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On May 12, the Gillings School's 78th Commencement Ceremony celebrated the Class of 2018! During the ceremony, more than 330 students were awarded degrees. Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, the Commencement speaker, charged all in attendance to, “Be courageous, be unafraid of controversy and tell your truth.”
Published on Friday 22 June 2012 09:12
THE new-look heart of Nelson has won another two national awards.
The Pendle Council project to bring new life into the town centre has impressed judges and is now the winner of three huge titles.
It is the winner of the Highways Category in the 2012 Street Design Awards, and it is also the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Mouchel Streets winner.
This follows the success in April, when it was revealed the centre had won the 2012 National Stone Sustainability Awards landscape title. And it has won the town centre support of Mary Portas.
The £2.3m. project brought an impressive new look to the town centre, and allowed traffic to get back through it for the first time for more than 20 years.
Pendle Today
So, this is what the Liv foot looks like when you get it out.
Long blog post about the surgery here: smidgehouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-great-obitsu-liv-exp...
Photo #12
The wedding took place at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and was arranged by Austin's father Earl Long III and friends.
Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is a 90-acre public ocean front park on Casco Bay. Home to Portland Head Light, the Park has matchless scenic views, diverse ecosystems, bountiful recreational sites, and a long maritime and military history.
Fort Williams has approximately 800,000 visitors annually and is enjoyed by visitors from near and far. It is open and free to the public, 365 days of the year.
On April 13, 1894, President McKinley named the one-time sub-post of Fort Preble, Cape Elizabeth’s first military fortification, Fort Williams. Named after Brevet Major General Seth Williams, Fort Williams grew to be a tremendous military asset during World War II. Besides protecting the shoreline of Cape Elizabeth, the infantry and artillery units provided the Harbor Defense for Portland. After the war, many of the forts in Casco Bay were closed, including Fort Williams, which traded in its defense of the coast for caretaker status and Army Reserve accommodations. Fort Williams was officially closed and deactivated on June 30, 1963.
Although often a place full of runners, bikers, baseball games, and picnics, Fort Williams has managed to maintain some of its historic past. When the Town of Cape Elizabeth purchased the beautiful 90+/- acre park on December 1, 1964 for $200,000, the old military buildings became Town property as well, along with the various batteries and the Goddard Mansion. Although not in the condition it was when Colonel John Goddard and his family lived in it during the mid to late 1800s, the walls of the great mansion still stand high on the hill overlooking Fort Williams.
This bus was sold on 5/19/12
The right side (left in the photo) coach number decals are a different font.
It perplexes me that there can be more than one font type...The only thing that I can think of is that this may be leftover from when the new colors first started coming out. I've seen pics of some of the few previous generation coaches with the new paint and their coach number decals used that font.
John 10:11-18 (ANIV)
11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
DRAWING NOTES:
TIME OF DAY:
Daytime.
LIGHTING NOTES:
Defused sunlight is coming from the left, casting slight shadows below the figure, tree & animals.
CHARACTERS PRESENT:
Jesus, holding a goat kid.
1 sheep.
RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
This is quite a literal interpretation of Jesus’ statement "I am the good shepherd." We see him sitting in the shade of an olive tree, holding a little kid (young goat ). I have included a long eared sheep looking curiously over his shoulder at the goat too.
Why not visit my website & see all the cartoons there? www.biblecartoons.co.uk
Embassy informs about Latvia’s centennial during the EU Open House
On May 12, the Embassy of Latvia offered a chance to learn more about the centennial of Latvia, tourism opportunities, a chance to taste Latvian food and drinks, as well as hear Latvian singing and see Latvian dancing. Singers “Sudrabavots” (Silver Spring) and dancers “Namejs” showcased some of the best traditional Latvian performances during the annual European Union Embassies’ Open House.
More than five thousand visitors could taste Latvian products – chocolate by “Laima”, rye bread by “Black Rooster Foods”, water by “Amrita”, the Riga Black Balsam by “Latvijas Balzāms”, as well as edible chocolate by “Coffee Pixels.” People could also taste Latvian smoked sprats in oil, grey peas with onion and bacon, hemp butter, and long potato chips. Everyone could also pick up free printed materials about Latvian – mostly produced by the Latvian Institute – many asked questions and were interested in visiting Latvia.
EU Open House takes place during the European Cultural Heritage Year and the month of May dedicated to European culture. The focus for the Embassy of Latvia’s program was the country’s centennial.
Photos by Pēteris Alunāns
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Darzhavna aeroplanna rabotilnitsa (Държавна аеропланна работилница - State Aircraft Workshops), abbreviated DAR (ДАР), was the first Bulgarian aircraft manufacturer, established in 1924 at Bojourishte. Initially involved in repairing German aircraft then in use in Bulgaria, DAR soon began producing copies of some of these (DAR Uzunov-1, DAR 2), before moving on to licensed production, e. g. the Focke-Wulf Fw 44. The workshops also produced a number of original designs, some of these were produced, while others never proceeded past prototype stage.
One of DAR’s most ambitious products was the DAR 12 fighter, a locally modified, license-produced version of the stillborn German Heinkel He 100 fighter. The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. Officially, the Luftwaffe rejected the He 100 to concentrate single-seat fighter development on the competing Messerschmitt Bf 109. Following the adoption of the Bf 109 and Messerschmitt Bf 110 as the Luftwaffe's standard fighter types, the Ministry of Aviation (the Reichsluftfahrtministerium or RLM) announced a "rationalization" policy that placed fighter development at Messerschmitt and bomber development at Heinkel.
In order to get the best performance out of the aircraft, the He 100 incorporated a number of drag-reducing features. On the simple end was a well-faired cockpit and the absence of struts and other drag-inducing supports on the tail. The landing gear (including the tailwheel) was retractable and completely enclosed in flight. A risky and still experimental method of cooling the engine via evaporative cooling was used, too. Such systems had been in vogue in several countries at the time, and it made a draggy radiator superfluous – in theory, at least, because the closed system was prone to overheating and mechanical failure.
With no perspective to produce the He 100 for the Luftwaffe the basic design was cleared for license production when WWII opened in 1939. Japanese and Soviet delegations visited Heinkel’s Marienehe factory on 30 October 1939 and were both impressed by the design. The Soviets were particularly interested in the surface cooling system, having built the experimental Ilyushin I-21 with evaporative cooling themselves. To gain experience with a foreign design they purchased the six surviving He 100 prototypes (V1, V2, V4, V5, V6 and V7), and after arriving in the USSR they were passed on to the TsAGI institute for study. The Japanese were also looking for new aircraft designs, notably those using inline engines with liquid cooling systems, with which they had little experience so far, and purchased the three He 100 D-0s for 1.2 million RM, as well as a license for production and a set of jigs for another 1.6 million RM.
DAR was granted a production license for the airframe, but the He 100's original powerplant, the DB 601, was not part of the deal, as its production was reserved for the Luftwaffe. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian government closed the deal because the He 100 offered a modern high-performance platform. After careful consideration DAR’s engineers decided to simplify the aircraft, primarily dispensing with its complex and heavy cooling system, and a different engine was integrated into the He 100’s slender airframe. This became a liquid-cooled Hispano-Suiza 12Y engine, which was readily available from Czech license production at Avia.
Initially, a 12Ycrs with 640 kW/860 PS output was to be used, but on production aircraft it became a more advanced 12Y-26 which offered variable ignition timing, a little more power and could be mated with a three-blade variable pitch propeller from VDA in Germany. The 12Y had less power than the He 100’s original DB 601 (876 kW/1,175 hp), but it was lighter, allowed the fitting of an aerodynamic chin radiator that kept the rest of the airframe clean, and it offered the provision for an autocannon with a belt feed to be fitted between the cylinder banks to fire through the propeller hub. With some more simplifications to the airframe and slightly enlarged wing fuel tanks that occupied the former cooling system panels and conduits, this redesigned He 100 became the DAR 12.
The DAR 12 was initially armed with a single 20 mm MG/FF “Motorkanone” and two pairs of light synchronized 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine guns in the wing roots and above the engine, all of German origin. But after only thirty aircraft the wing-mounted weapons were replaced with more powerful 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns, which markedly increased the weight of fire and its effective range, and the machine guns above the engine were deleted in favor of an increased ammunition capacity for the MG/FF and a bigger oil tank. Due to the aircraft’s small dimensions and dedicated fighter role, no external loads were stipulated.
Once the production lines were running the DAR 12s were directly delivered to the Bulgarian Air Force at the Axis Balkan Front, although some were used by the Luftwaffe for training purposes, too. By 1942, 120 had been delivered. The first 48 DAR 12s were taken over in a ceremony on Karlovo airfield. Two months later, on 24 November, the DAR 12s were used in combat for the first time, when 17 out of the 60 B-24 Liberators of the 15th USAAF arrived over the capital, Sofia, to bomb it. Twenty-four DAR 12s took off from Vrazhdebna base (along with 16 Bf 109G-2s from Bojourishte) and attacked the bombers and their 35 escorting P-38 Lightnings. The Bulgarian pilots claimed four American aircraft for the loss of one fighter, three more had to force land. American bombers attacked Sofia again, on 10 December 1943. That day, 31 B-24s escorted by P-38s, were intercepted by six DAR12s of the II/6th Fighter Regiment from Vrazhdebna and 16 D.520s of the I/6th Fighter Regiment from Karlovo (along with 17 Bf 109G-2s). The Americans claimed eleven victories for the loss of only one P-38, but later examination of records showed that only one Bulgarian aircraft had been lost during that air battle.
The Bulgarian Air Force DAR 12s were again up in force, to face the massive Allied air raid of 30 March 1944. To intercept the 450 bombers (B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24s and Handley Page Halifaxes) escorted by 150 P-38s, the Bulgarians scrambled 28 DAR 12s from I./6th at Karlovo, six D.520s from II/6th at Vrazhdebna (together with 39 Bf 109G-6s and even Avia 135s). At least ten Allied aircraft (eight bombers and two P-38s) were shot down, while the Bulgarian Air Force lost five fighters and three pilots. Two more Bulgarian aircraft had to force land.
During the last Allied raid on Sofia, on 17 April, the II./6th fighter scrambled seven DAR 12s (plus 16 Bf 109s), against 350 B-17s and B-24s escorted by 100 P-51 Mustangs. Bulgarian pilots, who up to that time had encountered only P-38s, mistook the P-51s for their own Bf 109s and before they realized their mistake, seven Bf 109G-6s had been shot down. That day the Bulgarian Air Force suffered the heaviest losses since the beginning of the war: nine fighters shot down and three that had to crash land. Six pilots lost their lives. By 28 September 1944, twenty days after Bulgaria joined the Allies, DAR 12s still equipped an Orlyak (Group) of the 6th Fighter regiment.
Although employing a modern design philosophy for its time, the DAR 12 was considered difficult to fly, and even handling on the ground was not easy. Captain Eric Brown, commanding officer of the Royal Aircraft Establishment's Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight, tested a captured DAR 12 at RAE Farnborough, saying that "It was a pretty aircraft, fast and nimble, but also a nasty little brute. Looked beautiful but didn't fly beautifully. And once you got it on the ground, I was told not to leave the controls until it was in the hangar and the engine stopped. You could be taxiing toward the hangar and sit back when suddenly it would go in a right angle."
The handling changed markedly according to the amount of fuel carried; using the fuselage tank alone, fuel consumption had no appreciable effect on handling because the tank was at the center of gravity. But with full wing tanks, directional control was compromised, especially in a dive. The original He 100, which had much smaller wing tanks, had not suffered from this problem. On the other side, the flight controls were well harmonized and the aircraft was easy to control at high speed. The maximum dive speed tested was 830 km/h (520 mph) with no buffeting and excellent stability both in the dive and as a gun platform. Overall, the DAR 12 came close to contemporary German types. It was slower than the Bf 109F but superior in maneuverability and had very good roll characteristics. However, once it got out of control it was very hard to stabilize again.
After the war, the Bulgarian Air Force, along with other branches of the Sovietized Bulgarian People's Army, adopted the doctrine of the Soviet deep battle during the Cold War. The surviving DAR 12s were kept in service, but their armament was soon changed to Soviet weapons since ammunition for the German machine guns had become more and more problematic to procure. The 13 mm wing machine guns were replaced with synchronized 20 mm (0.787 in) ShVAK cannon with 150 rpg, while the Motorkanone was deleted (most machines retained the original spinner with the gun muzzle at the tip, though) and the machine guns above the engine were reinstated, now two 12.7 mm (0.50 in) Berezin BS heavy machine guns with 200 rounds each.
In the years directly following the war the Bulgarian Air Force force expanded rapidly with deliveries of different types of combat aircraft, which gradually replaced the worn and outdated wartime types of German, Czech and French origin. The first shipments of Soviet equipment arrived immediately after the end of World War II, mostly consisting of propeller-driven aircraft, such as the Ilyushin Il-2 (120 Il-2 and 10 Il-2U), the Ilyushin Il-10 and the Tupolev Tu-2. By 1954, these types were already being withdrawn from service, as the Korean War marked the beginning of the jet fighter era. In 1955 a new wave of deliveries began, starting with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Around this time, the last DAR 12s in Bulgarian service were retired and scrapped.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 8.13 m (26 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 9.40 m (30 ft 10 in)
Height: 3.60 m (11 ft 10 in) (tail up)
Wing area: 14.60 m2 (157.2 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,690 kg (3,726 lb)
Gross weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,500 kg (5,512 lb)
Fuel capacity: 300 kg (660 lb)
Powerplant:
1 × Avia HS 12Y-26 supercharged liquid-cooled 60° V12 engine, delivering 647 kW (900 hp),
driving a 3-bladed VDM constant-speed metal propeller, 2.80 m (9 ft 2 in) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 622 km/h (386 mph; 336 kn) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft)
Cruise speed: 400 km/h (250 mph, 220 kn) at 2,000 m (6,600 ft) and 80% power
Range: 1 765 km (475 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,200 m (33,465 ft)
Time to altitude: 7.0 min to 5,000 m (16,000 ft)
Armament:
2× 20 mm (0.787 in) ShVAK cannon with 150 rpg in the inner wings
2× 12.7 mm (0.50 in) Berezin BS machine guns with 200 rpg above the engine
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional He 100 variant was inspired by a profile drawing I stumbled upon during web research, originally posted at alternatehistory.org, even though I could not find out more about its context or source. However, I liked the clean lines and the somewhat vigorous chin radiator – and I had a Special Hobby He 100 kit in store without a concrete plan yet… A matching donor engine could be procured from the KP Avia B.35 kit, of which the rest would immediately find good use for another kitbashing project, so that the decision to take the drawing to the hardware stage in model form was only a small step.
The build was pretty straightforward, but not without prpblems. The He 100 is quite simple, but overall fit is - being a classic short-run model - mediocre at best. The wing halves are pretty thick and leave a rather massive trailing edge, and ejector pins inside have to be sanded away. Fit into the fuselage is also not easy.
Blending the new engine into the fuselage was also a bit tricky. The respective cut had to be staggered, and the exhaust stubs had to be renewed/scratched. In fact, I blended the new engine into the hull first, because shape and width do not match, and once that was in place I cut out slits for exhaust stubs, leftover from a Heller Spitfire Mk. XVI. Concerning the inspiring profile: as in many cases reality is not as easy as grafting and resizing computer graphics. Beyond shape and width the chin radiator turned out to be much deeper than what graphic artist had envisioned, resulting in a prominent throat sac. As a benfit, though, the radiator outlet now had a natiral opening, and the intake was filled with dark grey foamed styrene to mimic fine mesh. The original retractable radiator underneath the cockpit could simply be omitted. The original He 100 propeller was used, too, it was just mated with a much smaller spinner (from a Heller Bf 109E) and mounted on a metal axis with a matching styrene tube adapter inside the engine housing. The raised propeller position and the prominent chin radiator change the profile markedly, but it does not look bad at all!
Cockpit and löanding gear were taken OOB. A nice feature of the He 100 is the extensive but reasonable use of PE parts, e. g. for the landing gear covers. There are few kits which I know where the use of this material makes so much sense, and it even works well and helps to maintain the He 100’s slender, if not filigree, look.
Painting and markings:
While the Bulgarian Air Force was quickly settled upon as the operator for this fictional aircraft, finding a suitable livery and markings were a bit tricky. I did not want to create a WWII Axis Forces machine, and then remembered a Blue Rider set of decals for Bulgarian machines from direct post-war era in my stash. It contained so-called "OF" markings, quite exotic red-and-white roundels with green bars that were only carried for three years before Soviet-style Red Stars were introduced in Bulgaria. With this time frame defined, I used a Bulgarian post-war Bf 109G as benchmark and adapted its paint scheme for the Bulgarian post-war DAR 12.
Bulgarian post-war aircraft typically carried a uniform dark-green livery with light blue undersides - quite simple and dull. However, the specific benchmark Bf 109 carried remnants of its former Luftwaffe livery, most visible on the flanks which had had a high waterline and some grey mottles. For the DAR 12 I adapted this idea and gave the model a basic late war Luftwaffe camouflage consisting of RLM 81, 83 and 76. Former yellow wing tips and a fuselage band were overpainted with a slightly different shade of light blue. On top of that I gave the aircraft a uniform dark green coat - I could not find credible information concerning the tone, so that I went with RAL 6031 (Bronzegrün), which has a yellowish hue to it. I used thinned Revell 65, applied in a streaky manner with a flat brush, so that the Luftwaffe colors underneath would shine through here and there. This was later enhanced with a careful wet sanding treatment. The interior surfaces were painted with RLM02.
The kit received an overall washing with thinned black ink and some post-shading for more variety and weathering. The roundels came from the aforementioned Blue Rider decal sheet, which also provided material for the tricolor fin markings. The tactical code number came from a Hobby Boss MiG-15, and some stencils were added, left over from an Academy Fw 190D. After some final weathering with silver and grinded graphite around the exhaust stubs the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and as final steps a wire antenna (made from heated black sprue material) as well as cannon barrels on the wings (hollow steel needles) were added.
A relatively quick build and conversion, even though the new engine was not as easy to integrate as expected. The result looks nice, though. While the He 100's elegance (and much of its semblance!) is gone thorugh this small change the aircraft still looks fast and purposeful - and the prominent chin radiator makes it look like a juvenile Hawker Tempest Mk. V or a diminuitive late Curtiss P-40?
Two flashguns bounced at half power. One from the ceiling corner behind the camera, one in the corner ceiling to camera right. f/9, 1/100 sec, 320 ISO.
© Faye Hindley, Interior Exposures
I took all three boys to the "Decorating Spooky Cupcakes" class that Main Line School Night had. Dax's birthday party was that night, so we used the cupcakes rather than a big cake. The kids seemed to enjoy them.
2023.03.12
The Underworld
London, UK
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_of_Fire
Please visit and like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/hgaborfoto
2013-OCT-12; the John M.W. Camp (1832-1926) and Margaret N. Winn (1836-1892) family reunion in Minden, Louisiana.
The refferee speaks to Sam Russell
PIctures taken at the New Lawn during FGR v Darlington 21/04/12. The gaeme finished in a 2-0 victory for Forest Green
Made for Edinburgh College of Art MFA's Degree Show '12, the zine exploits the theme of space and time for a series of family archived photographs, accompanied by various diagrams, screenprinted quotes, handmade collage and calligraphic elements.
"On behalf of amsterdam inbusiness, the Province of North Holland, Dutch Media Entertainment India and the Dutch Media Hub you are invited to join us and the delegation on October 12th for drinks and fingerfood.
When: Tuesday, October 12th
Time: 19.00 - 21.00
Location: OneBigAgency | Herengracht 320 I Amsterdam
At the location you will have the chance to see the solo exhibition Maid in LLand by Billy Quinn!"
Fom October 10-15 a delegation of 15 companies from India visited the Netherlands to see, learn and meet with the Dutch Media and Entertainment Industry. The visit is an initiative of the Dutch Ministery of Economic Affairs and Dutch Media Entertainment India, which focuses primarily on stimulating and expanding the creative industry in the Netherlands and India alike.
The companies are active in the field of film and television production, Bollywood events, animation, ad-films, music video's and more.
On Tuesday October 12 the delegation visited Amsterdam and Hilversum for several company introductions, among them ID TV, Massive Music and Beeld & Geluid and OneBigAgency with her network of Amsterdam creative companies / creatives and artists.
NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER, FORT IRWIN, Calif. – New York Army National Guard Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry man an entry control point at Forward Operating Base Miami here Oct. 12. The unit, based in Niagara Falls, N.Y., is part of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), training here as part of the brigade’s preparations for mobilization and deployment to Afghanistan in early 2012. The training provides brigade Soldiers with a realistic, demanding, simulated combat environment. About 1,500 of the Soldiers are currently scheduled to deploy. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Drumsta, 27th IBCT, NY Army National Guard. (RELEASED)
Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.
The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.
Location[edit]
Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]
House[edit]
Croome Court South Portico
History[edit]
The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]
In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]
The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]
A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]
The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]
During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]
In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]
The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]
In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]
From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]
The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]
Exterior[edit]
The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]
Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]
A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]
Interior[edit]
The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]
The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]
The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]
To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]
At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery
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R&ER view from the train approaching 'Irton Road' station. 5-8-12. The very dark threatening clouds dumped on us whilst we were walking in Eskdale.
ATLANTA, GA - November 21, 2012
The 3rd Annual The Stuffing event took over the Center Stage Music Complex (Vinyl, The Loft, Center Stage Theatre) with 13 bands: Bad Books, Harrison Hudson, Death on Two Wheels, Gobotron, Ponderosa, All Get Out, Hardy T. Morris and the Outfit, Kevin Devine, Royal Thunder, GROUPLOVE, o'brother, Cage The Elephant, Manchester Orchestra.
© Danielle Boise
On Feb. 12, the Smithsonian National Zoological Park's cheetah cubs went outside for the first time. Zazi, the mother of the female and foster-mother of the male, kept a watchful eye over the cubs as they played. The cubs reside at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.
To read updates from the cubs' keepers and to view the cheetah cub cam, please visit: nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AfricanSavanna/default.cfm.