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Well, I went back through over 100 photos tonight and re-edited them! I thought I was done a couple days ago for December's LA Gallery show, but art is never done until it's done, and even then. . . Will be busy printing and framing in nice large, matted formats and frames and museum glass! Five of these photos will be printed on 40" x 60" floating wall mounted metal sheets! I think I know which--will share photos of the photos hanging on the walls!
The secret to HDR photography is that you want people to say, "Woe dude--that's unreal!" And not, "Dude--that's not real!" "Unreal" is the word they use when they're trying to figure out the photo--what makes it cool--is it a photo? Is it painted? How'd it come to be--how'd you bend the light that way? "That's not real," is what they say if you have the saturation/HDR/ etc. turned up too high. :)
Some (almost) final edits for December's Los Angeles Gallery Show! Printing them on metallic paper at 13" x 19" and mounting and framing them on a 4mm 18x24 white mat and 2" dark wood frame. Also printing some 40" x 70" whihc is over three feet by five feet! Wish you all could come (and hang out with the goddesses)!
Let me know your favs.!
Nikon D800E / D800 HDR Malibu Landscapes / Seascapes for Gallery Show!
Yay! I booked a major photography show at a major LA gallery in December! Will also be giving some lectures on the story--the Hero's Journey Mythology--behind the photography!
Join/like my facebook!
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Preparing for some gallery shows this fall to celebrate 100,000,000 views! Printing a few dozen photographs in ~ 30"x40" formats and mounting/framing. Here are some close-to-final edits. HDR photography 7 exposures shot at 1EV and combined in photomatix: 36 megapixel Nikon D800E with the awesome Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens. 45SURF Hero's Journey Mythology Photography!
Epic Scenic HDR Landscapes / Seascapes of the Malibu Canyons & Beaches Shot with Nikon D800: Hero's Journey Mythology Photography!
Shot with the Nikon Nikkor wide-angle 14-24 mm 2.8 lens!
Seven exposures @ 1EV finished in photomatix.
Enjoy the Hero's Journey Mythology Photography, and all the best on a hero's journey of your own making!
These were shot with Nikon's best D800 with the 14-24mm wide-angle Nikkor lens. 7 exposures were taken at 1 EV intervals, and combined in photomatix to bring out the shadows and highlights.
Rather large HDR (high dynamic range) photo--you can see great detail both near and far! View the detail at full size!
The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens rocks!
High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos rock in capturing the full dynamic range of the scene!
But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow
Sorry to use the F word...but I need that....(It's from the lyrics...) and this is my 300th post :-)
© Copyright Nandakumar Gowraraju.
And here is a beautiful song that I came to know because of you
Click here to listen to it - "Radio Head- Creep"
Lyrics ....
"When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
And I wish I was special
You're so fucking special
But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special
But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
She's running out the door
She's running out
She's run, run, run, running out
Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special
But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here"
But who's picture is it?
Moshe Rosenzveig photographes Roberto Fernández-Ibáñez
'Mountains of Uncertainty' at Stanley Street Gallery as part of the Headon Photo Festival, William Yang is looking on. stanleystreetgallery.com.au/exhibition/headon-photo-festi...
Fujifilm X-Pro1
XF35mmF1.4 R
ƒ/1.4 35.0 mm 1/125 1600iso
But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Psalm 5:11 (NIV)
--
But now, after her secret surgery, we are definitely expecting an increase in Hayden Panettiere bra size and hope that it comes out in the open so that we can know for sure how much of a band and cup size has she augmented with a scalpel.
Yesterday I had to let him go. My very best friend.
The last year Bully had some severe problems with his bones and muscles. Pills and injections helped him to get through, but now even the anabolics didn't work anymore. Yesterday morning he wasn't able to stand on his paws anymore, so i had to make the difficult decision...
My world is so empty without you, my special friend and you will be missed very very much.
Thank you for being in my life all those years, love you Boelemans...
A fleeting visit on Sunday as I was here mainly to look for Hawfinches. But it such a fine church, and with history linking it to Jane Austen, whose brother is buried here and the memorial a thing that people come from over the world to see.
Another dull day, but bright and airy in the church, which I entered after it was opened in preparation for the eleven o'clock service.
As I was having computer problems last time I was here, some were unedited so are blurry, so all the better to redo some and post those.
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A simple, well-cared-for church which has an extremely complicated building history. The nave and western half of the chancel are Saxon in date, although there are no surviving architectural details of this period. Early in the twelfth century a northern tower with small apsidal chapel was added to the north of the nave. This has recently been restored and its round headed windows may be clearly seen. From the same period dates the remarkable stone carving of an archbishop that is now displayed in the chancel. It may be Archbishop Theobold (d. 1162) or Becket (d. 1170) and could have formed part of a tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. The church was restored by William Butterfield in the 1860s. His is the nice rood screen (painted by Gibbs) the angular font of Devonshire marble and the design for the east window. The screen is supported on thin columns so as not to destroy the congregation's view of the High Altar which the Victorians held so dear, although it is definitely in the medieval tradition. Fine Minton tiles were put in the sanctuary - the medieval tiles gathered up and carefully placed on the window-sill to preserve them. The twentieth century has done much to build upon Butterfield's restoration, including the fine south aisle east window by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd of 1923.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Godmersham
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LOCATION: The church is situated close to the River Stour at c. 115 ft. above O.D. just south of the now - demolished (1955) Godmersham Court Lodge. This is in the gap where the river cuts through the North Downs.
DESCRIPTION: I have written a very full history of this church (published in Arch Cant 106 (1988), 45-81), which includes a full description of the fabric, so only a summary is needed here.
The earliest part of the church is the nave and western half of the chancel, which have quoins of Roman bricks and ferruginous sandstone. This is almost certainly the church mentioned in Domesday Book, but whether it was built just before, or just after, the Norman Conquest in uncertain.
In the early 12th century, a west door was inserted (blocked in 1865) and three rounded-headed windows were put into the north side of the nave. A north transept chapel (with apsidal east end) and tower was also constructed at this time. Though heavily restored in 1865-6, this still continues its hemidome over the apse. The arch into the east end of the nave was blocked in the later Middle Ages.
By the end of the 12th century a new south aisle and arcade had been added to the nave, but this was destroyed after the Reformation. The fine mid-12th century font (similar to that at Westwell) was also destroyed, but a few fragments of it are walled up in the west doorway.
In the mid - 13th century, at about the time when the fine new Court Lodge to the north was built, the chancel was extended to the east and given three fine new lancets, as well as a sedilia. There are some fine capitals, columns and bases on the inside of these features (The sedilia also has a moulded trefoil head).
In 1363 a new Chantry chapel of St Mary was built on the south-east side of the nave, but this too was demolished after its abolition as a Chantry at the Reformation (The final traces were removed when the family pew extensions were built in the early 18th century).
In the later 14th century a piscina, various new two-light windows were put into the chancel, as well as some new oak stalls (on the ends of three of these were carved TCP Ann. Dom. 1409). These were recorded in the early 18th century, but have long since disappeared.
The west window in the nave, and the surviving crown-post roof probably date from the 15th century. The fine three-light window towards the east end of the north side of the nave probably dates to the early 16th century. A new north doorway into the chancel was perhaps also built at this time.
The doors into the Rood stair at the north-east corner of the nave (now blocked) can also be seen. These were perhaps also made in the later 15th century when a new loft was built (fragments of the screen - now gone - were found in the West gallery in 1865).
In the 1720's the south side of the nave was rebuilt in brick, and the earlier south aisle disappeared and two new brick family pews (over vaults) were built projecting southwards over the side of the former chantry chapel. All of this, however, was swept away in 1865. Various drawings of these before 1865 are available). Two new diagonal buttresses to the chancel were also built at about that time, which survive, as well as a west gallery in the nave and west and north porches (demolished 1865).
As we have seen, a very major restoration of the church took place in 1865-6 under William Butterfield. A new south aisle, porch and south transept were built, as well as an organ - chamber south of the chancel. Much earth was dug away from the western and southern sides of the church at this time. The vicar and instigator of this work (Revd. Walter Field) made very useful notes and sketches of the state of the church before the restoration (in the parish records). Most of the windows were restored at this time, and the north (chancel) and west doorways were blocked after their 'mean' porches were removed. The top stage of the tower was rebuilt in brick with a flint external face, and a pyramid roof on top. There was also a new chancel roof and screen (painted 1875), and many new pews (to re-place the box ones), as well as a new pulpit and font.
BUILDING MATERIALS (incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):
Flint rubble (with ferruginous sandstone and Roman brick quoins) is used for the earliest church with Caen stone dressings from the early 12th century. Some Reigate stone was used for jambs, etc., in the 13th century chancel extension. There is also some Ragstone for later windows.
Red brick was used for 18th century repairs and buttresses (and the family pews), and the large amounts of Bath stone was used for the 1865-6 repairs, restoration, Saisle, etc.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH:
Bas-relief figure of Archbishop (12th cent.) on S. wall of chancel, put here in 1933. It came from the neighbouring Court-Lodge, but was probably originally from Canterbury.
1516 brass of W. Geoffrey on S. wall of chancel.
R. Bun memorial (1682) on N.E. side of nave, and T Knight (1894) by Shout in S. aisle.
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size & Shape: The churchyard of c. 1½ acres is a rough square around the church, extending down to the river on the east.
Condition: Good
Boundary walls: c. 19th cent. stone & brickwalls around it.
Building in churchyard or on boundary: Small 19th cent. shed on boundary immediately N. of the tower with Medieval gravelmarker reused in gable.
Ecological potential: Good
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: Domesday Book, 3,13.
Evidence of pre-Norman status (DB, DM, TR etc.): Paid 28d, Chrisin in D.M.
Challock was a chapel-of-ease to Godmersham.
Late med. status (vicarage/appropriation): Vicarage with formal appropriation to the Priory in 1400 (the vicarage was endowed from 1380).
Patron: Canterbury Cathedral Priory (given by Archbishop in c. 1037) till Dissolution, then, from 1546, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury.
Other documentary sources: For wills, (Test. Cant. (E. Kent 1907), 136-8. They mention various lights, the Roodloft, 'Holy Cross before the door' etc. For the Chantry of St. Mary, see Kent Chantries (ed. A Hussey) Kent Records XII (1932-6), 131.
See also Hasted (2nd ed. 1799), 328-32.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD:
Reused materials: - Roman bricks.
Finds from church\churchyard: Some Roman bricks and pottery found by the Revd. S G Brade-Birks. One discoid grave-marker still exists to the S. of the church, by the path. Old hand-bells were also found in the churchyard in 1865.
Finds within 0.5km: Grave-marker found in Court Lodge excavation to N.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS: Good. The chancel floor was apparently just covered up in 1865-6.
Outside present church: ? Quite good, but disturbed in 1865-6.
RECENT DISTURBANCES\ALTERATIONS:
To structure: In 1986 the c. 1687 bell-frame was removed from the tower (this is now stored at the Canterbury Archaeologist Trust). In 1992 the later N-S cross wall in the N. apsidal chapel was demolished.
To graveyard: None (but shed in churchyard to be restored as W.C. in 1993).
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): Feb. 1989 - George Denny.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: Despite very heavy restoration work in 1865-6, there are important remains here of an 11th century church with added north tower/transept with apsidal chapel of the early 12th century. Also an extended mid - 13th century chancel.
The wider context: Apsidal chapels in Kent parish churches are a very rare survival, as is the unique 12th century bas-relief now in the chancel.
REFERENCES: T. Tatton-Brown, 'The parish church of St. Lawrence, Godmersham: a history' Arch. Cant. 106 (1988), 45-81.
Guide Book: None, though there was one by an early long-serving vicar S G Brade-Birks (1930-77).
Plans & drawings: Plans before + after 1865-6 restorations, and 1865 sketches of church are in the parish records - see art. by Tim Tatton-Brown above.
DATE VISITED: 21/12/92 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/GOD.htm
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GODMERSHAM
LIES the next parish south-westward from Chartham, and is written in antient records, Godmersham, and in Domesday, Gomersham.
IT LIES in the beautiful Stour valley, a situation healthy and pleasant to the extreme, the river Stour glides through it from Ashford, in its course towards Canterbury; Godmersham house and park are the principal objects in it, both elegant and beautiful, the Ashford high road encircles the east side of the park, along which there is a sunk sence, which affords an uninterrupted view of the whole of it, and adds greatly to the beauty of this elegant scene, and leads through the village of Godmersham close to it, the whole village which contains about twenty houses, belongs to Mrs. Knight, excepting one house, as does the greatest part of the parish, excepting the lands belonging to the dean and chapter of Canterbury. There are about twenty more houses in the parish, and about two hundred and forty inhabitants in all. The church, and vicarage, a neat dwelling, pleasantly situated, stand at a small distance from the village, on the left side of the road, with the antient manor-house near the former, close to the bank of the river; the meadows in the vale are exceeding fertile, the uplands are chalk, with some gravel among them, the hills rise high on each side, those on the west being the sheep walks belonging to Godmersham-house, the summits of which are finely cloathed with wood, at proper intervals; the opposite ones are the high range of uninclosed pasture downs of Wye and Braborne. Among these hills, in the eastern part of the parish, is the seat of Eggerton, situated in a wild and bleak country of barren lands and flints.
At the southern boundary of the parish, on the Ashford road, is the hamlet of Bilting, part of which is in Wye parish. There was a family of this name who once resided here, as appears by their wills so early as 1460. Richard Mocket, gent. of Challock, died in 1565, possessed of the manor of Biltyng-court, in Godmersham, which by his will he directed to be sold. At length this estate of Bilting came into the possession of the Carters. Thomas Carter, gent. of Bilting, second son of George Carter, gent. of Winchcombe, died possessed of it in 1707, s.p. After which it at length came to his nephew Thomas Carter, gent. of Godmersham, who dying in 1744, left two daughters his coheirs, the eldest of whom Mary, marrying Mr. Nicholas Rolfe, of Ashford, he became in her right possessed of her father's estate at Bilting. After which it became the residence of Mrs. Jane, the sister of the late Mr. Knight, and after her death in 1793, of Thomas Monypenny, esq. who afterwards removing from hence sold it in 1797, to Mr. Richard Sutton, who now resides at it.
There is no fair, nor is there any one alehouse within this parish.
From the high road above-mentioned, which runs along the lower side of the western hills there is a most pleasing view over the valley beneath, in which the various beautiful objects of both art and nature combine to make it the most delightful prospect that can be imagined.
BEORNULPH, king of Mercia, in the year 822, gave Godmersham to Christ-church, in Canterbury, to the use of their refectory and cloathing, at the request of archbishop Wlfred, L.S.A. that is, Libere sicut Adisham, endowed with the same liberties and privileges that Adisham, which had been given to that church, originally was. But it appears afterwards to have been wrested from the church, and to have been again restored to it by archbishop Egelnoth, who made a new grant of it in the year 1036, having purchased it of duke Sired, for seventy-two marcs of pure silver, for the use of the monks in Christ-church; in whose possession Godmersham remained at the taking the general survey of Domesday, in which it is entered as follows, under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi, i.e. the lands of the monks of the archbishop, as all the lands belonging to the monastery of Christ-church were.
In Feleberg hundred, the archbishop himself holds Gomersham. It was taxed at eight sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two, and sixty villeins, with eight cottagers, having seventeen carucates. There is a church, and two servants, and one mill of twenty-five shillings, and twelve acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of forty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and when he received it, it was worth twelve pounds, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays thirty pounds.
In the 7th year of king Edward I. the prior claimed a fair here, on the day of St. Laurence, which was allowed; and king Edward III. in his 38th year granted to the prior another fair here on the Thursday and Friday in every Whitsun-week, together with a market to be held here on a Tuesday weekly. In the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a charter of free-warren for this manor; about which time it was, with its appurtenances, valued at thirty-six pounds. The priors of Canterbury frequently resided at the manor-house here, which appears by the present state of it to have been a mansion large and suitable to their dignity. Prior Chillenden, at the latter end of king Richard II.'s reign, made large additions and repairs here, as did prior Sellyng in that of Edward IV. The house is situated on the bank of the river, a small distance northward from the church. It appears to have been a very large mansion formerly. The old hall of it is yet remaining, with the windows, door-cases, and chimney of it, in the gothic stile. Over the porch, at the entrance of the house, is the effigies of the prior, curiously carved in stone, sitting richly habited, with his mitre and pall, and his crosier in his left hand, his right lifted up in the act of benediction, and his sandals on his feet. This, most probably, represents prior Chillenden, above mentioned, who had the privilege of wearing those ornaments, granted to him and his successors by pope Urban, and repaired this mansion as before related. In which state this manor continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands, who in his 37th year, granted the manor, rectory, and advowson of Godmersham, in exchange for other premises, to the dean and chapter of Canterbury, in pure and perpetual alms, at the yearly rent of 10l. 1s. 8d. (fn. 1) being then valued at 80l. 11s. in exchange for which they gave the king seven valuable manors in this and other counties; Canterbury college, in Oxford, and other premises, a scandalous bargain of plunder, like most others of the king's making; and yet in the deed it is said to have been made through his most gracious favor. Since which this manor has remained part of their possessions to the present time.
The court-lodge, with the demesne lands of this manor, are let to Mrs. Coleman, who resides in it, on a beneficial lease, but the manor itself, with the profits of the courts, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands. A court baron is regularly held for it.
THE MANORS OF FORD AND YALLANDE were antiently part of the inheritance of the family of Valoigns, one of whom, Robert de Valoigns, died possessed of them and much other land in this neighbourhood, in the 19th year of king Edward II. and in his descendants they continued till the latter end of king Edward III.'s reign, when Waretius de Valoigns leaving by his wife, daughter of Robert de Hougham, two daughters his coheirs, one of them, married to Thomas de Aldon, entitled her husband to these manors as part of her inheritance; and in this name of Aldon they continued for some space of time. At length they became the property of Austen, or Astyn, as they afterwards spelt their name, and they continued possessors of it, till Richard Astyn, gent. of West Peckham, conveyed them, with all lands and tenements called Halton, in Godmersham and other parishes, to Thomas Broadnax, gent. late of Hyth, though there were descendants of that family, who wrote themselves gentlemen, remaining here in the beginning of king George I.'s reign, as appears by their wills in the prerogative-office. He afterwards resided at Ford-place, as his descendants, possessors of these manors, afterwards did, without intermission, to Thomas Broadnax, esq. (fn. 2) who in the 13th year of king George I. anno 1727, pursuant to the will of Sir Thomas May, and under the authority of parhament, changed his name to May, and in 1729 kept his shrievalty here. In 1732 he rebuilt this seat, and in 1738, pursuant to the will of Mrs. Elizabeth Knight, widow of Bulstrode Peachy Knight, esq. (who was her second husband, her first being William Knight, esq. of Dean, in that county); and under the authority of another act, he again changed his name to Knight, and in 1742 inclosed a park round his seat here, afterwards called Ford park, which name it seems since entirely to have lost, this seat and park being now usually called Godmersham-park. Thomas May Knight, esq. beforementioned, died here, far advanced in years, in 1781, a gentleman, whose eminent worth is still remembered by many now living; whose high character for upright conduct and integrity, rendered his life as honorable as it was good, and caused his death to be lamented by every one as a public loss. He married Jane, eldest daughter and coheir of William Monk, esq. of Buckingham in Shoreham, in Sussex, by whom he had several children, of whom only four survived to maturity, Thomas, his heir, and three daughters, who died unmarried. Thomas Knight, esq. the son, succeeded his father in estates, and was of Godmersham, the seat and park of which he greatly improved. He married Catherine, daughter of Dr. Wadham Knatchbull, late prebendary of Durham, and died in 1794, s.p. leaving her surviving. He bore for his arms, the coat of Knight, vert, a bend fusilly, in base, a cinquefoil, argent, quartered with nineteen others; the second being, Broadnax, or, two chevronels, gules, on a chief of the second, three cinquefoils, argent; and the third, May, gules, a fess between three billets, or. By his will Mr. Knight gave this seat, with the park, the manors before-mentioned, and the lands belonging to it, to his widow Mrs. Catherine Knight, for her life, with remainder to Edward Austen, esq. of Rolling-place. She afterwards resided here, but removing to the White Friars, in Canterbury, she gave up the possession of Godmersham house and park to Edward Austen, esq. before-mentioned, who now resides at it.
EGGARTON is another manor, situated on the opposite side of the river, at the south-east boundaries of this parish, among the hills, near Crundal. It was antiently the estate of the noble family of Valence, earls of Pembroke. Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, held this manor at his death in the 17th year of king Edward II. He died s.p. and John, son of John de Hastings, by Isabel his wife, one of the earl's sisters, and John, son of John Comyn, of Badenagh, by Joane, another of his sisters, were found to be his coheirs; and upon the division of their estates, John de Hastings the son seems to have become wholly possessed of it. He died s.p. next year, leaving Joane, wife of David de Strabolgie, earl of Athol, and Elizabeth her sister, sisters and coheirs of John Comyn, of Badenagh, his next of kin. David de Strabolgie, earl of Athol, before-mentioned, died possessed of this manor, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, in the 1st year of Edward III. leaving it to his son of the same name, who in the 7th year of Edward III. by deed settled it on his kinsman Sir Henry de Hills; which gift was confirmed by the countess his widow, in the 20th year of that reign. Gilbert de Hills, who lies buried in this church, with the marks of his figure in armour on his grave-stone, was a person of eminence in the age in which he flourished, and from him and Sir Henry de Hills, issued many worthy successors, who were proprietors of this manor till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when it was sold to Charles Scott, esq. eldest son of Sir Reginald Scott, of Scotts-hall, by his second wife. His grandson Thomas Scott, esq. of Eggarton, left a son Thomas, who died s.p. and a daughter Dorothy, married to Mr. Daniel Gotherson, who in her right at length became possessed of this manor, (fn. 3) though not without several contests at law by some collateral claimers to it. He afterwards sold it to Sir James Rushout, bart. who had been so created in 1661, and bore for his arms, Sable, two lioncels passant, guardant, within a bordure engrailed, or. He died in 1697, and by his will devised it to trustees, to sell for payment of his debts, which they accordingly soon afterwards did, to Peter Gott, esq. of Sussex, whose arms were, Per saltier argent and sable, a bordure counterchanged. His descendant Maximilian Gott, esq. resided at Eggarton, where he died in 1735; upon which this manor, with the rest of his estates in this county and in Sussex, came to his three sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah; and on the death of the former, the two latter became entitled to the whole fee of it, as coparceners; Mrs. Sarah Gott usually residing at this mansion of Eggarton. Mary Gott died in 1768, and by will devised her moiety of her estates to Henry Thomas Greening, gent. of Brentford, in Middlesex, who afterwards, by act of parliament, assumed the name of Gott. Sarah Gott, the other sister, died at Eggarton, in 1772, and by will devised her moiety of her estates to the children of William Western Hugessen, esq. of Provender, deceased, to be equally divided between them. (fn. 4) Mr. Hugessen left three daughters his coheirs, of whom the two surviving ones, Dorothy, was afterwards married to Sir Joseph Banks, bart. and K. B. Mary, to Edward Knatchbull, esq. now Sir Edward Knatchbull, bart. who in their wives right became entitled to one moiety of this estate, they afterwards, together with Henry-Thomas Gott, esq. before-mentioned, possessor of the other moiety, joined in the sale of the entire property of this manor to Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, who purchased it for the residence of his sister Jane, since deceased. He died in 1794, s. p. and by his will gave this seat, with the estate and manor, to Edward Austen, esq. before-mentioned.
Charities.
MARTIN MAYE, yeoman, of Godmersham, ordered by will in 1614, that his executors should pay to Thomas Scott, gent. and five others therein mentioned, 100l on condition that they should enter into a bond of 200l. to his executors, to settle 8l. per annum towards the maintenance of twenty of the poorest persons householders, in Godmersham, that from time to time should be there dwelling; which sum should be a perpetual payment of 8s. per annum to each of them. This charity is now vested in Mrs. Knight.
THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ. of Canterbury, by will in 1635, devised the house which he lately built in Godmersham, and ten perches of land adjoining to it, to such poor persons, born and living in Godmersham, as the heirs of his body, and for want of such heirs as the right heirs of his kinsman, Sir Edward Scott, K. B. should nominate from time to time, for ever. And if such heirs should neglect such nomination, for the space of three months, then that the churchwardens for the time being, should nominate in their room; and if they or he should fail to nominate, within one month, then that the archbishop of Canterbury should in such case nominate from time to time. And he willed one other house, with its appurtenances, which he had lately built in Godmersham, adjoining to that before limited, and 10 perches of land adjoining, in like manner as the other before-mentioned, with like nomination and limitation; and so from time to time for ever. This charity is now lost.
THOMAS CARKERIDGE. of Maidstone, by will in 1640, devised all those lands and tenements which he bought in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundal, to William Cooper and his heirs for ever, he paying out of them 6l. per annum, to the overseers of the poor of the parish of Wye, 3l. and to the overseers of the parish of Godmersham. the other 3l. for ever; and he willed that this 6l. should be every year bestowed to cloath four poor widows, two of Wye, and two of Godmersham; and if there were not such poor widows, then to cloath other poor women, each of them to have five yards and an half of good country kersey, to make a petticoat and a waistcoat, and so much lockram or other country cloth as would make every of them two smocks, and every of them a pair of hose and a pair of shoes. And he willed that this cloth and other things be given to those poor women the first Thursday in November every year; with power to distrain in any of his lands lying in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundall, &c. until the same should be paid accordingly.
JOHN FINCHE, gent. of Limne, by will in 1707, devised his messuage, tenement, and lands, containing 36 acres, in Bilting, and his messuage and tenement, and seven acres of land, and 9 acres of woodland, in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundall, and all those his six cowshares, lying in a meadow called Laines, between Ollantigh and Tremworth, in Wye and Godmersham, and a piece of meadow-ground called Temple-hope, adjoining, in Wye and Crundall, to the ministers, churchwardens, and overseers of the parishes of Wye and Godmersham, and their successors for ever, in trust, that the minister, &c. of Wye, and their successors, should dispose of the rents and profits of that land which lay in Wye, as is therein mentioned; and that the minister, &c. of Godmersham, and their successors, should dispose of the rents and profits of that land, with its appurtenances in Godmersham and Crundall, to six of the poorest and eldest people of Godmersham, or any other, half-yearly for ever. But that there should be paid out of the rents and profits of his last-mentioned lands, 40s. yearly upon Christmas-day for ever, without any deduction, to poor people of the like sort, being men; that is to say, 20s. to each of them yearly for ever. And further, that if any of the trustees, the ministers, &c. of these parishes, should at any time alter, contradict, or misapply these charities, or the rents and profits of the estates, that then the devise to such parish, the minister, &c. of which had so done, should cease and determine. And he willed that none of the said charities should be distributed to any other poor, but such as should be members of the church of England, as then by law established. This charity is now of the annual produce of 24l. 1s. 6d. and produces on an average 18l. per annum.
The present alms-houses in Godmersham-street, were erected by the father of the last Thomas Knight, esq. on the ground before devised to the parish. The building contains dwellings for eight poor people.
There is a school here, for reading and writing, supported by the voluntary benefaction of Mrs. Knight, in which about 20 children are daily taught.
The poor constantly relieved are about nineteen, casually as many.
THIS PARISH is within the ELESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Laurence, is a plain building, consisting of a body and a chancel, having a square low tower on the north side of the body, on which was formerly a steeple. There are five bells in it. The chancel is large and handsome. There were formerly eight stalls in it. On three of the upright end-boards of these stalls were these letters and date:P/TC An. Dom. 1409, in memory of Thomas Chillenden, prior A. D. 1409, for the use of the prior and monks of Christ church, when they came to reside at their manor here, and the other clergy who might be present at divine services, the like as they had usually in other churches where they had manors. On the south side of the church was formerly a chantry, which was dedicated to St. Mary, as appears by the will of William Geffrye, chaplain of it in 1517, who directed to be buried in it on the south side. It was suppressed in the 1st year of king Edward VI. There was a house and garden belonging to it in Godmersham-street. This chantry has been rebuilt, and is now made use of as two large pews, for the use of the owners of the mansion-houses of Ford and Eggarton. Underneath these pews, which are raised considerable higher than the level of the pavement, are vaults for the owners of these houses. In that of Eggarton lie many of the Hilles's, Scotts, and Gotts; and in that of Forde, several of the Broadnax's. The two monuments now against the south wall of the body of the church, for Thomas Carter and James Christmas, were formerly in the chantry, on the pulling down of which, they were removed hither. In the body of the church, near the steeple, is another vault for the Broadnax's, which is quite full, and the entrance closed up; and in the body of the church there are several grave-stones of them, the inscriptions of which are gone. In the church-yard, close to the wall of Mr. Knight's pew, is a small vault, built by the late Mr. Knight's father, in which he lies, with his wife and daughter Anne; and leaving only room for one more in it, in which his son was afterwards buried.
The church of Godmersham, with the chapel of Challock annexed to it, was antiently an appendage to the manor of Godmersham, and as such was part of the possessions of the priory of Christ-church, in Canterbury, to which it was appropriated in the 21st year of king Richard II. anno 1397, with the king's and pope's licence, towards the support of the fabric of their church, to which archbishop Arundel consented; for which the prior gave up to him the advowson of the two churches of St. Vedast and Amand, and St. Michael, Crooked-lane, London. (fn. 5) After which the rectory and advowson of the vicarage of this church remained with the priory of Christ church till its dissolution, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. when they were, with the manor of Godmersham, and the rest of the possessions of that priory, surrendered into the king's hands, where they remained till the 37th year of that reign, when the king granted the manor, rectory, and advowson of the vicarage of Godmersham, as has been already mentioned, to the dean and chapter of Chanterbury, in exchange for other premises, with whom the rectory remains at this time. But the advowson of the vicarage of Godmersham, with the chapel of Challock appendant to it, is now in the patronage of his grace the archbishop of Canterbury.
In the year 1254, Hugh de Mortimer, rector of this church, confirmed the exemption of the manor of Godmersham, belonging to the prior and convent of Christchurch, from the payment of small tithes arising from it; with a saving to the right of his successors.
Before the appropriation of this church archbishop Sudbury had in 1330, endowed a vicarage here, which with the chapel of Challock, is valued in the king's books at 9l. 3s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 18s. 4¼d. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon.
¶In 1640 here were communicants two hundred and forty-three, and it was then valued at fifty pounds. In 1649 the parsonage was valued at one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
There is a pension of ten pounds to the vicar yearly paid out of the parsonage.
PART 2:
We were already in to October 2nd, but I didn’t get to sleep that night. At 6am I headed downstairs to change into deck work clothes. We tended to wear a variety of boiler suits carried over from previous ships. Some cadets had orange or grey boiler-suits, but most had one that had started life as white when first made, or navy blue. Mine was navy blue, but I had torn off the sleeves for extra cooling. We were used to changes in routine and so were prepared for something new in the orders of the day that were being passed from cadet to cadet that morning. As in any survival situation the priority was to provide shelter and the cadets were instructed to raid the ship’s lockers, and anywhere else we could think of, and strip out every available, non-essential, bit of canvas, burlap and other weather proof sheeting we could find to make a shelter for the vulnerable people exposed on top of No.5 hatch.
That meant the white canvas screening, with plastic windows, that went around the swimming pool was lashed on top of the games net that enclosed No. 5 hatch. And there were spare winch covers, lifeboat covers, even the ship’s dinghy’s sail, tied haphazardly across the net too. It ended up as an untidy arrangement that gave puny protection from the elements. But fortunately the climate was warm and there was no rain. Even the tropical sun was weaker than usual letting us off with our miserable attempt to make a decent canopy.
Drinking water was made available in buckets, and extra drinking cups provided made out of cut down soft drink and beer cans. The ship simply didn't have enough eating and drinking utensils to go round. Most of the Vietnamese had lost their shoes in their escape and as the sun rose higher in the sky the steel deck began to heat up. Some fire hydrants on the deck were opened to allow salt water for washing, but also to cool the deck which was now painful for the Vietnamese to walk on in bare feet
Most of the Vietnamese lay, curled up under blankets on the bare steel hatch cover. Some were stirring, sitting up, looking about and a few made the short walk to and from the couple of toilets that were accessible from the deck. They seemed in a daze, exhausted and drained of life by their experience. And they were quiet, not even a noise from the children. Slowly they seemed to come to their senses as the ship’s catering staff came out with food. It was a strange mish-mash of food, our cooks prepared, unsure how to provide for so many of diverse cultures and different ages. Here was a ship equipped and provisioned to feed less than 50, but now had almost 400 mouths to feed. So at breakfast the cadets were surprised to find that the customary choice had gone, and in its place was one ‘hot’ course. Peering at the plate we could see potatoes, beans of various types, meat balls, rice, peas, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms all boiled into a red-brown stew. It was an unrecognisable meal that I’m sure has no name in a cookery book. As the stewards put the food on our plates, our reactions must have given our thoughts away! What’s this?! But actually to our energy sapped bodies it was good wholesome food and tasted better than it looked, and as the cook explained, it was the same as everyone got……….Vietnamese refugees and Wellpark crew alike.
That breakfast was the big one. It was the first proper meal the Vietnamese had had for at least four days. Already the ship’s whole supply of baked beans and oranges had disappeared at the first meal.
Outside the sun shone down on the ship. Now it rhythmically rolled gently on the swell as its bow cut through the sparkling waters at full speed. Out of sight of land, our heading was northerly towards Taiwan, but the crew were told that fact must remain secret and could not be divulged to the Vietnamese. There was the risk they might fear being repatriated to Vietnam or held in detention camps and trapped into a life worse than that they had fought to escape from. The Vietnamese were not known to us, and they outnumbered us seven to one. We could not discount the possibility they might wish to over-power us and take control of the ship.
That morning we set up a one-way system. The Vietnamese lined up the stairs on the starboard side of the ship and filed, one at a time, into a cabin set aside for medical checks. It had been discovered two of the Vietnamese were professional doctors and it was a priority to check everyone over after the trauma of their escape. Basic personal details such as name, sex, date of birth were recorded, before they were asked to carry on back down to the deck via the staircases on the port side of the ship. There were a few cases of measles and they were confined to the ship’s hospital, and a family which included their grandmother were accommodated in a more private part on the rear of the ship’s accommodation.
We were amazed to discover we had 343 ‘passengers’ on board, and as dribs and drabs of their journey before being rescued came out, we were incredulous that so many could have survived such a journey on a boat we seen for ourselves the night before was less than 70 feet long. It was hard to comprehend how they had come to be on that boat. From one cadet I would hear they started on three boats, but two sank and the survivors clambered on the remaining one – hence why it was so cramped. Another would say that they were at sea for three days without food and water. We had found them more than 120 miles from the nearest land. I had been told the boat’s steering had failed. From somewhere else I would hear they had been in concentration camps and that lots of other ships had passed them by. Apparently the Wellpark had spotted what was their last remaining flare. They had had to pay large amounts of gold to corrupt officials to be ‘allowed to escape’. As the cadets passed each other as they worked around the ship they exchanged information, so that as the day went on we had a better picture of who these people were and the terrible experience they had endured.
As we organised and arranged we spoke to the people, but only a few spoke English. Communication was hard but gradually their trepidation and fear dissipated and we began to see some smiles. To us they were all Vietnamese and when we asked one ‘Vietnamese’ to tell another to do something we could not understand why they could not do it. It took some time to appreciate the mix of Vietnamese and Chinese peoples on our ship.
But things improved fast, particularly when in the afternoon we erected screens of burlap around the ship’s small swimming pool. It was a less than perfect arrangement but it allowed everyone to wash and feel a little bit better in themselves.
That evening, after it had gone dark I heard that some of the cadets were out sitting on No.5 hatch amongst the Vietnamese. There they were, some sitting talking, others playing with children. And one had got his guitar out and a few had gathered around for a bit of a sing-song. It was a holiday camp-fire atmosphere, but without the camp-fire. It was a happy time, and I thought at the time it did a huge amount to lift the Vietnamese souls, and engender their trust in us.
Elsewhere the Captain was having to do a lot more thinking. He brought together a committee of Vietnamese leaders, six of them, each one an English speaker. It was essential that he had their co-operation to ensure their safety and security on Wellpark. They agreed on what would be expected of the refugees during their stay on the ship with particular emphasis on hygiene, sanitation, fire-risks and discipline amongst their people. A strict control over cleanliness was kept by both the working Committee of Wellpark’s Officers and the Vietnamese. With limited provisions on the ship, fresh water for drinking purposes would only be provided at 0900, 1300 and 1700 hours daily. Meal times were arranged for 0700, 1200 and 1700 hours. And a doctor’s surgery was set up twice daily 0900-1000 hours and 1600–1700 hours.
I hurriedly updated my letter to my parents that night, telling them the whole story as it had unfolded. Having retired to my bunk late, after joining in the sing-song on deck I was desperate for a few hours sleep, the first rest in 39 hours.
Life was a little more normal for us on the 3rd October, the second full day the Vietnamese were on board. We were still at sea, closing in on Kaohsiung, our next port of call. The day started with the Vietnamese mainly restricted to life on the hatchcover, away from the side railings of the ship. But as time moved on new friendships were being formed. Inevitably the Committee were meeting with the Captain to gain a better idea of their future. Some were working with the Captain acting as interpreters, and administering the personnel records. Elsewhere we already had the doctors helping out with medical aid where it was required. And some of the Vietnamese volunteered to contribute by working in the galley, helping to prepare food. Some Vietnamese who had an engineering background put themselves forward to help down in the ship’s engine room. And out on deck they were just as keen to help. I had just headed down the deck with a couple of other cadets and some brushes and tins of white paint. Our orders were to re-paint the railings where the paintwork had been damaged and spoiled by the actions during the rescue. We had barely started when a few Vietnamese men approached ready armed with paintbrushes. They must have gone to the ship’s stores and requested them, for now they took our paint-tins and started painting with two brushes each, one in each hand. We were somewhat bemused, not knowing whether to accept their help or demand that they returned to the hatchcover. But then a small group of little boys cautiously approached, unsure if they would be shouted at, but their curiosity had the better of them. As I painted, they watched me, all the time inching forward. As I paused to turn round and see who was behind me their little faces would crack into big wide smiles. And then one stretched out his arm pointing to the railing. I looked. The cheeky mite was telling me where I had missed a bit!! And then they were all pointing, all over the place to bits I had missed with my paintbrush! That day they followed me everywhere, only being summoned back to the hatchcover later by their anxious parents.
And that evening more of the cadets and crew came to sit on the hatchcover to talk, play and sing. Tomorrow we would arrive in Taiwan, not knowing what would happen to these people we were already so deeply attached to. Rumour had it we could end up taking them from Taiwan to Hong Kong or the Philippines. And it might take some time before a country would take them in.
Other chapters of this story are here:
PART A www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1438584566/in/set-72...
PART 1 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1436299943/in/set-72...
PART 3 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1461744696/in/set-72...
PART 4 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1460893557/in/set-72...
PART 5 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1437563459/in/set-72...
PART 6 www.flickr.com/photos/pentlandpirate/1438381480/in/set-72...
You can also join the Wellpark Reunion site here : wellparkreunion.ning.com/main/authorization/signIn?target...
See www.shipsnostalgia.com/Guides/MV_Wellpark for the rest of the story
There not many churches in east Kent that I have not been into.
I thought I had been into St Mary before, but looking at my shots from a visit some six years ago, I just reported that the church was locked and I posted no shots of the church.
This I found out once I was back home.
Anyway.
St Mary sits at the east end of the picturesque village square, partially hidden behind the White Horse, a wide path leads to the west door in the base of the tower.
It was unlocked on Saturday, so passing through the inner and outer door, into the vast and airy space of the nave and large side aisles, I was first stuck by the many large and extravagant memorials in both the side chapels and aisles.
At the west end of the village square sits Chilham "Castle", still a private residence, and the former owners of that house now rest for eternity in the church, under tombs of marble.
Lots of great details; medieval glass fragments, corbel stones.
A very fine church indeed.
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This large sombre church stands just off the picturesque village square. Dating mainly from the fifteenth century, its interior was much restored in the Victorian period. The visitor today should spend time studying the stained glass and monuments which all commemorate the families associated with the village. In the north aisle is an excellent polished memorial to Sir Dudley Digges who lived in Chilham Castle in the early seventeenth century. It is made of Bethersden marble, and is similar in workmanship to many fireplaces in the castle. In the north chapel is a memorial to the Hardy children who died in 1858. It shows them reading a book with their toys around them. Originally made to stand in the castle it was presented to the church in 1919. The fine examples of stained glass in the north and south windows are also memorials to the Hardy family, designed by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd in 1914.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Chilham
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CHILHAM
LIES upon the river Stour, about six miles southward from Canterbury. It is called in Domesday, Cilleham; in Saxon, Cyleham; which signifies the cold place; and some think this place was antiently called Julham, or Juliham, i. e. the village or dwelling of Julius, in regard to Julius Cæsar, the Roman emperor, who had several conflicts with the Britons in and near it.
The Parish of Chilham is situated exceedingly pleasant, in a fine healthy part of the county, about six miles southward from Canterbury, and nine from Ashford, the high road leading through it, a little below which the river Stour runs along the eastern part of the parish, on which there is a corn mill, long known by the name of French Mill, belonging to Mr. Wildman, and on the height above it the noted mount of earth, usually called Julliberries grave. On an eminence, almost adjoining to the opposite or west side of the road, is the village, built mostly on the summit of the hill, round a small forstal, having the church and vicarage, a neat modern built house, on the north side of it, and the antient castle, with the stately mansion and park of Chilham. On the opposite side from which there is a most beautiful view over the spacious Ashford vale, through which the river Stour directs its course; a vale which comprehends within it a most beautiful scene, ornamented with seats, parks, towns, and churches, in the various parts of it, bounded by the majestic tower of Ashford church in front, the fine down hills, the summits of which are well cloathed with soliage on one side, and the extended range of Wye and Braborne downs on the other, all together forming a most rich and luxuriant prospect.
The parish is nearly circular, between three and four miles across. The ground in it is very unequal and hilly, the soil of the hills being mostly chalk, and the vales clay. There is some coppice wood in the south west part of it towards Molash, where it becomes, among the hills, which are bold and romantic, a barren and slinty country. About a mile northward from Chilham church is the common, or small heath, called Old Wives lees, over which the branch of the turnpike road goes which leads for the Ashford road abovementioned to Faversham. Near the lees is Lower Emsin, and adjoining the Blean woods. There are about one hundred and twenty houses, and seven hundred and twenty inhabitants in this parish.
The market mentioned to be granted below, has been disused time out of mind, and the fair on the Assumption has likewise been long disused, but there is one held here yearly on Nov. 8, for cattle, &c.
THE MANOR OF SELGRAVE in Faversham, having fallen to Sir Dudley Diggs, by escheat, and being also purchased by him of the heir of Sir Christopher Cleve, he, by a codicil to his will in 1638, devised it to charitable uses, ordering that it should be let to some tenant, who should pay over and above the quit-rents, twenty pounds per annum; and so soon as that sum should be raised, then that the lord of Faversham, or in his absence, the mayor, with the advice of four of the jurats, and the lord of Chilham, or in his absence, the vicar of Chilham, with the advice of four of the best freeholders, should chuse a young man, and a young maiden, of good conversation, between the ages of sixteen and twenty four; and these two young men and two young maidens, on the 19th of May yearly, should run a tye at Chilham, and the young man and young maid who should prevail, should each of them have ten pounds.
This running is still kept up; several young men and maids run at Old Wives-lees, in this parish, yearly on the first of May, and several others at Sheldwichlees on the Monday following, by way of trial; and the two which prevail at each of those places run for the above-mentioned ten pounds on Old Wives-lees, on the 19th of May, among a great concourse of the neighbouring gentry and inhabitants, who constantly assemble there on this occasion. (fn. 1) The late Mr. Heron, as lord of Chilham, endeavoured to put an end to this diversion, but found it out of his power.
¶CAMDEN says, it was the current opinion among the inhabitants, that Julius Cæsar encamped here in his second expedition against the Britons, and that thence this parish acquired its name of Julham, i e. Julius's station, or house; and if he mistook not, they had truth on their side. (fn. 2) Meaning this to be the place where Cæsar, in his Commentaries, says, that having marched about twelve miles he discovered the Britons, who were advanced to the banks of a river, and begin from a rising ground to oppose the Romans and give them battle; but being repulsed, they retired to a place fortisied both by art and nature in an extraordinary manner. Camden surely seems to be mistaken here; for this place is full sixteen statute miles in a direct line from Deal, which is nearly seventeen miles and a quarter by the Roman estimation; too great a difference, we must suppose, for Cæsar to be mistaken in. It is more probable, that this was the place where the Britons, the next day after the attack, which they under the command of Cassivelaun, had made on the Romans, immediately after Cæsar's return from fortifying his camp, had posted themselves, on the hills at some distance from the Roman camp, and harassed from thence their cavalry and attacked their foragers under C. Trebonius, rushing on them so suddenly from all parts, as even to fall in with the legions and their standards. If their post for this purpose was here, the spot of it must have been at Shillingheld wood, where there are large and extensive remains of strong fortifications and entrenchments, and where the Romans afterwards, from the works already made there, and the eligibility of its situation, placed one of their castra stativa, or more lasting encampments, to which probably the scite, where the antient castle of Chilham stands, might be an exploratory fort.
CHILHAM was of eminent account in the earliest times, and from its situation was most probably, in the time of the antient Britons, fortified, and held by them as a place of strength against the Romans, who had several encounters in and near it with them; and afterwards, when that nation had gained a more permanent footing in this island, was more strongly fortified by them, and made use of as one of their castra stativa, or more lasting encampments; and many Roman remains have been from time to time discovered in it, in the spot where the present mansion of the castle now stands, with the plain appearance of a much more antient building under the foundations of it. This appeared when Sir Dudley Digges pulled down the old mansion of Chilham, and dug the foundations deeper for the present house, when the basis of a much more antient building was discovered, and many culinary vessels of the Romans were found at a considerable depth. After the Romans had deserted Britain, the Saxon chiefs seem to have kept possession of it, and to have had a fortress or castle on or just by the scite of the present one; and in the time of the heptarchy, Widred, king of Kent, who reigned at the latter end of the 7th century, resided at it, and made it a place of much greater strength and defence; and Bede notices that the villæ regiæ of the Saxons were mostly placed upon or near the places where the Romans had before made their stations and principal fortified encampments. After which, as this kingdom made but an inconsiderable figure, historians have made little mention of the several princes who reigned, or their transactions in it, so that there is no following account of this place till the invasion of the Danes, who in one of their in cursions, probably in either the year 838 or 851, in both which they took and plundered Canterbury, sacked and demolished this castle, which seems after this to have remained desolate till the time of the Conqueror; though the scite and domains belonging to it appear by the record of Domesday to have been, in the reign of king Edward the Consessor, in the possession of Sired de Cilleham, a noble Saxon, who had large possessions in different parts of this county, and was in the battle of Hastings, on the side of king Harold, by which he forfeited this estate to the Conqueror, who soon afterwards granted it to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the book of Domesday:
In Feleberge hundred, Fulbert holds of the bishop, Cilleham. It was taxed at five at five sulings. The arable land is twenty carucates. In demesue there are two carucats, and thirty eight villeins, with twelve corttages having twelve carucates. There is a church, and six mills and an half, of six pounds and eight shillings, and two fisheries of seventeen pence, and pasture of eighteen shillings and seven pance.
In Canterbury, city there are thirteen houses belonging to this manor, paying fifteen shillings, and nine acres of meadow. Wood sufficient for the pannage of twenty hogs.
In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was valued at forty pounds, and afterwards at thirty pounds and forty shillings. Sired held it of king Edward.
CHILHAM is within the Ecclesiastical Ju risdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome building, consisting of a body and two isles, all covered with lead, and a high chancel, with two chaples, one of which is dedicated to St. Anne, on the south side; there was a chantry on the north side, now pulled down, with a transept, all covered with tile. It has a tower steeple at the west end, on one corner of which is a beacon turret, which till of late was covered with a small spire. There are six bells and a clock in it. The steeple was built about the year 1534, as appears by a legacy towards the building of it. In the chancel is a monument for Margaret, sister of Sir D. Digges, wife of Sir Anthony Palmer, K. B. obt. 1619. He lies buried here, within the altar-rails, obt. 1630. A memorial for Anne St. Leger, mother of Sir D. Diggs, obt. 1636, and several memorials for the Fogges. In the body of the church are memorials for the Cumberlands, Paynes, Cobbes, Belkes, and Bates; in the north transept, for Masters, Petits, Spracklyns, and Cobbe; and in the south one for Dixon. There were formerly in the windows the arms of Ensing and Thawyts, as has been already mentioned, and of Ross and Honywood. In the chapel on the south side of the chancel, probably that of St. Anne, is the burial vault built by Sir Dudley Diggs, for himself and family, and referred to by his will, in it many of this family lie buried; and in the chapel is a monument for Mary Kempe, lady Digges, wife of Sir Dudley, with her genealogy and that of Digges, and another for Sir D. Digges himself, 1638; and on the north side, probably where the old chantry above-mentioned was, is a circular mausoleum, with a cupola at top, built by the Colebrooke family for their use.
The church of Chilham was antiently an appendage appurtenant to the honor and manor of Chilham; but so early as the reign of king Stephen it was separated from it, and in the possession of William de Ipre, who in 1153 gave it to the priory of Throwley, which was confirmed by king Stephen that year. (fn. 18)
This religious house was an alien priory, established as a cell to the Benedictine abbey of St. Bertin, the capital of Artois, in Flanders, from whence a certain number of monks, who were mostly foreigners, and removeable at pleasure, were sent over, with a prior at their head, who were little more than stewards to their superior abbey, to which they returned the revenues of their possessions annually; for which reason, during the wars with France, as their revenues went to support the king's enemies, these kind of houses were generally seized, and restored again upon the return of peace.
¶In the 8th year of king Richard II. this church of Chilham was valued at forty pounds, at which time it was become appropriated to this cell, and a vicarage was endowed in it. In which situation both parsonage and vicarage remained till the general suppression of the alien priories throughout England, in the 2d year of Henry V. when this of Throwley was, among others, suppressed, and it seems to have remained in the hands of the crown till king Henry VI. in his 22nd year, settled it on the monastery of Sion, founded by his father. With which this church and vicarage continued till the general suppression of religious houses, this of Sion being one of those greater monasteries dissolved by the act of 31 Henry VIII. by which all such, together with their possessions, were given to the king. This parsonage and vicarage thus coming into the hands of the crown, the king in his 32d year, granted the rectory of Chilham, together with the chapel of Molash, and the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Chilham, with all their appurtenances, together with the manor of Chilham, to Sir Thomas Chene, in manner as has been already mentioned; (fn. 19) whose only son and heir Henry, lord Cheney, of Tuddington, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth levied a fine of all his lands, and soon afterwards seems to have alienated a moiety of the parsonage of Chilham, with all the tithes and emoluments belonging to it, arising on the east of the high road leading from Godmersham, through Chilham town to Faversham; and they are now the property of the Rev. Sir John Fagg, bart. The great tithes of the chapel and parish of Molash seem to have been alienated by him at the same time, as will be further mentioned hereafter; but the other moiety and remainder of the parsonage of Chilham, with all the tithes arising in the parish, on the other or west side of the above-mentioned high road, together with the advowson of the vicarage of Chilham, with the appendant chapel of Molash, was alienated by him, together with the honor and castle, in the 10th year of queen Elizabeth, to Sir Thomas Kempe, since which they have passed together in manner as has been more fully mentioned before, in a like succession of ownership down to Thomas Wildman, esq. the present possessor of this part of the parsonage, and parton likewise of the advowson of the church of Chilham.
The vicarage of Chilham, with the chapel of Molash, is valued in the king's books at 13l. 6s. 8d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 8d. In 1578 here were communications three hundred and fifty nine. In 1640 it was valued at eighty-nine pounds. Communicants three hundred and seventy-seven. It is now worth two hundred pounds per annum.
IT HAS BEEN mentioned, that there was A CHANTRY on the north side of this church. It was endowed with twenty-two acres of land, as appears by the roll in the Augmentation-office, of 30 Henry VIII. This chantry was dissolved by the act of the 1st year of king Edward VI. The last incumbent of it, John Castelyn, was living anno 1553, and had then a pension of six pounds. (fn. 20)
By the survey of chantries in the above office, taken in the 2d year of king Edward VI. it appears that Robert Pell gave a house and garden in Chilhæn, on condition that the stipendiary priest there should live in it.
There was in 1349 A CHAPEL in the castle of Chilliam, called the free chapel of the blessed Virgin Mary, of which Margery, lady Roos, daughter of Bartholomew, lord Badlesmere, and widow of William, lord Roos de Hamlake, was patroness, and accordingly that year, at her presentation, the see of Canterbury being then vacant, one Osbertus was admitted by the prior and chapter of Christ-church, personally to serve as a perpetual chaplain in it.
I was in the area, checking up on the Heath Spotted Orchids, and the church was a five minute drive away, in the grounds of a former country house.
I park at the church and find it locked, as expected, but there were directions to a keyholder nearby, walking into the cobbled squares and converted estate buildings now executive housing.
I ring the bell: nothing
I ring again: nothing
I use the knocker: dog barks. Dog attacks the door.
There is angry voices. Or voice. There was the sound of the dog being put into a side room, and the struggle to close the door.
The front door opened: yes?
Can I have the church key, please?
Not sure if I still have it.
Why'd you want it?
To photograph the interior.
Who're with?
I'm with no one, I am photographing all parish churches in the county, and would like to do this one. I showed him my driving licence which should say under job title: obsessive and church crawler.
He seemed satisfied, and let me have the key.
Phew.
Inside two things you notice; one is the box tomb, finely carved and still with traces of the original paint, and secondly, the organ is in pieces, and apparently the most complicated jigsaw you ever did see
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Substantially rebuilt after a fire of 1598. The welcoming interior displays no chancel arch, although the doorways in the arcade show where the medieval rood screen ran the width of the church. The striking east window was designed by Wallace Wood in 1954. There is a good aumbry and piscina nearby. To the north of the chancel stands the excellent tomb chest of Sir John Tufton (d. 1624). The arcade into which it is built was lowered to allow a semi-circular alabaster ceiling to be inserted to set the composition off. Because it is completely free-standing it is one of the easiest tomb chests in Kent to study, with five sons kneeling on the south side and four daughters on the north . In addition there are complicated coats of arms and an inscription which records the rebuilding of the church by Tufton after the fire. On top of the chest lie Sir John and his wife, with their son Nicholas kneeling between their heads. Much of the monument is still covered with its original paint. The organ, which stands in the south aisle, may be the instrument on which Sir Arthur Sullivan composed 'The Lost Chord'. It originally stood in Hothfield Place where Sullivan was a frequent guest.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hothfield
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HOTHFIELD
IS the next parish northward from Great Chart, and is so called from the bothe, or heath within it. The greatest part of this parish lies within the hundred of Chart and Longbridge, and the remainder in that of Calehill. It is in the division of East Kent.
THE PARISH of Hothfield lies a little more than two miles from Ashford north-westward, the high road from which towards Lenham and Maidstone goes through it over Hothfield heath. It contains about 1250 acres, and fifty houses, the rents of it are about 1300l. per annum. It is not a pleasant, nor is it accounted a healthy situation, owing probably to the many low and watry lands in and about it. The river Stour, which rises at Lenham, runs along the southern side of the parish, which is watered likewise by several small streams, which rise about Charing and Westwell, from under the chalk hills, and join the Stour here. The heath, which contains near one half of the parish, consists mostly of a deep sand, and has much peat on it, which is continually dug by the poor for firing. On the east and west sides of the heath, the latter being called West-street, are two hamlets of houses, which form the scattered village of Hothfield. The Place-house stands on a hill, at a small distance from the corner of the heath southward, with some small plantations of trees about it, forming a principal object to the country round it. It is a square mansion, built of Portland stone, by the late earl of Thanet, on the scite of the antient mansion, close to the church; it has a good prospect round it. The adjoining grass grounds are extensive, and well laid out for the view over them; the water, which rises at no great distance from the house, becomes very soon a tolerable sized stream, and running on in sight of it, joins the Stour a little above Worting mill; these grass lands are fertile and good fatting land, like those mentioned before, near Godington, in Great Chart. The parsonage house, which is a neat dwelling of white stucco, stands at the southern corner of the heath, at the foot of the hill, adjoining the Place grounds, near West-street. Between the heath and Potter's corner, towards Ashford, the soil begins to approach much of the quarry stone.
Though the land in the parish is naturally poor, it is rendered productive by the chalk and lime procured from the down hills. The inhabitants have an unlimited right of commoning with those of the adjoining parish of Westwell, to upwards of five hundred acres of common, which affords them the means of keeping a cow and their poultry, which, with the liberty of digging peat, draws a number of certificated poor to reside here. There is not one dissenter in the parish.
Jack Cade, the noted rebel, in Henry the VI.th's reign, though generally supposed to be taken by Alexander Iden, esq. the sheriff, in a field belonging to Ripple manor, in the adjoining parish of Westwell, was discovered, as some say, in a field in this parish, still named from him, Jack Cade's field, now laid open with the rest of the grounds adjoining to Hothfieldplace.
The plant caryophyllata montena, or water avens, which is a very uncommon one, grows in a wood near Barber's hill, in this parish.
THE MANOR OF HOTHFIELD seems, in very early times, to have had the same owners as the barony of Chilham, and to have continued so, for a considerable length of time after the descendants of Fulbert de Dover were become extinct here. Bartholomew de Badlesmere, who in the 5th year of king Edward II. had a grant of this manor as well as of Chilham in see, appears to have held this manor of Hothfield by grand sergeantry of the archbishop, and accordingly, in the 8th year of it, at the enthroning of archbishop Walter Reynolds, he made his claim, and was allowed to perform the office of chamberlain for that day, and to serve up the water, for the archbishop to wash his hands; for which his fees were, the furniture of his bedchamber, and the bason and towel made use of for that purpose; (fn. 1) and in the next year he obtained of the king, a charter of free-warren for his demesne lands within this manor among others. After this the manor of Hothfield continued to be held by the like service, and continued in the same owners as that of Chilham, (fn. 2) down to Thomas lord Roos, who became entitled to the see of it, who for his attachment to the house of Lancaster, was, with others, attainted, in the 1st year of king Edward IV.'s reign, and his lands confiscated to the crown. But Margaret his mother, being possessed of it for her life, afterwards married Roger Wentworth, esq. whom she survived, and died possessed of it in the 18th year of that reign; upon which, by reason of the above attaint, the crown became entitled to it, the inquisition for which was found in the 4th year of that reign; immediately after which, the king granted it to Sir John Fogge, of Repton, who was comptroller of his household and one of his privy council, for his life. On king Richard III.'s accession to the crown, he took shelter in the abbey of Westminster, from whence he was invited by the king, who in the presence of a numerous assembly gave him his hand, and bid him be confident that from thenceforward he was sure to him in affection. This is rather mentioned, as divers chronicles have erroneously mentioned that he was an attorney, whom this prince had pardoned for forgery. He died possessed of it in the 17th year of Henry VII. where it remained till Henry VIII. granted it, at the very latter end of his reign, to John Tufton, esq. of Northiam, in Sussex, whose lands were disgavelled by the acts of 2 and 3 Edward VI. who afterwards resided at Hothfield, where he kept his shrievalty in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth. He was descended from ancestors who were originally written Toketon, and held lands in Rainham, in this county, as early as king John's reign; (fn. 3) one of whom was seated at Northiam, in Sussex, in king Richard the IId.'s reign, at which time they were written as at present, Tufton, and they continued there till John Tufton, esq. of Northiam, before-mentioned, removed hither. He died in 1567, and was buried in this church, leaving one son John Tufton, who resided at Hothfield-place, and in July, in the 16th year of queen Elizabeth, anno 1573, entertained the queen here, in her progress through this county. In the 17th year of that reign he was sheriff, and being a person of eminent repure and abilities, he was knighted by king James, in his 1st year, and created a baronet at the first institution of that order, on June 19, 1611. He married Olimpia, daughter and heir of Christopher Blower, esq. of Sileham, in Rainham, by whom he had three daughters; and secondly Christian, daughter and coheir of Sir Humphry Brown, a justice of the common pleas. He died in 1624, and was buried in this church, having had by her several sons and daughters. Of the former, Nicholas the eldest, succeeded him in title and estates. Sir Humphry was of Bobbing and the Mote, in Maidstone, and Sir William was of Vinters, in Boxley, both baronets, of whom further mention has already been made in the former parts of this history.
Sir Nicholas Tufton, the eldest son, was by letters patent, dated Nov. 1, anno 2 Charles I. created lord Tufton, baron of Tufton, in Sussex; and on August 5, in the 4th year of that reign, earl of the Isle of Thanet, in this county. He had four sons and nine daughters; of the former, John succeeded him in honors, and Cecil, was father of Sir Charles Tufton, of Twickenham, in Middlesex. John, the eldest son, second earl of Thanet, married in 1629 Margaret, eldest daughter and coheir of Richard, earl of Dorset, by his wife the lady Anne Clifford, sole daughter and heir of George, earl of Cumberland, and baroness of Clifford, Westmoreland, and Vescy, by which marriage these tithes descended afterwards to their issue. In the time of the commonwealth, after king Charles the 1st.'s death, he was, in 1654, appointed sheriff, and however inconsistent it might be to his rank, yet he served the office. He left six sons and six daughters, and was succeeded by Nicholas his eldest son, third earl of Thanet, who by the deaths of his mother in 1676, and of his cousin-german Alethea, then wife of Edward Hungerford, esq. who died s. p. in 1678, he became heir to her, and sole heir to his grandmother Anne, lady Clifford, and consequently to the baronies of Clifford, Westmoreland, and Vescy; dying s. p. he was succeeded as earl of Thanet and lord Clifford, &c. by his next brother John, who, on his mother's death, succeeded likewise by her will to her large estates in Yorkshire and Westmoreland, and to the hereditary in sheriffdoms of the latter and of Cumberland likewise, for it frequently happened in these hereditary sheriffdoms that female heirs became possessed of them, and consequently were sheriffs of those districts; but this was not at all an unusual thing, there being many frequent instances of women bearing that office, as may be seen in most of the books in which any mention is made of it, some instances of which the reader may see in the differtation on the office of sheriff, in vol. i. of this history. That part of their office which was incompatible for a woman to exercise, was always executed by a deputy, or shyre-clerk, in their name. But among the Harleian MSS. is a very remarkable note taken from Mr. Attorney-general Noys reading in Lincoln's inn, in 1632, in which, upon a point, whether the office of a justice of a forest might be executed by a woman; it was said, that Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother to king Henry VII. was a justice of peace; that the lady Bartlet, perhaps meant for Berkley, was also made a justice of the peace by queen Mary, in Gloucestershire; and that in Suffolk one ..... Rowse, a woman, did usually fit upon the bench at assizes and sessions among other justices, gladio cincta. John, earl of Thanet, died unmarried, as did his next brother earl Richard, so that the titles devolved to Thomas Tufton, who became the sixth earl of Thanet, and lord Clifford, which latter title was decreed to him by the house of peers in 1691. He left surviving issue five daughters and coheirs, the eldest of whom, Catherine, married Ed. Watson, viscount Sondes, son and heir of Lewis, earl of Rockingham; and the four others married likewise into noble families. He died at Hothfield in 1729, having by his will bequeathed several legacies to charitable purposes, especially towards the augmentation of small vicarages and curacies. He died without male issue, so that the titles of earl of Thanet and baron Tufton, and of baronet, descended to his nephew Sackville Tufton, eldest surviving son of his brother Sackville Tufton, fifth son of John, second earl of Thanet. But the title of baroness Clifford, which included those of Westmoreland and Vescy, upon the death of Thomas, earl of Thanet, without male issue, became in abeyance between his daughters and coheirs above-mentioned, and in 1734, king George II. confirmed that barony to Margaret, his third surviving daughter and coheir, married to Thomas Coke, lord Lovel, afterwards created earl of Leicester, which title is now again in abeyance by his death s. p. Which Sackville Tufton died in 1721, leaving Sackville the seventh earl of Thanet, whose eldest son of the same name succeeded him as eighth earl of Thanet, and rebuilt the present mansion of Hothfield-place, in which he afterwards resided, but being obliged to travel to Italy for his health, he died there at Nice in 1786, and was brought to England, and buried in the family vault at Rainham, in this county, where his several ancestors, earls of Thanet, with their countesses, and other branches of the family, lie deposited, from the time of their first accession to that title. He married Mary, daughter of lord John Philip Sackville, sister of the present duke of Dorset, by whom he had five sons and two daughters, Elizabeth; and Caroline married to Joseph Foster Barham, esq. Of the former, Sackville, born in 1769, succeeded him in honors; Charles died unmarried; John is M. P. for Appleby; Henry is M. P. for Rochester, and William. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the present right hon. Sackville Tufton, earl of Thanet, baron Tufton, lord of the honor of Skipton, in Craven, and baronet, and hereditary sheriff of the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, who is the present possessor of this manor and seat, and resides here, and is at present unmarried. (fn. 4)
The antient arms of Tufton were, Argent, on a pale, sable, an eagle displayed of the field; which coat they continued to bear till Nicholas Tufton, the first earl of Thanet, on his obtaining that earldom, altered it to that of Sable, an eagle displayed, ermine, within a bordure, argent; which coat was confirmed by Sir William Segar, garter, in 1628, and has been borne by his descendants to the present time. The present earl of Thanet bears for his coat of arms that last-mentioned; for his crest, On a wreath, a sea lion, seiant, proper; and for his supporters, Two eagles, their wings expanded, ermine.
SWINFORT, or Swinford, which is its more proper name, is a manor in this parish, lying in the southern part of it, near the river Stour, and probably took its name from some ford in former times over it here. However that be, it had formerly proprietors, who took their name from it; but they were never of any eminence, nor can I discover when they became extinct here; only that in king Henry V.'s reign it was in the possession of Bridges, descended from John atte Bregg, one of those eminent persons, whose effigies, kneeling and habited in armour, was painted in the window often mentioned before, in Great Chart church; and in this family the manor of Swinford continued till the latter end of king James I.'s reign, when it passed by sale from one of them to Sir Nicholas Tufton, afterwards created earl of Thanet, whose son John, earl of Thanet, before the 20th year of that reign, exchanged it for other lands, which lay more convenient to him, with his near neighbour Nicholas Toke, esq. of Godinton, in which family and name it has continued down, in like manner as that feat, to Nicholas Roundell Toke, esq. now of Godinton, the present possessor of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
FAUSLEY, or FOUSLEY, as it is now usually called, is the last manor to be described in this parish; its more antient name was Foughleslee, or, as it was usually pronounced, Faulesley; which name it gave to owners who in early times possessed and resided at it. John de Foughleslee, of Hothfield, was owner of it in the second year of king Richard II. and in his descendants this manor seems to have continued till about the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it passed by sale to Drury; from which name, at the latter end of it, this manor was conveyed to Paris, who immediately afterwards alienated it to Bull, who soon afterwards reconveyed it back again to the same family, whence, in the next reign of king James I. it was sold to Sir Nicholas Tufton, afterwards created earl of Thanet, in whose successors, earls of Thanet, it has continued down to the right hon. Sackville, earl of Thanet, the present owner of it.
Charities.
RICHARD PARIS, by deed in 1577, gave for the use of the poor, a rent charge of 16s. per annum, out of land called Hanvilles, in this parish; the trustees of which have been long ago deceased, and no new ones appointed since.
THOMAS KIPPS, gent. of Canterbury, by will in 1680, gave for the use of the same, an annual rent charge of 1l. out of lards in Great Chart.
RICHARD MADOCKE, clothier, of this parish, by will in 1596, ordered that the 11l. which he had lent to the parishioners of Hothfield, towards the rebuilding of their church, should, when repaid, be as a stock to the poor of this parish for ever.
SIR JOHN TUFTON, knight and baronet, and Nicholas his son, first earl of Thanet, by their wills in 1620 and in 1630, gave certain sums of money, with which were purchased eight acres of land in the parish of Kingsnoth, of the annual produce of 10l.
DR. JOHN GRANDORGE, by deed in 1713, gave a house and land in Newington, near Hythe, of the annual produce of 7l. which premises are vested in the earl of Thanet.
THOMAS, EARL OF THANET, and SACKVILLE TUFTON. Esq. grandfather of the present earl, by their deeds in 1720 and 1726, gave for a school mistress to teach 24 poor children, a rent charge and a house and two gardens, in Hothfield, the produce in money 20l. The premises were vested in Sir Penyston Lambe and Dr. John Grandorge, long since deceased; since which the trust has not been renewed; and the original writings are in the earl of Thanet's possession.
Such of the above benefactions as have been contributed by the Tufton family, have been ordered by their descendants to be distributed annually by the steward of Hothfield-place for the time being, without the interference of the parish officers, to such as received no relief from this parish; the family looking upon these rather as a private munisicence intended to continue under their direction.
The poor annually relieved are about twenty-five, casually as many.
HOTHFIELD is situated within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Charing.
¶The church, which is small, is dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of three isles and a chancel, having a low spire steeple, covered with shingles at the west end, in which are five bells, and though it stands on a hill, is yet very damp. There is not any painted glass in the windows of it. On the north side in it, is a monument of curious workmanship, having the figures of a man and woman, in full proportion, lying at length on it; at three corners of it are those of two sons and one daughter, kneeling, weeping, all in white marble; round the edges is an inscription, for Sir John Tufton, knight and baronet, and Olympia his wife, daughter and heir of Christopher Blower, esq. On the monument are the arms of Tufton, with quarterings and impalements; on the sides are two inscriptions, one, that he re-edified this church after it was burnt, at his own charge, and under it made a vault for himself and his posterity, and after that he had lived eighty years, departed this life; the other enumerating his good qualities, and saying that by his will he gave perpetual legacies to this parish and that of Rainham. This monument is parted off from the north isle by a strong partition of wooden balustrades, seven feet high. The vault underneath is at most times several feet deep with water, and the few coffins which were remaining in it were some years since removed to the vaults at Rainham, where this family have been deposited ever since. On the north side of the chancel is a smaller one, formerly called St. Margaret's chapel, now shut up, and made no use of. In the south isle is a memorial for Rebecca, wife of William Henman, esq. obt. 1739, and Anna-Rebecca, their daughter, obt. 1752; arms, A lion, between three mascles, impaling a bend, cotized, engrailed. This church, which is a rectory, was always esteemed an appendage to the manor, and has passed accordingly, in like manner with it, down to the right hon. Sackville, earl of Thanet, lord of the manor of Hothfield, the present patron of it.
This rectory is valued in the king's books at 17l. 5s. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 14s. 6d.
There was a pension of ten shillings paid from it to the college of Wye. In 1588 here were communicants one hundred and ninety-three, and it was valued at eighty pounds. In 1640, communicants one hundred and ninety, and valued at only sixty pounds per annum. There is a modus of two pence an acre of the pasture lands in the parish. There are twelve acres of glebe. It is now worth about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
Richard Hall, of this parish, by will in 1524, ordered that his feoffees should enfeoffe certain honest persons in his house and garden here, set beside the pelery, to the intent that the yearly serme of them should go to the maintenance of the rode-light within the church.
This church was burnt down in the reign of king James I. and was rebuilt at the sole expence of Sir John Tufton, knight and baronet, who died in 1624. His descendant Thomas, earl of Thanet, who died in 1729, gave the present altar-piece, some of the pewing, and the pulpit.
My Granddad passed away this morning.
This may seem like a strange photo to mark his passing.......
...... but he was an avid sea swimmer and would swim most mornings, and on the 1st April 1980 it was the official opening of Brighton’s naturist beach. He went along (I think for a bit of a laugh). He had never done it before, and never did it again, but inadvertently become the first official nude bather. I don’t think he had really thought thru what would happen next as local, national and foreign press were in attendance and he got quite a bit of news coverage. My auntie first knew about it when she saw his bum on French telly. The first my Nan knew about it was when she was contacted by the press, which confused her as he said he was going to the dentist.
One year later my brother and I were listening to Timbo on Southern FM, and his question of the evening was “What happened a year ago today, that made Arthur Albrow say ‘I told her I was at the dentist’”. We rang up straight away, got on the radio and won a prize. It was great.
So whenever I’ve walked past the Naturist beach, I have always had a little chuckle to myself, due to the furore he caused all those years ago.....
Sleep well Granddad.
But this is actually central London this month, And that canal is situated immediately outside a side entrance of Paddington Station, one of the busiest stations in the capital.
If you are old enough you may remember stories of the Provos of Amsterdam. They were kind of radical hippies or anarchists who occupied empty buildings all over the city and even an old ship in the harbour! . The Provos had many radical ideas and plans based on green and left leaning principles. One plan which they actually instigated was to place white painted bicycles all over the city for people to use freely and then leave somewhere for the next user. It did work for a while but one by one the bicycles mysteriously began to vanish.
There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.
But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.
This is one dedicated to the search and rescue pilots and the MTBs that rescued ditched pilots during the Battle of Britain. Very colourful.
Many more shots to come, I took some 150 shots here.
But that was nothing compared to how many I took at Barfrestone.....
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In the heart of the town with a prominent twelfth-century tower. From the outside it is obvious that much work was carried out in the nineteenth century. The church has major connections with the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports and is much used for ceremonial services. The western bays of the nave with their low semi-circular arches are contemporary with the tower, while the pointed arches to the east are entirely nineteenth century. The scale and choice of stone is entirely wrong, although the carving is very well done. However the east end, with its tall narrow lancet windows, is not so successful. The Royal Arms, of the reign of William and Mary, are of carved and painted wood, with a French motto - Jay Maintendray - instead of the more usual Dieu et Mon Droit. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War, but one of the survivors was the typical Norman font of square Purbeck marble construction. One of the more recent additions to the church is the Herald of Free Enterprise memorial window of 1989 designed by Frederick Cole.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Dover+1
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THE TOWN AND PORT OF DOVER.
DOVER lies at the eastern extremity of Kent, adjoining to the sea, the great high London road towards France ending at it. It lies adjoining to the parish of Charlton last-described, eastward, in the lath of St. Augustine and eastern division of the county. It is within the liberty of the cinque ports, and the juristion of the corporation of the town and port of Dover.
DOVER, written in the Latin Itinerary of Antonine, Dubris. By the Saxons, Dorsa, and Dofris. By later historians, Doveria; and in the book of Domesday, Dovere; took its name most probably from the British words, Dufir, signifying water, or Dusirrha, high and steep, alluding to the cliffs adjoining to it. (fn. 1)
It is situated at the extremity of a wide and spacious valley, inclosed on each side by high and steep hills or cliffs, and making allowance for the sea's withdrawing itself from between them, answers well to the description given of it by Julius Cæfar in his Commentaries.
In the middle space, between this chain of high cliffs, in a break or opening, lies the town of Dover and its harbour, which latter, before the sea was shut out, so late as the Norman conquest, was situated much more within the land than it is at present, as will be further noticed hereafter.
ON THE SUMMIT of one of these cliffs, of sudden and stupendous height, close on the north side of the town and harbour, stands DOVER CASTLE, so famous and renowned in all the histories of former times. It is situated so exceeding high, that it is at most times plainly to be seen from the lowest lands on the coast of France, and as far beyond as the eye can discern. Its size, for it contains within it thirty five acres of ground, six of which are taken up by the antient buildings, gives it the appearance of a small city, having its citadel conspicuous in the midst of it, with extensive fortifications, around its walls. The hill, or rather rock, on which it stands, is ragged and steep towards the town and harbour; but towards the sea, it is a perpendicular precipice of a wonderful height, being more than three hundred and twenty feet high, from its basis on the shore.
Common tradition supposes, that Julius Cæfar was the builder of this castle, as well as others in this part of Britain, but surely without a probability of truth; for our brave countrymen found Cæfar sufficient employment of a far different sort, during his short stay in Britain, to give him any opportunity of erecting even this one fortress. Kilburne says, there was a tower here, called Cæsar's tower, afterwards the king's lodgings; but these, now called the king's keep, were built by king Henry II. as will be further mentioned hereafter; and he further says, there were to be seen here great pipes and casks bound with iron hoops, in which was liquor supposed to be wine, which by long lying had become as thick as treacle, and would cleave like birdlime; salt congealed together as hard as stone; cross and long bows and arrows, to which brass was fastened instead of feathers, and they were of such size, as not to be fit for the use of men of that or any late ages. These, Lambarde says, the inhabitants shewed as having belonged to Cæfar, and the wine and salt as part of the provision he had brought with him hither; and Camden relates, that he was shewn these arrows, which he thinks were such as the Romans used to shoot out of their engines, which were like to large crossbows. These last might, no doubt, though not Cæsar's, belong to the Romans of a later time; and the former might, perhaps, be part of the provisions and stores which king Henry VIII. laid in here, at a time when he passed from hence over sea to France. But for many years past it has not been known what is become of any of these things.
Others, averse to Cæsar's having built this castle, and yet willing to give the building of it to the empire of the Romans of a later time, suppose, and that perhaps with some probability, it was first erected by Arviragus, (or Arivog, as he is called on his coin) king of Britain, in the time of Claudius, the Roman emperor. (fn. 2)
That there was one built here, during the continuance of the Roman empire in Britain, must be supposed from the necessity of it, and the circumstances of those times; and the existence of one plainly appears, from the remains of the tower and other parts of the antient church within it, and the octagon tower at the west end, in which are quantities of Roman brick and tile. These towers are evidently the remains of Roman work, the former of much less antiquity than the latter, which may be well supposed to have been built as early as the emperor Claudius, whose expedition hither was about or immediately subsequent to the year of Christ 44. Of these towers, probably the latter was built for a speculum, or watch-tower, and was used, not only to watch the approach of enemies, but with another on the opposite hill, to point out the safe entrance into this port between them, by night as well as by day.
In this fortress, the Romans seem afterwards to have kept a garrison of veterans, as we learn from Pancirollus, who tells us that a company of soldiers under their chief, called Præpositus Militum Tungricanorum, was stationed within this fortess.
Out of the remains of part of the above-mentioned Roman buildings here, a Christian church was erected, as most historians write, by Lucius, king of Britain, about the year 161; but it is much to be doubted whether there ever was such a king in Britain; if there was, he was only a tributary chief to the Roman emperor, under whose peculiar government Britain was then accounted. This church was built, no doubt, for the use of that part of the garrison in particular, who were at that time believers of the gospel, and afterwards during the different changes of the Christian and Pagan religions in these parts, was made use of accordingly, till St. Augustine, soon after the year 597, at the request of king Ethelbert, reconsecrated it, and dedicated it anew, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.
¶His son and successor Eadbald, king of Kent, founded a college of secular canons and a provost in this church, whose habitations, undoubtedly near it, there are not the least traces of. These continued here till after the year 691; when Widred, king of Kent, having increated the fortifications, and finding the residence of the religious within them an incumbrance, removed them from hence into the town of Dover, to the antient church of St. Martin; in the description of which hereafter, a further account of them will be given.
DOVER does not seem to have been in much repute as a harbour, till some time after Cæsar's expedition hither; for the unfitness, as well as insecurity of the place, especially for a large fleet of shipping, added to the character which he had given of it, deterred the Romans from making a frequent use of it, so that from Boleyne, or Gessoriacum, their usual port in Gaul, they in general failed with their fleets to Richborough, or Portus Rutupinus, situated at the mouth of the Thames, in Britain, and thence back again; the latter being a most safe and commodious haven, with a large and extensive bay.
Notwithstanding which, Dover certainly was then made use of as a port for smaller vessels, and a nearer intercourse for passengers from the continent; and to render the entrance to it more safe, the Romans built two Specula, or watch-towers, here, on the two hills opposite to each other, to point out the approach to it, and one likewise on the opposite hill at Bologne, for the like purpose there; and it is mentioned as a port by Antoninus, in his Itinerary, in which, ITER III. is A Londinio ad Portum Dubris, i. e. from London to the port of Dover.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, when the port of Bologne, as well as Richborough, fell into decay and disuse, and instead of the former a nearer port came into use, first at Whitsan, and when that was stopped up, a little higher at Calais, Dover quickly became the more usual and established port of passage between France and Britain, and it has continued so to the present time.
When the antient harbour of Dover was changed from its antient situation is not known; most probably by various occurrences of nature, the sea left it by degrees, till at last the farmer scite of it became entirely swallowed up by the beach. That the harbour was much further within land, even at the time of the conquest than it is at present, seems to be confirmed by Domesday, in which it is said, that at the entrance of it, there was a mill which damaged almost every ship that passed by it, on account of the great swell of the sea there. Where the scite of this mill was, is now totally unknown, though it is probable it was much within the land, and that by the still further accumulation of the beach, and other natural causes, this haven was in process of time so far filled up towards the inland part of it, as to change its situation still more to the south-west, towards the sea.
From the time of the Norman conquest this port continued the usual passage to the continent, and to confine the intercourse to this port only, there was a statute passed anno 4 Edward IV. that none should take shipping for Calais, but at Dover. (fn. 20) But in king Henry VII.'s time, which was almost the next reign, the harbour was become so swerved up, as to render it necessary for the king's immediate attention, to prevent its total ruin, and he expended great sums of money for its preservation. But it was found, that all that was done, would not answer the end proposed, without the building of a pier to seaward, which was determined on about the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, and one was constructed, which was compiled of two rows of main posts, and great piles, which were let into holes hewn in the rock underneath, and some were shod with iron, and driven down into the main chalk, and fastened together with iron bands and bolts. The bottom being first filled up with great rocks of stone, and the remainder above with great chalk stones, beach, &c. During the whole of this work, the king greatly encouraged the undertaking, and came several times to view it; and in the whole is said to have expended near 63,000l. on it. But his absence afterwards abroad, his ill health, and at last his death, joined to the minority of his successor, king Edward VI. though some feeble efforts were made in his reign, towards the support of this pier, put a stop to, and in the end exposed this noble work to decay and ruin.
Queen Mary, indeed, attempted to carry it on again, but neither officers nor workmen being well paid, it came to nothing, so that in process of time the sea having brought up great quantities of beach again upon it, the harbour was choaked up, and the loss of Calais happening about the same time, threatened the entire destruction of it. Providentially the shelf of beach was of itself became a natural defence against the rage of the sea, insomuch, that if a passage could be made for ships to get safely within it, they might ride there securely.
To effect this, several projects were formed, and queen Elizabeth, to encourage it, gave to the town the free transportation of several thousand quarters of corn and tuns of beer; and in the 23d of her reign, an act passed for giving towards the repair of the harbour, a certain tonnage from every vessel above twenty tons burthen, passing by it, which amounted to 1000l. yearly income; and the lord Cobham, then lordwarden, and others, were appointed commissioners for this purpose; and in the end, after many different trials to effect it, a safe harbour was formed, with a pier, and different walls and sluices, at a great expence; during the time of which a universal diligence and public spirit appeared in every one concerned in this great and useful work. During the whole of the queen's reign, the improvement of this harbour continued without intermission, and several more acts passed for that purpose; but the future preservation of it was owing to the charter of incorporation of the governors of it, in the first year of king James I. by an act passed that year, by the name of the warden and assistants of the harbour of Dover, the warden being always the lord-warden of the cinque ports for the time being, and his assistants, his lieutenant, and the mayor of Dover, for the time being, and eight others, the warden and assistants only making a quorum; six to be present to make a session; at any of which, on a vacancy, the assistants to be elected; and the king granted to them his land or waste ground, or beach, commonly called the Pier, or Harbour ground, as it lay without Southgate, or Snargate, the rents of which are now of the yearly value of about three hundred pounds.
Under the direction of this corporation, the works and improvements of this harbour have been carried on, and acts of parliament have been passed in almost every reign since, to give the greater force to their proceedings.
From what has been said before, the reader will observe, that this harbour has always been a great national object, and that in the course of many ages, prodigious sums of money have been from time to time expended on it, and every endeavour used to keep it open, and render it commodious; but after all these repeated endeavours and expences, it still labours under such circumstances, as in a very great degree renders unsuccessful all that has ever been done for that purpose.
DOVER, as has been already mentioned, was of some estimation in the time of the Roman empire in Britain, on account of its haven, and afterwards for the castle, in which they kept a strong garrison of sol. diers, not only to guard the approach to it, but to keep the natives in subjection; and in proof of their residence here, the Rev. Mr. Lyon some years since discovered the remains of a Roman structure, which he apprehended to have been a bath, at the west end of the parish-church of St. Mary, in this town, which remains have since repeatedly been laid open when interments have taken place there.
This station of the Romans is mentioned by Antonine, in his Itinerary of the Roman roads in Britain, by the name of Dubris, as being situated from the station named Durovernum, or Canterbury, fourteen miles; which distance, compared with the miles as they are now numbered from Canterbury, shews the town, as well as the haven, for they were no doubt contiguous to each other, to have both been nearer within land than either of them are at present, the present distance from Canterbury being near sixteen miles as the road now goes, The sea, indeed, seems antiently to have occupied in great part the space where the present town of Dover, or at least the northwest part of it, now stands; but being shut out by the quantity of beach thrown up, and the harbour changed by that means to its present situation, left that place a dry ground, on which the town of Dover, the inhabitants following the traffic of the harbour, was afterwards built.
This town, called by the Saxons, Dofra, and Dofris; by later historians, Doveria; and in Domesday, Dovere; is agreed by all writers to have been privileged before the conquest; and by the survey of Domesday, appears to have been of ability in the time of king Edward the Confessor, to arm yearly twenty vessels for sea service. In consideration of which, that king granted to the inhabitants, not only to be free from the payment of thol and other privileges throughout the realm, but pardoned them all manner of suit and service to any of his courts whatsoever; and in those days, the town seems to have been under the protection and government of Godwin, earl of Kent, and governor of this castle.
Soon after the conquest, this town was so wasted by fire, that almost all the houses were reduced to ashes, as appears by the survey of Domesday, at the beginning of which is the following entry of it:
DOVERE, in the time of king Edward, paid eighteen pounds, of which money, king E had two parts, and earl Goduin the third. On the other hand, the canons of St. Martin had another moiety. The burgesses gave twenty ships to the king once in the year, for fifteen days; and in each ship were twenty and one men. This they did on the account that he had pardoned them sac and soc. When the messengers of the king came there, they gave for the passage of a horse three pence in winter, and two in summer. But the burgesses found a steerman, and one other assistant, and if there should be more necessary, they were provided at his cost. From the festival of St. Michael to the feast of St. Andrew, the king's peace was in the town. Sigerius had broke it, on which the king's bailiff had received the usual fine. Whoever resided constantly in the town paid custom to the king; he was free from thol throughout England. All these customs were there when king William came into England. On his first arrival in England, the town itself was burnt, and therefore its value could not be computed how much it was worth, when the bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is rated at forty pounds, and yet the bailiff pays from thence fifty-four pounds to the king; of which twenty-four pounds in money, which were twenty in an one, but thirty pounds to the earl by tale.
In Dovere there are twenty-nine plats of ground, of which the king had lost the custom. Of these Robert de Romenel has two. Ralph de Curbespine three. William, son of Tedald, one. William, son of Oger, one. William, son of Tedold, and Robert niger, six. William, son of Goisfrid, three, in which the guildhall of the burgesses was. Hugo de Montfort one house. Durand one. Rannulf de Colubels one. Wadard six. The son of Modbert one. And all these vouch the bishop of Baieux as the protector and giver of these houses. Of that plat of ground, which Rannulf de Colubels holds, which was a certain outlaw, they agree that the half of the land was the king's, and Rannulf himself has both parts. Humphry the lame man holds one plat of ground, of which half the forfeiture is the king's. Roger de Ostrabam made a certain house over the king's water, and held to this time the custom of the king; nor was a house there in the time of king Edward. In the entrance of the port of Dovere, there is one mill, which damages almost every ship, by the great swell of the sea, and does great damage to the king and his tenants; and it was not there in the time of king Edward. Concerning this, the grandson of Herbert says, that the bishop of Baieux granted it to his uncle Herbert, the son of Ivo.
And a little further, in the same record, under the bishop's possessions likewise:
In Estrei hundred, Wibertus holds half a yoke, which lies in the gild of Dover, and now is taxed with the land of Osbert, the son of Letard, and is worth per annum four shillings.
From the Norman conquest, the cities and towns of this realm appear to have been vested either in the crown, or else in the clergy or great men of the laity, and they were each, as such, immediately lords of the same. Thus, when the bishop of Baieux, to whom the king had, as may be seen by the above survey, granted this town, was disgraced. It returned into the king's hands by forfeiture, and king Richard I. afterwards granted it in ferme to Robt. Fitz-bernard. (fn. 21)
After the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, the harbour of Dover still changing its situation more to the south-westward, the town seems to have altered its situation too, and to have been chiefly rebuilt along the sides of the new harbour, and as an encouragement to it, at the instance, and through favour especially to the prior of Dover, king Edward I. in corporated this town, the first that was so of any of the cinque ports, by the name of the mayor and commonalty. The mayor to be chosen out of the latter, from which body he was afterwards to chuse the assistants for his year, who were to be sworn for that purpose. At which time, the king had a mint for the coinage of money here; and by patent, anno 27 of that reign, the table of the exchequer of money was appointed to be held here, and at Yarmouth. (fn. 22) But the good effects of these marks of the royal favour were soon afterwards much lessened, by a dreadful disaster; for the French landed here in the night, in the 23d year of that reign, and burnt the greatest part of the town, and several of the religious houses, in it, and this was esteemed the more treacherousk, as it was done whilst the two cardinals were here, treating for a peace between England and France; which misfortune, however, does not seem to have totally impoverished it, for in the 17th year of the next reign of king Edward II it appears in some measure to have recovered its former state, and to have been rebuilt, as appears by the patent rolls of that year, in which the town of Dover is said to have then had in it twenty-one wards, each of which was charged with one ship for the king's use; in consideration of which, each ward had the privilege of a licensed packetboat, called a passenger, from Dover across the sea to Whitsan, in France, the usual port at that time of embarking from thence.
The state of this place in the reign of Henry VIII. is given by Leland, in his Itinerary, as follows:
"Dovar ys xii myles fro Canterbury and viii fro Sandwich. Ther hath bene a haven yn tyme past and yn taken ther of the ground that lyith up betwyxt the hilles is yet in digging found wosye. Ther hath bene found also peeces of cabelles and anchores and Itinerarium Antonini cawlyth hyt by the name of a haven. The towne on the front toward the se hath bene right strongly walled and embateled and almost al the residew; but now yt is parly fawlen downe and broken downe. The residew of the towne as far as I can perceyve was never waulled. The towne is devided into vi paroches. Wherof iii be under one rose at S. Martines yn the hart of the town. The other iii stand that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked. The other iii stand abrode, of the which one is cawled S. James of Rudby or more likely Rodeby a statione navium. But this word ys not sufficient to prove that Dovar showld be that place, the which the Romaynes cawlled Portus Rutupi or Rutupinum. For I cannot yet se the contrary but Retesboro otherwise cawlled Richeboro by Sandwich, both ways corruptly, must neades be Rutupinum. The mayne strong and famose castel of Dovar stondeth on the loppe of a hille almost a quarter of a myle of fro the towne on the lyst side and withyn the castel ys a chapel, yn the sides wherof appere sum greate Briton brykes. In the town was a great priory of blacke monkes late suppressed. There is also an hospitalle cawlled the Meason dew. On the toppe of the hye clive betwene the towne and the peere remayneth yet abowt a slyte shot up ynto the land fro the very brymme of the se clysse as ruine of a towr, the which has bene as a pharos or a mark to shyppes on the se and therby was a place of templarys. As concerning the river of Dovar it hath no long cowrse from no spring or hedde notable that descendith to that botom. The principal hed, as they say is at a place cawled Ewelle and that is not past a iii or iiii myles fro Dovar. Ther be springes of frech waters also at a place cawled Rivers. Ther is also a great spring at a place cawled …… and that once in a vi or vii yeres brasted owt so abundantly that a great part of the water cummeth into Dovar streme, but als yt renneth yn to the se betwyxt Dovar and Folchestan, but nerer to Folchestan that is to say withyn a ii myles of yt. Surely the hedde standeth so that it might with no no great cost be brought to run alway into Dovar streame." (fn. 23)
Cougate Crosse-gate Bocheruy-gate stoode with toures toward the se. There is beside Beting-gate and Westegate.
Howbeyt MTuine tol me a late that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked.
This was the state of Dover just before the time of the dissolution of religious houses, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when the abolition of private masses, obits, and such like services in churches, occasioned by the reformation, annillilated the greatest part of the income of the priests belonging to them, in this as well as in other towns, in consequence of which most of them were deserted, and falling to ruin, the parishes belonging to them were united to one or two of the principal ones of them. Thus, in this town, of the several churches in it, two only remained in use for divine service, viz. St. Mary's and St. James's, to which the parishes of the others were united.
After this, the haven continuting to decay more than ever, notwithstanding the national assistance afforded to it, the town itself seemed hastening to impoverishment. What the state of it was in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth, may be seen, by the certificate returned by the queen's order of the maritime places, in her 8th year, by which it appears that there were then in Dover, houses inhabited three hundred and fifty-eight; void, or lack of inhabiters, nineteen; a mayor, customer, comptroller of authorities, not joint but several; ships and crayers twenty, from four tons to one hundred and twenty.
¶This probable ruin of the town, however, most likely induced the queen, in her 20th year, to grant it a new charter of incorporation, in which the manner of chusing mayor, jurats, and commoners, and of making freemen, was new-modelled, and several surther liberties and privileges granted, and those of the charter of king Edward I. confirmed likewise by inspeximus. After which, king Charles II. in his 36th year, anno 1684, granted to it a new charter, which, however, was never inrolled in chancery, and in consequence of a writ of quo warranto was that same year surrendered, and another again granted next year; but this last, as well as another charter granted by king James II. and forced on the corporation, being made wholly subservient to the king's own purposes, were annulled by proclamation, made anno 1688, being the fourth and last year of his reign: but none of the above charters being at this time extant, (the charters of this corporation, as well as those of the other cinque ports, being in 1685, by the king's command, surrendered up to Col. Strode, then governor of Dover castle, and never returned again, nor is it known what became of them,) Dover is now held to be a corporation by prescription, by the stile of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Dover. It consists at present of a mayor, twelve jurats, and thirty-six commoners, or freemen, together with a chamberlain, recorder, and town-clerk. The mayor, who is coroner by virtue of his office, is chosen on Sept. 8, yearly, in St. Mary's church, and together with the jurats, who are justices within this liberty, exclusive of all others, hold a court of general sessions of the peace and gaol delivery, together with a court of record, and it has other privileges, mostly the same as the other corporations, within the liberties of the cinque ports. It has the privilege of a mace. The election of mayor was antiently in the church of St. Peter, whence in 1581 it was removed to that of St. Mary, where it has been, as well as the elections of barons to serve in parliament, held ever since. These elections here, as well as elsewhere in churches, set apart for the worship of God, are certainly a scandal to decency and religion, and are the more inexcusable here, as there is a spacious court-hall, much more fit for the purposes. After this, there was another byelaw made, in June, 1706, for removing these elections into the court-hall; but why it was not put in execution does not appear, unless custom prevented it—for if a decree was of force to move them from one church to another, another decree was of equal force to remove them from the church to the courthall. Within these few years indeed, a motion was made in the house of commons, by the late alderman Sawbridge, a gentlemand not much addicted to speak in favour of the established church, to remove all such elections, through decency, from churches to other places not consecrated to divine worship; but though allowed to be highly proper, yet party resentment against the mover of it prevailed, and the motion was negatived by a great majority.
The mayor is chosen by the resident freemen. The jurats are nominated from the common-councilmen by the jurats, and appointed by the mayor, jurats, and common-councilmen, by ballot.
THE CHURCH OF ST. Mary stands at some distance from the entrance into this town from Canterbury, near the market-place. It is said to have been built by the prior and convent of St. Martin, (fn. 47) in the year 1216; but from what authority, I know not.—Certain it is, that it was in king John's reign, in the gift of the king, and was afterwards given by him to John de Burgh; but in the 8th year of Richard II.'s reign, anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac. After which, by what means, I cannot discover, this appropriation, as well as the advowson of the church, came into the possession of the master and brethren of the hospital of the Maison Dieu, who took care that the church should be daily served by a priest, who should officiate in it for the benefit of the parish. In which state it continued till the suppression of the hospital, in the 36th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the hands of the crown, at which time the parsonage was returned by John Thompson, master of the hospital, to be worth six pounds per annum.
Two years after which, the king being at Dover, at the humble entreaty of the inhabitants of this parish, gave to them, as it is said, this church, with the cemetery adjoining to it, to be used by them as a parochial church; at the same time he gave the pews of St. Martin's church for the use of it; and on the king's departure, in token of possession, they sealed up the church doors; since which, the patronage of it, which is now esteemed as a perpetual curacy, the minister of it being licensed by the archbishop, has been vested in the inhabitants of this parish. Every parishioner, paying scot and lot, having a vote in the chusing of the minister, whose maintenance had been from time to time, at their voluntary option, more or less. It is now fixed at eighty pounds per annum. Besides which he has the possession of a good house, where he resides, which was purchased by the inhabitants in 1754, for the perpetual use of the minister of it. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. (fn. 48)
There is a piece of ground belonging, as it is said, to the glebe of this church, rented annually at ten pounds, which is done by vestry, without the minister being at all concerned in it. In 1588 here were eight hundred and twenty-one communicants. This parish contains more than five parts out of six of the whole town, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants.
The church of St. Mary is a large handsome building of three isles, having a high and south chancel, all covered with lead, and built of flints, with ashler windows and door cases, which are arched and ornamented. At the west end is the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. The pillars in the church are large and clumsy; the arches low and semicircular in the body, but eliptical in the chancel; but there is no separation between the body and chancel, and the pews are continued on to the east end of the church. In the high chancel, at the eastern extremity of it, beyond the altar, are the seats for the mayor and jurats; and here the mayor is now chosen, and the barons in parliament for this town and port constantly elected.
In 1683, there was a faculty granted to the churchwardens, to remove the magistrates seats from the east end of the church to the north side, or any other more convenient part of it, and for the more decent and commodious placing the communion table: in consequence of which, these seats were removed, and so placed, but they continued there no longer than 1689, when, by several orders of vestry, they were removed back again to where they remain at present.
The mayor was antiently chosen in St. Peter's church; but by a bye-law of the corporation, it was removed to this church in 1583, where it has ever since been held. In 1706, another bye law was made, to remove, for the sake of decency, all elections from this church to the court-hall, but it never took place. More of which has been mentioned before.
From the largeness, as well as the populousness of this parish, the church is far from being sufficient to contain the inhabitants who resort to it for public worship, notwithstanding there are four galleries in it, and it is otherwise well pewed. This church was paved in 1642, but it was not ceiled till 1706. In 1742, there was an organ erected in it. The two branches in it were given, one by subscription in 1738, and the other by the pilots in 1742.
Thomas Toke, of Dover, buried in the chapel of St. Katharine, in this church, by his will in 1484, gave seven acres of land at Dugate, under Windlass-down, to the wardens of this church, towards the repairs of it for ever.
¶The monuments and memorials in this church and church yard, are by far too numerous to mention here. Among them are the following: A small monument in the church for the celebrated Charles Churchill, who was buried in the old church-yard of St. Martin in this town, as has been noticed before; and a small stone, with a memorial for Samuel Foote, esq. the celebrated comedian, who died at the Ship inn, and had a grave dug for him in this church, but was afterwards carried to London, and buried there. A monument and several memorials for the family of Eaton; arms, Or, a sret, azure. A small tablet for John Ker, laird of Frogden, in Twit dale, in Scotland, who died suddenly at Dover, in his way to France, in 1730. Two monuments for Farbrace, arms, Azure, a bend, or, between two roses, argent, seeded, or, bearded vert. A monument in the middle isle, to the memory of the Minet family. In the north isle are several memorials for the Gunmans, of Dover; arms,. … a spread eagle, argent, gorged with a ducal coronet, or. There are others, to the memory of Broadley, Rouse, and others, of good account in this town.
A long planned visit to Leeds to record the church.
Leeds is just off the M20, and nearby to Leeds Castle, which means the roads are often busy. St Nicholas is on the main road leading up the down, but before the road gets narrow as it winds between the timber framed houses. Thankfully there is good parking next door, so we were able to get off the main road and out of the traffic, as unbeknown to us, there was a classical music show on that night, and most of Kent were going and in the process of arriving.
St Nicholas is a grand church, the chancel and two side chapels are partially hidden behind a very fine Rood Screen, which at first didn't look original, but actually is.
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One of the largest twelfth-century towers in Kent. The arch between tower and nave is of three very plain orders with no hint of the usual zigzag moulding of the period, and is so large that a meeting room has recently been built into it. The nave has three bay aisles and short chapels to north and south of the chancel. The outstanding rood screen was partially reconstructed in 1892, and runs the full width of nave and aisles - with the staircase doorways in the south aisle. That the chancel was rebuilt in the sixteenth century may be seen by the plain sedilia through which is cut one of two hagioscopes from chapels to chancel. The north chapel contains some good seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tablets and monuments. The stained glass shows some excellent examples of the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne (south aisle) whilst there is an uncharacteristically poor example of the work of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. in the north aisle. The church has recently been reordered to provide a spacious, light and manageable interior with excellent lighting and a welcoming atmosphere without damaging the character of the building.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Leeds
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LEEDS
IS the next parish southward from Hollingborne. Kilburne says, that one Ledian, a chief counsellor to king Ethelbert II. who began his reign in 978, raised a fortress here, which was called in Latin, from him, Ledani Castrum, and in process of time in English, LEEDS. This castle was afterwards demolished by the Danes, and continued in that situation till the time of the Norman conquest.
THE PRESENT CASTLE is situated at the southeast boundary of this parish, adjoining to Bromfield, which includes a part of the castle itself. It is situated in the midst of the park, an ample description of it the reader will find hereafter. The Lenham rivulet takes its course through the park, and having supplied the moat, in which the castle stands, and the several waters in the grounds there, and having received into it the several small streamlets from Hollingborne, and one from the opposite side, which comes from Leeds abbey, it flows on, and at a small distance from Caring street, in this parish, adjoining to Bersted, the principal estate of which name there belongs to the Drapers company, it turns a mill, and then goes on to Maidstone, where it joins the river Medway. The high road from Ashford and Lenham runs close by the outside of the pales of Leeds park, at the northern boundary of the parish next to Hollingborne, and thence goes on towards Bersted and Maidstone, from which the park is distant a little more than five miles; here the soil is a deep sand, but near the river it changes to a black moorish earth. Southward from the castle the ground rises, at about three quarters of a mile south-west from it is Leeds abbey, the front of which is a handsome well-looking building, of the time of queen Elizabeth. It is not unpleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and is well watered by a small stream which rises just above it, and here turns a mill. It is well cloathed with wood at the back part of it, to which the ground still keeps rising; adjoining to the abbey grounds westward is Leeds-street, a long straggling row of houses, near a mile in length, having the church at the south end of it; here the soil becomes a red unfertile earth much mixed with slints, which continues till it joins to Langley and Otham.
LEEDS was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of that prelate's lands, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080.
Adelold holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Esiedes. It was taxed at three sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and twenty-eight villeins, with eight borderers, having seven carucates. There is a church, and eighteen servants. There are two arpends of vineyard, and eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five mills of the villeins. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth sixteen pounds, the like when be received it, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays twentyfive pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.
Of this manor the abbot of St. Augustine has half a suling, which is worth ten shillings, in exchange of the park of the bishop of Baieux. The earl of Ewe has four denns of this manor, which are worth twenty shillings.
The mention of the two arpends of vineyard in the above survey, is another instance of there having been such in this county in early times, some further observations of which the reader will find in the description of the parish of Chart Sutton, not far distant, and he will likewise observe, that at the above time the bishop of Baieux had a park here, which he acquired by exchange with the abbot of St. Augustine, who must therefore have had possessions here before that time.
On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace, about four years after the taking of the above-mentioned survey, this estate, among the rest of his possessions, became consiscated to the crown.
After which it was granted by king William to the eminent family of Crevequer, called in antient charters Creveceur, and in Latin, De Crepito Corde, who at first made Chatham in this county their seat, or caput baroniæ, i. e. the principal manor of their barony, for some time, until they removed hither, being before frequently written Domini de Cetham.
Robert, son of Hamon de Crevequer, who had probably a grant of Leeds from the Conqueror, appears to have held it of the king, as of his castle of Dover, in capite by barony, their barony, which consisted of five knight's sees, being stiled Baronia de Crevequer . (fn. 1) He erected the castle here, to which he asterwards removed the capital seat of his barony. This castle being environed with water, was frequently mentioned in antient writings by the name of Le Mote. In the north-west part of it he built a chapel, in which he placed three canons, which on his foundation of the priory of Leeds, in the 19th year of king Henry I. he removed thither.
His descendant, Hamon de Crevequer, lived in the reign of king Henry III. in the 19th year of which, he was joined with Walterand Teutonicus, or Teys, in the wardenship of the five ports, and the next year had possession granted to him of the lands of William de Albrincis or Averenches, whose daughter and heir Maud he had married. He died in the 47th year of king Henry III. possessed of the manor of Ledes, held of the king in capite, as belonging to his barony of Chatham; upon which Robert, his grandson, viz. son of Hamon his son, who died in his life-time, succeeded him as his heir, and in the 52d year of that reign, exchanged the manor of Ledes, with its appurtenances, together with a moiety of all his fees, with Roger de Leyburne, for the manors of Trottesclyve and Flete. He lest William de Leyburne, his son and heir, who in the 2d year of king Edward I. had possession granted to him of the manor of Ledes, as well as of the rest of his inheritance, of which Eleanor, countess of Winchester, his father's widow, was not endowed. (fn. 2)
His son, William de Leyborne, observing that the king looked on the strength of this fortress with a jealous eye, in the beginning of king Edward Ist.'s reign reinstated the crown in the possession of both the manor and castle; and the king having, in his 27th year married Margaret, sister of Philip, king of France, he settled them, being then of the clear yearly value of 21l. 6s. 8d. among other premises, as part of her dower. She survived the king her husband, who died in 1307, and in the 5th year of the next reign of king Edward II. by the king's recommendation, appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a nobleman of great power and eminence, and much in that prince's favor, governor of this castle. (fn. 3) She died possessed of them in the 10th year of that reign; on which they came once more into the hands of the crown, and in the beginning of the next year the king appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, above-mentioned, governor of this castle, as well as of that of Bristol. In the 11th year of that reign, the king granted to him in see, this manor and castle, and the advowson of the priory of Ledes, in exchange for the manor of Addresley, in Shropshire. Being possessed of great possessions, especially in this county, he was usually stiled, the rich lord Badlesmere of Ledes. Being pussed up through ambition and his great wealth, he forgot his allegiance, and associated himself with the earl of Lancaster, and the discontented barons; which the king being well informed of, resolved, if possible, to gain possession of this strong fortress of Ledes: to effect which, under pretence of the queen's going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, she set forward for that city with a large train of attendants, and, with a secret intention of surprising this castle, sent her marshal with others of her servants, to prepare lodging for her and her suit in it. The lord Badlesmere's family, that is, his wife, son, and four daughters, were at that time in it, together with all his treasure, deposited there for safety, under the care of Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, who refused the queen's servants admittance, and on her coming up, peremptorily persisted in denying her or any one entrance, without letters from his lord. The queen, upon this, made some attempt to gain admittance by force, and a skirmish ensued, in which one or more of her attendants were slain, but being repulsed, she was obliged to relinquish her design, and to retire for a lodging elsewhere.
The king, chagrined at the failure of his scheme, and highly resenting the indignity offered to the queen, sent a force under the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, to besiege the castle; (fn. 4) and those within it finding no hopes of relief, for though the lord Badlesmere had induced the barons to endeavours to raise the siege, yet they never advanced nearer than Kingston, yielded it up. Upon which, the lady Badlesmere and her children were sent prisoners to the tower of London, Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, was hung up, and the king took possession of the castle, as well as of all the lord Badlesmere's goods and treasures in it. But by others, Thomas de Aldone is said to have been castellan at this time, and that the castle being taken, he, with the lord Badlesmere's wife, his only son Giles, his daughters, Sir Bartholomew de Burgershe, and his wife, were sent to the tower of London by the king's order; and that afterwards, he caused Walter Colepeper, bailiff of the Seven Hundreds, to be drawn in a pitiable manner at the tails of horses, and to be hung just by this castle; on which Thomas Colepeper, and others, who were with him in Tunbridge castle, hearing of the king's approach, sled to the barons.
After which the lord Badlesmere, being taken prisoner in Yorkshire, was sent to Canterbury, and there drawn and hanged at the gallows of Blean, and his head being cut off, was set on a pole on Burgate, in that city. Upon which the manor and castle of Leeds, became part of the royal revenue and the castle remained in a most ruinous condition till the year 1359, anno 34 Edward III. in which year that munisicent prelate, William of Wickham, was constituted by the king, chief warden and surveyor of his castle of Ledes, among others, (fn. 5) having power to appoint all workmen, to provide materials, and to order every thing with regard to building and repairs; and in those manors to hold leets and other courts of trespass and misdemeanors, and to enquire of the king's liberties and rights; and from his attention to the re-edisying and rebuilding the rest of them, there is little doubt but he restored this of Leeds to a very superior state to whatever it had been before, insomuch, that it induced king Richard to visit it several times, particularly in his 19th year, in which several of his instruments were dated at his castle of Ledes; and it appears to have been at that time accounted a fortress of some strength, for in the beginning of the next reign, that unfortunate prince was, by order of king Henry IV. sent prisoner to this castle; and that king himself resided here part of the month of April in his 2d year.
After which, archbishop Arundel, whose mind was by no means inferior to his high birth, procured a grant of this castle, where he frequently resided and kept his court, whilst the process against the lord Cobham was carrying forward, and some of his instruments were dated from his castle of Ledes in the year 1413, being the year in which he died. On his death it reverted again to the crown, and became accounted as one of the king's houses, many of the principal gentry of the county being instrusted with the custody of it:
In the 7th year of king Henry V. Joane of Navarre, the second queen of the late king Henry IV. being accused of conspiring against the life of the king, her son-in-law, was committed to Leeds-castle, there to remain during the king's pleasure; and being afterwards ordered into Sir John Pelham's custody, he removed her to the castle of Pevensey, in Sussex.
In the 18th year of king Henry VI. archbishop Chichele sat at the king's castle of Leeds, in the process against Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, for forcery and witchcrast.
King Edward IV. in his 11th year, made Ralph St. Leger, esq. of Ulcomb, who had served the office of sheriff of this county three years before, constable of this castle for life, and annexed one of the parks as a farther emolument to that office. He died that year, and was buried with his ancestors at Ulcomb.
Sir Thomas Bourchier resided at Leeds castle in the 1st year of king Richard III. in which year he had commission, among others of the principal gentry of this county, to receive the oaths of allegiance to king Richard, of the inhabitants of the several parts of Kent therein mentioned; in which year, the king confirmed the liberties of Leeds priory, in recompence of twentyfour acres of land in Bromfield, granted for the enlargement of his park of Ledes.
In the 4th year of king Henry VIII. Henry Guildford, esq. had a grant of the office of constable of Leeds castle, and of the parkership of it; and in the 12th year of that reign, he had a grant of the custody of the manor of Leeds, with sundry perquisities, for forty years. He died in the 23d year of that reign, having re-edisied great part of the castle, at the king's no small charge.
But the fee simple of the manor and castle of Leeds remained in the hands of the crown, till Edward VI. in his 6th year, granted them, with their appurtenances in the parishes of Leeds, Langley, and Sutton, to Sir Anthony St. Leger, lord deputy of Ireland, to hold in capite by knight's service.
His son, Sir Warham St. Leger, succeeded him in this manor and castle, and was afterwards chief governor of Munster, in Ireland, in which province he was unfortunately slain in 1599, (fn. 6) but before his death he alienated this manor and castle to Sir Richard Smyth, fourth son of Thomas Smyth, esq. of Westenhanger, commonly called Customer Smyth.
Sir Richard Smyth resided at Leeds castle, of which he died possessed in 1628, and was buried in Ashford church, where there is a costly monument erected to his memory.
Sir John Smith, his only son, succeeded his father, and resided at Leeds castle, and dying s. p. in 1632, was buried in this church; upon which his two sisters, Alice, wife of Sir Timothy Thornhill, and Mary, of Maurice Barrow, esq. became his coheirs, and entitled their respective husbands to the property of this manor and castle, which they afterwards joined in the sale of to Sir T. Culpeper, of Hollingborne, who settled this estate, after his purchase of it, on his eldest son Cheney Culpeper, remainder to his two other sons, Francis and Thomas. Cheney Culpeper, esq. resided at Leedscastle for some time, till at length persuading his brother Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, (then his only surviving brother, Francis being dead. s. p.) to cut off the entail of this estate, he alienated it to his cousin Sir John Colepeper, lord Colepeper, only son of Sir John Culpeper, of Wigsell, in Sussex, whose younger brother Francis was of Greenway-court, in Hollingborne, and was father of Sir Thomas Culpeper, the purchaser of this estate as before-mentioned.
Sir John Colepeper represented this county in parliament in the 16th year of king Charles I. and being a person, who by his abilities had raised himself much in the king's favor, was made of his privy council, and chancellor of the exchequer, afterwards master of the rolls, and governor of the Isle of Wight. During the troubles of that monarch, he continued stedfast to the royal cause, and as a reward for his services, was in 1644 created lord Colepeper, baron of Thoresway, in Lincolnshire.
After the king's death he continued abroad with king Charles II. in his exile. During his absence, Leeds-castle seems to have been in the possession of the usurping powers, and to have been made use of by them, for the assembling of their committee men and sequestrators, and for a receptacle to imprison the ejected ministers, for in 1652, all his estates had been declared by parliament forfeited, for treason against the state. He died in 1660, a few weeks only after the restoration, and was buried at Hollingborne. He bore for his arms, Argent, a bend ingrailed gules, the antient bearing of this family; he left by his second wife Judith, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, several children, of whom Thomas was his successor in title and estates, and died without male issue as will be mentioned hereafter, John succeeded his brother in the title, and died in 1719 s. p. and Cheney succeeded his brother in the title, and died at his residence of Hoston St. John, in 1725, s. p. likewise, by which the title became extinct; they all, with the rest of the branch of the family, lie buried at Hollingborne. Thomas, lord Colepeper, the eldest son, succeeded his father in title, and in this manor and castle, where he resided, and having married Margaret, daughter of Signior Jean de Hesse, of a noble family in Germany, he left by her a sole daughter and heir Catherine, who intitled her husband Thomas, lord Fairfax, of Cameron, in Scotland, to this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood.
The family of Fairfax appear by old evidences in the hands of the family to have been in possession of lands in Yorkshire near six hundred years ago. Richard Fairfax was possessed of lands in that county in the reign of king John, whose grandson William Fairfax in the time of king Henry III. purchased the manor of Walton, in the West Riding, where he and his successors resided for many generations afterwards, and from whom descended the Fairfax's, of Walton and Gilling, in Yorkshire; of whom, Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Gilling, was created viscount Fairfax, of the kingdom of Ireland, which title became extinct in 1772; and from a younger branch of them descended Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton, who lived in queen Elizabeth's reign, and changed the original field of his coat armour from argent to or, bearing for his arms, Or, 3 bars gemelles, gules, surmounted of a lion rampant, sable, crown'd, of the first, and was father of Sir. T. Fairfax, who was, for his services to James and Charles I. created in 1627 lord Fairfax, baron of Cameron, in Scotland. He died in 1640, having had ten sons and two daughters; of whom, Ferdinando was his successor; Henry was rector of Bolton Percy, and had two sons, Henry, who became lord Fairfax, and Bryan, who was ancestor of Bryan Fairfax, late commissioner of the customs; and colonel Charles Fairfax, of Menston, was the noted antiquary, whose issue settled there.
Ferdinando, the second lord Fairfax, in the civil wars of king Charles I. was made general of the parliamentary forces, and died at York in 1646. His son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, succeeded him as lord Fairfax, and in all his posts under the parliament, and was that famous general so noted in English history during the civil wars, being made commander in chief of all the parliamentary forces; but at last he grew so weary of the distress and confusion which his former actions had brought upon his unhappy country, that he heartily concurred in the restoration of king Charles II. After which he retired to his seat at Bilborough, in Yorkshire, where he died in 1671, and was buried there, leaving by Anne, daughter and coheir of Horatio, lord Vere of Tilbury, a truly loyal and virtuous lady, an only daughter; upon which the title devolved to Henry Fairfax, esq. of Oglesthorpe, in Yorkshire, his first cousin, eldest son of Henry, rector of Bolton Percy, the second son of Thomas, the first lord Fairfax. Henry, lord Fairfax, died in 1680, and was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, who was bred to a military life, and rose to the rank of a brigadier-general. He represented Yorkshire in several parliaments and marrying Catherine, daughter and heir of Thomas, lord Colepeper, possessed, in her right this manor and castle, and other large possessions, as before-mentioned. (fn. 7)
He died possessed of them in 1710, leaving three sons and four daughters, Thomas, who succeeded him as lord Fairfax; Henry Culpeper, who died unmarried, in 1734; and Robert, of whom hereafter. Of the daughters, Margaret married David Wilkins, D. D. and prebendary of Canterbury, and Francis married Denny Martin, esq. Thomas, lord Fairfax, the son, resided at Leeds-castle till his quitting England, to reside on his great possessions in Virginia, where he continued to the time of his death. On his departure from England, he gave up the possession of this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood, to his only surviving brother, the hon. Robert Fairfax, who afterwards resided at Leeds-castle, and on his brother's death unmarried, in 1782, succeeded to the title of lord Fairfax. He was at first bred to a military life, but becoming possessed of Leeds castle, he retired there, and afterwards twice served in parliament for the town of Maidstoue, as he did afterwards in two successive parliaments for this county. He was twice married; first to Marsha, daughter and coheir of Anthony Collins, esq. of Baddow, in Essex, by whom he had one son, who died an instant; and, secondly, to one of the daughters of Thomas Best, esq. of Chatham, who died s. p. in 1750. Lord Fairfax dying s. p. in 1793, this castle and manor, with the rest of his estates in this county, came to his nephew the Rev. Denny Martin, the eldest son of his sister Frances, by Denny Martin, esq. of Loose, who had before his uncle's death been created D. D. and had, with the royal licence, assumed the name and arms of Fairfax. Dr. Fairfax is the present possessor of this manor and castle, and resides here, being at present unmarried.
A court leet and court baron is held for the manor of Leeds, at which three borsholders are appointed. It is divided into six divisions, or yokes as they are called, viz. Church-yoke, Ferinland-yoke, Mill-yoke, Russerken-yoke, Stockwell-yoke, and Lees-yoke.
One of the features of the late medieval English Catholic church was liturgical processions, but when this chancel was extended in the 15th century it took the building right up to the boundary of consecrated ground. To enable processions still to circumnavigate this building, the tunnel was placed beneath the high altar.
But sadly still practicing to use both at the same time. Volunteers from the far North welcome to offer their hind quarters
It's a long time since I posted, and I make no excuse for that - when you can't properly participate, it's better not to participate at all. And that's still the situation, although I've quietly lurked and enjoyed :)
But sometimes even silence is impossible. The last few months have been filled with what one might politely call "challenges", so on the 17th I was delighted when Lynn came to visit. We had a lovely time, and on the 24th - her last full day - we set off for Hunstanton. Looking back, I find myself remembering the astonishing voice of Ian McDonald reporting the loss of two Harriers at the time of the Falklands War, investing a single banal phrase - "the weather was very bad" - with the scope of cosmic tragedy. The weather was indeed very bad. We had stopped at traffic lights just outside Kings Lynn when a couple of seconds later a truck smashed into the back of our car.
Miraculously - and it really was miraculous - we escaped without injury, but were very shaken. The recovery crew were astonished at how well my old Citroen had taken the impact and we were told that a modern car would have simply folded up. I now have whiplash, which is ironic as I always thought it was an invention of ambulance-chasing lawyers.
All I could think about was Lynn - to have brought one's dearest friend into danger is horrific beyond words and I am haunted by the thought of what might have been. Now we face the "challenges" of insurance, lawyers and the rest - not least perhaps the loss of my poor old car, which has carried me through good times and bad for 14 years. But really, that is nothing to what we escaped.
One cannot help but think about those possibilities - and what might have been different, because that day, for some inexplicable reason, I was taking a route I never take. It makes one realise how fatuous many concerns are and how desperately fragile are the things we take for granted and without which existence is meaningless.
A Leica IIIf and 1958 issue of "35mm Photography". Not sure about the camera and lens - but almost certainly Nikon FM2n and Nikkor 1.8 50mm. Kodak BW400CN.
My friend,Tom at www.flickr.com/photos/tomjaynes/5567622205/WT'Sphotos,has posted a beautiful pink Dogwood,which he says is "scrawny'. Well this is a sprig of my scrawny white Dogwood. I 've babied it ever since we've lived here,and it was looking healthier until strong winds caused from one of the hurricanes a few years back pushed it up by the roots. Lee pulled it back straight,and tied it off with a rope,but it's never quite been the same.
Like Tom said about his,I can't bring myself to replace it.
It bears the marks of my Saviour,and that's what I think of every time I see it sprout it's tiny little blooms.
I brought this sprig inside,and used a lamp and my tripod to get this shot.
Ok ignore the hair, but these are my options for today photo shoot. 2 choices for pants, tops, necklaces (or no necklace). What combination should I go with? I'm leaning one way, but I love hearing opinions. Thanks!!!
The Vasa Museum is a wonderful place to visit but as the ship is kept in semi darkness it is difficult to photograph. It is a beautiful ship , made of Japanese Oak, with some incredible carvings, particularly on the stern. Its sinking in Stockholm Bay , without a shot being fired, must have been an amazing tragedy to witness . It lay on the bed of Stockholm bay for 333 years.
Vasa is a Swedish warship built 1626-1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. It fell into obscurity after most of its valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. After it was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor, it was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions. Vasa was built top-heavy and had insufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, it was allowed to set sail and foundered only a few minutes after it first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. The impulsive move to set sail was the result of a combination of factors: Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who was leading the army on the continent on the date of its maiden voyage, was impatient to see it join the Baltic fleet in the Thirty Years' War; at the same time, the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to discuss the ship's structural problems frankly or to have the maiden voyage postponed.
The ship was one of the biggest and most heavily armed at that time and was a symbol of Gustavus Adolphus's expansion plans as he was at war with Poland at the time . He was a dab hand at playing the " Papist" card and had the Swedish people whipped up into a religious frenzy. The ship was due to take on supplies further down the Stockholm bay but because it was so top heavy without the supplies and ballast only sailed a very short distance before it topped over and sank.
Tonnage:1210 tonnes displacement
Length:
Sparred Length: 69 m (226 ft)
Between perpendiculars 47.5 m (155.8 ft)
Beam:11.7 m (38 ft)
Height:52.5 m (172 ft)
Draft:4.8 m (16 ft)
Propulsion:Sails, 1,275 square m (13,720 sq ft)
Crew:145 sailors, 300 soldiers
Armament:
64 guns, including:
24-pounders—48
3-pounders—8
1-pounders—2
howitzers—6
The Vasa Museum is a wonderful place to visit but as the ship is kept in semi darkness it is difficult to photograph. It is a beautiful ship , made of Japanese Oak, with some incredible carvings, particularly on the stern. Its sinking in Stockholm Bay , without a shot being fired, must have been an amazing tragedy to witness . It lay on the bed of Stockholm bay for 333 years.
Vasa is a Swedish warship built 1626-1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. It fell into obscurity after most of its valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. After it was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor, it was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions. Vasa was built top-heavy and had insufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, it was allowed to set sail and foundered only a few minutes after it first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. The impulsive move to set sail was the result of a combination of factors: Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who was leading the army on the continent on the date of its maiden voyage, was impatient to see it join the Baltic fleet in the Thirty Years' War; at the same time, the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to discuss the ship's structural problems frankly or to have the maiden voyage postponed.
The ship was one of the biggest and most heavily armed at that time and was a symbol of Gustavus Adolphus's expansion plans as he was at war with Poland at the time . He was a dab hand at playing the " Papist" card and had the Swedish people whipped up into a religious frenzy. The ship was due to take on supplies further down the Stockholm bay but because it was so top heavy without the supplies and ballast only sailed a very short distance before it topped over and sank.
Tonnage:1210 tonnes displacement
Length:
Sparred Length: 69 m (226 ft)
Between perpendiculars 47.5 m (155.8 ft)
Beam:11.7 m (38 ft)
Height:52.5 m (172 ft)
Draft:4.8 m (16 ft)
Propulsion:Sails, 1,275 square m (13,720 sq ft)
Crew:145 sailors, 300 soldiers
Armament:
64 guns, including:
24-pounders—48
3-pounders—8
1-pounders—2
howitzers—6
An unidentified BUT sets departs from Lisburn with a Portadown - Great Victoria Street, Belfast working - probably in March 1971.
All photographs are my copyright and must not be used without permission. Unauthorised use will result in my invoicing you £1,500 per photograph and, if necessary, taking legal action for recovery.
Here it is Lenia's story, I might change something but I don't know yet..
"Lenia grow up in a rich family with her two sisters, the family where everything had to be 'perfect'. But she was not like her sisters, they were 'perfect', they did as they were told but she would always follow her own rules. One night every year there were a festival in the city they lived in, Lenia and her sisters were forbidden to attend, but Lenia would always sneek out and then run to the festival, one night her older sister saw her and told their parents, she was forbidden to leave the house unless she would start to listen.
On her 19th birthday she packed her things and ran away in the middle of the night. She started living with her friend just a little outside the city near a forest, when her friend died she took over the house and lived alone there."
San Antonio barbecue place. This looked good but we had had three barbecue meals the day before and I couldn't face another one (a rare moment for me).
Update: A little history on the Pig Stand, from MySanAntonio.com:
Pig Stand's last stand
Web Posted: 04/03/2008 2:00 CDT
Drop by the Pig Stand restaurant on Broadway almost any afternoon and you'll likely find a small, white-haired man enjoying a late breakfast at the end of the counter, right by the "Pig Crossing" sign.
Gene Olson also is there most evenings, drinking coffee with friends amid a riotous menagerie of decorative pigs.
"I've been eating here for 35 years. It's just a friendly place with an old-time atmosphere. No one feels uncomfortable coming in here," said Olson, 72, a retiree from the U.S. Postal Service.
"And I really like the service, but of course, they watch over me like a child here," he joked.
Such loyalty is not unusual at the last redoubt of the fabled pig sandwich.
Once upon a time, the empire of the neon pig stretched from Texas to California and New York, as hustling teenage carhops at scores of Pig Stand restaurants plied motorists with pork sandwiches, milkshakes and speedy curb service.
Begun in Dallas in 1921 in the first blush of America's romance with the automobile, the Pig Stand boasted of being the nation's first drive-in restaurant. It also took credit for such culinary triumphs as Texas toast, onion rings and the chicken-fried steak sandwich.
At its peak before the Great Depression, the chain had about 130 restaurants. But when the company went broke three years ago, only a half-dozen Pig Stand restaurants were left, all in Texas.
And now — back from near-death in federal bankruptcy court — just one remains, pastel-hued old No. 29 on Broadway. In its tattered, whimsical splendor, it lingers like the last specimen of some exotic species, driven to the brink of extinction by modernity and beef-based competitors.
Beyond the root beer floats and trademark pig sandwiches there are enough porcine kitsch and "American Graffiti" style nostalgia for anyone. Here the pigs do have wings, as well as pompadour haircuts, zebra stripes, sombreros and other cute adornments.
At the old No. 29, Elvis and Marilyn are forever young and the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye and Buddy Holly still are going strong. Aging motor heads still compare classic cars Friday nights in the parking lot.
Decades ago, mobs of cruising teenagers and hot-rodders hit the Pig Stand on weekend evenings. Now the place draws a grayer, slower clientele, some of whom discovered it during misspent youths.
"I first came as a teenager to the one on South Presa. It's got that old-fashioned feeling, just like an old car, that you don't get in these modern restaurants," said Bob Meyer, 65, enjoying a recent Friday night coffee and hamburger with a buddy named Bubba.
"You might call us old-timers, and old-timers like the old ways," said Meyer, who has restored a couple of '34 Fords.
Said the grizzled Bubba: "I used to work for the Pig Stand as a kid. And while I wasn't all that happy washing dishes, any old man will tell you about the good old times."
"The Pig Stands were really a rock 'n' roll environment. And now it's the music and the cars. They blend together," he said.
San Antonio once had more than a half-dozen Pig Stand restaurants. If the one on South Presa had the now-vacant building shaped like a giant pink pig, No. 29 always was the showpiece. And but for two interruptions, it has been open for business for more than eight decades.
In the late 1960s, the construction of the interstate downtown forced it to move half a block north.
Then, on Nov. 15, 2006, No. 29 and the other surviving Pig Stands were abruptly closed over unpaid sales taxes.
The raid by state agents came a year after Pig Stands owner Richard Hailey filed for both corporate and personal bankruptcy. The corporate filing listed $1.8 million in debt.
Hailey is the son of Royce Hailey, who began as a 13-year-old Pig Stand carhop in Dallas and eventually acquired the whole business. The younger Hailey declined to talk about the traumatic business failure, but said he is grateful that one Pig Stand survives.
"It makes me extremely happy to see it open," he said. "I still go by there often and get a cup of coffee. It still feels like home. I see the regular customers and talk to them."
Hopes of salvaging landmark Pig Stands in Beaumont and in Houston (where Shirley MacLaine filmed parts of "The Evening Star") ultimately died. And No. 29 also would have stayed closed but for its manager, Mary Ann Hill, bankruptcy trustee Vince Liuzza Jr. and the landlord, Marie Hernandez.
"I started as a waitress in 1967 at the Pig Stand on Rigsby when I was 18 years old. It's the only job I've ever had, and it's been a wonderful job," said Hill, 59, who now operates the restaurant as "Mary Ann's Pig Stand."
"When the Pig Stands were shut down, Vince called me and asked, 'Do you want that Pig Stand?'" she said.
"I said, 'What do you mean?' and he said, 'If you can come up with the money, Mrs. Hernandez will give us a lease.' She loved the Pig Stand," Hill said.
To reopen, Liuzza required Hill to pay off the restaurant's debts.
"He told me $10,000 would do it, but that was way off. The property taxes hadn't been paid in three years, the lease hadn't been paid in three months and I had to buy groceries. It took almost $50,000," she said.
Hill raised the money, signed a five-year sub-lease with a five-year renewal option and reopened No. 29 on Jan. 2, 2007. The customers quickly returned.
"2007 was the year of the pig on the Chinese calendar and I had so many customers come in and say, 'Thank God you saved the pig,'" Hill said.
Outlook unclear
Liuzza said the long-term outlook remains unclear.
"The trust is the owner and she is the tenant. She can stay there for 10 years if she performs," he said. "But what happens when the trust goes out of business? I need to come up with some agreement and get the court to bless it."
For restaurant employees and longtime customers, the brief closure was traumatic. Said Olson: "When it closed, I was more or less lost. I enjoyed eating the food at other places, but this place feels like home."
Waitress Irela Bustamante was heartbroken. She had worked there since 1975, when girls on roller skates still delivered food to cars.
"I was afraid it was over," she said. "When Mary Ann called me and said we might have a chance to reopen it, I got happy. I prayed to God that we might have our jobs again."
For many devotees, there's something about the Pig Stand that goes beyond the food, the music and the shamelessly corny decor.
On a recent morning, Wade Toth, 61, a large, bearded man in a blue Hawaiian shirt, lingered over the remains of breakfast. For years, he came almost daily with the late Marvin Ivy, who sold used cars a few blocks down Broadway.
"He ate breakfast here for 40 years, and always ordered the same thing. One biscuit with sausage and gravy, and a large bowl of hot sauce," Toth said.
"I was his driver. They'd see us pull into the lot, and since he used a walker and cane, by the time we got in from the truck, they'd have his order already working. Mine, too," he said.
Now Toth comes alone. He orders the same breakfast.
"The food is good, and they play oldies, not too loud. You can call it tradition or memories. I miss my friend. It's a way to stay connected, and this is one thing we shared."
Believed to be the first Great War Memorial errected in the City of London. It was unveiled on 4 August 1916, it commemorates Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, Jack Cornwell VC, the men of the Honourable Artillery Company, and the dead of Bishopsgate
Or Dover Marine.
Or even Dover Admiralty Pier station.
It has been all of them. But is now Dover Cruise Terminal.
We got news from a friend, Paul, that the station was open on Good Friday, so we went down just after it opened. There were massive queues leading to the Western Docks, and all along Townwall Street leading to the port, was blacked with stationary traffic. A little bit of heading through Market Square, and hoping that the police had kept the roundabout open at the end of York Street, they had, so we were clear to head to the old station.
Although the tracks have been filled in with concrete, the rest of the station is pretty complete and in good order, especially after a major refurbishment last year.
-------------------------------------------------------
This was a large, spacious, and impressive station, located within a maze of lines upon a tight triangular junction between the routes from Folkestone and Dover Priory. The origins of the terminus and general railway expansion in the Dover area derive from a need to cope with ever-increasing traffic, both local and boat services. Indeed, many capacity issues upon both SER and LC&DR networks were properly addressed after the formation of the SE&CR. The SER had initially commenced through running to Dover on 7th February 1844, after an eastward extension from Folkestone, which involved taking the railway along the dramatic coastline of Folkestone Warren. This had witnessed the blowing up of sections of chalk cliff with gunpowder, and boring three tunnels:
Martello Tunnel: 532-yards
Abbotscliff Tunnel: 1,942-yards
Shakespeare Tunnel: 1,387-yards
The SER ran into what later became known as ‘’Dover Town’’ station, and between here and Shakespeare Tunnel, the double-track line was elevated upon a wooden framework. The SER’s Town station was a large affair, comprising five tracks entering the terminus from the west, all of which were protected by a large twin-span overall roof. Substantial three-storey-high railway offices backed onto the rear of the platform lines, these being constituted of the customary yellow brick, lined at the edges with stone. Extension beyond the terminus took place in 1860, by means of a single track exiting the rear (east) of the layout, veering southwards onto a stone-built pier head. The latter, known as the ‘’Admiralty Pier’’, carried a double-track and allowed trains to come directly alongside steamer boat services to France. In July of the following year, the LC&DR commenced through running between Victoria and Dover Priory. Also in 1861, after the boring of a 684-yard-long tunnel southwards through the Kentish chalk, from Priory station, the ‘’Chatham’’ line was brought closer to the earlier SER station. The LC&DR opened ‘’Dover Harbour’’ on 1st November 1861, which was a terminus affair comprising two platform faces, separated by three tracks, all of which were protected by a single-span triangular-shaped trainshed. Just like the SER’s Town station, Dover Harbour ceased to be a terminus proper when a single-track was taken beyond the original buffer stops, down to the Admiralty Pier. LC&DR services commenced to the pier on 30th August 1864, where separate platforms were provide for both ‘’Chatham’’ and SER companies. The platforms were arranged in an end-to-end fashion along the same section of track, rather than serving their own separate lines upon the pier. The LC&DR’s southward extension from Dover Harbour formed the second side of what would later become a triangular junction – the SER had created the first southern side of the arrangement, as a result of its initial 1860 opening of the short section of line between Dover Town and Admiralty Pier.
On 15th June 1881, the SER and LC&DR opened the ''Dover & Deal Joint Line'' – a rare example of the frenetic rivals cooperating. To allow the SER direct access to this line from its trunk route via Folkestone, a double-track spur (the ‘’Hawkesbury Street Curve’’) between Dover Harbour station and the Dover Town approaches came into use on the same day – the triangular junction was now complete. The SER was granted running powers over LC&DR metals through Priory station, and a number of local services now bypassed Dover Town. However, to compensate for this, additional platform surfaces were brought into use upon the connecting spur. The area in-between the two sites was already heavily built up, but early maps suggest that demolition in the locale, to accommodate the spur, was surprisingly modest. At the ‘’Chatham’’ end of the spur, signalling was installed by contractors Stevens & Sons.
The formation of the SE&CR Joint Managing Committee on New Years Day 1899 marked the beginning of a new era of railway expansion and improvements on the erstwhile independent networks of the SER and LC&DR. Of prominence during this company’s tenure was the St Johns to Orpington quadrupling works, between 1900 and 1905, which involved physically connecting both Tonbridge Cut-Off and ‘’Chatham’’ main lines in the vicinity of Chislehurst. In the Dover area, alterations began with the closure of the platforms upon the connecting spur between SER and LC&DR lines, in 1903. Subsequently, in 1912, major works began alongside the Admiralty Pier, to create an artificial platform within the water, on which a whole new terminus station was to be built. The latter was to be a spacious affair, dedicated to boat traffic only, and would permit the closure of existing station sites. Creating the platform involved dumping large quantities of chalk into the water immediately east of the Admiralty Pier. As it later transpired, the Admiralty Pier was not demolished, but rather, was absorbed into the new works to become the western side of the sea platform. Construction of the terminus commenced in 1913, and by the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, the majority of the building work had been completed. A splendid vaulted train shed roof, comprising seven spans of varying widths, had been erected. The station measured 170-feet in width, and at its longest point stretched to 800-feet. The well-covered terminus comprised four 693-foot-long platform faces, arranged in the form of two spacious islands of concrete construction.
Wartime economies saw the closure of the ex-SER Dover Town station in 1914, which was never to reopen, but the retention of the ex-LC&DR Harbour and Priory stations, to which all services were now diverted to. The demise of the Town station was coupled with the closure of the three-road engine shed adjacent to the Hawkesbury Street Curve, and the concentration of the area’s locomotive allocation on the depot at Priory. The withdrawal of boat services on the outbreak of war saw that the semi-complete SE&CR terminus had no passenger traffic to serve. Despite its unfinished state, the station was quickly brought into use on 2nd January 1915 for military traffic, initially in the form of ambulance trains. Although the trainshed was virtually complete by this time, a significant feature still lacking was the marvellous stone façade which now graces the structure’s landward elevation. Completion of building works came after the cessation of war in November 1918, and the first passenger boat trains commenced to the terminus on 18th January 1919, the station being christened ‘’Dover Marine’’.
Attractive single-storey red brick offices, complete with war memorial, were built upon the platform surfaces, and both platform islands and the exit were linked by a lattice footbridge at the northern end of the terminus, located within the trainshed. The incorporation of the SE&CR’s main war memorial here was unusual, for the other large railway companies erected these at their main termini in London. The layout upon the sea platform had grown to an extensive arrangement of tracks, numerous sidings having been brought into use to handle substantial levels of freight traffic during the war period. Dover Marine was controlled by an SE&CR-designed 120-lever signal box positioned to the west of the station, immediately adjacent to the tracks from Priory. The signal box comprised a substantial brick base and was in fact a much larger version of the signal cabin which still exists at Folkestone Harbour, demonstrating traits of those early Saxby & Farmer products. A 455-foot long enclosed glazed footbridge was suspended above the double-track of the former Admiralty Pier, and this took passengers over the complex approaches from the Folkestone direction. A physical connection was also made between this footbridge and the Lord Warden Hotel. The latter was a four-storey colossus, the main section of which was built upon a floor plan of 130-foot by 120-foot. Originally opened in 1851, the hotel was built on a site immediately behind the SER’s Dover Town station.
Locomotive facilities at the site initially comprised just a turntable and cylindrical water tank, located behind the signal box. As previously mentioned, on the closure of Dover Town, the locomotive allocation was concentrated on the existing depot at Priory. However, the inadequacy of the Priory site was emphasised after completion of the SE&CR’s Dover area enlargement works, and a new improvement scheme was soon set in motion after the formation of the Southern Railway. The SR devised a modernisation programme for the Dover area, which included a comprehensive rebuilding of Priory station, the closure of Harbour station, and the building of a new motive power depot. The proposals got underway in 1924, with the confirmation of a 280-foot-long five-road locomotive shed, to be built to the west of Dover Marine, alongside the running lines from Folkestone. As per the construction of the twelve-acre platform for the Marine station, large quantities of chalk were dumped into the sea, beside the former site of the ex-SER’s Dover Town, to reclaim enough land for a spacious complex. The depot came into use during 1928, comprising four eastward-facing dead-end tracks, a single through track, and a sixth line which terminated within an adjacent repair shed. The provision of a 65-foot turntable at the site resulted in the removal of that which resided behind the signal box at Dover Marine, and the water tank there also disappeared. The commissioning of the engine shed, which at 2007 prices cost approximately £7,767,500 to build, allowed the closure of the shed at Priory station, allowing the site there to become part of an enlarged goods yard. Dover Harbour station was subject to closure on 10th July 1927, all local traffic being concentrated at Priory and boat services being served exclusively at Marine station. Other improvements in the Dover area during the SR’s tenure included the rebuilding of the elevated track bed east of Shakespeare Tunnel from wood to concrete, and the laying of coal sidings at the Eastern Docks. Eight freight sidings also came into use alongside the Hawkesbury Street Curve, at Bulwark Street, partially upon the former site of the SER’s Dover Town engine shed. A dock basin for the train ferry, fed by a double-track emanating from the Dover Priory route, came into use during 1936, to the north of the Marine terminus.
Before continuing, it is worth examining one of the out-of-the-ordinary boat trains that served Dover Marine. Initially, the French inaugurated the ‘’Flèche d’Or’’ on 11th September 1926, a prestigious boat train running between Calais and Paris. The ‘’Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits’’ (International Sleeping Car Company) ordered twenty British Pullman vehicles to operate the service: fifteen kitchen cars (Nos. 4001 to 4015) were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company, and fifteen parlour cars (Nos. 4016 to 4030) were constructed by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Company. The luxury vehicles were delivered new in the now renowned Umber and Crème ‘’New Standard’’ Pullman colours of the British fleet, and were operated as pairs, rather than individual carriages. With reference to the latter, this meant that a kitchen car and a parlour car would be semi-permanently coupled into a pair known as a ‘’Couplage’’, or, if you like, ‘’Linkage’’. Initially, the Flèche d’Or service was operated by two trains, each ten vehicles in length. From 1932 onwards, Pullman vehicles were repainted into the standard colours worn by the rest of the Wagon-Lits fleet: a lighter shade of crème appeared in place of the British colour, and the umber lower half became dark blue.
The French’s efforts were matched on the other side of the Channel by an all-Pullman service run by the Southern Railway from Victoria. Colloquially, this was referred to as the ‘’White Pullman’’, because the other Pullman cars on the Eastern Section at that time still wore the crimson lake livery of the SE&CR. Officially, however, the service was called the ‘’Continental Express’’, but it was nevertheless referred to by passengers as the ‘’Golden Arrow’’, the English translation of the French title. This was a sign of things to come, for on 15th May 1929, the SR’s all-Pullman boat train service was re-launched as the ‘’Golden Arrow’’. Significant engineering works occurred on the ex-SER trunk line between Petts Wood Junction and Dover, which involved strengthening bridges to accommodate the heavier engines planned to haul this prestigious service. Maunsell ‘’Lord Nelson’’ 4-6-0 locomotives were selected as the prime motive power, with Urie 4-6-0 ‘’King Arthur’’ engines (later modified by Maunsell) supplementing the fleet.
Much of the time, the outward ‘’Golden Arrow’’ from Victoria was booked to arrive at Folkestone Harbour, but the return portion instead started at Dover Marine, which gave rise to some interesting shunting movements. As mentioned elsewhere on the website, the Folkestone Harbour branch has never had a direct connection with the main line, and access to it can only be made by means of a headshunt manoeuvre. This arrangement was implemented as a safety measure from the outset, since the branch descends at a steep gradient of 1 in 30 to the harbour. Thus, the Pullman service would arrive at Folkestone Junction, and initially terminate in the reception sidings positioned to the east of the station there, where the connection with the Harbour Branch was made. An ex-SE&CR R1 Class 0-6-0 Tank would then attach itself to the rear of the train, whilst the ‘’main line’’ engine was detached, and take the Golden Arrow stock down to Folkestone Harbour. This released the ‘’main line’’ locomotive from the headshunt, and consequently, it ran light along Folkestone Warren, to Dover Marine. At the latter, the engine would be rotated, more often than not by means of the triangular junction between the converging lines from Folkestone, Priory, and Marine stations, rather than on the turntable at Dover shed. After rotation, the locomotive would then head back to Folkestone Junction to collect the empty Pullman stock for the return working, which had previously been banked up the steep Harbour Branch incline by as many as four R1 Tanks. The tank engines would usually bring the train out onto the running lines at the Junction station, allowing the express locomotive to immediately couple to the stock. The Pullman vehicles would then be hauled empty to Dover Marine to form the return working to Victoria. This involved some indignity for the engine because for this empty stock movement, it had to run tender-first.
The declaration of war on Germany on 3rd September 1939 signalled the beginning of harsh times for the Port of Dover, as it became a prime target for bombing raids. Boat trains and steamer services were suspended immediately, and passenger services to the Marine station ceased. The Marine site was again dedicated to military traffic, just as it had been during World War I, and as a consequence, services along the ex-SER route went no further than Folkestone. Indeed, consistent shelling over the Channel, from France, had made the site unsafe to handle any form of passenger traffic, and even the 1928-opened engine shed had to close during the conflict, all engines being stationed at Ashford for the duration. The attractive Marine station suffered damage to the trainshed roof, but thankfully, this was modest enough to deem it practical and worthwhile to repair, normal service at the station resuming after the conflict. Since the advent of World War II, the prominent Lord Warden Hotel had been used as offices; the Marine Department occupied the building from 1952 onwards, by which time it was known as ‘’Southern House’’.
Initially, the British Railways era did not necessarily mean rationalisation for this extensive site, as it did at so many other stations nationwide. Rather, the emphasis was on modernising facilities, to cater for new rail freight boat traffic which, in these pre-Chunnel days, was still important and by no means in decline. Modernisation of the site began in 1953, with the renewal of the five quayside cranes which ran alongside the northern wall of the terminus. This was followed in February 1956 by the approval of the Kent Coast Electrification Scheme. Published within an ‘’Extension of Electrification’’ report of 1957 were the alterations proposed for the Marine station. In early 1959, the station was closed to passengers temporarily to allow modifications to be carried out. These involved the extension of both island platforms westward by 114-feet, beyond the extent of the trainshed, and the installation of canopies above the exposed surfaces. The platform extensions were constituted of prefabricated concrete components, manufactured at Exmouth Junction concrete works; the platform canopies were W-shaped and lacked any form of valance. The latter were virtually enlarged versions of the equally clinical canopies which emerged at the rebuilt Folkestone Central and St Mary Cray stations, and these additions somewhat marred the attractive stone façade of the SE&CR station. Third rail was installed on all platform lines during 1959, as part of the ‘’Chatham’’ line electrification of the scheme’s ‘’Phase 1’’, and these were subsequently energised for the commencement of the full electric timetable via this route on 15th June of that year. An enclosed riveted steel footbridge was also erected across the approach tracks from Dover Priory, linking the main entrance beside the Lord Warden Hotel with the Customs Hall, on the northern perimeter of the Western Docks. Naturally, steam continued to visit the station by means of the ex-SER trunk line from the Folkestone direction until the implementation of a full electric timetable on this route on 18th June 1962. The Golden Arrow had been hauled by E5000 series electric locomotives since 12th June 1961. Colour lights installed at the Marine station during the electrification scheme were of the three-aspect type. Before electrification, the empty stock of arrived services would be shunted out the seaward end of the trainshed, and up along the extent of the old Admiralty Pier, to clear the platform lines. Locomotives would also be required to run-a-round using the Admiralty Pier tracks.
The commencement of electric haulage on the Golden Arrow in the June of 1961 coincided with the demise of Dover engine shed. Hitherto, the depot had the responsibility of servicing the Stewarts Lane-allocated steam locomotives which brought the luxurious train down from Victoria. Closure of the sub-shed at nearby Folkestone Junction also occurred, but the site of Dover MPD was put to new railway use, becoming host to a plethora of goods sidings. Closure of goods sidings at Bulwark Street occurred on 15th August 1966, but Archcliffe Junction – at the Folkestone end of the Hawkesbury Street Curve – remained in existence. In the following decade, major works were planned around the Marine station’s peripheral: in 1973, proposals were put forward for the construction of a roll-on-roll-off vehicle shed, and in 1974, planning of a new hoverport at the Western Docks began. After a consultation period spanning 1975 to 1976 inclusive, the hoverport was formally commissioned for operation on 5th July 1978, and replaced a smaller affair situated in the Eastern Docks. Track rationalisation had also occurred beyond the rear of the trainshed, and the ‘’Golden Arrow’’ had ceased between Victoria and the Channel Ports after a final run on 30th September 1972. Since 1969, the number of Pullman cars in the train had been whittled down to five, and the rest of the formation consisted of Second Class BR Mk 1 vehicles.
On 14th May 1979, Dover Marine station was renamed ‘’Dover Western Docks’’, and on 31st October of the following year, the ‘’Night Ferry’’ London to Paris train made its final run. This had first operated on the evening of 14th October 1936, between London Victoria and Paris Gare du Nord, via Dover Marine and Dunkirk. The service was unique among the boat trains, because the carriage stock travelled across the Channel with the passengers and ran on both British and French railway networks. Indeed, the vehicles were smaller than standard Continental carriage stock, having been specially built to meet the restrictive loading gauge of the British system. The service had been suspended during the war years, the last train running through to Paris over the night of 3rd/4th September 1939. After the cessation of the conflict, the ‘’Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits’’ (CIWL: International Sleeping Car Co.) found itself engaged in a search and rescue mission over the whole of Europe, to find several missing carriages. Stock of both the ‘’Night Ferry’’ and ‘’Orient Express’’ services had been taken over by the Germans, camouflaged and armoured, and subsequently used as army vehicles. The ‘’Night Ferry’’ service was resumed on 14th December 1947, and this was followed ten years later by the addition of a through sleeping car to Brussels. A sleeping car for Basle, Switzerland, was added to the service in 1967, but this lasted just two years.
Over the five years which followed the renaming of the station to ‘’Dover Western Docks’’, truncations of the lines within the trainshed, at their seaward ends, saw a ground level walkway come into use for passengers, behind the new buffer stops (a headshunt did, however, still remain for locomotive-hauled services). The SNCF train ferry continued to handle an abundance of ferry vans, shunted by Class 33/2 locomotives – the latter had been under the auspices of Railfreight Distribution (RfD) since that Business Sector’s formation on 10th October 1988. The ferry itself accommodated a double-track, and to maintain balance on the vessel, wagons on both lines would be loaded and unloaded simultaneously. During 1993, the train ferry shunting duty passed to Class 09 diesels.
Channel Tunnel boring began on 1st December 1987, and in light of this, the British Rail Board produced the dreaded report in 1989: the ‘’Proposed closure of Dover Western Docks Station and Folkestone Harbour branch’’. Passenger boat traffic was now seen as a thing of the past, as the advent of the proposed ‘’Eurostar’’ services through the Chunnel would now cater for this, providing a much faster and efficient service. Some of the freight carried upon the ferries could be transferred for haulage through the Chunnel; certain traffic, however, such as chemicals and inflammables, were not permitted through the tunnel, as they were safety hazards. Handling of these goods would therefore transfer to the Eastern Docks, involving the use of road transport, due to the lack of a rail connection there. During 1992, the headshunt facility at Western Docks station was taken out of use, meaning that locomotive-hauled services had to be shunt released – the latter duty was generally undertaken by a RfD Class 33/2. The fateful day was on Saturday 24th September 1994, when 4 CEP No. 1604 departed with the last advertised public departure to Victoria, scheduled for 21:44. The following day, the closure of the station was marked by the visit of ex-BR Pacific No. 70000 ‘’Britannia’’, with ‘’The Continental Farewell’’ rail tour from London Victoria. This had travelled via Balham, Beckenham Junction, and Tonbridge. The locomotive was masquerading as No. 70014 ‘’Iron Duke’’, which was one of two ‘’Britannias’’ formerly associated with the haulage of the famous ‘’Golden Arrow’’ on the South Eastern Division, between the years of 1952 and 1958 inclusive. At Western Docks, the tour met another ex-Golden Arrow locomotive, but of a more modern era: Type ‘’HA’’ E5000 series No. E5001. This locomotive fronted two tours on the same day, taking the excursion stock from Western Docks to Ashford and back, via Folkestone and Canterbury West.
It was not the total end of Dover Western Docks – yet. Until 19th November 1994, empty stock movements to and from the station continued to be available to passengers, albeit not advertised in the official timetable. Thereafter, the trainshed became a useful facility for stabling electric units for cleaning, until complete closure came with the decommissioning of the SE&CR signal box on 5th July of the following year. The bulldozers finally moved in at the beginning of 1996, but thankfully, since the main building was protected by Listed Status, demolitions only encompassed those additions made in 1959, as part of the Kent Coast Electrification Scheme. Naturally, the tightly curving track, with its famous crossovers, was also lifted, and as part of the works to convert the trainshed into a cruise liner terminal, the gap in-between the island platforms was in-filled, to provide a continuous floor at the same level. All red brick offices upon the platforms were retained, as was the elongated footbridge towards the Lord Warden Hotel. Even the substantial SE&CR signal box remained on site as office accommodation, but unlike the main station structure, this was not a Listed building. Tragically, the signal box met its end in 2000. The train ferry dock basin of 1936 was in-filled, and today its site is host to a sand operation.
The British Rail Board’s original report of 1989 outlined the closure of the Folkestone Harbour branch, but in the midst of the redevelopment at the Western Docks, the renowned steeply graded line continued to enjoy services. Unlike at Dover, where the passenger ferries at Eastern Docks were detached from the railway, Sea Cat sailings continued to operate from the railway pier at Folkestone, even after the opening of the Chunnel. These justified the retention of rail services to the Harbour station, which continued until the transference of the Sea Cat to Ramsgate in 2001.
But beneath this dress there is still that boy treat you prefer , yes I’m still me , I just have real breasts , I promise you will love them and me as much as I do , my darling
But hardly cold enough for a hat. It may be more a fashion statement!
In February 2011 we travelled to Goa (yet again) for a week. John had been working in Bangalore and Bethan and I met him in Goa.
I got up early a few times to meet Janine and her volunteers and take some nore photos of the children that they care for.
These are the children of Goa's migrant workers. Janine Gaiddon from France comes to Colva in South Goa for five months every year to help the children. She gives over a hundred a day breakfast, provides basic first aid and helps those who go to school remain by donating uniforms, stationery and giving them lunch. She is a truly amazing lady. She is funded by a small charity, Terre d'Espoir, which she and her late husband set up in their home town in Brittany.
Voici les enfants des ouvriers migrant du Goa. Janine Gaiddon de France vient à Colva, dans la région Sud du Goa pendant 5 mois tous les ans afin d'aider ces enfants. Elle fournit plus de 100 déjeuners par jour, donne des premiers soins de base et aide ceux qui fréquentent l'école à y rester, en faisant don d'uniformes, de fournitures et en leurs donnant un repas du midi. C'est une femme réellement extraordinaire. Elle est subventionnée par une petite organisation caritative, Terre d'Espoir, dont sont les fondateurs cette dernière même et son mari défunt, qui la mirent en place en Bretagne.
An so today, a Bank Holiday that promised to be cloudy and cool. But there was some early morning sunshine, and I knew that the Western Heights Preservation Society had the Grand Shaft open.
At just gone ten, we drove into town and up Military Hill the other side.
The Grand Shaft is a unique triple helix staircase, designed to move troops from the barracks above the harbour to port level in the shortest time possible.
Channel 5 showed a program last week, and suggested the Grand Shaft was from the castle to the harbour, but it is on the other side of the town, on the hill opposite the castle, where there were large fortifications built for the Napoleonic Wars. But the war was over before the staircase was in use.
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The Grand Shaft is a unique structure in the Western Heights and a very rare example of a triple spiral staircase in fortifications of the same age (early 1800s). When work began in earnest on the Western Heights, it soon became apparent that rapid troop movement from the cliff top to street level was greatly hindered by the distance that the men would have to cover. If an attacking force had tried to make a landing on the harbour or beach at Dover, troops on the Heights would have had to make their way along from the Drop Redoubt or Citadel to the original South Entrance (now the site of the Western Heights Roundabout), along what is now Snargate Street to meet the enemy; a route of almost a mile and a half, when troops were barracked only some 300 feet above sea level! This was hardly an ideal scenario and in 1804 construction started on the Grand Shaft, which had been designed by Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss. The triple staircase itself is 140ft deep and at the base is a tunnel leading out to a guard room and from there out into the town. At the top is a further single staircase leading up to the parade ground of the Grand Shaft Barracks. This top staircase is inside what is known as the bowl, and was excavated out of the cliff top. The shaft itself was then dug vertically through the cliff and revetted with brick. Windows line the central shaft to allow light into the staircases, approximately every 30 stairs. As the threat of invasion passed, the Grand Shaft became something of a local attraction, and there are stories of a Mr William Leith of Deal riding his horse up the Grand Shaft for a wager! What is clear is that in the Georgian period, there were no class distinctions attached to the triple staircase. It was simply to ensure rapid troop movement, when men of all ranks would have been deployed down any and all of the staircases in the event of an enemy attack. However, as the Victorian period progressed, class distinction became ever more apparent, and while no definitive documentation exists, the most popular theory states that the staircases were divided into “Officers and their Ladies”, “Sergeants and their Wives” and “Soldiers and their Women”. This has been supported by the fact that the Queen’s Regulations of the time clearly stated that there was to be no off-duty fraternisation between the ranks. As well as carrying troops, the Grand Shaft also had to carry the drainage from the Grand Shaft Barracks above. This had rather unpleasant consequences, and it was noted in a commission of 1858 that each time the privies were flushed, the force of the water would force sewer gas up through traps into the shaft, but also unfortunately into houses! The commission noted that a large tank with a foul air pipe was needed at the bottom of the shaft to counteract such obnoxious fumes! The guard room at the bottom of the shaft was part of a walled compound, which was found by the 1858 to be hopelessly inadequate as it was far too small to serve any function effectively. The original guardroom, coal bunker and ash pit were therefore demolished and a new compound constructed with an Officer’s guard room, two cells and a latrine and a gas meter house, which indicates the time that gas lighting was introduced to the Western Heights. Today only the gas meter house remains; all other structures were demolished.
www.doverwesternheights.org/index.php/the-grand-shaft
The Western Heights of Dover are one of the most impressive fortifications in Britain. They comprise a series of forts, strong points and ditches, designed to protect the country from invasion. They were created to augment the existing defences and protect the key port of Dover from both seaward and landward attack. They are now a Local Nature Reserve.
First given earthworks in 1779 against the planned invasion that year, the high ground west of Dover, England, now called Dover Western Heights, was properly fortified in 1804 when Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss was instructed to modernise the existing defences. This was part of a huge programme of fortification in response to Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom.
To assist with the movement of troops between Dover Castle and the town defences Twiss made his case for building the Grand Shaft in the cliff:
‘...the new barracks.....are little more than 300 yards horizontally from the beach.....and about 180 feet (55 m) above high-water mark, but in order to communicate with them from the centre of town, on horseback the distance is nearly a mile and a half and to walk it about three-quarters of a mile, and all the roads unavoidably pass over ground more than 100 feet (30 m) above the barracks, besides the footpaths are so steep and chalky that a number of accidents will unavoidably happen during the wet weather and more especially after floods. I am therefore induced to recommend the construction of a shaft, with a triple staircase.... chief objective of which is the convenience and safety of troops....and may eventually be useful in sending reinforcements to troops or in affording them a secure retreat.’
Twiss’s plan was approved and building went ahead. The shaft was to be 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter, 140 feet (43 m) deep with a 180 feet (55 m) gallery connecting the bottom of the shaft to Snargate Street, and all for under an estimated £4000.
The plan entailed building two brick-lined shafts, one inside the other. In the outer would be built a triple staircase, the inner acting as a light well with ‘windows’ cut in its outer wall to illuminate the staircases. Apparently, by March 1805 only 40 feet (12 m) of the connecting gallery was left to dig and it is probable that the project was completed by 1807.
The Drop Redoubt is one of the two forts on Western Heights, and is linked to the other, the Citadel, by a series of dry moats (the lines). It is, arguably, the most impressive and immediately noticeable feature on Dover’s Western Heights.
The artillery at the Redoubt faced mostly inland; it was intended to attack an invading force attempting to capture Dover from the rear.
The construction of the Redoubt was in two periods: the first being from 1804-1808 during the Napoleonic Wars, and the second from 1859-1864 following the recommendations of the 1859 Royal Commission.
The original form of the Drop Redoubt was a simple pentagon, formed by cutting trenches into the hillside and revetting (facing) them with brickwork. Thus, the Redoubt was a solid ‘island’ with barracks, magazine, and artillery, on top. Originally, it would have accommodated 200 troops but, by 1893, the numbers had been reduced to just 90.
A striking feature of the first period is the Soldiers’ Quarters – five bomb-proof casemates. These are parabolic in cross section and covered in a thick layer of earth to withstand the effect of mortar-bombs. The windows at the rear of each open into a trench, to protect them against blast.
The rise of Napoleon III during the 1850s caused a further invasion scare, and a Royal Commission was set up in 1859 to investigate the defences of Britain. As a result, more work was deemed necessary at the Heights, and the Drop Redoubt had its defences improved. Caponiers were added to four of the corners of the existing fort (each with a stone staircase leading up to the top of the Redoubt), and gunrooms were built alongside two of them to allow fire along the North and South-East Lines. The original magazine was enlarged, and covered with a large earth bank as protection from mortar-fire.
The Officers’ Quarters, Guardroom, and cells also date from this period. They can be distinguished from the earlier work by the semi-circular shape of their arches.
During World War II, the Redoubt housed a squad of commandos that, in the event of invasion, would have been responsible for destroying Dover Harbour. Their presence was secret and the lines around the Redoubt were mined. Evidence of their stay are the sally ports in Caponiers 1 & 2, and the short tunnel leading from the encircling line to Drop Redoubt Road.
The entrance to Drop Redoubt was via a bridge. The inner third of this was pivoted so that the Redoubt could be isolated. The pivot and the recess into which the bridge swung can still be seen, although the bridge has long since gone. In the 1980s, a temporary scaffolding bridge was built by the army to enable access for guided tours of the Redoubt, but this was removed in the middle 1990s to prevent unauthorised entry and vandalism.
Originally, the Redoubt was to be equipped with 12 smooth bore 24-pounder guns and two carronades. However, it is unlikely that many were installed since the Napoleonic War was almost over by the time construction was completed. In 1851, only three 24-pounders were in place, with six 12-pounder saluting guns and an 8” mortar.
Following the Second Period, eleven Armstrong 64-pounder Rifled Breech Loaders were installed on traversing carriages. These proved unsatisfactory and a return was made to muzzle loaders.
On top of the Redoubt are the remains of a Roman Pharos, or lighthouse, which complemented the one that still exists in the grounds of Dover Castle. Both date from the 2nd Century AD, and would have been similar in design lighting the cliffs either side of the Roman Port of Dubris. The remains were lost during the first period of construction, but were re-discovered during the second period and restored to their original position as a rather shapeless lump of masonry. The foundations, though, are present in the room immediately below.
Local names for the remains of the Pharos are the ‘Bredenstone’ or the ‘Devil’s Drop of Mortar’, and it was here, until 1804, that the Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports had their installation ceremony. It is likely that the name ‘Drop Redoubt’ originates from the local name given to the ruins of the Pharos.
Today, much of the site is open as a country park. The barracks have been demolished; and the Citadel has been a young offenders' institution - and is now Dover Immigration Removal Centre and so is off limits.
English Heritage owns the Redoubt; the Grand Shaft spiral staircase is owned by the council, and is annually opened by the Western Heights Preservation Society.
The Grand Shaft Bowl, located south of Drop Redoubt, is the proposed location for the new National War Memorial, which will commemorate, by name, all of the British Commonwealth casualties of World War I and World War II.
The Grand Shaft Barracks was the location for the filming of the post-nuclear attack scenes in the Peter Watkins 1965 film; The War Game.
One of Alfa Romeo's most obscure productions, but at the same time one of their finest, the SZ and RZ, or Sprint Zagato and Roadster Zagato, respectively, are a rare pair of limited edition machines built in the 1990's to give them something of an edge in a time when they were making somewhat mundane family cars.
Robert Opron of the FIAT design studio was responsible for the initial sketches while Antonio Castellana was largely responsible for the final styling details and interior. Only the 'Z' logo of Zagato was kept. The car possessed unusual headlights positioned in a trio on each side - a styling used more subtly on later Alfa Romeos in the 2000s.
Mechanically and engine-wise, the car was based on the Alfa Romeo 75, production being carried out by Zagato at Terrazzano di Rho near the Alfa factory in Arese. The thermoplastic injection moulded composite body panels were produced by Italian company Carplast and French company Stratime Cappelo Systems. Power came from an Alfa Romeo 3.0L V6 12v engine, similar to that used in the Turbo versions of 1993's Alfa Romeo GTV.
The suspension was taken from the Alfa 75 group A/IMSA car, and modified by Giorgio Pianta, engineer and team manager of the Lancia and FIAT rally works team. A hydraulic damper system was made by Koni. The SZ was originally equipped with Pirelli P Zero tyres (front 205/55 ZR 16, rear 225/50 ZR 16) and is able to sustain over 1.1 G in cornering, some drivers have measured a cornering force of 1.4 G, which remains an excellent performance figure.
The two-seater hard roof version also saw a convertible version, the RZ (for Roadster Zagato), produced from 1992 until December 1994. Although almost identical to look at the two cars had completely different body panels save for the front wings and boot. The RZ had a revised bumper and door sills to give better ground clearance and the bonnet no longer featured the aggressive ridges. Three colours were available as standard black yellow and red, with black and yellow being the more popular choices. Yellow and red cars got a black leather interior and black cars burgundy. Although the interior layout was almost unchanged from the SZ, the RZ had a painted central console that swept up between the seats to conceal the convertible roof storage area. 350 units were planned but production was halted after 252 units when the Zagato factory producing the cars for Alfa Romeo went in to receivership, a further 32 cars were then completed under the control of the receivers before production finished at 284 units. Of those final three were painted silver with burgundy interior and another pearlescent white.
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I'm not Muslim myself, but I found it very fascinating to watch while I was there.
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Ṣalāt (Arabic: صلاة; pl. ṣalawāt) is the name given to the formal prayer of Islam. The prayer is one of the obligatory rites of the religion, to be performed five times a day by an obedient Muslim. Its supreme importance for Muslims is indicated by its status as one of the the Five Pillars of Sunni Islam and one of the ten Practices of the Religion of Twelver Shi'a Islam.
Prayer is performed five times a day: at dawn (fajr), noon (dhuhr), in the afternoon (asr), at sunset (maghrib) and nightfall (isha'a). It is obligatory for all Muslims once they have reached puberty.
Articles of Prayer:
[1] Reciting intention for prayer in the heart:
E.g.: I intend to offer 2 raka'ah obligatory prayer of Fajr for Allah Almighty ,add "Behind the Imam" if praying in a Mosque. It is done simultaneously with [2] Takbeeratul-Ihram (below).
[2] Takbeeratul-Ihram:
Saying الله أَكْبَر (God is The Greatest).
[3] Standing right:
For the able-bodied, leaning or not standing upright invalidates prayer. If one is incapable of standing, one may sit, lay on the right side, lay on the left side, lay on one's back or as one is able to do.
[4] Reciting Al-Fatiha:
Recitation of Al-Fatiha is obligated for every raka'ah. Reading another surah after Al-Fatiha is also obligatory for the first 2 raka'ah for all obligatory prayers, however it is required in all raka'ah of supererogatory.
[5] Ruku':
Ruku' is bowing the body until the palms is on the knees. Stopping means all major body parts including arms, wrists, head, legs stop - as long as saying "sub'han-Allah". If the body still moves, stopping is not done. An additional option is to read 3 times سبحان ربى العظيم و بحمده (Glory to my Lord, the Most Magnificent Most Praiseworthy).
[6] I'tidal and stopping:
I'tidal is standing again after ruku'. While the body is raising up, an additional option is to read سمع الله لمن حمده (Allah Listens to him who praises Him). During standing, an additional option is to read ربنا لك الحمد ملء السموات وملء الأرض وملء ما شئت من شئ بعد (Our Lord, to You is due all praise...). The body must stop as long as saying "subhanallah".
[7] Prostration [Sajdah]:
Prostration involves putting the following parts of the body - the bare forehead, both palms, both knees, the base of the toes of both feet - on the place of prostration. The forehead must be bare; a covered forehead invalidates prayer. An additional option is to read 3 times سبحان ربى الأعلى و بحمده (Glory to my Lord, the Most High Most Praiseworthy). There are 2 prostrations, the second is done after sitting between 2 prostrations (as [8] below).
[8] Sitting between 2 prostrations:
During the sitting between the two prostrations, an additional option is to recite: " Allahummaghfirli, warhamnii, wajburnii, wahdinii, warzuqnii, warfa'nii, wa'afinii, wa'fu'annii" Oh Allah Forgive Me, grate me, ...
[9] Final Tashahhud:
Reciting the final Tashahhud:
التحيات لله الزكيات لله الصالحات لله السلام عليك ايها النبي و رحمة الله و بركاته السلام عليكَ و على عبادك الصالحين أشهد أن لا اله الا الله و أن محمدا عبده و رسوله
All greetings, blessings and good acts are from You, my Lord. Greetings to you, O Prophet, and the mercy and blessings of Allah. Peace be unto us, and unto the righteous servants of Allah. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
[10] Sitting for Final Tashahhud:
The final Tashahhud must be done while sitting.
[11] Greetings for Muhammad and for Abraham:
At least by saying اللهم صلى على محمد.
At best
اللهم صلى على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم
وبارك على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما باركت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم
فى العالمين إنك حميد مجيد
O Allah, bless our Muhammad and the people of Muhammad; As you have blessed Abraham and the people of Abraham.
O Allah, be gracious unto Muhammad and the people of Muhammad; As you were gracious unto Abraham and the people of Abraham.
Surely you are the Most Praiseworthy, the Most Glorious.
[12] First greeting:
Greeting "peace be upon you" to the right side. At least with السلام عليكم, at best السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
[13] Second greeting:
Greeting "peace be upon you" to the left side. At least with السلام عليكم, at best السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
[14] Following the Prayer Sequence:
Prayer not in its rightful sequence is invalidated.
From [3] standing right to the [8] second prostration makes one raka'ah. These are repeated for every raka'ah. At the last raka'ah, the rest [9] to [12] are completed. (Note: For more than 2 raka'ah prayers, an additional option is to sit for Tashahhud on the second raka'ah.)
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAvlimEYEpQ
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An afternoon excursion out at last but with indifferent weather, wasn't hoping for too much. The promise of a move into the Wagon Services works at W.H. Davis in Shirebrook pepped up the afternoon no end and as a prelude, another visit to Thoresby to see what was afoot regarding the wagon storage going on there. This 4-part mosaic set shows all that's now to be seen at the Colliery Junction as moves in and out of the pit ceased a few weeks ago, just after I paid my last visit on the 2nd September, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/20977953829/
and
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/20976688813/
and the video,
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/21575087916/
Today, 29th October, all is quiet, there are 3 lines of Freightliner Heavy Haul, HHA 28 tonne coal hoppers stored on the first 3 siding roads, the fourth can just be glimpsed on the left of the 3 lines of wagons, the most weed strewn of the 4 lines. At lower left is another view of the now sold Thoresby Colliery site and I can't imagine it will be too long before the site is cleared; the metal structures possibly being moved out on DCR operated scrap trains; I was informed by a couple of the local enthusiasts present at Shirebrook, though road access is the more likely I guess. If rail is involved this would probably represent the last ever access to the colliery site by rail, though the two main lines in front of the signal box and at the left of the semaphore signal at lower right, take traffic, when required, to Network Rail's, Rail Innovation & Development Centre (RIDC) at High Marnham next to the River Trent, once the site of High Marnham Power Station which was demolished in 2012, see-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JiQCTOqB4
The bridge which carried the railway over the Trent and directly into Lincoln, is still in place though its now a walking track to Pywipe Junction where the line once joined the main line from Gainsborough into Lincoln. The small shunters cabin is still ion tact and in place and the junction points out of the sidings have been left set for the branch line into the colliery site in the top picture on the right-hand side. 'Stopping, Looking & Listening' appears to be a bit redundant now, even though I always do!
a total garden thug. Keeps popping up in new places, mixes in so closely with desired plants that it's hard to dig up. This is Star of Bethlehem - Ornithogalum umbellatum. This bunch popped up under one of my Rhododendrons.
...but who will rescue dad? He seemed to have more troubles than the little one as she sorted it out and got down before he did.
Hanoi; Vietnamese: Hà Nội is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts and 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam. It was eclipsed by Huế, the imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyễn Dynasty (1802–1945), but Hanoi served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1954. From 1954 to 1976, it was the capital of North Vietnam, and it became the capital of a reunified Vietnam in 1976, after the North's victory in the Vietnam War.
The city lies on the right bank of the Red River. Hanoi is 1,760 km north of Ho Chi Minh City and 120 km west of Hai Phong city.
October 2010 officially marked 1000 years since the establishment of the city. The Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural is a 4 km ceramic mosaic mural created to mark the occasion.
NAMES
Hanoi (河內) has had many names throughout history. During the Chinese occupation of Vietnam, it was known first as Long Biên, then Tống Bình (宋平, "Song Peace") and Long Đỗ (龍肚, "Dragonbelly"). In 866, it was turned into a citadel and named Đại La (大羅, "Big Net"). During the Lê dynasty, Hanoi was known as Đông Kinh (東京, "Eastern Capital"); this gave the name to Tonkin.
HISTORY
Pre-Thăng Long period
Hanoi has been inhabited since at least 3000 BC. The Cổ Loa Citadel in Dong Anh district served as the capital of the Âu Lạc kingdom founded by the Shu emigrant Thục Phán after his 258 BC conquest of the native Văn Lang.
In 197 BC, Âu Lạc Kingdom was annexed by Nanyue, which ushered in more than a millennium of Chinese domination. By the middle of the 5th century, in the center of ancient Hanoi, the Liu Song Dynasty set up a new district (縣) called Songping (Tong Binh), which later became a commandery (郡), including two districts Yihuai (義懷) and Suining (綏寧) in the south of the Red River (now Từ Liêm and Hoài Đức districts) with a metropolis (the domination centre) in the present inner Hanoi. By the year 679, the Tang dynasty changed the region's name into Annan (Pacified South), with Songping as its capital.
In order to defeat the people’s uprisings, in the later half of the 8th century, Zhang Boyi (張伯儀), a Tang dynasty viceroy, built Luocheng (羅城, La Thanh or La citadel, from Thu Le to Quan Ngua in present-day Ba Dinh precinct). In the earlier half of the 9th century, it was further built up and called Jincheng (金城, Kim Thanh or Kim Citadel). In 866, Gao Pian, the Chinese Jiedushi, consolidated and named it Daluocheng (大羅城, Dai La citadel, running from Quan Ngua to Bach Thao), the then-largest citadel of ancient Hanoi.
Thăng Long, Đông Đô, Đông Quan, Đông Kinh
In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ, the first ruler of the Lý Dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt to the site of the Đại La Citadel. Claiming to have seen a dragon ascending the Red River, he renamed the site Thăng Long (昇龍, "Soaring Dragon") - a name still used poetically to this day. Thăng Long remained the capital of Đại Việt until 1397, when it was moved to Thanh Hóa, then known as Tây Đô (西都), the "Western Capital". Thăng Long then became Đông Đô (東都), the "Eastern Capital."
In 1408, the Chinese Ming Dynasty attacked and occupied Vietnam, changing Đông Đô's name to Dongguan (Chinese: 東關, Eastern Gateway), or Đông Quan in Sino-Vietnamese. In 1428, the Vietnamese overthrew the Chinese under the leadership of Lê Lợi, who later founded the Lê Dynasty and renamed Đông Quan Đông Kinh (東京, "Eastern Capital") or Tonkin. Right after the end of the Tây Sơn Dynasty, it was named Bắc Thành (北城, "Northern Citadel").
During Nguyễn Dynasty and the French colonial period
In 1802, when the Nguyễn Dynasty was established and moved the capital to Huế, the old name Thăng Long was modified to become Thăng Long (昇龍, "Soaring Dragon"). In 1831, the Nguyễn emperor Minh Mạng renamed it Hà Nội (河内, "Between Rivers" or "River Interior"). Hanoi was occupied by the French in 1873 and passed to them ten years later. As Hanoï, it became the capital of French Indochina after 1887.
DURING TWO WARS
The city was occupied by the Japanese in 1940 and liberated in 1945, when it briefly became the seat of the Viet Minh government after Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam. However, the French returned and reoccupied the city in 1946. After nine years of fighting between the French and Viet Minh forces, Hanoi became the capital of an independent North Vietnam in 1954.
During the Vietnam War, Hanoi's transportation facilities were disrupted by the bombing of bridges and railways. These were all, however, promptly repaired. Following the end of the war, Hanoi became the capital of a reunified Vietnam when North and South Vietnam were reunited on July 2, 1976.
MODERN HANOI
On May 29, 2008, it was decided that Hà Tây Province, Vĩnh Phúc Province's Mê Linh District and 4 communes of Lương Sơn District, Hòa Bình Province be merged into the metropolitan area of Hanoi from August 1, 2008. Hanoi's total area then increased to 334,470 hectares in 29 subdivisions with the new population being 6,232,940., effectively tripling its size. The Hanoi Capital Region (Vùng Thủ đô Hà Nội), a metropolitan area covering Hanoi and 6 surrounding provinces under its administration, will have an area of 13,436 square kilometres with 15 million people by 2020
Hanoi has experienced a rapid construction boom recently. Skyscrapers, popping up in new urban areas, have dramatically changed the cityscape and have formed a modern skyline outside the old city. In 2015, Hanoi is ranked # 39 by Emporis in the list of world cities with most skyscrapers over 100 m; its two tallest buildings are Hanoi Landmark 72 Tower (336m, tallest in Vietnam and second tallest in Southeast Asia after Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers) and Hanoi Lotte Center (272m, also second tallest in Vietnam)
GEOGRAPHY
LOCATION - TOPOGRAPHY
Hanoi is located in northern region of Vietnam, situated in the Vietnam’s Red River delta, nearly 90 km away from the coastal area. Hanoi contains three basic kind of terrain, which are the delta area, the midland area and mountainous zone. In general, the terrain is gradually lower from the north to the south and from the west to the east, with the average height ranging from 5 to 20 meters above the sea level. The hills and mountainous zones are located in the northern and western part of the city. The highest peak is at Ba Vi with 1281 m, located in the western part of the region.
CLIMATE
Hanoi features a warm humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) with plentiful precipitation. The city experiences the typical climate of northern Vietnam, with 4 distinct seasons. Summer, from May until August, is characterized by hot and humid weather with abundant rainfall. September to October is fall, characterized by a decrease in temperature and precipitation. Winter, from November to January, is dry and cool by national standards. The city is usually cloudy and foggy in winter, averaging only 1.5 hours of sunshine per day in February.
Hanoi averages 1,680 millimetres of rainfall per year, the majority falling from May to September. There are an average of 114 days with rain.
The average annual temperature is 23.6 °C with a mean relative humidity of 79%. The highest recorded temperature was 42.8 °C on May 1926 while the lowest recorded temperature was 2.7 °C on January 1955.
ADMINISTRATIVES DIVISIONS
Hà Nội is divided into 12 urban districts, 1 district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. When Ha Tay was merged into Hanoi in 2008, Hà Đông was transformed into an urban district while Sơn Tây degraded to a district-leveled town. They are further subdivided into 22 commune-level towns (or townlets), 399 communes, and 145 wards.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Hanoi's population is constantly growing (about 3.5% per year), a reflection of the fact that the city is both a major metropolitan area of Northern Vietnam, and also the country's political centre. This population growth also puts a lot of pressure on the infrastructure, some of which is antiquated and dates back to the early 20th century.
The number of Hanoians who have settled down for more than three generations is likely to be very small when compared to the overall population of the city. Even in the Old Quarter, where commerce started hundreds of years ago and consisted mostly of family businesses, many of the street-front stores nowadays are owned by merchants and retailers from other provinces. The original owner family may have either rented out the store and moved into the adjoining house or moved out of the neighbourhood altogether. The pace of change has especially escalated after the abandonment of central-planning economic policies and relaxing of the district-based household registrar system.
Hanoi's telephone numbers have been increased to 8 digits to cope with demand (October 2008). Subscribers' telephone numbers have been changed in a haphazard way; however, mobile phones and SIM cards are readily available in Vietnam, with pre-paid mobile phone credit available in all areas of Hanoi.
ECONOMY
Hanoi has the highest Human Development Index among the cities in Vietnam. According to a recent ranking by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hanoi will be the fastest growing city in the world in terms of GDP growth from 2008 to 2025. In the year 2013, Hanoi contributed 12.6% to GDP, exported 7.5% of total exports, contributed 17% to the national budget and attracted 22% investment capital of Vietnam. The city's nominal GDP at current prices reached 451,213 billion VND (21.48 billion USD) in 2013, which made per capita GDP stand at 63.3 million VND (3,000 USD). Industrial production in the city has experienced a rapid boom since the 1990s, with average annual growth of 19.1 percent from 1991–95, 15.9 percent from 1996–2000, and 20.9 percent during 2001–2003. In addition to eight existing industrial parks, Hanoi is building five new large-scale industrial parks and 16 small- and medium-sized industrial clusters. The non-state economic sector is expanding fast, with more than 48,000 businesses currently operating under the Enterprise Law (as of 3/2007).
Trade is another strong sector of the city. In 2003, Hanoi had 2,000 businesses engaged in foreign trade, having established ties with 161 countries and territories. The city's export value grew by an average 11.6 percent each year from 1996–2000 and 9.1 percent during 2001–2003. The economic structure also underwent important shifts, with tourism, finance, and banking now playing an increasingly important role. Hanoi's business districts are traditionally Hoàn Kiếm and the neighborhood; and a newly developing Cầu Giấy and Từ Liêm in the western part.
Similar to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi enjoys a rapidly developing real estate market. The current most notable new urban areas are central Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh, Mỹ Đình, the luxurious zones of The Manor, Ciputra and Times City.
Agriculture, previously a pillar in Hanoi's economy, has striven to reform itself, introducing new high-yield plant varieties and livestock, and applying modern farming techniques.
Together with economic growth, Hanoi's appearance has also changed significantly, especially in recent years. Infrastructure is constantly being upgraded, with new roads and an improved public transportation system.
LANDMARKS
As the capital of Vietnam for almost a thousand years, Hanoi is considered one of the main cultural centres of Vietnam, where most Vietnamese dynasties have left their imprint. Even though some relics have not survived through wars and time, the city still has many interesting cultural and historic monuments for visitors and residents alike. Even when the nation's capital moved to Huế under the Nguyễn Dynasty in 1802, the city of Hanoi continued to flourish, especially after the French took control in 1888 and modeled the city's architecture to their tastes, lending an important aesthetic to the city's rich stylistic heritage. The city hosts more cultural sites than any other city in Vietnam, and boasts more than 1,000 years of history; that of the past few hundred years has been well preserved.
OLD QUARTER
The Old Quarter, near Hoàn Kiếm Lake, has the original street layout and architecture of old Hanoi. At the beginning of the 20th century the city consisted of only about 36 streets, most of which are now part of the old quarter. Each street then had merchants and households specializing in a particular trade, such as silk or jewelry. The street names nowadays still reflect these specializations, although few of them remain exclusively in their original commerce. The area is famous for its small artisans and merchants, including many silk shops. Local cuisine specialties as well as several clubs and bars can be found here also. A night market (near Đồng Xuân Market) in the heart of the district opens for business every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening with a variety of clothing, souvenirs and food.
Some other prominent places are: The Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu), site of the oldest university in Vietnam 1010; One Pillar Pagoda (Chùa Một Cột); Flag Tower of Hanoi (Cột cờ Hà Nội). In 2004, a massive part of the 900-year-old Hanoi Citadel was discovered in central Hanoi, near the site of Ba Đình Square.
LAKES
A city between rivers built from low land, Hanoi has many scenic lakes and is sometimes called "city of lakes." Among its lakes, the most famous are Hoàn Kiếm Lake, West Lake, and Bay Mau Lake (inside Thongnhat Park). Hoan Kiem Lake, also known as Sword Lake, is the historical and cultural center of Hanoi, and is linked to the legend of the magic sword. West Lake (Hồ Tây) is a popular place for people to spend time. It is the largest lake in Hanoi and there are many temples in the area. The lakeside road in the Nghi Tam - Quang Ba area is perfect for bicycling, jogging and viewing the cityscape or enjoying lotus ponds in the summer. The best way to see the majestic beauty of a Westlake sunset is to view it from one of the many bars around the lake, especially the Sofitel Plaza rooftop bar.
COLONIAL HANOI
Under French rule, as an administrative centre for the French colony of Indochina, the French colonial architecture style became dominant, and many examples remain today: the tree-lined boulevards (e.g. Phan Dinh Phung street) and its many villas and mansions, Grand Opera House, State Bank of Vietnam (formerly The Bank of Indochina), Presidential Palace (formerly the Palace of the Governor-General of French Indochina), St. Joseph's Cathedral, and the historic Hotel Metropole. Many of the colonial structures are an eclectic mixture of French and traditional Vietnamese architectural styles, such as the National Museum of Vietnamese History, the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts and the old Indochina Medical College. Gouveneur-Général Paul Doumer (1898-1902) played a crucial role in colonial Hanoi's urban planning. Under his tenure there was a major construction boom.
Critical historians of empire have noted that French colonial rule imposed a system of white supremacy on the city. Vietnamese subjects supplied labor and tax revenue, but the privileges and comforts of the city went to the white population. French efforts at rat eradication revealed some of the colonial city's racial double-standards.
MUSEUMS
Hanoi is home to a number of museums:
- National Museum of Vietnamese History
- Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts
- Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
- Vietnam Museum of Revolution
- Hỏa Lò Prison (Hanoi Hilton)
- Ho Chi Minh Museum
- Hanoi Contemporary Arts Centre
- Vietnam Military History Museum
- Hanoi Museum
TOURISM
Hanoi is a very picturesque city, the leafy metropolis sometimes dubbed the "Paris of Asia." With its tree-fringed boulevards, more than two dozen lakes and thousands of French colonial-era buildings, Hanoi is a popular tourist attraction and one of only a few Asian capitals to retain its historic charm amid rapid modernization and population growth.
In 2015, Hanoi ranks #4 in TripAdvisor's list of the World's Best Destinations (Travellers' Choice).
And Hanoi is the most affordable international destination in TripAdvisor's annual TripIndex report. Created to help travelers plan and budget their summer holiday, the TripIndex looks at the average cost of a three-night trip in 60 key tourist cities around the world.
ENTERTAINMENT
A variety of options for entertainment in Hanoi can be found throughout the city. Modern and traditional theaters, cinemas, karaoke bars, dance clubs, bowling alleys, and an abundance of opportunities for shopping provide leisure activity for both locals and tourists. Hanoi has been named one of the top 10 cities for shopping in Asia by Water Puppet Tours. The number of art galleries exhibiting Vietnamese art has dramatically increased in recent years, now including galleries such as "Nhat Huy" of Huynh Thong Nhat.
A popular traditional form of entertainment is Water puppetry, which is shown, for example, at the Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre."
CUISINE
Hanoi has rich culinary traditions. Many of Vietnam's most famous dishes, such as phở, chả cá, bánh cuốn and cốm are believed to have originated in Hanoi. Perhaps most widely known is Phở - a simple rice noodle soup often eaten as breakfast at home or at street-side cafes, but also served in restaurants as a meal. Two varieties dominate the Hanoi scene: Phở Bò, containing beef, and Phở Gà, containing chicken.
Vietnam's national dish phở has been named as one of the Top 5 streetfoods in the world by globalpost.
Hanoi has a number of restaurants whose menus specifically offer dishes containing dog, snake and various species of insects. Insect-inspired menus can be found at a number of restaurants in Khuong Thuong village, Hanoi. The signature dishes at these restaurant are those containing processed ant-eggs, often in the culinary styles of Thai people or Vietnam's Muong and Tay ethnic people.
EDUCATION
Hanoi, as the capital of French Indochina, was home to the first Western-style universities in Indochina, including: Indochina Medical College (1902) - now Hanoi Medical University, Indochina University (1904) - now Hanoi National University (the largest), and École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (1925) - now Hanoi University of Fine Art.
After the Communist Party took control over Hanoi in 1954 with support from the Soviet Union, many new universities were built, among them, Hanoi University of Technology, still the largest technical university in Vietnam. Recently ULIS (University of Languages and International Studies) was rated as one of the top universities in Southeast Asia for languages and language studies at the undergraduate level. Other universities that are not part of Vietnam National University or Hanoi University include Hanoi School for Public Health and Hanoi School of Agriculture.
Hanoi is the largest centre of education in Vietnam. It is estimated that 62% of the scientists in the whole country are living and working in Hanoi. Admissions to undergraduate study are through entrance examinations, which are conducted annually and open for everyone (who has successfully completed his/her secondary education) in the country. The majority of universities in Hanoi are public, although in recent years a number of private universities have begun operation. Thăng Long University, founded in 1988, by some Vietnamese mathematics professors in Hanoi and France is the first private university in Vietnam. Because many of Vietnam's major universities are located in Hanoi, students from other provinces (especially in the northern part of the country) wishing to enter university often travel to Hanoi for the annual entrance examination. Such events usually take place in June and July, during which a large number of students and their families converge on the city for several weeks around this intense examination period. In recent years, these entrance exams have been centrally coordinated by the Ministry of Education, but passing marks are decided independently by each university.
Although there are state owned kindergartens, there are also many private ventures that serve both local and international needs. Pre-tertiary (elementary and secondary) schools in Hanoi are generally state run, but there are also some independent schools. Education is equivalent to the K–12 system in the US, with elementary school between grades 1 and 5, middle school (or junior high) between grades 6 and 9, and high school from grades 10 to 12.
TRANSPORT
Hanoi is served by Noi Bai International Airport, located in the Soc Son District, approximately 15 km north of Hanoi. The new international terminal (T2), designed and built by Japanese contractors, opened in January 2015 and is a big facelift for Noibai International Airport. In addition, a new highway and the new Nhat Tan cable-stay bridge connecting the airport and the city center opened at the same time, offering much more convenience than the old road (via Thanglong bridge). Taxis are plentiful and usually have trip meters, although it is also common to agree on the trip price before taking a taxi from the airport to the city centre.
Hanoi is also the origin or departure point for many Vietnam Railways train routes in the country. The Reunification Express (tàu Thống Nhất) runs from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City from Hanoi station (formerly Hang Co station), with stops at cities and provinces along the line. Trains also depart Hanoi frequently for Hai Phong and other northern cities. The Reunification Express line was established during French colonial rule and was completed over a period of nearly forty years, from 1899 to 1936. The Reunification Express between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City covers a distance of 1,726 km and takes approximately 33 hours. As of 2005, there were 278 stations on the Vietnamese railway network, of which 191 were located along the North-South line.
The main means of transport within Hanoi city are motorbikes, buses, taxis, and a rising number of cars. In recent decades, motorbikes have overtaken bicycles as the main form of transportation. The increased number of motorcycles can cause gridlock. To minimize this and the negative consequences for the environment and health, the local government is trying to increase public transportation. Public buses run on many routes and fares can be purchased on the bus, with very cheap prices (30 cents for a journey where a taxi might cost $10).
There are 2 metro lines under construction in Hanoi now. The first one is expected to be operational in 2016, the second in 2018
Persons on their own or traveling in a pair who wish to make a fast trip around Hanoi to avoid traffic jams or to travel at an irregular time or by way of an irregular route often use "xe ôm" (literally, "hug bike"). Motorbikes can also be rented from agents within the Old Quarter of Hanoi.
WIKIPEDIA
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Vietnam was our original choice for a touring holiday back in 2015, mainly to see Halong Bay, but we got sidetracked by the gorgeous pictures of Myanmar in the brochures and ended up going there instead. Myanmar, and probably touring holidays in general, was hard work, we are both in our sixties and do not really travel that well after having a lot of pampered holidays in the Maldives, so after the final three hour wait in another airport lounge we said 'never again'. But three months later after sitting back and looking at the best set of holiday photo's we have ever taken, we realised what wonderful people we had met and amazing places we had seen and that you have to put up with airport lounges, train stations and car journeys to get that. So the next thing we knew we were booking another touring holiday to Vietnam with Mango Journeys based in Cambodia! Warren the owner of Mango, actually an Aussie guy, sorted out our itinerary, click to view, we booked a couple of flights and it was done. Vietnam has a lot of Buddhist tradition like Myanmar so we figured that the people would be similar to the lovely people of Myanmar we met last year. Plus the landscape and scenery looked so green and lush so it all boded well.
However when we arrived in Saigon, all the Vietnamese still call it Saigon, in mid December it turned out that it was still the rainy season. So it was quite cloudy, foggy and rainy.....and it stayed like that for most of the holiday actually. We hadn't quite bargained for that, Myanmar was dry and sunny at the same time last year so this was quite a dramatic change. We were also in their winter so no crops were growing, hence all the lovely green and golden paddy fields you see in the brochures were mostly brown and muddy. Vietnam is big and very busy, there were a huge amount of Chinese tourists here, especially at Ankor Wat in Cambodia. A lot of the local people traditionally come home from all over the world at this time of year to see their families, so the place is buzzing. The Vietnamese people are also a lot more 'tourist savvy' here compared with the totally charming Burmese people we met last year, they seem to have that air of indifference you get in developed western countries towards tourists.
It's all sounding a bit disappointing and I'm afraid that is how it felt quite a lot of the time. We were in Saigon for 2 days....way too busy for us. Then a boat trip to the Mekong Delta, sounds idyllic but actually just a big busy river, we never really got far enough into the smaller tributaries where it might be more like you imagine the Mekong Delta to look like. A flight to Siem Reap then a couple of days around Ankor Wat. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the holiday. The Angkor Archaeological Park is mind boggingly massive! It took us 45 minutes by car to reach the pink sandstone temple of Banteay Srei in one corner of the park! The distances involved when moving between the various temples are all the same.....huge! Ankor Wat itself covers an enormous area but hugely impressive. It shows the power of this place when you get to the entrance at 5:00am to watch the sunrise and there are already hundreds of people there! And it happens every day of the year apparently. Although hordes of people can bug you sometimes, the collective enjoyment factor seems to override that here, the place is just so awe inspiring.
We really enjoyed Cambodia, we wished we had spent more time there, we only met a few people but they all seemed to have more of that charm of the Burmese people. Cambodia has had an extremely troubled past, the war didn't end until 1998 and everybody appears to have been tainted by it. Our guide lost 15 of his immediate relatives to it, and a lot of people seem to have similar horrific tales to tell. The landmine museum we visited was a poignant reminder of those days and our guide was obviously quite emotional in his rendering of the museum's history and the people involved in it. As a result of the regime's slaughter of all the ruling elite including politicians, teachers, scholars and intellectuals Cambodia was left backward in the rapidly growing economy of south east Asia. They are moving in the right direction now, albeit slowly, and we both felt we should have spent more time there and given them more of the benefit of our tourist dollar.
Of all the other places we visited, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Tam Coc, Mai Chau Valley, Hanoi and Halong Bay, Mai Chau Valley was like an oasis in a sea of traffic, busy people and tourists. When you look down at the valley from the main photo vantage point it has the look of the promised land, a lush green place nestling in the surrounding mountains.
We had a couple of lovely walks around here over two days enjoying the beatiful landscape and meeting a few of the local people. We realised afterwards that we should have stayed away from the cities and done more of this sort of stuff. We stopped and spoke to a lovely 68 year old lady in Mau Chau vilage, there was nothing to her she looked so thin and frail. She told us, interpreted by our guide, that her husband left when she was 36 years old and because of the culture she was never allowed to be with another man after that. Her only daughter was married at around the same time and again the culture dictates that she moved to the husband's village which was in south Vietnam. Her daughter is extremely poor and travel for local people is so expensive that it is extremely unlikely she will ever see her mother again. A small story but one that is probably played out a lot in this country. This amazing lady took us back to the one room brick built house with a small garden no bigger than your average shed that she now lives in. She managed to build it with help from the villagers who all seem to look after each other extremely well, so at least she now has somewhere dry to live. She was so welcoming though and showed us how she cooks, where she sleeps and the small garden she tends, it was without doubt the most touching moment of our holiday and one we will always remember.
If you like busy cities then Hanoi is probably a better option than Saigon, it has an old quarter that is strangely quaint for a big city, is a lot more photogenic and a nicer place to be. We were never taken to new Hanoi so I guess it's probably just like Saigon.
Halong Bay was the main inspiration to visit Vietnam in the first place. I saw photo's of this place back in 2014 when searching for more of the limestone karst scenery we had seen in Thailand's Phang Nga Bay on a previous holiday. The boat trip with an overnight stay was the holiday finale and supposed to be one of the highlights. I mistakenly thought we would be touring around Halong Bay the whole time....a foolish assumption! We sailed for about 30 minutes, during which time we had a briefing and some food, then we dropped anchor and that was it! It turned out to be more of a booze cruise, with kayaking, happy hour, games, karaoke and Tai Chi in the morning! Oh my God, what a waste! This place is massive and to just sail into it for half an hour seemed ridiculous to us. I know a lot of it looks the same but as a photographer you are looking for those subtle differences in composition and quality of light that make great photographs. You can't get that when you are sat in the same spot. I managed to get some reasonable photographs but overall, disappointing.....again!
As I write this back in the UK, I've just finshed post processing our holiday photo's after around four weeks work. Originally, because of the dull weather we had, I thought they were not going to be a patch on the photo's from Myanmar last year, but I have been pleasantly surprised. I am constantly amazed at what you can pull out of seemingly dull photographs with the help of Lightroom, Topaz Labs and Photomatix for HDR. Back in the days of film I used to love the punchy colours you could get on a sunny day with the help of a polarizing filter and Kodachrome 25! Nowadays with the help of modern software it's possible to get so much colour into photographs almost out of nowhere! I love making 'impression' type of pictures where the photo is transformed into a sort of painting....used judiciously they conjure up more of the feeling of a place than a straight photo. Those plus the power of HDR photography and Topaz Labs give our holiday snaps a warmth and colour that maybe isn't true to life but always makes them look amazing! No wonder we got suckered into doing another touring holiday.....the photo's just look so good!
A word about Mango Journeys, they were amazing. All the guides were there to greet us and look after us wherever we went and they all seemed to enjoy their work, which always helps. Everything on the itenerary worked out OK.....in the end! We had one hiccup where we missed our flight from Cambodia back into Vietnam but Warren stepped in at 9:00pm at night and got us on another flight and into a hotel without too much bother and no extra charge. As it was our first visit to Vietnam Mango tried to give us a bit of everything I guess, stuff that most tourists want to see. In hindsight and learning from our Burma trip last year we should have really studied the itinerary and made sure it included what WE wanted to do, especially staying away from big cities! We are quite new to touring so it's a learning process.
Our next holiday? As soon as we got home we knew we 'needed a holiday' it had been so busy with a lot of travelling. We booked a week on Veligandu in the Maldives at Easter! Back to our favourite place in the world! Not only that we decided to put touring on hold for a while and booked two weeks on Filitheyo for Christmas. Back to just sunbathing, snorkelling, scuba diving and chilling! Heaven!
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To view the rest of my Photography Collection click on Link below:
www.flickr.com/photos/nevillewootton/albums
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Photography & Equipment sponsored by my web business:
We are UK's leading Filter Specialists, selling online to the Plant, Agricultural, Commercial Vehicle and Marine Industries.
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PLEASE NOTE: I take Photographs purely as a hobby these days so am happy to share them with anyone who enjoys them or has a use for them. If you do use them an accreditation would be nice and if you benefit from them financially a donation to www.sightsavers.org would be really nice.
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Published on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by TomDispatch.com
A Very American Coup: Coming Soon to a Hometown Near You
by William Astore
The wars in distant lands were always going to come home, but not this way.
It's September 2016, year 15 of America's "Long War" against terror. As weary troops return to the homeland, a bitter reality assails them: despite their sacrifices, America is losing.
Iraq is increasingly hostile to remaining occupation forces. Afghanistan is a riddle that remains unsolved: its army and police forces are untrustworthy, its government corrupt, and its tribal leaders unsympathetic to the vagaries of U.S. intervention. Since the Obama surge of 2010, a trillion more dollars have been devoted to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and other countries in the vast shatter zone that is central Asia, without measurable returns; nothing, that is, except the prolongation of America's Great Recession, now entering its tenth year without a sustained recovery in sight.
Disillusioned veterans are unable to find decent jobs in a crumbling economy. Scarred by the physical and psychological violence of war, fed up with the happy talk of duplicitous politicians who only speak of shared sacrifices, they begin to organize. Their motto: take America back.
Meanwhile, a lame duck presidency, choking on foreign policy failures, finds itself attacked even for its putative successes. Health-care reform is now seen to have combined the inefficiency and inconsistency of government with the naked greed and exploitative talents of corporations. Medical rationing is a fact of life confronting anyone on the high side of 50. Presidential rhetoric that offered hope and change has lost all resonance. Mainstream media outlets are discredited and disintegrating, resulting in new levels of information anarchy.
Protest, whether electronic or in the streets, has become more common -- and the protestors in those streets increasingly carry guns, though as yet armed violence is minimal. A panicked administration responds with overlapping executive orders and legislation that is widely perceived as an attack on basic freedoms.
Tapping the frustration of protesters -- including a renascent and mainstreamed "tea bag" movement -- the former captains and sergeants, the ex-CIA operatives and out-of-work private mercenaries of the War on Terror take action. Conflict and confrontation they seek; laws and orders they increasingly ignore. As riot police are deployed in the streets, they face a grim choice: where to point their guns? Not at veterans, they decide, not at America's erstwhile heroes.
A dwindling middle-class, still waving the flag and determined to keep its sliver-sized portion of the American dream, throws its support to the agitators. Wages shrinking, savings exhausted, bills rising, the sober middle can no longer hold. It vents its fear and rage by calling for a decisive leader and the overthrow of a can't-do Congress.
Savvy members of traditional Washington elites are only too happy to oblige. They too crave order and can-do decisiveness -- on their terms. Where better to find that than in the ranks of America's most respected institution: the military?
A retired senior officer who led America's heroes in central Asia is anointed. His creed: end public disorder, fight the War on Terror to a victorious finish, put America back on top. The United States, he says, is the land of winners, and winners accept no substitute for victory. Nominated on September 11, 2016, Patriot Day, he marches to an overwhelming victory that November, embraced in the streets by an American version of the post-World War I German Freikorps and the police who refuse to suppress them. A concerned minority is left to wonder (and tremble) at the de facto military coup that occurred so quickly, and yet so silently, in their midst.
It Can Happen Here, Unless We Act
Yes, it can happen here. In some ways, it's already happening. But the key question is: at this late date, how can it be stopped? Here are some vectors for a change in course, and in mindset as well, if we are to avoid our own stealth coup:
1. Somehow, we need to begin to reverse the ongoing militarization of this country, especially our ever-rising "defense" budgets. The most recent of these, we've just learned, is a staggering $708 billion for fiscal year 2011 -- and that doesn't even include the $33 billion President Obama has requested for his latest surge in Afghanistan. We also need to get rid of the idea that anyone who suggests even minor cuts in defense spending is either hopelessly naïve or a terrorist sympathizer. It's time as well to call a halt to the privatization of military activity and so halt the rise of security contractors like Xe (formerly Blackwater), thereby weakening the corporate profit motive that supports and underpins the American version of perpetual war. It's time to begin feeling chastened, not proud, that we're by far the number one country in the world in arms manufacturing and the global arms trade.
2. Let's downsize our global mission rather than endlessly expanding our military footprint. It's time to have a military capable of defending this country, not fighting endless wars in distant lands while garrisoning the globe.
3. Let's stop paying attention to major TV and cable networks that rely on retired senior military officers, most of whom have ties both to the Pentagon and military contractors, for "unbiased" commentary on our wars. If we insist on fighting our perpetual "frontier" wars, let's start insisting as well that they be covered in all their bitter reality: the death, the mayhem, the waste, the prisons, and the torture. Why is our war coverage invariably sanitized to "PG" or even "G," when we can go to the movies anytime and see "R" rated, pornographically violent films? And by the way, it's time to be more critical of the government's and the media's use of language and propaganda. Mindlessly parroting the Patriot Act doesn't make you patriotic.
4. It's time to elect a president who doesn't surround himself with senior "civilian" advisors and ambassadors who are actually retired military generals and admirals, one who won't accept a Nobel Peace Prize by defending war in theory and escalating it in practice.
5. Let's toughen up. Let's stop deferring to authority figures who promise to "protect" us while abridging our rights. Let's stop bowing down before men and women in uniform, before they start thinking that it's their right to be worshipped and act accordingly.
6. Let's act now to relieve the sort of desperation bred by joblessness and hopelessness that could lead many -- notably male workers suffering from the "He-Cession" -- to see a militarized solution in "the homeland" as a credible last resort. It's the economy, stupid, but with Main Street's health, not Wall Street's, in our focus.
7. Let's take Sarah Palin and her followers seriously. They're tapping into anger that's real and spreading. Don't let them become the voices of the angry working (and increasingly unemployed) classes.
8. Recognize that we face real enemies in our world, the most powerful of which aren't in distant Afghanistan or Yemen but here at home. The essence of our struggle to sustain our faltering democracy should not be against "terrorists," with their shoe and crotch bombs, but against various powerful, perfectly legal groups here whose interests lie in a Pentagon that only grows ever stronger.
9. Stop thinking the U.S. is uniquely privileged. Don't take it on faith that God is on our side. Forget about God blessing America. If you believe in God, get out there and start trying to earn His blessing through deeds.
10. And, most important of all, remember that fear is the mind-killer that makes militarism possible. Ramping up "terror" is an amazingly effective way of shredding our Constitution. Putting our "safety" above all else is asking for trouble. The only way we'll be completely safe from the big bad terrorists, after all, is when we're all living in a maximum security state. Think of walking down the street while always being subject to a "full-body scan."
That's my top 10 things we need to do. It's a daunting list and I'm sure you have a few ideas of your own. But have faith. Ultimately, it all boils down to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's words to a nation suffering through the Great Depression: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. These words came to mind recently as I read the following missive from a friend and World War II veteran who's seen tough times:
"It's very hard for me to accept how soft the American people have become. In 1941, with the western world under assault by powerful and deadly forces, and a large armada of ships and planes attacking us directly, I never heard a word of fear as we faced three powerful nations as enemies. Sixteen million of us went into the military with the very real possibility of death and I never once heard of fear, except from those exposed to danger. Now, our people let [their leaders] terrify them into accepting the destruction of our economy, our image in the world, and our democracy... All this over a small group of religious fanatics [mostly] from Saudi Arabia whom we kowtow to so we can drive 8-cylinder SUV's. Pathetic!
"How many times have I stood in ‘security lines' at airports and when I complained of the indignity of taking off shoes and not having water and the manhandling of passengers, have well educated people smugly said to me, ‘Well, they're just keeping us safe.' I look at the airport bullshit as a training ground to turn Americans into docile sheep in a totalitarian state."
A public conditioned to act like sheep, to "support our troops" no matter what, to cower before the idea of terrorism, is a public ready to be herded. A military that's being used to fight unwinnable wars is a military prone to return home disaffected and with scores to settle.
Angry and desperate veterans and mercenaries already conditioned to violence, merging with "tea baggers" and other alienated groups, could one day form our own Freikorps units, rioting for violent solutions to national decline. Recall that the Nazi movement ultimately succeeded in the early 1930s because so many middle-class Germans were scared as they saw their wealth, standard of living, and status all threatened by the Great Depression.
If our Great Recession continues, if decent jobs remain scarce, if the mainstream media continue to foster fear and hatred, if returning troops are disaffected and their leaders blame politicians for "not being tough enough," if one or two more terrorist attacks succeed on U.S. soil, wouldn't this country be well primed for a coup by any other name?
Don't expect a "Seven Days in May" scenario. No American Caesar will return to Washington with his legions to decapitate governmental authority. Why not? Because he won't have to.
As long as we continue to live in perpetual fear in an increasingly militarized state, we establish the preconditions under which Americans will be nailed to, and crucified on, a cross of iron.
© 2010 William Astore
William J. Astore teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology (wastore@pct.edu). A retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), he has also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. A TomDispatch regular, he is the author of Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism.
What would you do if you saw your nation going fascist?
Nearly halfway through the month, and it's the weekend again, and the the good news is that the sore throat I had on Friday went and did not return.
Which is nice.
Jools's cough, however, which seemed like it was getting better, returned slightly on Friday evening, and would again on Saturday. We had tockets to see Public Service Bradcasting again, this time in Margate, but our hearts were not in it, if I'm honest, and in the end we decided not to go in light of her coughing, but also as I said, we saw them a month back, though this would be a different show.
And Norwich were on the tellybox, what could be better than watching that?
Anything, as it turned out.
But that was for later.
We went to Tesco, a little later than usual, as we had slept in rather, then back home for breakfast before the decision on what to do for the day. Jools decided to stay home to bead and read, I would go out.
There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.
But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.
There was a small group with the Vicar, talking in one of the chapels, so I made busy getting my shots, just happy that the church was open. I left a fiver with the vicar, and walked back to the car, passing the old guy supping from a tin of cider sitting outside the church hall.
A quick drive through town, Buckland and up Crabble Hill past our old flat and onto Lydden before emerging onto the A2, doubling back to go through Coldred. Finding the road to Barfrestone from there would be easy, no?
No.
Roads started heading in the right direction, or signposts promising the bright lights of Barfrestone and leading nowhere near. Or quite near, I have no idea.
After passing through Elvington, I resorted to the sat nav, and take the left turn, it said, I was less than a mile away.
The micropub, The Wrong Turn has closed, sadly, I saw as I drove past, then turned left down to the middle of the village, and parked beside the old phone box.
Everyone has a favourite church, or every churchcrawlers, either by county or in their experience. I am now at about 370 Kent churches, and St Nicholas is my favourite, and the most interesting. There is none other like it in the county, or the south east of England.
A simple two cell church from the 12th century, with the lower halves of the walls of flint, but the upper parts of Caen stone, and mostly richly carved, or with window arches or blank ones. A line of grosteque heads line the corbel on the outside, and insode there is a decorated dado that has geometric pattern at one end, and a monkey smoking a pipe at the other.
On Saturday, I took 432 shots here, redoing many shots from previous visits, but with now a better camera and lenses.
St Nicholas was closed earlier this year due to vandalism, but it open again now, though parking is difficult, but should be one every churchcrawlers sees in their lifetime.
I see from Hasted that the dedication at the beginning of the 19th century was St Mary, but is St Nicholas now.
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A one-off church, Barfrestone is the south-east's answer to Herefordshire's Kilpeck, although perhaps with slightly less atmosphere. A complete two cell late Norman church, but so unlike all the others in Kent that one cannot really class it in the same group. Its lower walls are constructed of flint rubble, but its upper courses, and dressed stonework are all of imported Caen stone. This is a display of twelfth century wealth and it has usually been associated with the de Port family from Dover Castle. Kent has no local stone that can take fine carving, so the exuberance of detail here is unrivalled in the county. The south doorway is the most widely reproduced image, but the internal carving is of equal importance. Post-Reformation damage has been reconstructed, in some cases with a degree of artistic licence. The two blank arches to either side of the chancel arch were designed to take side altars - a feature relatively common in Kent, for example at Grain. There is some fine medieval graffiti to be seen on the dressed stonework at lower levels both inside and out. As there is no tower, the church bell is hung from a Yew tree. Nave and chancel only. The following is a link to a picture essay written by Julianna Lee, on the subject of Romanesque sculptures at Barfreston: www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/bestiary_arches.pdf.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Barfreston
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BARSON.
THE next parish south-westward is Barson, alias Barfriston, which latter is its proper and antient name; being written in the survey of Domesday, Barfrestone, but for the sake of contraction it has been of late both called and written by the former name of Barson only. There is but one borough in this parish, viz. the borough of Barson, which contains the whole parish; the borsholder for which is chosen at the petty sessions, held for this division of the lath of St. Augustine.
BARSON lies on the open hilly downs, with which this neighbourhood much abounds; they are in like manner for the most part arable, the soil upon the hills is chalky and not over fertile; in the valleys it is inclined to clay, and of course better land, though still of a coarse nature. The court-lodge and church are nearly in the middle of the parish, which has in it, including the street, only twelve houses, and contains about 470 acres of land. This parish as well as its vicinity is exceedingly healthy, and has been already-noticed under Coldred. Instances of longevity here are very frequent and as remarkable, for in 1700 the minister resident in this parish was buried at the age of 96. The minister who preached the funeral sermon was 82. The reader of the service was 87. The parish clerk was the same age, but then absent. The sexton 86, and his wife about 80, and several of the neighbouring parish of Coldred, who attended at the funeral, were above 100 years old; and in the year 1722 there were in this small parish, which consisted only of fifty-eight souls, nine persons, whose ages made 636 years.
At the southern boundary of the parish are a great number of Roman tumuli, or barrows, which adjoin the lines of entrenchments at the end of Eythorne pa rish, all of which have already been noticed under Shebbertswell before, in which parish most of them lie. There is no fair.
There was in king Henry III.'s reign a family resident here, who took their name from it; one of whom, Amicia de Barfreston, was a benefactor to the priory of Davington, as appears by the ledger book of it.
AT THE TIME of taking the survey of Domesday, in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, this place was part of the possessions of Odo, the great bishop of Baieux, the king's half-brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:
In Estrea lath. In Estre hundred, Ralph de Curbespine holds of the bishop, one yoke in Barfrestone. There one very poor woman pays three pence and one farthing. This yoke is, and was worth separately ten shillings.
Rannulf de Colubels holds there one yoke, which has been scotted in Hardes and to this time is not scotted to the king's tax.
On the confiscation of the bishop's estates, which happened on his disgrace, about four years afterwards, this at Barfriston appears to be among the lands which were granted for the defence of Dover castle, to Hugh de Port, and with other lands, made up together the barony of Port, being held by barony of that castle, by the service of performing ward there, for the defence of it.
After which it was held of his descendant, John de St. John, in king Henry III.'s reign, by a family named Wyborne; one of whom, John de Wyborne, held it in king Edward II.'s reign; but before the 20th of king Edward III. this name was extinct here; for it appears then to have been alienated from them, and in the tenure of different persons; one of whom, John de Monynham, seems to have held that part of Wyborne's estate, which comprehended the manor of Batfriston, which after the heirs of Moningham had deserted their patrimony here, was alienated about the latter end of king Henry VI.'s reign, to Sir Thomas Browne, of Beechworth castle, comptroller of the houshold, and in his descendants the property of it continued down to Sir Thomas Browne, of the same place, whose lands were disgavelled by the acts of the 1st and 8th of Elizabeth; not long after the latter year of which he alienated it to Mr. Thomas Boys, of Eythorne, who afterwards removed hither, and dying possessed of it in 1599, was buried in this church. His eldest son Thomas, was of Hoad, and inherited this manor, which his eldest son John Boys, gent. of Hoad, sold at the latter end of king Charles the 1st.'s reign, to Anthony Percival, of Dover, comptroller of the customs there, who died in 1646, and lies buried at Denton, in whose heirs this manor continued, till it was at length sold to Major Richard Harvey, who was of Elmington, in Eythorne first, and afterwards of Danecourt; his grandson, Mr. Richard Harvey, gent was of Barson, and having pulled down the antient mansion of this manor, handsomely rebuilt it, and afterwards resided here. He married Elizabeth Nicholls, of Barham, by whom he has had seven sons and six daughters; of the former, Richard the eldest, now of Ramsgate, was vicar of St. Laurence, and is now of Eastry, and married Judith Matson, by whom he has a son Richard, now vicar of St. Laurence, who married Miss Wade, by whom he has one only son Richard. Henry the second son, is an admiral of the royal navy, and of Walmer, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Boys, esq. lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital, by whom he has had four sons and one daughter. John, the third son, was likewise a captain in the royal navy, and of Heronden, who died in July 1794, at Portsmouth, of the wounds he received in the glorious naval fight against the French, on June the 1st preceding, which prevented the king's intention of making him an admiral, as a reward for his gallant behaviour in it. He left four sons and four daughters; of the former, Henry Wife, esq. the eldest, is now of Heronden, and John is a captain in the navy. Of the daughters, Mary married Wm. Boteler, esq. now of Eastry, and Fanny married Robert Curling, surgeon, of Sandwich, Elizabeth died young, and Sarah. Of the younger sons of Mr. Richard Harvey, of Barson, by Elizabeth Nicholls, Thomas the fourth son is living, but s. p. and Samuel, the sixth son, is of Sandwich, brewer. Of the daughters, Frances, Margaret married to Thomas Freeman, clerk, rector of St. Martin's, and vicar of St. Paul's, in Canterbury; Elizabeth to William Wyborn Bradley, brewer, of Sandwich; and Sarah to John Tucker, clerk, late of Shinglewell, and rector of Gravesend and Luddenham, in this county. (fn. 1) But to return to Mr. Richard Harvey, who after residing here some time, at length in 1792 alienated this estate to John Plumptre, esq. of Fredville, the present owner of it. (fn. 2)
HARTANGER, written in Domesday, Hertange, is a small manor in this parish, which, at the time of taking that survey, was part of the possessions of the bishop of of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:
Radulf, son of Robert, holds of the bishop Hertange. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is . . . . . In demesne there is one carucate, and five villeins, with two borderers, having two carucates. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards ten shillings, now sixty shillings. Eddid held it of king Edward.
Four years after taking this survey, the bishop's estates, on his disgrace, were confiscated; upon which this manor of Hartangre came into the hands of the crown; whence it was afterwards granted to Simon Fitz-Adam, by whom it was held by knight's service, by barony, of Dover castle, by the service of ward for the space of fifteen days, for the defence of it.
Of Simon Fitz-Adam and his heir Adam Fitzwilliam, this manor was afterwards held by the Pirots. Alan Pirot died possessed of it at the latter end of king Henry I.'s reign, and was succeeded in it by Robert Pirot, whose heir was Ingelram de Fontibus; how long he and his heirs held it, I do not find; but at the latter end of king Henry III. or the beginning of king Edward I.'s reign, William de Hartanger held it. After him it became the estate of Robert de Hardres, as may be seen by the book of knight's fees, and he held it by knight's service of the honor of Clare. In the 8th year of the next reign of king Edward II. his next successor in it was Reginald de Tondresley; how long it continued in that name does not appear; but at the latter end of king Henry VI.'s reign it was come into the possession of Sir Thomas Browne, of Beechworth-castle, whose descendant of the same name, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, passed it away to Francis Santon, esq. whose son and heir Francis Santon alienated it soon afterwards to Edward Merriweather, second son of Edward, of Shebbertswell, who resided here, and dying possessed of it in 1621, anno 20 James I. was buried in this church, and in his descendants it continued, till at length about the middle of the last century, it was sold to Pot, and Mr. William Pot, citizen and apothecary, of London, gave it by his will in 1691, with other lands in this county, to trustees and their survivors, in trust, for them to pay two hundred pounds per annum, out of the rents and profits of them, to Christ's hospital, and the remaining produce of them to the hospital of Bethlem, in London; in which trust this manor continues vested at this time. (fn. 3)
It appears by the register of Ledes abbey, that Sibilla de Watemle gave to the priory of Ledes, in free and perpetual alms, inter alia, the tithe of Hartangre, which gift was confirmed by archbishop Theobald, in the reign of king Stephen.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly or casually relieved are not more than one or two at most.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a small building of great antiquity; the outside is curiously adorned with carve-work in stone, with circular arches and windows, especially at the east end; the west end has a fine circular arch with Saxon ornaments and zig-zag border; and in the inside is another like arch between the body and chancel. This church, so well known to every lover of antiquity, of which so many engravings have been made, is a most curious specimen of Anglo Saxon architecture. It consists of a body and chancel, separated by a circular arch, supported by two elegant wreathed pillars; a row of singular uncouth heads are round the cornice; a beautiful circular window is at the east end; at the foot of the wall are two circular arches, forming recesses, probably for places of sepulture, and not improbably for the founders of the church. The grand south entrance, now partly hid by a modern porch, is most curiously sculptured with rows of figures of various kinds. Nitches for statues are all round the building. There is no steeple, a small wooden turret having been taken down a few years since. There is only one bell. In the chancel is a mural monument for Thomas Boys, gent. of Barfreston, of the family of Fredville, obt. 1599; arms, Or, a griffin segreant, sable, within a bordure, gules. Another mural monument for Robert Ewell, rector and patron, one of the six preachers of Canterbury cathedral, obt. 1638. A gravestone for George Smith, forty-one years rector of this parish, obt. 1752. Several of the Boy's were buried in this church. In the windows of it were formerly these arms, viz. Azure, two bendlets, argent, within a bordure, and the same arms without the bordure.
¶The advowson of this church, which is a rectory, was antiently appendant to the manor; but in the reign of king Henry VIII. it was become an advowson in gross, and was in the possession of John Boys, of Denton, attorney-general to the duchy of Lancaster, who held it by knight's service of the king, as of his castle of Dover. His son William Boys, esq. of Denton, sold this advowson to his kinsman Thomas Boys, of Aythorne, and in his descendants it continued down till the reign of king Charles I. when it was alienated to Ewell, from one of which name it was sold to Sir Basil Dixwell, who was possessed of it in 1640; since which it has become part of the possessions of the president and fellows of St. John's college, in Oxford, who are the present patrons of it.
This rectory is valued in the king's books at 7l. 14s. it is now a discharged living of the clear yearly value of about thirty pounds. In 1588 it was valued at sixty shillings, and here were communicants forty. In 1640 it was valued at fifty shillings, and here were the like number of communicants.
This rectory has been augmented by the governors of queen Anne's bounty with 200l. and a like sum added to it by the president and fellows of St. John's college, with which the house, barn, and appurtenances were new built, and a barn, stable and lands were purchased in the parish of Alkham, now of the annual rent of thirty pounds.
There is a glebe belonging to it of seven acres, of which one is in Nonington, but in the king's books there is said to be ten acres of glebe land.
But I'm strong, strong enough to carry him - yeah
He ain't heavy - he's my brother