet and Avon Canal to avoid confusion with the Grand Western Canal, which was being proposed at the same time. In 1793 a further survey was conducted by John Rennie, the proposed route was accepted by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company, chaired by Charles Dundas, and the company started to take subscriptions from prospective shareholders. In July 1793 Rennie suggested further alterations to the route, including the construction of a tunnel in the Savernake Forest, on 17 April 1794 the Kennet and Avon Canal Act received the Royal Assent and construction began
22.
Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name
23.
Site of Special Scientific Interest
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The acronym SSSI is often pronounced triple-S I. Sites notified for their biological interest are known as Biological SSSI/ASSIs, SSSI/ASSIs may be divided into management units, with some areas including units that are noted for both biological and geological interest. Biological SSSI/ASSIs may be selected for reasons, which for Great Britain is governed by published SSSI Selection Guidelines. Within each area, a series of the best examples of each significant natural habitat may be notified. Sites of particular significance for various groups may be selected —each of these groups has its own set of selection guidelines. In Scotland, the authority is Scottish Natural Heritage, the role in Wales is performed by Natural Resources Wales. In the Isle of Man the role is performed by the Department of Environment, Food, Geological SSSI/ASSIs are selected by a different mechanism to biological ones, with a minimalistic system selecting one site for each geological feature in Great Britain. Each of these sites is described, with most published in the Geological Conservation Review series, almost all GCR sites are subsequently notified as geological SSSIs, except some that coincide with designated biological SSSI management units. If the exposure becomes obscured, the feature could in principle be re-exposed elsewhere, Conservation of these sites usually concentrates on maintenance of access for future study. These are features which are limited in extent or physically delicate—for example, they include small lenses of sediment, mine tailings, caves, if such features become damaged they cannot be recreated, and conservation usually involves protecting the feature from erosion or other damage. Following devolution, legal arrangements for SSSIs and ASSIs differ between the countries of the UK, the Isle of Man ASSI system is a separate entity. Scottish Natural Heritage publishes a summary of the SSSI arrangements for SSSI owners and occupiers which can be downloaded from the SNH website, legal documents for all SSSIs in Scotland are available on the SSSI Register, hosted by The Registers of Scotland. Further information about SSSIs in Scotland is available on the SNH website, SSSIs are also covered under the Water Resources Act 1991 and related legislation. An SSSI may be made on any area of land which is considered to be of special interest by virtue of its fauna, flora, SSSI notification can cover any land within the area of the relevant nature conservation body, including dry land, land covered by freshwater. The extent to which an SSSI/ASSI may extend seawards differs between countries, in England, Natural England may notify an SSSI over estuarial waters and further adjacent waters in certain circumstances. Access on to SSSIs is the same as for the rest of the countryside of the relevant country, most SSSIs/ASSIs are in private ownership and form parts of working farms, forests and estates. In Scotland, people may use their rights of access to visit SSSIs. When creating a new SSSI/ASSI the designation hs legal effect from the date of notification. g, in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage must also notify the relevant community councils and community group having registered an interest in the land. )
24.
Woolhampton
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Woolhampton is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. The village straddles the London to Bath road between the towns of Reading and Newbury, the village homes are clustered and are on the northern side of the plain of the River Kennet, with the Berkshire Downs rising through the fields and woods of the village northwards. Besides the A4, the London to Exeter railway line and the Kennet, Woolhampton is served by Midgham railway station in the village. The A4 road forms the street of the village. An unclassified road runs to the south, towards the village of Brimpton and this crosses the railway line by the station on a level crossing, followed shortly afterwards by a swing bridge across the river and canal. Woolhampton Lock lies just to the west, two other unclassified roads leave the village to the north, climbing into the Berkshire Downs. Because of its location on the Bath road, Woolhampton was well known for its coaching inns, only one of these survive on the main road, the Angel after the Falmouth Arms closed in 2014 and converted to residential property. A second public house, the Rowbarge, is, as its name suggests, situated alongside the Kennet, on the higher land some half mile to the north of the village is the adjacent settlement of Upper Woolhampton, which contains both Woolhampton Church and the village school. A further half mile to the north, but still within the parish, is the Benedictine Douai Abbey community. The civil parish of Woolhampton includes the village of Woolhampton, the adjacent settlement of Upper Woolhampton, and it has a parish council, and also lies in the West Berkshire local government district and the Newbury parliamentary constituency. The Woolhampton Reed Bed, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, lies alongside the River Kennet within the parish and to the south east of the village. The dense reed bed, with areas of tall fen vegetation and carr woodland, is notable for its nesting passerine bird populations. Upper Woolhampton in Bucklebury has long been in that larger parish ecclesiastically and secularly and it is on the same wide escarpment and has approximately the same amount of housing and population as Woolhampton itself. List of civil parishes in Berkshire References Notes Media related to Woolhampton at Wikimedia Commons
25.
Chalk
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Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is a salt called calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the accumulation of minute calcite shells shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. Flint is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified, Chalk as seen in Cretaceous deposits of Western Europe is unusual among sedimentary limestones in the thickness of the beds. Most cliffs of chalk have very few obvious bedding planes unlike most thick sequences of such as the Carboniferous Limestone or the Jurassic oolitic limestones. This presumably indicates very stable conditions over tens of millions of years, Chalk has greater resistance to weathering and slumping than the clays with which it is usually associated, thus forming tall steep cliffs where chalk ridges meet the sea. Chalk hills, known as chalk downland, usually form where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle, because chalk is well jointed it can hold a large volume of ground water, providing a natural reservoir that releases water slowly through dry seasons. Chalk is mined from chalk deposits both above ground and underground, Chalk mining boomed during the Industrial Revolution, due to the need for chalk products such as quicklime and bricks. Abandoned chalk mines remain a popular tourist attraction due to their massive expanse, the Chalk Group is a European stratigraphic unit deposited during the late Cretaceous Period. It forms the famous White Cliffs of Dover in Kent, England, the Champagne region of France is mostly underlain by chalk deposits, which contain artificial caves used for wine storage. Some of the highest chalk cliffs in the occur at Jasmund National Park in Germany. Ninety million years ago what is now the chalk downland of Northern Europe was ooze accumulating at the bottom of a great sea. Chalk was one of the earliest rocks made up of particles to be studied under the electron microscope. Their shells were made of calcite extracted from the rich sea-water, as they died, a substantial layer gradually built up over millions of years and, through the weight of overlying sediments, eventually became consolidated into rock. Later earth movements related to the formation of the Alps raised these former sea-floor deposits above sea level, the chemical composition of chalk is calcium carbonate, with minor amounts of silt and clay. It is formed in the sea by plankton, which fall to the sea floor and are then consolidated and compressed during diagenesis into chalk rock
26.
Avebury
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Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of importance to contemporary pagans. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony, the Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. By the Iron Age, the site had effectively abandoned. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley, however, took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust, at grid reference SU10266996, Avebury is respectively about 6 and 7 miles from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley which forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level, to the east are the Marlborough Downs. It is now listed as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury, the monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric peoples relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BCE. The change to an environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution, different species of snail live in specific habitats, so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time. The history of the site before the construction of the henge is uncertain, evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BCE is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. During this era, those living in Britain were hunter-gatherers, often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested the possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near to the southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post
27.
Broad Hinton
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Broad Hinton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlets of Uffcott and The Weir and this village of Broad Hinton near Swindon should not be confused with Broad Hinton, a liberty in the civil parish of Hurst, Berkshire. That part of Hurst was a part of Wiltshire until the Counties Act 1844 transferred the liberty to Berkshire. Broad Hinton elects a joint parish council with the adjacent parish of Winterbourne Bassett – see Broad Hinton. The village is in West Selkley electoral ward and this ward starts in the north at Broad Hinton, stretches around but not into Marlborough, and ends at Savernake in the south. The ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,327, there are several barrows in the parish, notably on Hackpen Hill. East of The Weir is a Romano-British burial site and possibly the remains of a house of that period, bincknoll Castle is an earthwork on a promentary on a chalk escarpment in the northernmost part of the parish. It is the remains of an enclosure, possibly Romano-British in origin. The Domesday Book of 1086 records that a man called Ranulph held the manor of Broad Hinton and it then passed to the Wase family and became known as Hinton Wase. In 1709 a later John Glanville sold the manor to Thomas Bennet, from whom it descended via the line through the Legh, Keck. In 1839 James Calley sold Broad Hinton to the Duke of Wellington, in 1867 his son the 2nd Duke of Wellington sold Broad Hinton to N. Story-Maskelyne, who in 1869 sold it on to the former MP Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet. Sir Henry died in 1900 and his widow Lady Meux had the broken up. The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter ad Vincula is one of only 15 churches in England with this dedication, the earliest parts of the church building date from late in the 12th century. They include an Early English Gothic priests doorway, which was moved from the chancel to the organ chamber. In the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt, the nave was altered, the Perpendicular Gothic tower was built in the 15th or early in the 16th century. A rood stair was inserted early in the 16th century, the nave was re-roofed in 1634 and the east end of the chancel was altered or rebuilt in the 18th century. In the 19th century the church was called St. Peters, the building was restored in 1879 to plans by the Gothic Revival architect C. E. Ponting of Marlborough. He had a new, wider chancel arch built and re-used the old one to link the chancel with the organ chamber, in 1958 the church was designated as Grade I listed
28.
West Kennet Long Barrow
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The West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic tomb or barrow, situated on a prominent chalk ridge, near Silbury Hill, one-and-a-half miles south of Avebury in Wiltshire, England. The site was recorded by John Aubrey in the 17th century, archaeologists classify it as a chambered long barrow and one of the Severn-Cotswold tombs. It has two pairs of opposing transept chambers and a terminal chamber used for burial. The stone burial chambers are located at one end of one of the longest barrows in Britain at 100 m, the entrance consists of a concave forecourt with a facade made from large slabs of sarsen stones which were placed to seal entry. The construction of the West Kennet Long Barrow commenced about 3600 BC, which is some 400 years before the first stage of Stonehenge, and it was in use until around 2500 BC. The mound has been damaged by indiscriminate digging, but archaeological excavations in 1859 and 1955-56 found at least 46 burials, the bones were disarticulated with some of the skulls and long bones missing. It has been suggested that the bones were removed periodically for display or transported elsewhere with the facade being removed and replaced each time. Recent re-analysis of the evidence suggests that the 46 people all died within 20 –30 years of each other. The latest excavations also revealed that the side chambers occur inside an exact isosceles triangle, artefacts associated with the burials include Neolithic Grooved ware similar to that found at nearby Windmill Hill. The finds from the site are displayed at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, michael Dames put forward a composite theory of seasonal rituals, in an attempt to explain the Long Barrow and its associated sites. The West Kennet Long Barrow is located at Ordnance Survey mapping six-figure grid reference SU104677, grid reference SU104677 English Heritage page on the site
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North Wessex Downs
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The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is located in the English counties of West Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The AONB covers an area of some 1,730 km2 and it takes the form of a horseshoe on its side, with the open end facing east, surrounding the town of Newbury and the River Kennet watershed. The western extreme of the AONB reaches as far as Calne, at its northeast extreme, Lardon Chase within the North Wessex Downs AONB faces across the Goring Gap to the Chilterns AONB on the other side of the River Thames. This area includes the village of Lambourn and is hence sometimes known as the Lambourn Downs. Here too can be found the area of Savernake Forest. Finally, the highest stretch of the Downs runs east along the Berkshire-Hampshire border on the side of the River Kennet from the Berkshire Downs. Again the scarp slope is to the north and the dip slope is to the south into Hampshire, the area is a site of scientific interest in numerous fields and has an internationally important habitat for early gentian. Horse racing forms a major industry in the area, largely because of the good quality turf that comes with the chalk underlay, several of the upland villages, and especially the large village of Lambourn, are home to major racing stables. Other villages with strong horse racing connections include Beckhampton, Kingsclere, the term steeplechase originated in this area, a steeplechase originally being a race between two villages, navigated by reference to the church steeples visible across the rolling downs. On the south-east arm of the AONB can be found Watership Down where the book Watership Down by Richard Adams is set, to the north of the market town of Whitchurch. Significant parts of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy are set on, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated in 1972. North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Website
30.
Winterbourne (stream)
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A winterbourne is a stream or river that is dry through the summer months. A winterbourne is sometimes called a bourne, from the Anglo-Saxon word for a stream flowing from a spring. Winterbournes generally form in areas where there is chalk downland bordering clay valleys or vales, when it rains, the porous chalk holds water in its aquifer, releasing the water at a steady rate. During dry seasons the water table may fall below the level of the streams bed, Winterbournes occasionally give their names to settlements. Many of the United Kingdoms Winterbournes are villages in Dorset, such as Winterbourne Abbas, Winterborne Monkton, Winterborne St Martin, Zelston, Houghton, Whitchurch, and Compton. In Wiltshire, north of Avebury there are the villages of Winterbourne Monkton and Winterbourne Bassett, exploitation of chalk aquifers as a domestic water source in Britain has had the effect of converting many streams and rivers into artificial winterbournes. This effect is controversial, and local campaigns have often been successful in reducing aquifer abstraction, for an example, see the River Pang in Berkshire. There is a Winterbourne stream in a area of Lewes. The area is also called Winterbourne, the stream runs from the foot of the Downs through a park, a housing estate, a public garden and ends at the Railway Land Nature Reserve. It is a clear and verdant stream, much frequented by ducks, another Winterbourne stream is found In Chichester, West Sussex. Arroyo Chalk stream Intermittent and ephemeral streams Perennial stream, a stream or river flows all year round Wadi Gypsey
31.
Sonning Lock
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Sonning Lock is a lock and associated weir situated on the River Thames at the village of Sonning near Reading, Berkshire, England. The first lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773, there is a weir a little upstream at the top of the island where Sonning Backwater separates from the main course of the river. A weir at Sonning is recorded as belonging to the Blunte family in the 15th century and this was associated with the mill and fisheries and mention is made of a Locke-heise at this time. The flash lock was replaced in 1773 by the pound lock and this was the highest upstream of the eight locks constructed after the navigation act of 1770. It was commissioned in 1771 but took two years to build, fir wood was originally used for these locks, but this decayed very quickly and was replaced at Sonning by oak in 1787. Repairs took place in 1827 when the old lock was brought back temporarily into use. By this time a house had been built. The lock-keeper from 1845 to 1878 was James Sadler, a poet and he wrote verses about the river and about bees, and is credited with the invention of the Berkshire hive. One of his works The Thames from Oxford to Windsor is a rhymed list of the locks, bridges, the lock was rebuilt in 1868. The weirs were reconstructed in 1898 and further rebuilding of the lock occurred in 1905, the lock is a short walk upstream from Sonning Bridge, which itself is close to the centre of Sonning. It is also accessible via a footpath between St Andrews Church and the river. The path by the river continues into the town of Reading, on the southern Berkshire bank, on the approach into Reading is the Thames Valley Park. Beyond the northern Oxfordshire bank are Caversham Lakes which include the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake, access to these is on the upper part of the reach, opposite the entrance to the River Kennet at Blakes Lock. There is a bend in the river before Herons Island, View Island, Sonning Regatta takes place at Sonning in May, while Reading Town Regatta and Thames Valley Park Regatta are held further upstream in June. There are navigation transit markers just downstream of the entrance to the Thames & Kennet Marina, Thames Path The Thames Path stays on the southern bank all the way to Caversham Lock, crossing the River Kennet on Horseshoe Bridge, which is attached to Brunels Great Western Railway Bridge. The floral tastes of the lock-keeper generally make Sonning Lock very bright, — Charles Dickens Is there a spot more lovely than the rest, By art improved, by nature truly blest. A noble river at its base running, It is a village known as Sonning. — James Sadler, Sonning lock keeper Locks on the River Thames Rowing on the River Thames Sonning Bishops Palace, nearby
32.
Holy Brook
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The Holy Brook is a channel of the River Kennet that flows through the English town of Reading. While of considerable significance, the origin and nature of the brook is still unclear. It is probable that some parts of the channel are natural, while other parts were created in mediaeval times by the monks of Reading Abbey to supply water mills and fish ponds. John Speeds map of Reading shows the brook flowing in the air throughout. The channel is some 6 miles in length, of which approximately 600 metres are culverted. For the first stretch of its route, the forms the boundary between the Reading suburbs of Beansheaf Farm, Fords Farm, Calcot, Southcote and Coley Park. At Calcot, the brook passes Calcot Mill, one of two mills that were driven by the brook and which originally belonged to the abbey. In this area the channel gives its name to the civil parish of Holybrook. In some stretches, especially behind Coley Park, the brook is noticeably embanked along the hillside above the water meadows. Once past Coley Park the Holy Brook flows through the Victorian suburb of Coley, at Coley, an overflow weir diverts excess water back to the Kennet, at a point which was once the site of a lido. In the centre of Reading the Holy Brook is culverted for several stretches and it is also briefly visible outside the front door of Reading Central Library. The culverted sections of the Holy Brook involve a number of different construction techniques from various ages, the most notable section, behind the buildings on Castle Street, is grade II listed and built of ribbed limestone blocks that may be reclaimed stone from Reading Abbey. Other sections include brick vaults, iron-girder roofing, concrete culverts, at its eastern end, once it has passed under the Central Library, the Holy Brook re-emerges into the open, at a point where it once formed the southern boundary of Reading Abbey. Here the brook provided the force for the Abbey Mill, of which only vestiges remain. Today the brook passes between the backs of office blocks before re-entering the main channel of the River Kennet immediately to the south of the ruins of the Abbey church. Sowen, Adam, Castle, Sally, Hay, Peter, the Holy Brook or The Granators Tale. The Town of Reading and its Abbey, media related to Holy Brook at Wikimedia Commons Photo-essay on the Holy Brook, concentrating mostly on the culverted section
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Watermill
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A watermill or water mill is a mill that utilizes hydropower. It is a structure that uses a wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling, rolling. Such processes are needed in the production of material goods, including flour, lumber, paper, textiles. Thus watermills may be comprise gristmills, sawmills, paper mills, textile mills, hammermills, trip hammering mills, rolling mills, wire drawing mills. The former type can be divided, depending on where the water hits the wheel paddles, into undershot, overshot, breastshot. Another way to water mills is by an essential trait about their location, tide mills use the movement of the tide. The earliest evidence of a wheel is probably the Perachora wheel. The earliest written reference is in the technical treatises Pneumatica and Parasceuastica of the Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium, the British historian of technology M. J. T. The sakia gear is, already developed, for the first time attested in a 2nd-century BC Hellenistic wall painting in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Greek geographer Strabon reports in his Geography a water-powered grain-mill to have existed near the palace of king Mithradates VI Eupator at Cabira, Asia Minor, before 71 BC. The Roman engineer Vitruvius has the first technical description of a watermill, dated to 40/10 BC and he also seems to indicate the existence of water-powered kneading machines. The Greek epigrammatist Antipater of Thessalonica tells of an overshot wheel mill around 20 BC/10 AD. He praised for its use in grinding grain and the reduction of human labour, Hold back your hand from the mill, you grinding girls, even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on. If we learn to feast toil-free on the fruits of the earth, the Roman encyclopedist Pliny mentions in his Naturalis Historia of around 70 AD water-powered trip hammers operating in the greater part of Italy. There is evidence of a mill in 73/4 AD in Antioch. It is likely that a stamp mill was used at Dolaucothi to crush gold-bearing quartz. The stamps were operated as a batch of four working against a large conglomerate block, similar anvil stones have been found at other Roman mines across Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal. The 1st-century AD multiple mill complex of Barbegal in southern France has been described as the greatest known concentration of power in the ancient world
34.
Reading Abbey
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Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. Reading Abbey is currently the focus of a major £3 million project called Reading Abbey Revealed and this project is conserving the ruins so that they can be re-opened to the public. Alongside the conservation, new interpretation of the Reading Abbey Quarter will be installed, Abbey Ward of Reading Borough Council takes its name from Reading Abbey, which lies within its boundaries. The abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121, as part of his endowments, he gave the abbey his lands within Reading, along with land at Cholsey. He also arranged for land in Reading, previously given to Battle Abbey by William the Conqueror, to be transferred to Reading Abbey. Following its royal foundation, the abbey was established by a party of monks from Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, the abbey was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. The first abbot, in 1123, was Hugh of Amiens who became archbishop of Rouen and was buried in Rouen Cathedral, the adjacent rivers provided convenient transport, and the abbey established wharves on the River Kennet. The Kennet also provided power for the water mills, most of which were established on the Holy Brook. When Henry I died in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy in 1135 his body was returned to Reading, other royal persons buried in the abbey include parts of Matilda of Scotland, William of Poitiers, and Constance of York. The abbey also held over 230 relics including the hand of St James, a shrivelled human hand was found in the ruins during demolition work in 1786 and is now in St Peters RC Church, Marlow. The song Sumer is icumen in, which was first written down in the abbey about 1240, is the earliest known six part harmony from Britain, the original document is held in the British Library. Reading Abbey was frequently visited by kings and others, most especially by Henry III who often visited three or four times a year staying several weeks on each visit, the abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, was tried and convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn. After this, the buildings of the abbey were extensively robbed, with lead, glass, some twenty years after the dissolution, Reading town council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the former refectory of the hospitium of the abbey. The lower floor of this continued to be used by Reading School. For the next 200 years, the old building continued to serve as Readings town hall. Between 1785 and 1786, the old hall was dismantled and replaced on the site by the first of several phases of building that were to make up todays Reading Town Hall. St Jamess Church and School was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840 and its founder was James Wheble, who owned land in the area at that time
35.
Tyle Mill Lock
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Tyle Mill Lock is a lock situated near Tyle Mill and the village of Sulhamstead on the Kennet and Avon Canal, England. It has a rise/fall of 6 ft 4 in, the lock became derelict in the 1950s and then formed the head of the navigation from the River Thames. As a result, British Waterways created a hole and installed a sanitary station in the old pillbox below the lock. It was restored in 1973 but remained out of commission until 1976 when work on further west had been completed. Close to the lock are a wharf and swing bridge, locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal
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Sulhamstead
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Sulhamstead is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. It occupies a rectangle of land south of the Bath Road between Reading, its nearest town and Thatcham. It has several small clusters of homes and woodland covering about a fifth of the land, in the centre and its main amenities are its Church of England parish church and a shop and visitor centre by the Kennet & Avon Canal. Sulhamsteads immediate neighbours toward its northern border, the A4 road, are more populous Theale which has the nearest Theale and shops. Across this road is very low population and housing density Englefield, a dispersed village, it has five clusters of homes. The greatest of these is linear, on Sulhamstead Hill from the top of the hill by Ufton Church down 1 mile to the meadows by the Kennet. Three further developed points are diminutive Sulhamstead Abbots, Whitehouse Green, lastly the northwestern corner of Burghfield Common village is in the far south, the remainder of the village part of Burghfield. Sulhamstead Abbots Church, St Marys, to the south, is the ecclesiastical parish church. Sulhamstead Bannister forms the narrowly buffered halves, Upper End and Lower End, Upper End is between Wokefield and Grazeley, although this has since been absorbed into Wokefield civil parish. The core of its village was around the old demolished church, the name Sulhamstead means Narrow Valley Homestead and was given to the area by the first Saxon settlers. There is supposed to have been a Danish Camp of some sort there during the times just before. Banister was the name of the Lords of the Manor from the early 12th century and they were still holding lands here three hundred years later, and had another important manor in Finchampstead. The Upper End was, however, often called Meales and Meales Farm, a congregational chapel/church was built in 1881 in place of an older chapel. The inclosure of the two parishes of Sulhamstead Abbots and Sulhamstead Bannister was made by Act of Parliament, effective 1817, Grazeley was a tithing in the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots containing of 519 acres. In 1854, when the estate of Grazeley was advertised for sale, it was inclosed in a ring fence. Sulhamstead House, commonly known as the White House, was the house of Sulhamstead Abbots. It was built by Daniel May, son of the Basingstoke brewer, Charles May, in 1744, becoming home to his sisters descendants, the house was largely rebuilt in 1800 for William Thoyts, the High Sheriff of Berkshire. It was the home of his great granddaughter, Berkshire historian and palaeographer
37.
County Lock
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County Lock is a lock on the River Kennet in Reading town centre in the English county of Berkshire. It is now administered by the Canal & River Trust as part of the Kennet, downstream from the lock is Brewery Gut, a particularly fast flowing, narrow and dangerous stretch of the river. County Lock has the lowest rise of the locks on the Kennet, the main stream of the Kennet flows down the weir on the far side of the lock, while another arm of the Kennet disappears under the Bridge Street Roundabout. The land on both sides of the adjacent to County Lock was formerly part of the site of Simonds Brewery. Brewery Gut takes its name from Simonds Brewery, which occupied land on both sides of the river at both lock and gut. In the days of horse haulage, this stretch of river had no towpath, to add to the difficulty, at its narrowest the gut is only 25 feet wide, causing strong currents. Boats cannot safely pass due to the tortuous and narrow route, today passage through the gut is controlled by traffic lights. Simonds Brewery closed in the late 1970s, and most of the buildings have been demolished. Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal Clew, Kenneth R. Wessex Waterway - A Guide to the Kennet & Avon Canal
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Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering, though Brunels projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. Brunel set the standard for a railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, one controversial feature was the wide gauge, a broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, instead of what was later to be known as standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. Brunel astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered iron-hulled ships and he designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering, the Great Western, the Great Britain, and the Great Eastern. In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200. Brunels name is an amalgamation of his parents names and he inherited the family name of his father, and his middle name is his mothers surname. Brunels first name, Isambard, comes from his fathers middle name, Isambard is a Norman name of Germanic origin, meaning iron-bright. A cognate name is the German surname Eisenbarth, which can still be found today among Bavarians and German-Americans and he had two older sisters, Sophia and Emma, and the whole family moved to London in 1808 for his fathers work. Brunel had a childhood, despite the familys constant money worries. His father taught him drawing and observational techniques from the age of four, during this time he also learned fluent French and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings and identify any faults in their structure, when Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrells boarding school in Hove, where he learned the classics. When Brunel was 15, his father Marc, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000, was sent to a debtors prison. After three months went by with no prospect of release, Marc let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of Russia. In August 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, Brunel subsequently studied under the prominent master clockmaker and horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunels potential in letters to his father. In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England, Brunels father, Marc, was the chief engineer, and the project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company. The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often more than waterlogged sediment. The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior miners, and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death and he was seriously injured, and spent six months recuperating
40.
Wharf
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A wharf, quay, staith or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbor or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths, and may also include piers, warehouses, a wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings. Commercial ports may have warehouses that serve as storage areas. A pier, raised over the rather than within it, is commonly used for cases where the weight or volume of cargos will be low. Smaller and more modern wharves are sometimes built on devices to keep them at the same level as the ship. In some contexts wharf and quay may be used to mean pier, berth, in old ports such as London many old wharves have been converted to residential or office use. Certain early railways in England referred to goods loading points as wharves, the term was carried over from marine usage. The person who was resident in charge of the wharf was referred to as a wharfinger. The word wharf comes from the Old English hwearf, meaning bank or shore, wharfage also refers to a fee charged by ports for the cargo handled there. Originally, werf or werva in Old Dutch simply referred to inhabited ground that was not yet built on and this could explain the name Ministry Wharf located at Saunderton, just outside High Wycombe, which is nowhere near any body of water. In support of this explanation is the fact that places in England with wharf in their names are in areas with a high Dutch influence. In the northeast and east of England the term staith or staithe is also used, both originally referred to staithes in the sense of jetties or wharves. However, the term staith may also be used to only to loading chutes or ramps used for bulk commodities like coal in loading ships. Quay, on the hand, has its origin in the Proto-Celtic language. Before it changed to its current form under influence of the modern French quai, its Middle English spelling was key and this in turn also came from the Old North French cai, both roughly meaning sand bank. The Old French term came from Gaulish caium, ultimately tracing back to the Proto-Celtic *kagio- to encompass, modern cognates include Welsh cae fence, hedge and Cornish ke hedge. Canal basin Dock Port Safeguarded wharf The dictionary definition of wharf at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of quay at Wiktionary
41.
Blake's Lock
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Blakes Lock is a lock situated on the River Kennet in Reading, Berkshire, England. It is on the reach of the River Kennet which is administered as if it were part of the River Thames and is hence owned and managed by the Environment Agency. The first mile of the Kennet from its junction with the River Thames has been navigable since the 13th century, Blakes Lock was originally a flash lock known as Brokenburglok. By 1794, not much had changed, with John Rennie, the lock was converted to a timber-constructed pound lock in 1802 to improve navigation from the Thames into the River Kennet enabling boats to travel all the way to the Bristol area. The lock retains its manual beams, so far avoiding the progress towards hydraulic power, next to the lock is the Riverside Museum at Blakes Lock which tells the story of Readings two rivers — the Kennet and the Thames. The museum occupies two former buildings, the Screen House and the Turbine House. Exhibits include a caravan and information about the Romani people, a medieval mill wheel, preserved turbine machinery. Locks on the River Thames Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal Clew, Kennet & Avon Middle Thames, Pearsons Canal Companion
42.
Environment Agency
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The Environment Agencys stated purpose is, to protect or enhance the environment, taken as a whole so as to promote the objective of achieving sustainable development. Protection of the environment relates to such as flood and pollution. The vision of the Agency is of a rich, healthy and diverse environment for present and it is organised into eight directorates that report to the chief executive. There are two policy and process directorates, one deals with Flood and Coastal Risk Management and the other with Environment and Business. These are backed up by the Evidence directorate, the fourth directorate is a single Operations delivery unit, responsible for national services, and line management of all the Regional and Area staff. The remaining directorates are central shared service groups for Finance, Legal Services, Resources, in support of its aims, the Agency acts as an operating authority, a regulatory authority and a licence authority. The agency is funded in part from the UK government Department for Environment, Food, funding for asset management and improvement and acquisition of flood risk management assets has traditionally come from local authorities via Flood Defence Committees. This was then effectively repaid by central Government in later years as part of the Formula Spending Share, in 2005 this was simplified by making a direct transfer from Treasury to the Environment Agency in the form of Flood Defence Grant in Aid. The Environment Agencys total funding in 2007–08 was £1,025 million, of that total, £628 million was provided in the form of flood defence grant-in-aid from government. In addition, £347 million was raised through statutory charging schemes and flood defence levies, in 2007–08 had an operational budget of £1.025 billion, of which £628m was grant from the Agencys sponsoring Government Departments. Approximately half the Agencys expenditure is on flood risk management, of the remainder, 12% goes to water resources, and 6% to other water functions including navigation and wildlife. Its chief executive is Sir James Bevan, Sir Philip Dilley resigned as chairman on 11 January 2016, with Emma Howard Boyd becoming acting chair. The Environment Agency was created by the Environment Act 1995, and it had responsibility for the whole of England and Wales but with specifically designated border arrangements with Scotland covering the catchment of the River Tweed. All of the bodies were disbanded and the local authorities relinquished their waste regulatory role. At the same time, the Agency took responsibility for issuing warnings to the public. On 1 April 2013, that part of the Environment Agency covering Wales was merged into Natural Resources Wales, the Environment Agency is the principal flood risk management operating authority. It has the power to flood risk from designated main rivers. These functions in relation to other rivers in England are undertaken by Local Authorities or internal drainage boards, the Environment Agency is also responsible for increasing public awareness of flood risk, flood forecasting and warning and has a general supervisory duty for flood risk management
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High Bridge, Reading
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High Bridge, sometimes known as Duke Street Bridge, is a bridge across the River Kennet in the town centre of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It links Duke Street, to its north, and London Street, High Bridge is the oldest surviving bridge across the Kennet, and is a grade II listed building. It comprises an arch of vermiculated Portland stone, with a plain keystone of ashlar. The bridge forms the limit of the Brewery Gut, a particularly narrow stretch of the river. For this reason, navigation under the bridge and through the Brewery Gut is controlled by a set of lights on a single-file basis. The first bridge in Reading to be built over the Kennet was located at Seven Bridges, in the oldest, Saxon, part of the town. The bridging point now occupied by the High Bridge was probably the second to be used, providing, as it did, a more access to Reading Abbey and its environs. Certainly there was a bridge on the site by the time of John Speeds map of 1611, by 1788, the timber-framed bridge of 1707 required replacement, and a stone bridge able to handle wagon traffic generated by the textile industry was commissioned. Designed by architect Robert Furze Brettingham, it was built at a cost of £3,500, for much of its life, the current bridge formed the downstream limit of the stretch of the River Kennet dominated by the presence of Simonds Brewery. Media related to High Bridge, Reading at Wikimedia Commons
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Canal & River Trust
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The Canal & River Trust is a charitable trust set up to manage the navigable waterways of England and Wales. Transfer of ownership from British Waterways, took place on 2 July 2012 and those navigable inland waterways currently managed by the Environment Agency were scheduled for transfer to the trust in 2015 but this has been postponed indefinitely. The Canal & River Trust was born of the managerial and financial short-comings of its predecessor, British Waterways as a statutory corporation was regulated latterly by the 1995 British Waterways Act and financed by government but deemed to be run inefficiently and wastefully. It came under increasing scrutiny of a government and, when its budget deficit hit £30m in 2009 British Waterways was tasked with producing a workable solution. BW began to look at devolving to a charitable trust, a concept which gained momentum when the 2010 Budget, in August 2009, BW was listed on a leaked list of quangos to be abolished. BWs future demotion was sealed in October 2010, the BW board decided that a volunteering element would be desirable, an operating environment seen to be fit for purpose necessary and a secure income stream essential. These elements were most likely to be enabled by re-invention of BW as a charitable trust. In October 2011, BW announced a name and logo for a charitable trust which would inherit its English and Welsh operations, – the Canal & River Trust for England, C&RT received charitable status in April and received parliamentary approval in June. The change, originally set for 1 April 2012, was later delayed, in July 2012 all BW assets, liabilities and responsibilities in England and Wales were transferred to the Canal & River Trust, launched officially on 12 July 2012. BWML, a company limited by guarantee, is wholly owned by the Canal & River Trust. It involves retail sales, moorings and services and also acts as a front in the issue of e. g. short-term licences. In Scotland British Waterways continues to operate as a public corporation under the trading name Scottish Canals. The trust is headed by a board of 10 trustees with a Chairman, the trust has a 35-member council which referees the business of the trust and whose construction is supposed to ensure that all waterways users, in all areas, have a representative voice. Finally, a management board of seven directors are collectively concerned with the running of the trust. The Canal & River Trust has a council of 35 members. Members of the first council included a mix of nominated and elected individuals, council advises on shaping policy, raising and debating issues, providing guidance, perspective and a sounding board for the trustees. For each of the trust’s waterway areas there is a regional partnership drawn from local communities, in addition an all-Wales partnership will consider issues relating to Welsh waterways and a separate partnership exists for the trusts museums and attractions. The trustees are legally responsible for ensuring that the trust meets its charitable objectives, trustees are the unpaid board directors of the trust, they take collective decisions on policy and overarching strategy and provide oversight of the executive directors
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Lock (water navigation)
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A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. Locks are used to make a more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Later canals used more and larger locks to allow a direct route to be taken. Since 2016 the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, a pound lock is a type of lock that is used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers. A pound lock has a chamber with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound, in contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock. Pound locks were first used in medieval China during the Song Dynasty, having been pioneered by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. The gates were hanging gates, when they were closed the water accumulated like a tide until the level was reached. The water level could differ by 4 feet or 5 feet at each lock, in medieval Europe a sort of pound lock was built in 1373 at Vreeswijk, Netherlands. This pound lock serviced many ships at once in a large basin, yet the first true pound lock was built in 1396 at Damme near Bruges, Belgium. A famous civil engineer of pound locks in Europe was the Italian Bertola da Novate, who constructed 18 of them on the Naviglio di Bereguardo between the years 1452 and 1458. When a stretch of river is navigable, a lock is sometimes required to bypass an obstruction such as a rapid, dam. In large scale river navigation improvements, weirs and locks are used together, a river improved by these means is often called a Waterway or River Navigation. Sometimes a river is made entirely non-tidal by constructing a sea lock directly into the estuary, in more advanced river navigations, more locks are required. Where a longer cut bypasses a stretch of river, the upstream end of the cut will often be protected by a flood lock. The longer the cut, the greater the difference in level between start and end of the cut, so that a very long cut will need additional locks along its length. At this point, the cut is, in effect, a canal, Early completely artificial canals, across fairly flat countryside, would get round a small hill or depression by simply detouring around it. However, locks continued to be built to supplement these solutions, all pound locks have three elements, A watertight chamber connecting the upper and lower canals, and large enough to enclose one or more boats. The position of the chamber is fixed, but its level can vary
