1.
Colindale
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Colindale is an area which lies mainly within the London Borough of Barnet, although the western side of Colindales main shopping street is within the London Borough of Brent. Colindale is an area of suburban character and it is situated about eight miles north west of Charing Cross. Formerly in the borough and ancient parish of Hendon, the area was essentially the dale between Mill Hill and The Burroughs, by the middle of the 20th century, it had come to include that part of the Edgware Road between The Hyde and Burnt Oak. The area is named after a 16th-century family of the same name, until the 20th century, Colindale was without any buildings save for a large house called Colindale Lodge, Colindale Farm and a few cottages. All of these properties were on Colindeep Lane which had in the period been an alternative route out of London to the Edgware Road. By the end of the 16th century it was not often used as a main road, by the end of the 19th century, cheap land prices made Colindale attractive to developers. Colindale Hospital was opened in 1898 as an asylum for the sick of central London. By 1996 the majority of the hospital was closed, and in 2009 lies mostly derelict, in 1902, the British Library built a new depository and kept the newspaper library there in 1934. Garston’s Ltd established a factory in 1901, as well as a row of cottages called Leatherville. As such it is the first manufacturer in the Colindale, by 1914 there was already housing between Colindale Avenue and Annesley Avenue, mostly to house the workers of such endeavours. Immediately after the First World War a number of manufacturing companies came to Colindale. Franco Illuminated Signs opened on Aerodrome Road in 1922, having made the lights for the Franco British Exhibition of 1908 and it was best known for the neon signs found in Piccadilly from the 1920s to the 1970s. Frigidaire started in a shack in Aerodrome Road, employing 11 people in 1923. The reason why many of these and other companies chose Colindale was that there was available for expansion. However, by 1923, when the railway reached Colindale, land prices had increased and factory expansion was not so easy. In 1931, Frigidaire, for example, decided to build a new manufacturing plant to the west, on the A5 Edgware Road, after the tube station opened, development as a London suburb was rapid, and by 1939 much of the western side was semi-detached housing. Typical was the Colin Park Estate, built by F. H. Stucke & Co. around Colindeep Lane in 1927, some of the houses on this estate are by the architect E. G. Trobridge. St Matthias started as a church in 1905
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
4.
Hendon Aerodrome
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Hendon Aerodrome was an aerodrome in London, England, that was an important centre for aviation from 1908 to 1968. It was situated in Colindale, seven miles north west of Charing Cross and it nearly became the Charing Cross of the UKs international air routes, but for the actions of the RAF after the First World War. It was known as a place of pioneering experiments including the first airmail, the first parachute descent from a aircraft, the first night flights. The first powered flight from Hendon was in an 88-foot long non-rigid airship built by Spencer Brothers of Highbury and it took off from the Welsh Harp Reservoir in 1909, piloted by Henry Spencer, and the only passenger was Muriel Matters, the Australian suffragette. The first attempt at flight was by H. P. Handasyde, again at the Welsh Harp and they constructed a monoplane with four engines in the ballroom of the hotel, but were never able to get airborne. From 1908 to 1910, their Grasshopper, as the plane was called, taxied about and left the ground briefly, but failed to get truly airborne, although these attempts attracting quite a crowd. In 1906, before any powered flight had taken place in Britain, the journey had to be completed within twenty-four hours, with no more than two landings. Grahame-White made two attempts, but it was Paulhan who succeeded and he chose a field on the future aerodrome site as his point of departure. On 27 April he flew 117 miles from Hendon to Lichfield, before dawn on 28 April he took off and reached Burnage on the outskirts of Manchester after three hours 55 minutes in the air, during a period of just over twelve hours. This was the first true flight from the Hendon site, the first occupants were Horatio Barbers Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd and the Bleriot flying school. From 9 to 16 September 1911, the first official UK airmail was flown between Hendon and Windsor as part of the celebrations of the coronation of King George V, in 1912, the first Aerial Derby started and ended at Hendon. An estimated three million people turned out across London, forming a ring around the race circuit to see the aviators fly round the metropolis. An estimated two million of these Londoners had never seen an aircraft in flight before, at Hendon Aerodrome at least 45,000 people paid for admission to the enclosures. These annual events became as important as the Ascot and Epsom races during the London Season, by 1925,100,000 people were coming to see the display, and it was so popular that there was talk of having to spread it over a few days. The first fatality at Hendon, reported in The Times in May 1911, was Bernard Benson, on 25 May 1911 he fell 100 feet from an ASL Valkyrie. A number of flying schools were located at Hendon, including Grahame-Whites, in November 1916, the War Office commandeered the flying schools, after which the aerodrome trained 490 pilots. Claude Grahame-White and other members of the Royal Naval Air Service mounted a defence of London in 1915
5.
Aviation
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Aviation is the practical aspect or art of aeronautics, being the design, development, production, operation and use of aircraft, especially heavier than air aircraft. The word aviation was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863, from the verb avier, itself derived from the Latin word avis and the suffix -ation. The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21,1783, the practicality of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required, jean-Pierre Blanchard flew the first human-powered dirigible in 1784 and crossed the English Channel in one in 1785. Rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances, the best known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company. The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin and it flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of that period, the Golden Age of the airships ended on May 6,1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire, killing 36 people. The cause of the Hindenburg accident was blamed on the use of hydrogen instead of helium as the lift gas. An internal investigation by the manufacturer revealed the coating used to protect the material over the frame was highly flammable. Changes to the coating formulation reduced the risk of further Hindenburg type accidents, although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time. In 1799 Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Seven years later, on 14 October 1897, Aders Avion III was tested without success in front of two officials from the French War ministry, the report on the trials was not publicized until 1910, as they had been a military secret. In November 1906 Ader claimed to have made a flight on 14 October 1897. Although widely believed at the time, these claims were later discredited, however, the most widely accepted date is December 17,1903 by the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers were the first to fly in a powered and controlled aircraft, previous flights were gliders or free flight, but the Wright brothers combined both, setting the new standard in aviation records. Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger, the Wright brothers took aloft the first passenger, Charles Furnas, one of their mechanics, on May 14,1908. By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, the war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets. Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide aircraft for the new middle-class market
6.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
7.
Royal Air Force Museum Cosford
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The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in Shropshire, is a museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular. The museum is part of the Royal Air Force Museum, a public body sponsored by the Ministry of Defence. The museum is spread over two sites in England, the site is at the Royal Air Force Museum London at Colindale in north London. The London museum was opened at the Colindale London site on 15 November 1972 by Her Majesty The Queen. The hangars housed just 36 aircraft at opening, over the years, the collection increased and aircraft were stored at RAF stations around the country when they were not on display. While they were being so stored, these aircraft were not publicly displayed, on 1 May 1979, the Cosford site was opened at RAF Cosford, one of the RAF stations which had been used to store the museums collection of aircraft. On opening, the museum initially exhibited airframes which had used for technical training at RAF Cosford. In the following years additional aircraft were added to the collection, on 21 June 1998 four additional galleries were opened, housing art, temporary exhibitions and other aviation subjects. 13 May 2002 saw the relocation of the RAF Museum Conservation Centre from Cardington, the Centre, costing £2.4 million, was opened by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham and is named after him. The Cosford site includes several developmental aircraft such as those led to the English Electric Lightning. The first Director of the Museum was Dr John Tanner who retired in 1987, in 1988 Dr Michael A Fopp was appointed and was Director General of all three sites covered by the Museum until his retirement in 2010. The site can be reached by public transport via the neighbouring Cosford railway station on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line, in 1980, the Cosford site agreed to house the British Airways Museum collection. In 2006 British Airways withdrew funding from the collection, after which the RAF Museum did not take on the costs of maintaining the aircraft. Several of the jet airliners have subsequently been broken up, including the only Boeing 707 that was preserved in the UK, a Vickers VC10, the National Cold War Exhibition opened at Cosford in February 2007. The exhibition houses the museums V bombers and other Cold War aircraft in a newly constructed 8, the exhibition concept and design was developed by Neal Potter and includes silo theatres which depict, in a variety of media, the key tensions of the Cold War period. The Cosford museum houses a collection of aero engines, the majority are located in Hangar 1. The museum holds a collection of missiles and rocket-powered weapons. The majority are located in the National Cold War Exhibition, with the German collection on display in Hangar 1, also on the museum site is the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre
8.
RAF Cosford
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Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton. RAF Cosford opened in 1938 as a joint aircraft maintenance, storage and it has remained mainly a training unit to this day. The Fulton Mess barrack block was constructed just before the Second World War as the largest single building barrack block in the UK and it is now used for technical training. No 2 School of Technical Training was formed in 1938 and during the Second World War it trained 70,000 airmen in engine, airframe and armament trades. No 2 School of Technical Training was subsumed into the No 1 School of Technical Training when it moved to Cosford from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire and these ferrying flights were often crewed by women pilots and Amy Johnson came to Cosford on more than one occasion. The airfield was originally a grassed strip, a substantial Princess Marys Royal Air Force Nursing Service hospital was established at RAF Cosford, the most westerly such RAF hospital in the UK. Constructed of wooden spurred hutting the hospital was the centre for repatriated Prisoners of War with over 13,000 processed by 1948. Many of those from the Far East had to remain for long term treatment, the hospital was also open to the general public as well as servicemen and women, but it was closed on 31 December 1977 and demolished in 1980. Schools currently stationed there include, No.1 School of Technical Training, No.1 Radio School RAF, the Defence School of Photography, Flying units include the University of Birmingham Air Squadron, No 8 Air Experience Flight and No 633 Volunteer Gliding Squadron. The Wales and West regional headquarters and West Mercian Wing headquarters of the Air Training Corps are situated there, Cosford became part of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, which was formed on 1 April 2004. Other units located at Cosford include elements of the Defence College of Communications and Information Systems, the Defence School of Photography and the RAF School of Physical Training. In early 2009 there was a chance that the DCAE would relocate to RAF St Athan. The Defence College at RAF Cosford came under the Defence Technical Training Change Programme and as such, Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering Cosford HQ DCAE Aerosystems Training Wing Military Training Wing Lodger Units RAF Museum Cosford. No 1 Radio School (Part of the Defence College of Communication and Information Systems, Defence School of Photography RAF School of Physical Training. No 605 County of Warwick Squadron University of Birmingham Air Squadron No 8 Air Experience Flight HQ Wales, headquarters West Mercia West Wing Air Training Corps. There are also collections of missiles and airliners, the Cold War Exhibition opened on 7 February 2007 by former prime minister Baroness Thatcher and HRH Princess Anne. Exhibits include the collection of three V bombers in the same place in the world. As a consequence, it was anticipated that all training would move from Cosford to Metrixs main campus to be built on the RAF St Athan site over a 5-year period from 2008
9.
Shropshire
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Shropshire Council was created in 2009, a unitary authority taking over from the previous county council and five district councils. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a unitary authority since 1998. The county has many towns, including Whitchurch in the north, Newport north-east of Telford. The Ironbridge Gorge area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covering Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, there are other historic industrial sites in the county, such as at Shrewsbury, Broseley, Snailbeach and Highley, as well as the Shropshire Union Canal. The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers about a quarter of the county, Shropshire is one of Englands most rural and sparsely populated counties, with a population density of 136/km2. The Wrekin is one of the most famous landmarks in the county, though the highest hills are the Clee Hills, Stiperstones. Wenlock Edge is another significant geographical and geological landmark, the River Severn, Great Britains longest river, runs through the county, exiting into Worcestershire via the Severn Valley. Shropshire is landlocked and with an area of 3,487 square kilometres is Englands largest inland county, the county flower is the round-leaved sundew. The area was part of the lands of the Cornovii. This was a tribal Celtic iron age kingdom and their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hill fort on the Wrekin. Ptolemys 2nd century Geography names one of their towns as being Viroconium Cornoviorum, after the Roman occupation of Britain ended in the 5th century, the Shropshire area was in the eastern part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, known in Welsh poetry as the Paradise of Powys. It was annexed to the Angle kingdom of Mercia by King Offa in the 8th century, in subsequent centuries, the area suffered repeated Danish invasion, and fortresses were built at Bridgnorth and Chirbury. Many defensive castles were built at this time across the county to defend against the Welsh and enable effective control of the region, including Ludlow Castle, the western frontier with Wales was not finally determined until the 14th century. Also in this period, a number of foundations were formed, the county largely falling at this time under the Diocese of Hereford. The county contains a number of historically significant towns, including Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, additionally, the area around Coalbrookdale in the county is seen as highly significant, as it is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. The village of Edgmond, near Newport, is the location of the lowest recorded temperature in England, the origin of the name Shropshire is the Old English Scrobbesbyrigscīr, which means Shrewsburyshire. The name may, therefore, be derived indirectly from a name such as Scrope. Salop is an old name for Shropshire, historically used as a form for post or telegrams
10.
Wolverhampton
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Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 249,470, the demonym for people from the city is Wulfrunian. Historically part of Staffordshire, the city is named after Wulfrun, prior to the Norman Conquest, the areas name appears only as variants of Heantune or Hamtun, the prefix Wulfrun or similar appearing in 1070 and thereafter. Alternatively, the city may have earned its name from Wulfereēantūn after the Mercian King. The variation Wolveren Hampton is seen in records, e. g. in 1381. The city grew initially as a market town specialising in the woollen trade, in the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making and the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. The economy of the city is based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry. A local tradition states that King Wulfhere of Mercia founded an abbey of St Mary at Wolverhampton in 659, the Mercians and West Saxons claimed a decisive victory and the field of Woden is recognised by numerous place names in Wednesfield. In 985, King Ethelred the Unready granted lands at a place referred to as Heantun to Lady Wulfrun by royal charter and this became the site for the current St. Peters Church. A statue of Lady Wulfrun, sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, Wolverhampton is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the Hundred of Seisdon and the county of Staffordshire. The lords of the manor are listed as the canons of St Mary, with the tenant-in-chief being Samson, Wolverhampton at this date is a large settlement of fifty households. In 1179, there is mention of a market held in the town and this charter for a weekly market held on a Wednesday was eventually granted on 4 February 1258 by Henry III. From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of industries including lock and key making and iron. Wolverhampton suffered two Great Fires, the first in April 1590, and the second in September 1696, both fires started in todays Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless and this second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703. There is also evidence that Wolverhampton may have been the location of the first working Newcomen Steam Engine in 1712. In Victorian times, Wolverhampton grew to be a town mainly due to the huge amount of industry that occurred as a result of the abundance of coal. The remains of this wealth can be seen in houses such as Wightwick Manor and The Mount
Colindale
