Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

Boeing C-17A Globemaster III SAC 03

477FF3 BRK27

NATO Strategic Airlift Capability

Pápa Air Base

EYSA SQQ

Siauliai Lithuania

The Aleppo Pine is native to the Mediterranean region, growing from sea level to about 200 meter. It is closely related to the Canary Island Pines and Turkish Pine. Its resin is used for chewing and in curing Greek wine. I have one in my garden.

Sheffield Park Garden is an informal landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath, in East Sussex, England. It was originally laid out in the 18th century by Capability Brown, and further developed in the early years of the 20th century's by its then owner, Arthur Gilstrap Soames. It is now owned by the National Trust.

History[edit]

The gardens originally formed part of the estate of the adjacent Sheffield Park House, a gothic country house, which is still in private ownership. It was also firstly owned by the West Family and later by the Soames family until in 1925 the estate was sold by Arthur Granville Soames, who had inherited it from his childless uncle, Arthur Gilstrap Soames.

Sheffield Park as an estate is mentioned in the Domesday Book. In August 1538, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, entertained Henry VIII here. By 1700, the Deer Park had been partially formalised by Lord De La Warr who planted avenues of trees radiating from the house and cleared areas to establish lawns. In the late 1700s, James Wyatt remodelled the house in the fashionable Gothic style and Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the garden. The original four lakes form the centrepiece. Humphry Repton followed Brown in 1789–1790. In 1796, the estate was sold to John Holroyd, created Baron Sheffield in 1781. It is particularly noted for its plantings of trees selected for autumn colour, including many Black Tupelos.

Rhododendron in Sheffield Park Garden

By 1885, an arboretum was being established, consisting of both exotic and native trees. After Arthur Gilstrap Soames purchased the estate in 1910, he continued large-scale planting. During World War II the house and garden became the headquarters for a Canadian armoured division, and Nissen huts were sited in the garden and woods. The estate was split up and sold in lots in 1953. The National Trust purchased approximately 40 ha in 1954, now up to 80 ha with subsequent additions. It is home to the National Collection of Ghent azaleas.

In 1876 the third Earl of Sheffield laid out a cricket pitch. It was used on 12 May 1884 for the first cricket match between England and Australia.[1] The Australian team won by an innings and 6 runs

wikipedia

Kenworth is offering integrated battery monitoring with engine auto start and stop capability in a new option available on the company’s flagship T680 sleeper trucks. The new option is available with or without the Kenworth Idle Management System. Engine auto start monitors the starting batteries. It also monitors auxiliary batteries used with the battery-based Kenworth Idle Management System, or batteries used to power hotel loads through an inverter. When batteries get to a critical level, the Kenworth T680 automatically turns on the engine to begin battery charging.

Two Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter jets have successfully landed on board HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time, laying the foundations for the next 50 years of fixed wing aviation in support of the UK’s Carrier Strike Capability.

Royal Navy Commander, Nathan Gray, 41, made history by being the first to land on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, carefully maneuvering his stealth jet onto the thermal coated deck. He was followed by Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, RAF, both of whom are test pilots, operating with the Integrated Test Force (ITF) based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

Shortly afterwards, once a deck inspection has been conducted and the all-clear given, Cmdr Gray became the first pilot to take off using the ship’s ski-ramp.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather, stealth, fifth-generation, multirole combat aircraft, designed for ground-attack and air-superiority missions. It is built by Lockheed Martin and many subcontractors, including Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and BAE Systems.

The F-35 has three main models: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A (CTOL), the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B (STOVL), and the catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery, carrier-based F-35C (CATOBAR). The F-35 descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, the design that was awarded the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program over the competing Boeing X-32. The official Lightning II name has proven deeply unpopular and USAF pilots have nicknamed it Panther, instead.

The United States principally funds F-35 development, with additional funding from other NATO members and close U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and formerly Turkey. These funders generally receive subcontracts to manufacture components for the aircraft; for example, Turkey was the sole supplier of several F-35 parts until its removal from the program in July 2019. Several other countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the aircraft.

As the largest and most expensive military program ever, the F-35 became the subject of much scrutiny and criticism in the U.S. and in other countries. In 2013 and 2014, critics argued that the plane was "plagued with design flaws", with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time," instead of identifying and fixing "defects before firing up its production line". By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule". Critics also contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill".

The F-35 first flew on 15 December 2006. In July 2015, the United States Marines declared its first squadron of F-35B fighters ready for deployment. However, the DOD-based durability testing indicated the service life of early-production F-35B aircraft is well under the expected 8,000 flight hours, and may be as low as 2,100 flight hours. Lot 9 and later aircraft include design changes but service life testing has yet to occur. The U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for deployment in August 2016. The U.S. Navy declared its first F-35Cs ready in February 2019. In 2018, the F-35 made its combat debut with the Israeli Air Force.

The U.S. stated plan is to buy 2,663 F-35s, which will provide the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled until 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070.

Development

F-35 development started in 1992 with the origins of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and was to culminate in full production by 2018. The X-35 first flew on 24 October 2000 and the F-35A on 15 December 2006.

The F-35 was developed to replace most US fighter jets with the variants of a single design that would be common to all branches of the military. It was developed in co-operation with a number of foreign partners, and, unlike the F-22 Raptor, intended to be available for export. Three variants were designed: the F-35A (CTOL), the F-35B (STOVL), and the F-35C (CATOBAR). Despite being intended to share most of their parts to reduce costs and improve maintenance logistics, by 2017, the effective commonality was only 20%. The program received considerable criticism for cost overruns during development and for the total projected cost of the program over the lifetime of the jets.

By 2017, the program was expected to cost $406.5 billion over its lifetime (i.e. until 2070) for acquisition of the jets, and an additional $1.1 trillion for operations and maintenance. A number of design deficiencies were alleged, such as: carrying a small internal payload; performance inferior to the aircraft being replaced, particularly the F-16; lack of safety in relying on a single engine; and flaws such as the vulnerability of the fuel tank to fire and the propensity for transonic roll-off (wing drop). The possible obsolescence of stealth technology was also criticized.

Design

Overview

Although several experimental designs have been developed since the 1960s, such as the unsuccessful Rockwell XFV-12, the F-35B is to be the first operational supersonic STOVL stealth fighter. The single-engine F-35 resembles the larger twin-engined Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, drawing design elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, proposed for a 1972 supersonic VTOL fighter requirement for the Sea Control Ship.

Lockheed Martin has suggested that the F-35 could replace the USAF's F-15C/D fighters in the air-superiority role and the F-15E Strike Eagle in the ground-attack role. It has also stated the F-35 is intended to have close- and long-range air-to-air capability second only to that of the F-22 Raptor, and that the F-35 has an advantage over the F-22 in basing flexibility and possesses "advanced sensors and information fusion".

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on 25 March 2009, acquisition deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mark D. "Shack" Shackelford, stated that the F-35 is designed to be America's "premier surface-to-air missile killer, and is uniquely equipped for this mission with cutting-edge processing power, synthetic aperture radar integration techniques, and advanced target recognition".

Improvements

Ostensible improvements over past-generation fighter aircraft include:

Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology, using structural fiber mat instead of the high-maintenance coatings of legacy stealth platforms

Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and on-board sensors to increase the pilot's situational awareness and improve target identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes

High-speed data networking including IEEE 1394b and Fibre Channel (Fibre Channel is also used on Boeing's Super Hornet.

The Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment, Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), and Computerized maintenance management system to help ensure the aircraft can remain operational with minimal maintenance manpower The Pentagon has moved to open up the competitive bidding by other companies. This was after Lockheed Martin stated that instead of costing 20% less than the F-16 per flight hour, the F-35 would actually cost 12% more. Though the ALGS is intended to reduce maintenance costs, the company disagrees with including the cost of this system in the aircraft ownership calculations. The USMC has implemented a workaround for a cyber vulnerability in the system. The ALIS system currently requires a shipping-container load of servers to run, but Lockheed is working on a more portable version to support the Marines' expeditionary operations.

Electro-hydrostatic actuators run by a power-by-wire flight-control system

A modern and updated flight simulator, which may be used for a greater fraction of pilot training to reduce the costly flight hours of the actual aircraft

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries to provide power to run the control surfaces in an emergency

Structural composites in the F-35 are 35% of the airframe weight (up from 25% in the F-22). The majority of these are bismaleimide and composite epoxy materials. The F-35 will be the first mass-produced aircraft to include structural nanocomposites, namely carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy. Experience of the F-22's problems with corrosion led to the F-35 using a gap filler that causes less galvanic corrosion to the airframe's skin, designed with fewer gaps requiring filler and implementing better drainage. The relatively short 35-foot wingspan of the A and B variants is set by the F-35B's requirement to fit inside the Navy's current amphibious assault ship parking area and elevators; the F-35C's longer wing is considered to be more fuel efficient.

Costs

A U.S. Navy study found that the F-35 will cost 30 to 40% more to maintain than current jet fighters, not accounting for inflation over the F-35's operational lifetime. A Pentagon study concluded a $1 trillion maintenance cost for the entire fleet over its lifespan, not accounting for inflation. The F-35 program office found that as of January 2014, costs for the F-35 fleet over a 53-year lifecycle was $857 billion. Costs for the fighter have been dropping and accounted for the 22 percent life cycle drop since 2010. Lockheed stated that by 2019, pricing for the fifth-generation aircraft will be less than fourth-generation fighters. An F-35A in 2019 is expected to cost $85 million per unit complete with engines and full mission systems, inflation adjusted from $75 million in December 2013.

PHILIPPINE SEA (June 16, 2022) Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) launches a Standard Missile (SM) 6 during the coordinated multi-domain, multi-axis, long-range maritime strikes against EX-USS Vandegrift as part of Valiant Shield 2022 (VS 22). Exercises such as Valiant Shield allows the Indo-Pacific Command Joint Task Force the opportunity to integrate forces from all branches of service to conduct long-range, precise, lethal, and overwhelming multi-axis, multi-domain effects that demonstrate the strength and versatility of the Joint Task Force and our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. Benfold is assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, Navy’s largest forward-deployed DESRON and U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force and is on routine deployment as part of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Arthur Rosen)

SASEBO, Japan (April 23, 2021) – Seaman Zhihao Luo, from San Francisco, assigned to the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), secures a line during small boat operations training. America, lead ship of the America Amphibious Ready Group, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Shelby Tucker)

Harewood House was commissioned by Edwin Lascelles and built between 1759-1771 with money made by his family in the West Indian sugar trade.It has ben home to the Lescelles family ever since and is still lived in by the 7th Earl, cousin to the Queen. The house was designed by John Carr and Robert Adam. much of the furniture is by Thomas Chippendale and Lancelot "Capability" Brown designed the grounds. The house was used as a convalescent hospiyal in both world wars.

Harewood House, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The ceilings are really pretty.

Harewood House is a Grade 1 Country House near Leeds in West Yorkshire.

It was designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam and built between 1759 and 1771 for wealthy plantation and slave owner Edwin Lascelles - the 1st Baron Harewood, and is still home to the Lascelles family.

The 1000 acre grounds were designed by Capability Brown.

The house is one of the ten 'Treasure Houses of England'.

A view of 'Queen Elizabeth's Island" in the Blenheim Lake. This was created by Capability Brown and is said to follow the alignment of the causeway that at one time linked Woodstock Manor (In which the future Queen Elizabeth was imprisoned while her sister Mary was Queen) to the town of Woodstock. At that time there was no lake, the River Glyme meandered through a flat valley. The island is one of the park's most striking features.

For all my other Blenheim photos see

www.flickr.com/photos/martin-james/tags/blenheim/

The AX is the first autofocus Contax SLR produced by Kyocera. The AX achieves autofocus capability with the standard manual focus Carl Zeiss lenses by utilizing a specially-developed automatic back focusing system. With this system, the fixed mirror box, pentaprism assembly and film plane move as a unit along a ceramic rail to achieve focus. Contax later introduced the N1/NX series of autofocus film SLRs that used a new generation of autofocus Carl Zeiss lenses. The later model N1 and NX are not compatible with manual focus Contax/Yashica mount Carl Zeiss and Yashica lenses.

Being a long-time manual focus SLR user when the AX first came out, I at first did not know how to react to this camera. Recall at the time that many photographers were still shooting manual focus SLRs, such as the Nikon F3, Contax ST,etc. The AX generated a lot of commentary in the press and especially on the Internet soon after its release. Some thought it was great that Contax took this approach to finally develop an autofocus SLR. Others though this was an admission of defeat by a camera maker that waited far too long to get onto the autofocus SLR bandwagon. Looking back from a historical standpoint, the AX was a brilliant solution by Kyocera to try to compete in the autofocus SLR market while maintaining compatibility with their existing base of Contax line Carl Zeiss lenses. In a way, the RX and AX were stepping stones by Kyocera on their way from traditional manual focus to a complete autofocus system with the N1/NX.

For those who are used to the image of sleek, thin SLRs such as the RX and the ST, the AX does not immediately appear to be beautiful. The camera has the cosmetics of an RX, but the AX body is much thicker from front to back to make room for the moving focus assembly within the camera. However, once one gets used to the camera's bulky image, at least for a 35mm SLR, one realizes that it is packed with useful technology and really does combine the best features of automatic focus capabilities and compatibility with Carl Zeiss manual focus lenses.

The AX continued the tradition of providing the tank-like over-engineered feel common to most Contax bodies. The camera has a titanium top cover and an aluminum alloy die-cast chassis, and is made with the same attention to detail and finely-machined parts for which Contax cameras are renowned. All of the controls are consistent with the design of other high-end Contax cameras, employing the switches and knobs representative of a traditional analog user interface but which are actually electronic controls connected to state-of-the-are electronic circuitry within the camera. The camera weighs in at 1,080 grams without battery, so it is no lightweight. However, its weight is still acceptable when compared with certain other contemporaneous professional-level bodies from Contax (RTSIII), Nikon (F4 and F5) and others, especially after battery weight is factored in.

Let's check out the various features of this fascinating camera. Basically, the designers have successfully combined the best and most important features of the RX, ST and RTSIII, and then gone a step further by adding autofocus. The AX has a shutter speed dial positioned at the standard Contax location on the top left of the camera. While shutter speed can only be set from 4 sec. to 1/4000 sec. in manual and shutter priority mode, the shutter has an increased range from 32 sec. to 1/6000 sec. in Av and P modes. Surrounding the shutter speed dial is an exposure mode selector lever, which permits selection of the following metering modes: Av, Tv, P, M, X and B. The same lever is also used for selecting modes to directly adjust film ISO and to modify the custom functions of the camera. Custom functions such as film leader out on rewind are actually set using the two adjustment buttons on the top right of the camera. The AX has the standard Contax exposure compensation dial on the top right of the camera, which allows very easy and quick adjustment of exposure compensation in the range of +-2 EV. The exposure compensation dial is surrounded by the automatic bracketing control ("ABC") lever, which permits a series of three photographs to be taken with +- 0.5 or 1.0 EV exposure compensation. The ABC function works either by making one exposure with each press of the shutter release button, or a continuous burst of three frames as long as the shutter release button is held down, depending on how the drive mode selector dial is set (single or continuous exposure). The top-mounted drive mode selector dial allows adjustment for single frame exposure, continuous exposure (at 3 or 5 fps), multiple exposure, and self timer (2 or 10 second delay). Surrounding the drive mode selector dial is the focus mode selector lever. This lever allows rapid selection among manual focus, single autofocus, continuous autofocus, and a macro setting. A combination button/dial just under the thumb position on the back right of the camera body works with the focus mode selector lever to adjust the operation of the focus system. The main switch surrounding the shutter release button has the usual Contax autoexposure lock functionality. However, the AX adopts the RTSIII's very convenient placement of the exposure meter selection switch to the left side of the lens mount. Other controls include the standard Contax exposure check button and electronic depth-of-field preview button on the right front of the camera. The exposure check button activates the viewfinder information without the risk of tripping the shutter when trying to press the shutter release button down only half-way. The camera also provides built-it dioptric adjustment and a shutter for the viewfinder eyepiece.

The viewfinder of the AX is very good. The camera uses an oversized prism, providing a very bright view of the subject and a 95% field of view. While it is an autofocus camera, the AX, like the RX, also sports the traditional horizontal split image, microprism collar, and of course matte field optical focusing aids. All of the viewfinder readouts are located on a LCD display below the viewfinder image. This display includes an exposure frame counter, spot/average metering indicator, exposure compensation indicator (+ or -, as well as a numerical readout of the amount of compensation), flash indicator, back focus position indicator, in-focus indicator, aperture indicator, over/under exposure warning, and shutter speed indicator. Because of the packed real estate on the viewfinder LCD readout, there is unfortunately no room for a graphical indication of the exact amount of exposure compensation, or any indication of the amount of over/under exposure when setting exposure in M mode. Metering patterns are a 5 mm spot meter, which includes the area within the microprism focusing collar, and a wide area center-weighted average pattern. In addition to the standard FW-1 focusing screen, Contax also provides four other selections of focusing screens for various applications.

The flash functionality of the AX combines the best features of both the RX and the ST, but does not offer the pre-flash spot meter found on the RTSIII. Flash synch is at a fastest speed of 1/200 second. Among Contax electronic cameras, only the RTSIII offers a faster maximum synch speed (1/250 second). This speed should be fast enough for fill flash in most available light conditions. TTL flash appears to be based on a fairly narrow center-weighted pattern. The AX shares the RX's five-point flash contact on the accessory shoe, providing enhanced camera to flash communication, as well as a locking slot to keep the flash unit from falling off. With this improved communication, the Contax TLA flash readout panel will automatically reflect the film ISO and lens aperture, as well as activate the direct flash exposure compensation functionality on the flash unit itself. With this system, balanced fill flash is implemented by setting the appropriate negative flash compensation on the flash unit.

The AX can be fit with an optional multi-functional data back (D-8). This highly advanced data back allows the recording of data (such as shutter speed and aperture, date, time or exposure mode) between the film frames or on frames one and two at the beginning of the roll. Somewhat uniquely in its class, the D-8 also provides an intervalometer that can be set to trigger exposures from every two seconds to 99 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds.

The AX works on one 6V lithium 2CR5 battery. The battery is inserted on one side of the camera base, allowing the tripod mount of this relatively weighty camera to be placed at the body's center of balance. Kyocera claims that the battery has a capacity of about 50 rolls of 36-exposure film under their test conditions. The automatic back focusing system of the AX appears to be relatively energy-efficient. As I mentioned in my separate review for the RX, I prefer the use of lithium batteries in Contax cameras, which provides for longer time between battery changes, better cold weather performance, and lighter travelling weight.

The autofocus system of the AX utilizes an AF-assist beam, which is emitted from the right front of the camera. The camera’s autofocus capability is relatively fast and accurate for general use, especially for the time when the AX was released. It was not as fast as the autofocus systems on high-end sports-oriented cameras, such as the Nikon F5 or the Canon EOS 1n. Nevertheless, the AX's focusing speed and accuracy compared very favorably with other autofocus bodies offered by the competition. A very nice feature of the AX's autofocus system is its ability to turn almost any lens into a macro lens (by eliminating the need to use extension tubes). In normal (non-macro) autofocus mode, some care must be taken when focusing floating element/group lenses at relatively close distances.

Copyright © 1997-2015 Timothy A. Rogers. All rights reserved.

(DSC_1584mod1BR25 Rev1)

Harcourt Arboretum

The University of Oxford Arboretum

Acquired by the University in 1947 from the Harcourt family. It is now an integral part of the tree and plant collection of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.

The original Pinetum, which forms the core of the arboretum, was laid out by William Sawrey Gilpin in the 1830s. Gilpin was a leading promoter of the picturesque style of planting and advised the Harcourt family on the establishment and layout of the arboretum. The trees are now mature, with Giant Redwoods and Monkey-Puzzle trees in the collection.

The arboretum also contains some of the finest conifer collections in the UK all set within 130 acres of historic Capability Brown landscape. The grounds include a 10-acre typical English woodland and a 37-acre summer flowering meadow.

www.obga.ox.ac.uk/visit-arboretum

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harcourt_Arboretum

Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Salvin.[2] It contains intricate wood-carvings by Grinling Gibbons (d.1721). It is the manor house of the manor of Petworth. For centuries it was the southern home for the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland. Petworth is famous for its extensive art collection made by George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837), containing many works by his friend Turner. It also has an expansive deer park, landscaped by Capability Brown, which contains the largest herd of fallow deer in England.

NATO/Strategic Airlift Capability

Heavy Airlift Wing

Papa AB

RIAT 2019

RAF Fairford

Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

aerial of Kimberley Hall in Norfolk. Built in 1712 for Sir John Wodehouse by William Talman. The surrounding park was laid out by Capability Brown in 1762. Norfolk UK aerial image

An Expediant Route Opening Capability team clears a mined road in front of their Cougar Mine Resistant Vehicle during Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, Alberta on May 26, 2016.

Photo: MCpl Kurt Visser, Directorate of Army Public Affairs Imagery

Une équipe de la Capacité d’ouverture d’itinéraire de circonstance démine une route devant son véhicule Cougar résistant aux mines durant l’exercice MAPLE RESOLVE 1601 qui s’est déroulé à la Base des Forces canadiennes Wainwright, en Alberta, le 26 mai 2016.

Photo : Cplc Kurt Visser, technicien en imagerie de la Direction des Affaires publiques de l’Armée

Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

The centrepiece of the Blenheim grounds is this Grand Bridge, designed by Vanbrugh. Originally intended to be rather more grand still, its construction was halted before it was completed by Sarah (the first duchess of Marlborough). Curiously, when first constructed the bridge only spanned a small river, it was not until 50 years later when the landscape gardener 'Capability Brown' created the lake that it now crosses that the bridge was really in a deserving setting.

The window holes are all that remains of the original proposal to include rooms within the bridge; there were to have been 3 storeys of rooms in addition to the cellars now flooded by the lake.

As the sun in the winter months moves towards sunset the bridge's stones glow with this wonderful colour; unfortunately you have to stay very late in Summer to see this! However, I think it's well worth the wait in the Winter to see this colour.

The Bridge contains the only remnants of the Woodstock manor in which Queen Elizabeth I was briefly imprisoned while her sister Mary was Queen, Vanbrugh wanted to save it, but Sarah was adamant that it should be demolished, and the rubble went into the Grand Bridge.

If you visit Blenheim and walk around the grounds you will be struck by the various views of the bridge that are presented, this was the particular genius of 'Capability Brown'. This view is one that is very dramatically presented as you climb a small hill and it's interesting to sit there and watch the visitor's reactions 200 + years after it was created.

For all my other Blenheim photos see

www.flickr.com/photos/martin-james/tags/blenheim/

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The formation of the Indonesian Air Force came eight months after the former Dutch East Indies unilaterally declared independence from the Netherlands. The Netherlands initially did not recognize this, and a War of Independence ensued, which lasted until 1949. The Indonesian Air Force (Indonesian: Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara (TNI-AU), literally "Indonesian National Military-Air Force") used some machines left behind by the Japanese occupiers, but these were not of decisive importance for the war. Incidentally, the national insignia used until 1949 was only the red "sun" painted white in the lower half.

After this troublesome phase, the TNI-AD’s Cobras were kept busy, with frequent deployments during the Aceh Insurgency and the East Timor conflict. They soldiered on into the new millennium, even though some machines were lost in accidents or through small arms ground fire, and less and less machines remained airworthy due to the airframes’ age. In 2003, only six AH-1G+ were still operational, and even these machines had reached the ultimate end of their useful service life after more than 30 years of frequent duty. They were in September of the same year replaced by Mil Mi-35P attack helicopters, directly procured from Russia, of which several batches were acquired throughout the following years.

General characteristics:

Crew: 2: one pilot, one co-pilot/gunner (CPG)

Length: 53 ft (16 m) including rotors

Fuselage length: 44 ft 5 in (13.5 m)

Main rotor diameter: 44 ft 0 in (13.4 m)

Main rotor area: 1,520 sq ft (141 m²)

Blade section: NACA 0009.3 mod

Width: 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) stub wings

Height: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)

Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Lycoming T53-L-13 turboshaft, 1,400 shp (1,000 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 149 kn (171 mph, 276 km/h)

Never exceed speed: 190 kn (220 mph, 350 km/h)

Range: 310 nmi (360 mi, 570 km)

Service ceiling: 11,400 ft (3,500 m)

Rate of climb: 1,230 ft/min (6.2 m/s)

Armament:

1× 20 mm (0.707 in) three-barreled M197 20 mm cannon in a chin turret with 750 rounds

4× hardpoints under the stub wings, primarily used for 2.75 in (70 mm) rockets mounted in

M158 seven-round or M200 nineteen-round launchers; alternatively, M14 12.7 mm machine

gun or M18 7.62 mm Minigun pods could be carried or a single XM35 armament subsystem with

a XM195 20 mm gatling cannon

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional Bell AH-1 Cobra is the result of a cross-bashing of two Fujimi kits of this helicopter, namely the AH-1S and the AH-1J kit. I had both in The Stash™ and recently came across the Iranian HESA-2091 ‘Tiztak’, an indigenous refurbished AH-1J with flat armor glazing. Since both Fujimi kits could theoretically be combined to build this exotic Cobra derivative, I decided to try this stunt – and it left me with enough surplus parts to build something like an early/standard AH-1G.

However, combining the parts from both kits turned out to be more challenging than expected. The biggest problem was to adapt the AH-1J’s standard glazing to the respective opening on the AH-1S hull: the clear part is bigger/longer than the later flat, armored glazing, so that the fuselage area at the canopy’s rear end had to be cut away. Fitting the clear part into this widened opening furthermore called for delicate PSR work to fill gaps and bridge the transition between parts that were never meant to be stuck together – but it worked, somehow.

To set the fictional AH-1G+ apart a bit further I made some cosmetic changes: the main rotor was modified to resemble Kaman composite blades (recognizable through the tapered blade tips) that were introduced with the AH-1S (and actually turned out to be not very durable!), and a “Sugar Scoop” thermal diffusor was scratched from a piece of styrene tube. I furthermore added a ventral blade antenna and a fairing for an enlarged oil cooler – it’s actually a H0 scale Euro pallet! The blade cutters were scratched from styrene sheet. The rest was primarily taken from the AH-1J kit, e. g. the simple/early nose tip, the ordnance and the M97 chin turret. The pilot figures came from the Fujimi kit, too.

Painting and markings:

Indonesia as fictional operator for this helicopter model was inspired by TNI-AD markings (the standard TNI-AU pentagon with an additional black star in the middle) that were left over on a TL Modellbau sheet with generic national markings. The Seventies/Eighties offered a suitable time frame for the Cobras’ procurement, and from this starting point anything developed quite naturally.

However, I did not want to paint the AH-1 in a simple all-olive drab livery, and found in the Indonesian C-130 Hercules a nice painting option: at some point in time these transporters received a unique three-tone camouflage that consists of a reddish chocolate brown, a bluish dark green and a greyish grass green, combined with very light grey undersides.

For the AH-1, the pattern was directly adopted from the C-130s’ fuselage and the colors approximated, since I doubt that the paints conform to FS standards. I used Humbrol 133 (Satin Brown), ModelMaster 2060 (RAF WWII Dark Green) and a 2:1 mix of Humbrol 80 (Grass Green) and Revell 45 (Helloliv). The light grey underside was omitted, for a wraparound scheme.

The cockpit interior became very dark grey (Revell 06, Anthracite), the rotor blades tar black (Revell 09), and a black anti-glare panel was placed in front of the windscreen. For some variety I painted the 19 round rocket launchers in olive drab while the 7 round launchers for the inner stations became very light grey, so that they’d be better visible.

The decals were improvised. The TNI-AD roundels and the small Indonesian fin flashes came from the aforementioned TL Modellbau sheet. The tactical codes on the nose and the taglines on the flank consist of single black letters. The serial number on the tail came from an Iranian F-4D Phantom II sheet from Model Scale, it matched the intended time frame well. The only original decals are the small red tail rotor warning arrows.

After a light black ink washing, some post-panel-shading and an overall treatment with graphite to emphasize the kit’s fine, raised panel lines, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and finally assembled.

Well, this “kitbashed” AH-1G with some mods is certainly not the best model of this helicopter type, but a good use of leftover parts from the “counter-bashed” project. Compatibility between the Fujimi AH-1S and AH-1J is limited, though, especially the canopy does not fit easily and calls for some delicate bodywork. However, with the garish paint scheme (which, as I found out after the kit had been finished, resembles a lot the livery of the illegal North Korean Hughes 500MD Defenders!) and the exotic TNI-AD markings, this Cobra really stands out und looks quite unusual.

Sheffield Park Garden is an informal landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath, in East Sussex, England. It was originally laid out in the 18th century by Capability Brown, and further developed in the early years of the 20th century's by its then owner, Arthur Gilstrap Soames. It is now owned by the National Trust.

History[edit]

The gardens originally formed part of the estate of the adjacent Sheffield Park House, a gothic country house, which is still in private ownership. It was also firstly owned by the West Family and later by the Soames family until in 1925 the estate was sold by Arthur Granville Soames, who had inherited it from his childless uncle, Arthur Gilstrap Soames.

Sheffield Park as an estate is mentioned in the Domesday Book. In August 1538, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, entertained Henry VIII here. By 1700, the Deer Park had been partially formalised by Lord De La Warr who planted avenues of trees radiating from the house and cleared areas to establish lawns. In the late 1700s, James Wyatt remodelled the house in the fashionable Gothic style and Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the garden. The original four lakes form the centrepiece. Humphry Repton followed Brown in 1789–1790. In 1796, the estate was sold to John Holroyd, created Baron Sheffield in 1781. It is particularly noted for its plantings of trees selected for autumn colour, including many Black Tupelos.

Rhododendron in Sheffield Park Garden

By 1885, an arboretum was being established, consisting of both exotic and native trees. After Arthur Gilstrap Soames purchased the estate in 1910, he continued large-scale planting. During World War II the house and garden became the headquarters for a Canadian armoured division, and Nissen huts were sited in the garden and woods. The estate was split up and sold in lots in 1953. The National Trust purchased approximately 40 ha in 1954, now up to 80 ha with subsequent additions. It is home to the National Collection of Ghent azaleas.

In 1876 the third Earl of Sheffield laid out a cricket pitch. It was used on 12 May 1884 for the first cricket match between England and Australia.[1] The Australian team won by an innings and 6 runs

wikipedia

The A400M "Atlas" is the most advanced, proven and certified airlifter available, combining 21st century state-of-the-art technologies to fulfil the current and upcoming armed forces’ needs.

The A400M combines the capability to carry strategic loads with the ability to deliver even into tactical locations with small and unprepared airstrips and can act as a frontline-tanker. One aircraft that can do the work of three – the A400M

U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 1st Squadron, 102nd Cavalry Regiment, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New Jersey Army National Guard, fire 88mm mortars on a range during a mortar live-fire training exercise as part of the eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) exercise on July 24, 2022, at Ft. Drum, N.Y. More than 2,500 Soldiers are participating in the training event, which enables brigade combat teams to achieve the trained platoon readiness necessary to deploy, fight, and win. (U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Seth Cohen)

Berrington Hall is the former seat of the Cawley family, and is a country house in the neoclassical style. The hall itself is set in what was Capability Brown's final landscape.

The hall is now in the care of the National Trust.

Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

After the success of the Soviet Union’s first carrier ship, the Moskva Class (Projekt 1123, also called „Кондор“/„Kondor“) cruisers in the mid 1960s, the country became more ambitious. This resulted in Project 1153 Orel (Russian: Орёл, Eagle), a planned 1970s-era Soviet program to give the Soviet Navy a true blue water aviation capability. Project Orel would have resulted in a program very similar to the aircraft carriers available to the U.S. Navy. The ship would have been about 75-80,000 tons displacement, with a nuclear power plant and carried about 70 aircraft launched via steam catapults – the first Soviet aircraft carrier that would be able to deploy fixed-wing aircraft.

Beyond this core capability, the Orel carrier was designed with a large offensive capability with the ship mounts including 24 vertical launch tubes for anti-ship cruise missiles. In the USSR it was actually classified as the "large cruiser with aircraft armament".

Furthermore, carrier Project 1153 was cancelled in October 1978 as being too expensive, and a program for a smaller ship called Project 11435, more V/STOL-aircraft-oriented, was developed instead; in its initial stage, a version of 65,000 tons and 52 aircraft was proposed, but eventually an even smaller ship was built in the form of the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers in 1985, outfitted with a 12-degree ski-jump bow flight deck instead of using complex aircraft catapults. This CTOL carrier was finally equipped with navalized Su-33, MiG-29 and Su-25 aircraft – and the MiG-SK paved the early way to these shipboard fighters, especially the MiG-29K.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 13.28 m (43 ft 6 in)

Wingspan: 10.39 m (34 ft)

Height: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 22.6 m² (242.5 ft²)

Empty weight: 5.172 kg (11,392 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 7,560 kg (16,632 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Sorokin R3M-28 turbojets afterburning turbojets, rated at 33.8 kN (7,605 lbf) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,145 km/h (618 knots, 711 mph) at 3,000 m (10,000 ft)

Range: 2,060 km (1,111 nmi, 1,280 mi) with drop tanks

Service ceiling: 17,500 m (57,400 ft)

Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,425 ft/min)

Wing loading: 302.4 kg/m² (61.6 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:

2x 30 mm NR-30 cannons in the wing roots with 75 RPG

4x underwing pylons, with a maximum load of 1.000 kg (2.205 lb)

The kit and its assembly:

This kitbash creation was spawned by thoughts concerning the Soviet Naval Aviation and its lack of CTOL aircraft carriers until the 1980ies and kicked-off by a CG rendition of a navalized MiG-17 from fellow member SPINNERS at whatifmodelers.com, posted a couple of months ago. I liked this idea, and at first I wanted to convert a MiG-17 with a solid nose as a dedicated carrier aircraft. But the more I thought about it and did historic research, the less probable this concept appeared to me: the MiG-17 was simply too old to match Soviet plans for a carrier ship, at least with the real world as reference.

A plausible alternative was the MiG-19, esp. with its twin-engine layout, even though the highly swept wings and the associated high start and landing speeds would be rather inappropriate for a shipborne fighter. Anyway, a MiG-21 was even less suitable, and I eventually took the Farmer as conversion basis, since it would also fit into the historic time frame between the late 60ies and the mid-70ies.

In this case, the basis is a Plastyk MiG-19 kit, one of the many Eastern European re-incarnations of the vintage KP kit. This cheap re-issue became a positive surprise, because any former raised panel and rivet details have disappeared and were replaced with sound, recessed engravings. The kit is still a bit clumsy, the walls are very thick (esp. the canopy – maybe 2mm!), but IMHO it’s a considerable improvement with acceptable fit, even though there are some sink holes and some nasty surprises (in my case, for instance, the stabilizer fins would not match with the rear fuselage at all, and you basically need putty everywhere).

Not much from the Plastyk kit was taken over, though: only the fuselage’s rear two-thirds were used, some landing gear parts as well as fin and the horizontal stabilizers. The latter were heavily modified and reduced in sweep in order to match new wings from a Hobby Boss MiG-15 (the parts were cut into three pieces each and then set back together again).

Furthermore, the complete front section from a Novo Supermarine Attacker was transplanted, because its short nose and the high cockpit are perfect parts for a carrier aircraft. The Attacker’s front end, including the air intakes, fits almost perfectly onto the round MiG-19 forward fuselage, only little body work was necessary. A complete cockpit tub and a new seat were implanted, as well as a front landing gear well and walls inside of the (otherwise empty) air intakes. The jet exhausts were drilled open, too, and afterburner dummies added. Simple jobs.

On the other side, the wings were trickier than expected. The MiG-19 kit comes with voluminous and massive wing root fairings, probably aerodynamic bodies for some area-ruling. I decided to keep them, but this caused some unexpected troubles…

The MiG-15 wings’ position, considerably further back due to the reduced sweep angle, was deduced from the relative MiG-19’s landing gear position. A lot of sculpting and body work followed, and after the wings were finally in place I recognized that the aforementioned, thick wing root fairings had reduced the wing sweep – basically not a bad thing, but with the inconvenient side effect that the original wing MiG-15 fences were not parallel to the fuselage anymore, looking rather awkward! What to do? Grrrr…. I could not leave it that way, so I scraped them away and replaced with them with four scratched substitutes (from styrene profiles), moving the outer pair towards the wing folding mechanism.

Under the wings, four new pylons were added (two from an IAI Kfir, two from a Su-22) and the ordnance gathered from the scrap box – bombs and rocket pods formerly belonged to a Kangnam/Revell Yak-38.

The landing gear was raised by ~2mm for a higher stance on the ground. The original, thick central fin was reduced in length, so that it could become a plausible attachment point for an arrester hook (also from the spares box), and a pair of splayed stabilizer fins was added as a compensation. Finally, some of the OOB air scoops were placed all round the hull and some pitots, antennae and a gun camera fairing added.

Painting and markings:

This whif was to look naval at first sight, so I referred to the early Yak-38 VTOL aircraft and their rather minimalistic paint scheme in an overall dull blue. The green underside, seen on many service aircraft, was AFAIK a (later) protective coating – an obsolete detail for a CTOL aircraft.

Hence, all upper surfaces and the fuselage were painted in a uniform “Field Blue” (Tamiya XF-50). It’s a bit dark, but I have used this unique, petrol blue tone many moons ago on a real world Kangnam Forger where it looks pretty good, and in this case the surface was furthermore shaded with Humbrol 96 and 126 after a black in wash.

For some contrast I painted the undersides of the wings and stabilizers as well as a fuselage section between the wings in a pale grey (Humbrol 167), seen on one of the Yak-38 prototypes. Not very obvious, but at least the aircraft did not end up in a boring, uniform color.

The interior was painted in blue-gray (PRU Blue, shaded with Humbrol 87) while the landing gear wells became Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The wheel discs became bright green, just in order to keep in style and as a colorful contrast, and some di-electric panels and covers became very light grey or bright green. For some color contrast, the anti-flutter weight tips on the stabilizers as well as the pylons’ front ends were painted bright red.

The markings/decals reflect the early Soviet Navy style, with simple Red Stars, large yellow tactical codes and some high contrast warning stencils, taken from the remains of a Yak-38 sheet (American Revell re-release of the Kangnam kit).

Finally, after some soot stains with graphite around the gun muzzles and the air bleed doors, the kit was sealed with a coat of semi-matt acrylic varnish and some matt accents (anti-glare panel, radomes).

A simple idea that turned out to be more complex than expected, due to the wing fence troubles. But I am happy that the Attacker nose could be so easily transplanted, it changes the MiG-19’s look considerably, as well as the wings with (much) less sweep angle.

The aircraft looks familiar, but you only recognize at second glance that it is more than just a MiG-19 with a solid nose. The thing looks pretty retro, reminds me a bit of the Supermarine Scimitar (dunno?), and IMHO it appears more Chinese than Soviet (maybe because the layout reminds a lot of the Q-5 fighter bomber)? It could even, with appropriate markings, be a Luft ’46 design?

The flight deck of HMS Ocean at night during a visit to Alexandria, Egypt. Picture: LPhot Paul Hall

HMS Ocean entered the port of Alexandria today to hold a series of Defence Engagement activities with the Egyptian Navy as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) 16 deployment.

HMS Ocean conducted a Capability Demonstration in the hangar, before guests watched the Ceremonial Sunset on the flight deck.

MV160064

Harcourt Arboretum

The University of Oxford Arboretum

Acquired by the University in 1947 from the Harcourt family. It is now an integral part of the tree and plant collection of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.

The original Pinetum, which forms the core of the arboretum, was laid out by William Sawrey Gilpin in the 1830s. Gilpin was a leading promoter of the picturesque style of planting and advised the Harcourt family on the establishment and layout of the arboretum. The trees are now mature, with Giant Redwoods and Monkey-Puzzle trees in the collection.

The arboretum also contains some of the finest conifer collections in the UK all set within 130 acres of historic Capability Brown landscape. The grounds include a 10-acre typical English woodland and a 37-acre summer flowering meadow.

www.obga.ox.ac.uk/visit-arboretum

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harcourt_Arboretum

Sheffield Park Garden is an informal landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath, in East Sussex, England. It was originally laid out in the 18th century by Capability Brown, and further developed in the early years of the 20th century's by its then owner, Arthur Gilstrap Soames. It is now owned by the National Trust.

History[edit]

The gardens originally formed part of the estate of the adjacent Sheffield Park House, a gothic country house, which is still in private ownership. It was also firstly owned by the West Family and later by the Soames family until in 1925 the estate was sold by Arthur Granville Soames, who had inherited it from his childless uncle, Arthur Gilstrap Soames.

Sheffield Park as an estate is mentioned in the Domesday Book. In August 1538, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, entertained Henry VIII here. By 1700, the Deer Park had been partially formalised by Lord De La Warr who planted avenues of trees radiating from the house and cleared areas to establish lawns. In the late 1700s, James Wyatt remodelled the house in the fashionable Gothic style and Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the garden. The original four lakes form the centrepiece. Humphry Repton followed Brown in 1789–1790. In 1796, the estate was sold to John Holroyd, created Baron Sheffield in 1781. It is particularly noted for its plantings of trees selected for autumn colour, including many Black Tupelos.

Rhododendron in Sheffield Park Garden

By 1885, an arboretum was being established, consisting of both exotic and native trees. After Arthur Gilstrap Soames purchased the estate in 1910, he continued large-scale planting. During World War II the house and garden became the headquarters for a Canadian armoured division, and Nissen huts were sited in the garden and woods. The estate was split up and sold in lots in 1953. The National Trust purchased approximately 40 ha in 1954, now up to 80 ha with subsequent additions. It is home to the National Collection of Ghent azaleas.

In 1876 the third Earl of Sheffield laid out a cricket pitch. It was used on 12 May 1884 for the first cricket match between England and Australia.[1] The Australian team won by an innings and 6 runs

wikipedia

Croome Court, Worcestershire - the ground floor internal corridor. Both house and gardens at Croome Court were designed by Capability Brown between 1751-2, rebuilding an earlier house from the 1640s. The estate was requisitioned in WW2, but was not used for troops, being offered to the Dutch Royal family, but nearby, and partly within the grounds, RAF Defford was established, an important location for the Telecommunications Research Establishment. They left in 1957 as the runways were too short. The house was sold by the Croome Estate Trust in 1948, and became St Josephs Special School until 1979. Taken over by the Hare Krishna movement, it became known as Chaitanya College with involvement from George Harrison, who created recording studios within the house. They left in 1984 and the house was used for several short-term activities, including a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; a hotel and golf course, and a private family home. In 2007, it was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, who leased it to the National Trust. Croome Court is grade 1 listed.

Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore, Worcestershire, West Midlands, England - Croome Court, High Green

June 2025

Winter visit to Stowe.

My first Winter visit and it’s amazing how the absence of leaves opens up new perspectives of this wonderful Capability Brown landscaped garden.

Castle Ashby House aerial image - Northamptonshire. Built around 1574 to 1600. Owned by the Marquess of Northampton. Landscaped by Capability Brown. #CastleAshby #aerial #image #Northamptonshire #aerialphotography

Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge is seen at its very best on late afternoons in Winter!

Although the bridge was designed by Vanbrugh (with a lot of obstruction from Sarah, the first Duchess of Marlborough, who thought it was an extravagance and stopped construction before it was completed) the completion of the scene that we see here was brought about by 'Capability' Brown, who created this artificial lake in place of the ornamental canal that the bridge originally crossed. He also flooded the cellars of the bridge which contains several rooms (now closed to the public, but in the 1930's the rooms in the piers were used for picnics by boating parties). I did get into one of the rooms one year when there was a drought and the level of the lake was very low so I was able to walk out to the pier.

The lake at Croome, created by Capability Brown for the 6th Earl of Coventry. Now owned by the National Trust.Photographed during a brief break in today's heavy rain.

U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 1st Squadron, 102nd Cavalry Regiment, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New Jersey Army National Guard, prepare to load 88mm mortar ammunition on a range during a Mortar live fire training exercise as part of the eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) exercise on July 24, 2022 at Ft. Drum, N.Y. More than 2,500 Soldiers are participating in the training event, which enables brigade combat teams to achieve the trained platoon readiness necessary to deploy, fight, and win. (U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Seth Cohen)

The 1.75 mile long 'river' at Croome Court isn't actually a natural river. It's a manmade lake, dug by Capability Brown for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the mid 18th century.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 34th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron departs after conducting an aerial refueling with A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 28th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron above the Arabian Gulf, Dec. 3, 2019. The KC-135 Stratotanker delivers U.S. Air Forces Central Command a global reach aerial refueling capability to support our joint and coalition aircraft, providing war-winning airpower throughout the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Snider)

This is a remote shutter release I built for my Canon PowerShot S5 IS. It uses the "remote" capability of the CHDK firmware mod. See chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK for info on CHDK.

Parts:

- Radio Shack Project Enclosure (3x2x1") Model: 270-1801 $2.29

- Radio Shack Mini SPST 1.5-Amp Momentary Pushbutton Switch (2-Pack) Model: 275-1556 $2.99

- Radio Shack "AA" Battery Holder Model: 270-401 $.99

- Batteries Plus 4.5 Volt alkaline battery Model: DAN TR133A $12.99

- USB A fem to A male extention cable (only the A fem end is needed, with a few inches of cable). Purchased online for about $4.00

- Small piece of aluminum foil Priceless

Construction:

(I would have used a larger project box, but the local Radio Shack didn't have one when I went in.)

- Cut the female connector from the USB cable, leaving two or three inches of the red and black wires. Cut off the other two wires. They will not be used. Do not throw away the rest of the cable. It makes a good test cable.

- Drill a hole for the momentary switch.

- Drill and file a rectangular hole for the female end of the USB cable. Test fit the USB while drilling it so it just fits in the hole.

- Make sure pieces will fit in the enclosure.

- Place battery in holder. It is a tight fit. Make sure you put it in correctly. The flat end has a + on it. Use aluminum foil to make sure there is good electrical contact between the + end of the battery and the battery holder.

- Insert and fasten the momentary switch.

- Solder the black wire from the USB connector to the black wire (-) of the battery case.

- Solder the red wire from the USB connector to the momentary switch.

- Solder the red wire (+) from the battery case to the other side of the monentary switch.

- Use a volt meter to make sure you are putting 4.5 volt on the red USB wire compared to ground on the black USB wire. Do not skip this step. Reversed polarity could damage your camera. If you plug the leftover USB cable into the connector on the remote, you can measure the voltage (and polarity) on the bare red and black wires.

- Test fit USB connector and battery case. Make sure the cover will fit.

- Epoxy USB connector in place.

- Place battery holder and battery in box. If the cover will not hold the battery in place use spacers. Do not permanently secure battery holder. It would make changing the battery difficult.

- Place cover on box and screw in place.

Usage:

- Set your CHDK enabled Canon point and shoot camera to Enable Remote. (You only need to do this once.)

- Take the USB cable that came with your camera. Insert the small connector into the recepticle on the camera. Insert the large connector to the remote.

- Press and hold momentary switch to focus and set exposure (half press of shutter button). Release and immediately press again to take picture (full press of shutter button).

- If camera is set to continuous mode, hold down the momentary switch to continue shooting.

(On a Canon PowerShotS5 IS, when in manual mode and manual focus, pressing the monentary switch immediately takes the picture.)

Note:

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS needs to see at least 3.7 volts on the USB to recognize the remote. If your camera can work with 3 volts or less, you could use a single 3V button battery instead of the 4.5V battery I used.

To determine what voltage your camera needs to see, check the CHDK wiki at

chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CameraFeatures#New_Camera_Capabilitie...

Look in the next to the last column.

3/25/2011

This is by far my most popular post on Flickr. I keep finding references to it. Based on what I have found, at least six people have made this remote release using these instructions.

3/22/2012

Of the 16,621 views of all my photos, this one has received almost 1/3 of them, 5,573. The next closest photo only has 1,195 views.

If you build a remote release using these instructions (successfully or not), please post a comment so I know about it.

The first two Galileo Full Operational Capability satellites (SAT 5-6) during preparations inside the S5A building, before fuelling operations, on 30 July 2014.

The launch of the two Galileo satellites, aboard a Soyuz rocket, is set for August 2014, from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The definition, development and in-orbit validation phases of the Galileo programme were carried out by ESA and co-funded by ESA and the EU. The Full Operational Capability phase is managed and fully funded by the European Commission. The Commission and ESA have signed a delegation agreement by which ESA acts as design and procurement agent on behalf of the Commission.

Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2014

Harcourt Arboretum

The University of Oxford Arboretum

Acquired by the University in 1947 from the Harcourt family. It is now an integral part of the tree and plant collection of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.

The original Pinetum, which forms the core of the arboretum, was laid out by William Sawrey Gilpin in the 1830s. Gilpin was a leading promoter of the picturesque style of planting and advised the Harcourt family on the establishment and layout of the arboretum. The trees are now mature, with Giant Redwoods and Monkey-Puzzle trees in the collection.

The arboretum also contains some of the finest conifer collections in the UK all set within 130 acres of historic Capability Brown landscape. The grounds include a 10-acre typical English woodland and a 37-acre summer flowering meadow.

www.obga.ox.ac.uk/visit-arboretum

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harcourt_Arboretum

SoulRider.222 / Eric Rider © 2022

The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially christened as a Patton tank. The US Army considered it a product-improved descendant of the Patton tank's design. The design similarities are evident comparing the original version of the M60 and the M48A2. It has been sometimes informally grouped as a member of the Patton tank family.

The United States fully committed to the MBT doctrine in 1963, when the Marine Corps retired the last (M103) heavy tank battalion. The M60 tank series became America's primary main battle tank during the Cold War. Over 15,000 M60s were built by Chrysler Defense Engineering. Hull production ended in 1983, but 5,400 older models were converted to the M60A3 variant ending in 1990.

The M60 reached operational capability upon fielding to US Army European units beginning in December 1960. The first combat use of the M60 was by Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where it saw service under the Magahi 6 designation, performing well in combat against comparable tanks such as the T-62. In 1982 the Israelis again used the M60 during the 1982 Lebanon War, equipped with upgrades such as explosive reactive armor to defend against guided missiles that proved very effective at destroying tanks. The M60 also saw use in 1983 during Operation Urgent Fury, supporting US Marines in an amphibious assault on Grenada. M60s delivered to Iran also served in the Iran–Iraq War.

The United States' largest deployment of M60s was in the 1991 Gulf War, where the US Marines equipped with M60A1s effectively defeated Iraqi armored forces, including T-72 tanks. The United States retired the M60 from front-line combat after Operation Desert Storm, with the last tanks being retired from National Guard service in 1997. M60-series vehicles continue in front-line service with a number of countries' militaries, though most of these have been highly modified and had their firepower, mobility and protection upgraded to increase their combat effectiveness on the modern battlefield.

The M60 underwent many updates over its service life. The interior layout, based on the design of the M48, provided ample room for updates and improvements, extending the vehicle's service life for over four decades. It was widely used by the US and its Cold War allies, especially those in NATO, and remains in service throughout the world, despite having been superseded by the M1 Abrams in the US military.

The M60 featured the M68 105mm main gun in the clamshell shaped Patton-styled T95E5 turret and several component improvements as well as the AVDS-1790-2A diesel engine and improved hull design. Some early production units did not have the commander's cupola.

The 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team is the largest formation of the Idaho Army National Guard. It is headquartered at Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho. It has been reorganized into an Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) but remains the only unit to be designated a "Cavalry Brigade Combat Team" by special appointment of the US Army. The 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team has units located throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Nevada. It was reorganized into a heavy armor brigade in 1989. Often referred to as the Snake River Brigade and formerly known as the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the unit includes about 3,000 citizen-soldiers from Idaho.

In July 2016, the 116th CBCT took part in Exercise Saber Guardian, which involve deploying troop elements from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the U.S.

The 116th CBCT consists of the following units:

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (Idaho Army National Guard)

116 Cav Rgt DUI.png2nd Battalion (Combined Arms), 116th Cavalry Regiment (Idaho Army National Guard)

116 Cav Rgt DUI.png3rd Battalion (Combined Arms), 116th Cavalry Regiment (Oregon Army National Guard)

163rd Cavalry Regiment DUI.jpg1st Battalion (Combined Arms), 163rd Cavalry Regiment (Montana Army National Guard)

221st Cavalry Regiment DUI.jpg1st Squadron (Armored Reconnaissance), 221st Cavalry Regiment (Nevada Army National Guard) (joined CBCT Nov. 2016)

148 FA Rgt DUI.jpg1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery Regiment (Idaho Army National Guard)

US 116th BEB insignia.png116th Brigade Engineer Battalion (Idaho Army National Guard) (re-organized from a special troops battalion and elements of the former 116th Engineer Battalion October 2016)

US 145th BSB insignia.png145th Brigade Support Battalion (Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon Army National Guard)

History

The 116th Cavalry (Snake River Regiment) was constituted on 4 March 1920 in the Idaho National Guard as the 1st Cavalry. It organized between March – November 1920 in the valley of the Snake River. It was redesignated on 12 October 1921 as the 116th Cavalry (less 2nd and 3rd Squadrons): Headquarters was federally recognized on 11 February 1922 at Boise (2nd and 3rd Squadrons were allotted in 1929 to the Idaho National Guard). The location of headquarters changed on 15 March 1929 to Weiser; and on 9 December 1930 back to Boise. The 116th Cavalry (less 3rd Squadron) converted and was redesignated on 16 September 1940 to the 183rd Field Artillery (the 3rd Squadron concurrently converted and was redesignated as elements of the 148th Field Artillery—hereafter separate lineage).

The 183rd Field Artillery Battalion was inducted into federal service on 1 April 1941 at home stations. The regiment was broken up on 8 February 1943 and its elements were reorganized and redesignated as follows: Headquarters and Headquarters Battery as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 183 Field Artillery Group; the 1st Battalion as the 183rd Field Artillery Battalion (it inactivated on 30 October 1944, Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts); the 2nd Battalion as the 951st Field Artillery Battalion (it inactivated on 13 October 1945 also at Camp Myles Standish.

The above units were reorganized as elements of the 183rd Infantry (Headquarters was federally recognized on 10 January 1947 at Twin Falls) and the 116th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Headquarters was federally recognized on 8 January 1947 at Caldwell). The 183rd Infantry (less 3rd Battalion) and 116th Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron were consolidated, reorganized, and redesignated on 12 September 1949 as the 116th Armored Cavalry with headquarters at Twin Falls. The 3rd Battalion, 183rd Infantry, was concurrently converted and redesignated as the 116th Engineer Combat Battalion—hereafter separate lineage. The 3rd Squadron was allotted on 15 December 1967 to the Nevada Army National Guard; it was relieved on 11 May 1974 from allotment to the Nevada Army National Guard and allotted to the Oregon Army National Guard. The 1st Squadron was relieved on 1 May 1977 from allotment to the Idaho Army National Guard. The Attack Helicopter Company was allotted on 1 September 1975 to the Washington and Wyoming Army National Guard. The 116th was one of the four Army National Guard armored cavalry regiments during the 1980s, along with the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

The unit reorganized and was redesignated on 1 September 1989 in the Idaho and Oregon Army National Guard as the 116th Cavalry, a parent regiment under the United States Army Regiment System, to consist of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions and Troop E, elements of the 116th Cavalry Brigade, and Troop F, and element of the 41st Infantry Brigade. The 116th Cavalry Brigade then joined the 4th Infantry Division as the round out brigade. It was reorganized on 1 October 1995 to consist of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, elements of the 116th Cavalry Brigade and in 1996 the brigade left the 4th Infantry Division.

Operation JOINT FORGE (SFOR XI)

Approximately 300 Idaho and Montana Army National Guardsmen and women of the 116th served in Bosnia in 2001 and 2002. The 116th Cavalry Brigade, headquartered at Gowen Field, deployed approximately 100 soldiers in March 2002, returning in October 2002. The 116th was under the command and control of the Army's 25th Infantry Division, Hawaii, during the deployment. The 91st Division (Training Support) trained the 116th Cavalry Brigade prior to its deployment to Bosnia for Stabilization Force 11.

Operation Iraqi Freedom III

In the early part of 2004 the 116th Cavalry Brigade was alerted for a mobilization to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. In June that year the entire brigade deployed for 18 months. The brigade spent the first six months at Fort Bliss, TX and Fort Polk, LA training for their combat mission.

The majority of the brigade arrived in Iraq late 2004. The 116th Cavalry Brigade was assigned to the northern part of Iraq, primarily in and around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk with elements occupying FOB Warrior, FOB McHenry and Gains Mills. For nearly a full year the soldiers of the 116th Cavalry Brigade conducted full spectrum operations in and around Kirkuk, stabilizing the region for national elections, and training the Iraqi Army and police forces.

The Iraq deployment marked the first time in the 116th Cavalry Brigade's history that the entire brigade had deployed together. This was also the first time that the 116th shoulder sleeve insignia was authorized to wear as the shoulder sleeve insignia – Former Wartime Service (often referred to as a combat patch).

As a cavalry unit, many soldiers serving in the brigade during the deployment were authorized to wear the gold combat spurs.

In November 2005 the 116th Cavalry Brigade redeployed to the United States. After redeployment the 116th Cavalry was officially redesignated from 116th Cavalry Brigade to 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team.

Operation New Dawn

On 17 September 2010 the brigade began a 12-month deployment to Iraq, first traveling to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for training and premobilization certification. After serving for a year in various locations in Iraq performing Force Protection missions, the brigade returned to Idaho in September 2011.

During their deployment, they conducted numerous Force Protection missions. The unit was spread all over Iraq, being the main controlling task force for the country, from late November 2010 to early September 2011, when they turned the country over to the Kentucky National Guard.

From Quick Reaction Force platoons, convoy security teams, to ECP operations as well as administrative and biometrics operations, UAV operations, the 116th play a major role in initiating Operation New Dawn and the overall turnover of the country to the Iraqi Government.

Insignia

Shoulder Sleeve Insignia

Description: On a scarlet disc with a 1⁄8 inch yellow border 2 1⁄2 inches in diameter overall, a yellow sun emitting twelve rays surmounted by a blue horizontal wavy band bearing a yellow gliding snake.

Symbolism: The wavy band and the snake are taken from the coat of arms of the former organization, the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The wavy band and snake represent the Snake River, and refer to the home area of the former organization, the Snake River Valley. The sun alludes to the state of Idaho, noted for the beauty of its sunrises. The name is taken from Shoshoni Indian words meaning " the sun comes down the mountain" or "it is morning." The predominant color, yellow, is representative of Armored Cavalry units.

Background: The shoulder sleeve insignia was originally approved for the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment on 9 October 1967. The insignia was redesignated and the symbolism revised on 1 September 1989.

Distinctive Unit Insignia

A gold color metal and enamel device 1 3⁄16 inches high, consisting of a bundle of five gold arrows, points up, encompassed on either side of the tripartite black scroll passing across the center of the arrows and inscribed "MOVE STRIKE DESTROY" in gold letters; overall in base a red coiled rattlesnake.

Symbolism: Yellow/gold is the color traditionally associated with Cavalry. The coiled rattlesnake epitomizes the unit's motto – capabilities and military preparedness. The snake also alludes to the unit's association with the old 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The five arrows symbolize the unit's five campaign credits during World War II as Field Artillery; scarlet and yellow/gold are the colors associated with Field Artillery.

Background: The distinctive unit insignia was authorized on 2 May 1989.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some Background:

The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was a first-generation jet aircraft of the United States Air Force. It was developed from the twin-seat Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in the late 1940s as an all-weather, day/night interceptor, replacing the propeller-driven North American F-82 Twin Mustang in this role. The system was designed to overtake the F-80 in terms of performance, but more so to intercept the new high-level Soviet bombers capable of nuclear attacks on America and her Allies - in particular, the new Tupelov Tu-4. The F-94 was furthermore the first operational USAF fighter equipped with an afterburner and was the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War in January 1953.

For better handling and less drag esp. at low altitude, the F-94B’s large Fletcher type wingtip tanks were frequently replaced with smaller ones with about half capacity. It also became common practice to operate the RF-94Bs with only a crew of one, and from 1960 on the RF-94B was, thanks to its second seat, more and more used as a trainer before pilots mounted more potent reconnaissance aircraft like the RF-101 Voodoo, which eventually replaced the RF-94B in ANG service. The last RF-94B was phased out in 1968, and, unlike the RF-84F, it was not operated by any foreign air force.

General characteristics:

Crew: 2 (but frequently operated by a single pilot)

Length: 43 ft 4 3/4 in (13.25 m)

Wingspan (with tip tanks): 40 ft 9 1/2 in (12.45 m)

Height: 12 ft. 2 (3.73 m)

Wing area: 234' 8" sq ft (29.11 m²)

Empty weight: 10,064 lb (4,570 kg)

Loaded weight: 15,330 lb (6,960 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 24,184 lb (10,970 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Allison J33-A-33 turbojet, rated at 4,600 lbf (20.4 kN) continuous thrust,

5,400 lbf (24 kN) with water injection and 6,000 lbf (26.6 kN) thrust with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 630 mph (1,014 km/h) at height and in level flight

Range: 930 mi (813 nmi, 1,500 km) in combat configuration with two drop tanks

Ferry range: 1,457 mi (1,275 nmi, 2,345 km)

Service ceiling: 42,750 ft (14,000 m)

Rate of climb: 6,858 ft/min (34.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 57.4 lb/ft² (384 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.48

Armament:

No internal guns; 2x 165 US Gallon (1,204 liter) drop tanks on the wing tips and…

2x underwing hardpoints for two additional 165 US Gallon (1,204 liter) ferry tanks

or bombs of up to 1.000 lb (454 kg) caliber each, plus…

2x optional (rarely fitted) pods on the wings’ leading edges with either a pair of 0.5" (12.7 mm)

machine guns or twelve 2.75” (70 mm) Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets each

The kit and its assembly:

This project was originally earmarked as a submission for the 2021 “Reconnaissance & Surveillance” group build at whatifmodellers.com, in the form of a Heller F-94B with a new nose section. The inspiration behind this build was the real-world EF-94C (s/n 50-963): a solitary conversion with a bulbous camera nose. However, the EF-94C was not a reconnaissance aircraft but rather a chase plane/camera ship for the Air Research and Development Command, hence its unusual designation with the suffix “E”, standing for “Exempt” instead of the more appropriate “R” for a dedicated recce aircraft. There also was another EF-94C, but this was a totally different kind of aircraft: an ejection seat testbed.

I had a surplus Heller F-94B kit in The Stash™ and it was built almost completely OOB and did – except for some sinkholes and standard PSR work – not pose any problem. In fact, the old Heller Starfire model is IMHO a pretty good representation of the aircraft. O.K., its age might show, but almost anything you could ask for at 1:72 scale is there, including a decent, detailed cockpit.

The biggest change was the new camera nose, and it was scratched from an unlikely donor part: it consists of a Matchbox B-17G tail gunner station, slimmed down by the gunner station glazing's width at the seam in the middle, and this "sandwich" was furthermore turned upside down. Getting the transitional sections right took lots of PSR, though, and I added some styrene profiles to integrate the new nose into the rest of the hull. It was unintentional, but the new nose profile reminds a lot of a RF-101 recce Voodoo, and there's, with the straight wings, a very F-89ish look to the aircraft now? There's also something F2H-2ish about the outlines?

The large original wing tip tanks were cut off and replaced with smaller alternatives from a Hasegawa A-37. Because it was easy to realize on this kit I lowered the flaps, together with open ventral air brakes. The cockpit was taken OOB, I just modified the work station on the rear seat and replaced the rubber sight protector for the WSO with two screens for a camera operator. Finally, the one-piece cockpit glazing was cut into two parts to present the model with an open canopy.

Painting and markings:

This was a tough decision: either an NMF finish (the natural first choice), an overall light grey anti-corrosive coat of paint, both with relatively colorful unit markings, or camouflage. The USAF’s earlier RF-80As carried a unique scheme in olive drab/neutral grey with a medium waterline, but that would look rather vintage on the F-94. I decided that some tactical camouflage would make most sense on this kind of aircraft and eventually settled for the USAF’s SEA scheme with reduced tactical markings, which – after some field tests and improvisations in Vietnam – became standardized and was officially introduced to USAF aircraft around 1965 as well as to ANG units.

Even though I had already built a camouflaged F-94 some time ago (a Hellenic aircraft in worn SEA colors), I settled for this route. The basic colors (FS 30219, 34227, 34279 and 36622) all came from Humbrol (118, 117, 116 and 28, respectively), and for the pattern I adapted the paint scheme of the USAF’s probably only T-33 in SEA colors: a trainer based on Iceland during the Seventies and available as a markings option in one of the Special Hobby 1:32 T-33 kits. The low waterline received a wavy shape, inspired by an early ANG RF-101 in SEA camouflage I came across in a book. The new SEA scheme was apparently applied with a lot of enthusiasm and properness when it was brand new, but this quickly vaned. As an extra, the wing tip tanks received black anti-glare sections on their inner faces and a black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen - a decal from a T-33 aftermarket sheet. Beyond a black ink wash the model received some subtle panel post-shading, but rather to emphasize surface details than for serious weathering.

The cockpit became very dark grey (Revell 06) while the landing gear wells were kept in zinc chromate green primer (Humbrol 80, Grass Green), with bright red (Humbrol 60, Matt Red) cover interiors and struts and wheels in aluminum (Humbrol 56). The interior of the flaps and the ventral air brakes became red, too.

The decals/markings came from a Special Hobby 1:72 F-86H; there’s a dedicated ANG boxing of the kit that comes with an optional camouflaged aircraft of the NY ANG, the least unit to operate the “Sabre Hog” during the Seventies. Since this 138th TFS formerly operated the F-94A/B, it was a perfect option for the RF-94B! I just used a different Bu. No. code on the fin, taken from a PrintScale A/T-37 set, and most stencils were perocured from the scrap box.

After a final light treatment with graphite around the afterburner for a more metallic shine of the iron metallic (Revell 97) underneath, the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A camouflaged F-94 is an unusual sight, but it works very well. The new/longer nose considerably changes the aircraft's profile, and even though the change is massive, the "Crocodile" looks surprisingly plausible, if not believable! And, despite the long nose, the aircraft looks pretty sleek, especially in the air.

Prior Park is an 18th-century landscape garden created as the home of the 18th-Century Bath entrepreneur and philanthropist Ralph Allen. The gardens were designed by Allen's friends, the poet Alexander Pope and the landscape gardener Capability Brown, and the main house was built by the architect John Wood, the Elder. The park is now owned by the National Trust, and the house belongs to Prior Park College. In the foreground is the Palladian bridge, one of only four [or five?] left in the world, and the fish ponds. In the distance are the tower of the Church of St Thomas à Becket and cottages on the outskirts of Bath.

I just deleted this album then re-loaded it to un tag a dealer i have problems with and to blow off steam about his companies' problem. it won't take the wind out of my sales for the love of life on the road. I just spent the last two hours deleting tags to dealers I’ve made large purchases from. The next step is to take their name off of my Truck and Fifth Wheel! That will teach them! I’ve even deleted two entire albums of photos with tags leading friends to the dealerships. My small protest but to have to spend more money in civil court. There should be a court for dealing with consumer products after large purchases and problems exist. Who can afford to do that and or spend the time teaching the bad dealer a lesson! It’s hard when you live on fantasy island and want to believe there are people out there that are true pros and true craftsmen. I know there are a few people out there because I met them and refused to do business with other dealers because I met them too. I’ve seen a guy weld a Holiday Rambler that broke in half over night at the frame and get me back on the road. There is even an RV dealer five minutes from my house that did such a poor job on a 30 foot trailer I want to restore that they lost a ten-grand restoration job! I went elsewhere for a purchase. Where is Brett Michaels when you need him! Now to find the proper venues to vent. Do you think the dealer’s sites post bad reviews? I’m the perfect sucker for a Salesman that cares nothing but for the commission or if they aren’t paid on commission for the BS they lay on you to kill time to eventually close the sale. I shopped for years at many different places within the State and even some Florida dealers for the right RV for me. I have twenty years’ road experience with travel trailers in and out of campgrounds and dealers. The hard part is when you find a good mechanic you are often down the road on the next adventure. The dealer can’t take away my enthusiasm for the joy of my new trailer. They are so useful when built properly and so versatile for travel or events or full time Road Warriors! Who wouldn’t be frustrated when there are 18 jobs that need attention! I was told by the salesman I’d get a good education from top to bottom and the demo guy was going to send me out of the dealership with the fifth wheel receiver or jaws ungreased with no Teflon pad for the fifth wheel! I really needed a fifth wheel hooking and unhooking lesson along with good Hydraulic jack lesson. I was good for most other things except how the solar panel works. But they try hard to push you off on the useless manuals or Destruction books because they are over worked and under staffed in the service area. I get that. Except learning the hard way almost cost me my hand with a bed and the fifth wheel. Luckily I’m quick. Sometimes I don’t know if I should have been a great mechanic a teacher or a great lawyer. I walked HIM through greasing the B&W hitch and greasing the receiver and made him put the Teflon pad he was going to make me leave without that I bought two years ago in anticipation of having a fifth wheel from Mark (the good guy) at the RV show in Greensboro. No kidding, I put a lot of thought into this. Needless to say, he has mechanical skills beyond my capability and they used the excuse it was market time or the RV show to be short with me. Now that I have tested things on the trailer before a trip and found at least 18 jobs that need to be done after waiting for a call for parts that had already been delivered and a call never received then accused of not paying for screens that didn’t fit and that a $125.00 per hour fee was going to be charged, who wouldn’t be upset? Did I mention this? It will always be something! They can just put the nail in the coffin for the common belief that it is over after the Sale is done. Getting passed off from one department to the other is unforgiveable! The excuse is familiar. I just do Sales; you have to talk to Service. Service says we just do Service, you have to go to parts. Even with lifetime warranty printed and tagged all over the trailer with a promise to teach you about how everything works I’ve found out the hard way from a popular dealer in Rural Hall, NC that it is not the case! It’s too bad I didn’t buy my Truck or RV and drive all the way to Atlanta to deal with @Scott Trail or find a similar friend that would make sure everything is right. Dream on Consumer! So, if any name bashing starts remember we always have one friend in the car, RV, insurance or Sales business. When we overall call all Salesman assholes or all insurance companies thieves or all dealings with service mechanics complete disasters we have to remember we have people on our friend’s lists that have those jobs. You know what, right now after a huge purchase and being shuffled it’s amazing I can work up any mercy for any of them. I’ve tried to be a Salesman. Service over profit was my downfall. I’ve tried to be a Customer Service Rep. It was difficult talking to people that needed parts after a large purchase when you just learned there aren’t any parts! We are all selling something whether we know it or not. If you aren’t taking pride in your job to be the best you can be and just killing time you are a part of this problem! Not everyone has a dream job. But it is just my turn to take a punch, but I’m swinging back! It is just unfortunate for them I know a little about RVs. I must have too high a standard to believe that there are really people that give a damn about products or follow through after the sale. I hate that we just don’t care attitude that leaves you searching for a better place. I had a place in Mooresville that I will find again for service. Hopefully the same family runs the place. It is near the Lake in Terrell. I need to return to and find another mobile mechanic once that moved on to a dealer in the mountains and I can’t dig his name up. There are good people out there. They are so hard to find. Maybe it is just me. I expect too much after laying down a hard-earned wage or a life savings for a house, new car, recreation vehicle or piece of equipment that is supposed to work. When I get a new toy, I want to take a photo of every nut bolt and screw on it, one because I am proud, the other reason is for future reference when things fall apart. Buyer’s remorse sucks even if you know the term all too well, Buyer Beware! I saw one guy at the current dealership I am dealing with now running, literally running to get from customer to customer after my purchase. In between him and the good mechanics are problems! The good guy’s name is Mark. He is extremely smart and knows RV’s and fifth wheels up and down. He was literally running with a ladder and carrying three heavy hitches with him to try to wait on at least two customers at the same time. I’m always leaving a window or looking for the good and hoping I’m not back on fantasy island. There were excellent qualified educated trailer technicians in the service in a good building with the right tools to build trailers from scratch, including paint. Getting to them is a full-time job on the customer’s end. They even had parts delivered that they owed me on what they call a we owe and hadn’t bothered to call in a three-week period. They wanted to double charge for some bug screens around 50 bucks until I produced a paid receipt. Even after the Salesmen told (I know his name) the parts manager he personally sat with the mechanic for a half hour trying patiently to put on the wrong screen. Even with lifetime warranty written all over my trailer they wanted to charge me for service $125.00 per hour for labor. That must be some sort of trick. For $125.00 an hour most any parts should be free! I waited three hours even with a scheduled appointment to even get told they were ready to take her in. Two days later I had to force the call to get an eta on when she would be ready. Imagine if I were a full timer living full time in my RV or still doing three shows a day in three different cities a day. Fortunately, I am gifted with a little time. The service manager mentioned to do the 18 jobs I needed to be done he still had to order parts. Imagine I was sold a unit that I (The Customer) found at least 18 things to do after leaving the lot and running the unit. So, I am going to rescue my unit tomorrow and hope what they did fix after two days waiting can get me through my first trip until parts come for the rest of the job. Do you think I am a fool to take it back? It is a hard call! I’ll know tomorrow if I receive a bill or the trailer is in good shape. The tough part is, after you have been tough with service now your unit is at their mercy. I was told by a good agent I don’t take any crap from anyone. But sometimes it costs me. But those of you that are passive and just let them walk all over you take a bigger beating. With full time jobs or people that depend on their unit as a full-time vehicle you can imagine the pressure to change up vacation times or deal with time off from your job to take care of problems.

Comox Air Force Museum

In Service: 1951 to 1984 (Retired from flying 27 October 1983)

The development, production, and operation of the CF-100 represent one of Canadian aviation’s outstanding achievements. It remains the only Canadian designed and built combat aircraft to reach operational status and the Canuck played a critical role in this country's participation in the defence of North America and Europe during the first two decades of the Cold War.

The Canuck became operational in 1953 and continued flying with the RCAF until 1981. Both its role and weaponry changed through the years as some squadrons of CF-100's were based in Europe as part of NATO and the aircraft's armament evolved from machine guns to rockets and guided missiles. In its prime, the Canuck was known as a rugged, dependable aircraft. It was the first and one of the best long-range, all-weather fighters available, it served

Canada, NORAD, and NATO well.

The RCAF named the CF-100, “Canuck”, after the much earlier Curtiss JN-4 Canuck trainer of the First World War. However, the name Canuck was never really accepted for the jet aircraft and the crews more often referred to the type as the “Clunk”; for the noise the landing gear made as it retracted into its well after takeoff.

The CF-100’s good climb, excellent fire control and radar systems, twin-engine reliability and all-weather capability made the aircraft highly suitable for Canadian, NATO and NORAD air defence roles of the Korean and Cold War

eras until it was replaced by the McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo in the air defence role in 1961. It was then modified to become an electronic warfare (EW) and electronic countermeasures (ECM) trainer. The two main versions of the

CF-100 were the gun and rocket armed Mark 4s and the rocket only armed Mark 5s.

Reference: comoxairforcemuseum.ca

Image best viewed in large screen.

Thank-you for your visit, and any comments or faves are always very much appreciated! ~Sonja

Harewood House, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Harewood House is a Grade 1 Country House near Leeds in West Yorkshire.

It was designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam and built between 1759 and 1771 for wealthy plantation and slave owner Edwin Lascelles - the 1st Baron Harewood, and is still home to the Lascelles family.

The 1000 acre grounds were designed by Capability Brown.

The house is one of the ten 'Treasure Houses of England'.

A spectacular house and grounds that is well worth a visit, but uncomfortable about the source of the wealth that built it.

Croome Court is a mid 18th century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by an extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Pershore in south Worcestershire. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and was Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the internal rooms of the mansion were designed by Robert Adam.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust, and is leased to the National Trust who operate it, along with the surrounding parkland, as a tourist attraction. The National Trust own the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location[edit]

Croome Court is located near to Croome D'Abitot, in Worcestershire,[1] near Pirton, Worcestershire.[2] The wider estate was established on lands that were once part of the royal forest of Horewell.[3] Traces of these older landscapes, such as unimproved commons and ancient woodlands, can be found across the former Croome Estate.[4]

House[edit]

Croome Court South Portico

History[edit]

The foundations and core of Croome Court, including the central chimney stack structure, date back to the early 1640s.[5] Substantial changes to this early house were made by Gilbert Coventry, 4th Earl of Coventry.[6]

In 1751, George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate, along with the existing Jacobean house. He commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with the assistance of Sanderson Miller, to redesign the house and estate.[7][1] It was Brown's "first flight into the realms of architecture" and a "rare example of his architectural work",[8] and it is an important and seminal work.[9] It was built between 1751 and 1752, and it and Hagley Hall are considered to be the finest examples of Neo-Palladian architecture in Worcestershire. Notable Neo-Palladian features incorporated into Croome Court include the plain exterior and the corner towers with pyramidal roofs (a feature first used by Inigo Jones in the design of Wilton House in Wiltshire).[1] Robert Adam worked on the interior of the building from 1760 onwards.[10]

The house has been visited by George III,[2][11] as well as Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (then Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built by the 9th Earl of Coventry, near to Pershore railway station, in about 1880, to provide a market for Vale of Evesham fruit growers in times of surplus. Although the Croome connection with jam making had ceased, during the First World War, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12]

The First World War deeply affected Croome, with many local casualties, although the house was not requisitioned for the war effort. This is possibly because it was the home of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, who needed a residence for his many official engagements.[13]

During the Second World War Croome Court was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works and leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they stayed two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and fear created by the proximity of Defford Aerodrome. They later emigrated to Canada.[14]

In 1948 the Croome Estate Trust sold the Court, along with 38 acres (15 ha) of land, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the mansion became St Joseph's Special School, which was run by nuns[15] from 1950[11] until 1979.[15]

The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

In 1979 the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement), who used it as their UK headquarters and a training college[16] called Chaitanya College,[15] run by 25 members of the movement.[16] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[17] In 1984 they had to leave the estate for financial reasons. They held a festival at the hall in 2011.[16]

From 1984 onwards various owners tried to use the property as a training centre; apartments; a restaurant and conference centre; and a hotel and golf course,[15] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][15] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[15]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[18] in October 2007,[19] and it is now managed by the National Trust as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public in September 2009, at which point six of the rooms had restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][20] to £4.8 million would be needed to restore the entire building. Fundraising activities for the restoration included a 2011 raffle for a Morgan sports car organised by Lord and Lady Flight. After the restoration is complete, a 999-year lease on the building will be granted to the National Trust.[21] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[22]

Exterior[edit]

The mansion is faced with Bath stone,[7] limestone ashlar, and has both north and south facing fronts. It has a basement and two stories, with three stories in the end pavilions. A slate roof, with pyramid roofs over the corner towers, tops the building, along with three pair-linked chimneys along the axis of the house.[10]

Both fronts have 11 bays, split into three central sets of three each, and one additional bay each side. The north face has a pedimented centre, with two balustraded staircases leading to a Roman Doric doorcase. The south face has a projecting Ionic tetrastyle portico and Venetian windows. It has a broad staircase, with cast stone sphinxes on each side, leading to a south door topped with a cornice on consoles. The wings have modillion cornice and balustrade.[10]

A two-story L-shaped service wing is attached to the east side of the mansion. It is made of red brick and stone, with slate roofs.[10] It was designed by Capability Brown in 1751-2.[22] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior[edit]

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by J. Rose Jr. It has a central spine corridor. A stone staircase, with iron balusters, is at the east end.[10]

The entrance hall is on the north side of the building, and has four fluted Doric columns, along with moulded doorcases. To the east of the entrance hall is the dining room, which has a plaster ceiling and cornice, while to the west is a billiard room, featuring fielded panelling, a plaster cornice, and a rococo fireplace. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758-59 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[17]

The central room on the south side is a saloon, probably by Brown and Vassalli. It has an elaborate ceiling, with three panels, deep coving, and a cornice, along with two Ionic fireplaces, and Palladian doorcases.[10] George III was entertained by George Coventry, the 6th Earl, in the house's Saloon.[2] A drawing room is to the west of the saloon, and features rococo plasterwork and a marble fireplace.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763-71, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by Jacques Germain Soufflot, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. In 1949 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, mantlepiece, chair rails, doors and the door surrounds, which were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. In 1959 the Kress Foundation also helped the Metropolitan Museum acquire the chair and sofa frames, which they recovered using the original tapestry seats.[7][23] A copy of the ceiling was installed in place of the original.[10] As of 2016, the room is displayed as it would have looked after the tapestries had been sold, with a jug and ewer on display as the only original decoration of the room that remains in it. The adjacent library room is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[17] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble fireplace.[10]

At the west side of the building is a long gallery,[10] which was designed by Robert Adam and installed between 1761 and 1766. It is the best preserved of the original interior (little of the rest has survived in situ).[1] It has an octagonal panelled ceiling, and plaster reliefs of griffins. A half-hexagonal bay faces the garden. The room also contains a marble caryatid fireplace designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery

wikipedia

Corsham Court is an English country house in a park designed by Capability Brown. It is in the town of Corsham, 3 miles (5 km) west of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and is notable for its fine art collection, based on the nucleus of paintings inherited in 1757 by Paul Methuen from his uncle, Sir Paul Methuen, the diplomat. It is currently the home of the present Baron Methuen, James Methuen-Campbell, the eighth generation of the Methuens to live there.

Early history

Corsham was a royal manor in the days of the Saxon kings, reputed to have been a seat of Ethelred the Unready. After William the Conqueror, the manor continued to be passed down through the generations in the royal family. It often formed part of the dower of the Queens of England during the late 14th and early 15th centuries, becoming known as Corsham Reginae. During the 16th century, the manor went to two of Henry VIII's wives, namely Catherine of Aragon until 1536, and Katherine Parr until 1548.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the estate passed out of the royal family; the present house was built in 1582 by Thomas Smythe. The owner of Corsham Court in the mid-seventeenth century was the commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army in Wiltshire; his wife, Lady Margaret Hungerford, built what came to be known as the Hungerford Almshouses in the centre of town.

An entrance archway was built to the south of the house c. 1700–20. The arch, in baroque style. is flanked by massive ashlar piers with ball finials.[3]

Methuen family

The house was bought in 1745 by Sir Paul Methuen for his cousin, also named Paul Methuen, whose grandson became Baron Methuen. The house remains the seat of the Methuen family.

In 1761–64, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was commissioned to redesign and enlarge the house and landscape the park.[4] Brown set the style of the present-day building by retaining the Elizabethan stables, the Riding School,[3] and the great gabled front to the house, which he doubled in depth and provided gabled wings at either end of the house, creating the Picture Gallery and State Rooms in the east wing and a library and new kitchens in the west wing. The Picture Gallery was designed as a triple cube and has a coffered plasterwork ceiling over a high cove stuccoed in scrolls, designed by Brown[5] and carried out by Thomas Stocking of Bristol (1763–66). The Long Gallery contains Italian Old Masters, with a notable marquetry commode and matching pair of candlestands by John Cobb (1772) and four pier glasses designed by Robert Adam (1770).

File:Corsham Court about 1880

Capability Brown also worked as a landscape architect for his commission at Corsham.[6] His 1761 plan for laying out the park separated it from the pleasure grounds using a ha-ha (sunken fence) so that the view from the house would not be obstructed. Brown planned to enlarge the fish ponds to create a lake and constructed an orangery (neither of which survive) and built a Gothic Bath House (which does survive).[7] He created a "Great Walk" stretching for a mile through clumps of trees. An ornamental arch was built so that the family and their guests could walk underneath the public right of way without having to cross it. Brown also planted screens of trees around the park to obscure roads and fields beyond, making the view more arcadian. The layout of grounds and gardens by Brown represents his most important commission after Blenheim Palace.[8]

In 1795, Paul Cobb Methuen commissioned Humphry Repton to complete the landscape, left unfinished at Brown's death with the lake still to be completed, and in 1796 commissioned John Nash to completely remodel the north façade in Strawberry Hill Gothic style, beating the experienced James Wyatt for the commission. Nash further embellished other areas of Brown's external building works, including Brown's Gothic Bath House in the North Avenue, as well as reorganising the internal layout to form a grand hall and a library, at the centre of which is the large library table associated with a payment to Thomas Chippendale's partner Haig, in 1779.[9] By 1808 much of Nash's work was replaced with a more solid structure, when it was discovered that he had used unseasoned timber in beams and joists; all of Nash's work at Corsham save the library was destroyed when it was remodelled by Thomas Bellamy (1798–1876) in 1844–49[4][10] during the ownership by Paul Methuen, 1st Baron Methuen, who was Member of Parliament for Wiltshire and Wiltshire North.

The Sham Ruin

Brown planned to include a 50,000 m2 lake. This lake, however, was not completed until some forty years later, by Repton, who formed his long working relationship with Nash at Corsham Court. They laid out avenues and planted the specimen trees, including American oaks, Quercus coccinea and Q phellos, and the magnificent oriental plane. The grounds also incorporate a folly ruin, built by Nash c. 1797, incorporating some medieval stonework and some material from the eighteenth-century Bath House built by Brown.[11]

In 1960, the house and the Bath House were recorded as Grade I listed[12][7] and the ensemble of stables, riding school and entrance arch as Grade II*.[3] The park was recorded as Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens in 1987. Wikipedia