1.
Heanor
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Heanor is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies 8 miles north-east of Derby, together with the adjacent village of Loscoe it forms the civil parish and town council-administered area of Heanor and Loscoe, which in the 2011 census had a population of 17,251. The name Heanor derives from the Old English hēan and ofer, there are now 3 ploughs in demesne, and 11 villans and 2 bordars and 3 sokemen having 5½ ploughs. There is a church, and 1 mill 12d, and 35 acres of meadow, TRE worth £4 sterling, now 41s 4d per year. The town is situated upon an eminence, on the road from Derby to Mansfield. The principal articles of manufacture are silk and cotton goods, hosiery, the parish then covered 7,000 acres and was in the union of Basford and the hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, with Heanor town itself covering 1,500 acres and containing 3,058 inhabitants. Heanor Market Place was developed in the 1890s, following the break-up of the Heanor Hall estate by the Miller Mundy family of nearby Shipley Hall, until this development the main focus of market trading activity had been at Tag Hill. The parish of Heanor formed a board in about 1850 to provide services in the town. In 1895, under the Local Government Act 1894, the area became an urban district. In 1899 Heanor Urban District was enlarged with the addition of the parish of Codnor. The urban district continued in existence until 1974, when it became part of the new district of Amber Valley under the Local Government Act 1972. Heanor Urban District had been an area, but in 1984 three new civil parishes were created within Amber Valley, with Heanor placed within the civil parish of Heanor. In 1987 Heanor and Loscoe Parish Council resolved to designate the parish a town, so Heanor and Loscoe is governed by a town council, Heanor falls into two single-member electoral divisions of the County Council, Greater Heanor and Heanor Central. Following the elections of 2013, both divisions are represented by members of the Labour Party, measured directly, Heanor town is 8 miles northeast of Derby and 9.5 miles westnorthwest of Nottingham. It is sited on a hill between about 65 metres and 125 metres above sea-level and it is within the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield National Character Area, as defined by Natural England. The college and surrounding streets, plus half the estate, are within Smalley civil parish. Heanor and Loscoe civil parish contains no conservation areas, though 30% of the area is within a green belt, and there is one nature reserve and four wildlife sites, all of local significance. The most important economic sector in the town, employing more than 20% of the population, is manufacturing, with the retail sector almost as significant
2.
Llanberis
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Llanberis is a village in Gwynedd, northwest Wales, on the southern bank of the lake Llyn Padarn and at the foot of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. It is a centre for outdoor activities in Snowdonia, including walking, mountaineering, climbing, mountain biking. The international fell race known as the Snowdon Race to the summit of Snowdon begins in the village, Llanberis takes its name from Saint Peris, an early Welsh saint. It is twinned with the Italian town of Morbegno in Lombardy, see also, Notable people The ruins of Dolbadarn Castle, which were famously painted by Richard Wilson and J. M. W. The 13th century fortress was built by Llywelyn the Great and is a grade I listed building, the churches St Padarn are both grade II* listed buildings, as is the chapel of Capel Coch. In the 18th century Llanberis was the home of the strong woman Marged Ferch Ifan. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, the population of Llanberis was 2,026, with 74. 7% of those aged 3 years and over were able to speak Welsh. Places of interest in and near the village include the Snowdon Mountain Railway, the National Slate Museum, tours of Dinorwig power station are also available from a purpose-built visitor centre. The village is a starting point for ascents of Snowdon because the Llanberis Path begins in the village. Although it is the longest route, it is the least rigorous route to the summit and this makes it the most popular walking route on the mountain. Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team deals with 150–200 incidents a year and is one of the busiest mountain rescue teams in the country, the team is run entirely by volunteers who rely solely on donations from the public for funding. Llanberis Mountain Film Festival, which is held in annually in February and it is the home of the Slateman Triathlon which runs in early summer each year. It attracts over 2,000 triathletes and many more spectators over two days and it is a mountain triathlon which begins in Llyn Padarn, follows on the bike up to Capel Curig, and finishes with a run in the Snowdonian mountains. Bus services to Llanberis are provided by Express Motors and Bws Peris, former operator Padarn Bus, which went into receivership in 2014, was based in the town and ran several routes to it, these and include a number of open-top routes. The village used to be served by Llanberis railway station on a line of the Carnarvonshire Railway. Passenger services ceased in 1932, freight continued until closure in 1964, the heritage Snowdon Mountain Railway and Llanberis Lake Railway both have stations in the town, but serve primarily as tourist attractions instead of local transport links
3.
Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780
4.
William Beechey
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Sir William Beechey RA was an English portraitist. Beechey was born at Burford, Oxfordshire, on 12 December 1753, both his parents died when he was still quite young, and he and his siblings were brought up by his uncle Samuel. In the early part of his painting life Beechey specialised in small-scale full-length portraits. Between 1782 and 1787 he lived in Norwich, and eventually painted four works for the collection of civic portraits hung in St Andrews Hall in the city, Beechey returned to London in 1787. Eventually he came to the notice of the family, and in 1793 painted a full-length picture of Queen Charlotte. In the same year he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and he painted not only the portraits of the royal family, but of nearly all the most famous or fashionable people of the time. His George III and the Prince of Wales reviewing troops a large composition showing the king and it obtained for him the honour of knighthood, and his election as a full member of the Royal Academy. The painting was destroyed in the 1992 Windsor Castle fire, other celebrity sitters included Lord Nelson, John Kemble, and Sarah Siddons. Yet he possessed much merit, and his portraits have maintained a second rank. William Beecheys first marriage was to Mary Ann Jones in 1772, R. Beechey A monograph by W. Roberts, Sir William Beechey, R. A. was published in London 1907 and includes Beecheys account books and a list of works exhibited in his lifetime. A Century of Painters of the English School and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Beechey, Sir William
5.
Nottingham
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Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, located 128 miles north of London, in the East Midlands. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and it was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination, in 2011, visitors spent over £1.5 billion - the thirteenth highest amount in Englands 111 statistical territories. In 2015, Nottingham had an population of 321,550 with the wider urban area. Its urban area is the largest in the east Midlands and the second largest in the Midlands, the population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000. Its metropolitan economy is the seventh largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50. 9bn, the city is also ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It is also a sporting centre, and in October 2015 was named Home of English Sport. The city also has rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams, and the Aegon Nottingham Open. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UKs first City of Football, on 11 December 2015, Nottingham was named a Unesco City of Literature, joining Norwich, Melbourne, Prague and Barcelona as one of only a handful in the world. The title reflects Nottinghams literary heritage, with Lord Byron, DH Lawrence and it has two universities, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, which are attended by over 70,610 students. In modern Welsh it is known poetically as Y Ty Ogofog, when it fell under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot it became known as Snotingaham, the homestead of Snots people. Some authors derive Nottingham from Snottenga, caves, and ham, Nottingham Castle was constructed in 1068 on a sandstone outcrop by the River Leen. Following the Norman Conquest the Saxon settlement developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed a Town Hall, a settlement also developed around the castle on the hill opposite and was the French borough supporting the Normans in the castle. Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Old Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later, defences, consisted initially of a ditch and bank in the early 12th century. The ditch was later widened, in the mid 13th century, a short length of the wall survives, and is visible at the northern end of Maid Marian Way, and is protected as a Scheduled Monument. On the return of Richard the Lionheart from the Crusades, the Castle was occupied by supporters of Prince John and it was besieged by Richard and, after a sharp conflict, was captured. In the legends of Robin Hood, Nottingham Castle is the scene of the showdown between the Sheriff and the hero outlaw. By the 15th century Nottingham had established itself as a centre of an export trade in religious sculpture made from Nottingham Alabaster
6.
Newark-on-Trent
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Newark-on-Trent or Newark /ˈnjuːək/ is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1, and the East Coast Main Line railway, the origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way. The town grew around Newark Castle, now ruined, and a marketplace, now lined with historic buildings. In the English Civil War, it was besieged by Parliamentary forces and had to be relieved by Prince Rupert in a known as the Relief of Newark. The estimated population in 2007 was 26,330, increasing to 27,700 at the 2011 census, the origins of the town are possibly Roman due to its position on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way. In a document which purports to be a charter of 664, after his death it changed to, and remained in the hands of, the Bishops of Lincoln from 1092 until the reign of Edward VI. There were burgesses in Newark at the time of the Domesday survey, the Newark wapentake in the east of Nottinghamshire was established during the period of Anglo-Saxon rule. Newark Castle was originally a Saxon fortified manor house, founded by King Edward the Elder, in 1073, Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln founded an earthwork motte and bailey fortress on the site. From 1123–33, Bishop Alexander the Magnificent completely rebuilt the castle, the river bridge was built about the same time under charter from Henry I, also St. Leonards Hospital. He also gained from the king a charter to hold a fair at the castle each year. He gained a charter under King Stephen to establish a mint in the town, the town became a local centre for the wool and cloth trade, certainly by the time of Henry II a major market was established. Wednesday and Saturday markets in the town were established during the period 1156–1329 when a series of charters granted to the Bishop of Lincoln made them possible, King John died of dysentery in Newark in 1216. Around the time of Edward IIIs death, and excluding beggars and clergy, in January 1571 or 1572, the composer Robert Parsons fell into the swollen River Trent at Newark and drowned. There is no record of his ever having been retrieved from the river following his death. The dissolution affected Newarks political landscape heavily, and even more changes came in 1547 when the Bishop of Lincoln exchanged ownership of the town with the Crown. Newark was incorporated under an alderman and twelve assistants in 1549, during the English Civil War, Newark was a mainstay of the royalist cause, Charles I having raised his standard in nearby Nottingham. It was attacked in February 1643 by two troops of horsemen, but beat them back. The town fielded at times as many as 600 soldiers, and raided Nottingham, Grantham, Northampton, Gainsborough, and others with mixed success, but enough to cause it to rise to national notice
