in the shadow of temple newsam mansion leeds. temple newsam a tudor-jacobean mansion and historic estate situated in leeds england. birthplace of lord darnley and gardens designed by capability brown in the 18 century.

EU Dr of Military Planning and Concept Capability (DMPCC) visits Rwanda Security Forces HQs | Cabo Delgado, 15 February 2023

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

From the garden.

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building

Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park

06/02/52

(Formerly Listed as:

Charlecote Park House)

GV I

Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.

Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and

extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;

north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by

John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.

MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has

diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in

C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with

octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.

PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south

wing.

EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;

3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar

plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,

sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.

2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking

pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed

entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion

mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained

glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has

Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded

cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite

detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters

supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;

original diapered brick to returns.

3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,

that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay

window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced

rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and

flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals

and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light

ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.

Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,

ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much

diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.

East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to

strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed

windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of

reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.

Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,

top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to

south mostly original, that to north with round-headed

entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.

North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;

3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;

cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on

strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to

turrets.

Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with

octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded

balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel

with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped

parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with

3-light transomed windows.

Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks

each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over

Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch

and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,

blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window

and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South

return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external

stack with clustered shafts.

South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;

recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next

4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks

forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;

stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy

Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).

Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows

are 3-light and transomed.

South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned

windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with

strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated

1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light

single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar

windows to each turret, one to each floor.

East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.

South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed

window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to

first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to

full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking

4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel

with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has

loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a

single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;

first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of

south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and

transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light

windows.

INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained

plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;

armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by

Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace

with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and

fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.

Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling

by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork

ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room

has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured

marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace

with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired

columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial

bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.

Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed

in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a

tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;

bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and

panelled ceiling probably C19.

Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white

marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster

ceiling with bands.

Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to

north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and

Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style

fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with

Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and

ceiling, and large pier glasses.

Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with

egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that

to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style

fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.

South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with

symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first

floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle

scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.

First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement

wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with

wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble

fireplace.

Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of

gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,

papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble

architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with

c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700

balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and

north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and

servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;

some bells.

South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2

segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess

with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.

Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and

cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former

south window retaining glass.

First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary

Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep

coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west

similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace

with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door

to spiral timber turret staircase.

Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;

probably 1920s wallpaper.

Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.

While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best

examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property

of National Trust.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust

Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic

Interior).

Listing NGR: SP2590656425

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

The house on this side houses the Victorian Kitchen, Servant's Hall Shop and Charlecote Pantry.

Servant's Hall

servant's bells

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

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

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

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

From the garden.

Munster-Osnabruck International Airport (FMO/EDDG)

Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill). Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 65 feet (20 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1798–99. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s. William Morris was so inspired by Broadway Tower and other ancient buildings that he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.

Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village.

Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Charlecote Park House is a Grade I Listed Building

Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/19 Charlecote Park

06/02/52

(Formerly Listed as:

Charlecote Park House)

GV I

Formerly known as: Charlecote Hall.

Country house. Begun 1558; extended C19. Partly restored and

extended, including east range, 1829-34 by CS Smith;

north-east wing rebuilt and south wing extended 1847-67 by

John Gibson. For George and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.

MATERIALS: brick, that remaining from original building has

diapering in vitrified headers, but much has been replaced in

C19; ashlar dressings; tile roof with brick stacks with

octagonal ashlar shafts and caps.

PLAN: U-plan facing east, with later west range and south

wing.

EXTERIOR: east entrance front of 2 storeys with attic;

3-window range with long gabled projecting wings. Ashlar

plinth, continuous drip courses and coped gables with finials,

sections of strapwork balustrading between gables; quoins.

2-storey ashlar porch has round-headed entrance with flanking

pairs of Ionic pilasters and entablature, round-headed

entrance has panelled jambs, impost course and arch with lion

mask to key and 2 voussoirs, strapwork spandrels and stained

glass to fanlight over paired 4-panel doors; first floor has

Arms of Elizabeth I below projecting ovolo-moulded

cross-mullion window, with flanking pairs of Composite

detached columns; top balustrade with symmetrical balusters

supports Catherine wheel and heraldic beasts holding spears;

original diapered brick to returns.

3-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor to left,

that to first floor with strapwork apron. Large canted bay

window to right of 1:3:1 transomed lights with pierced

rosettes to parapet modelled on that to gatehouse (qv) and

flanked by cross-mullioned windows, all with moulded reveals

and small-paned sashes; C19 gables have 3-light

ovolo-mullioned windows with leaded glazing.

Wings similar, with 2 gables to 5-window inner returns,

ovolo-moulded cross-mullioned windows. Wing to south has much

diaper brickwork and stair window with strapwork apron.

East gable ends have 2-storey canted bay windows dated 1852 to

strapwork panels with Lucy Arms between 1:3:1-light transomed

windows; 3-light attic windows, that to north has patch of

reconstructed diaper brickwork to left.

Octagonal stair turrets to outer angles with 2-light windows,

top entablatures and ogival caps with wind vanes, that to

south mostly original, that to north with round-headed

entrance with enriched key block over studded plank door.

North side has turret to each end, that to west is wholly C19;

3 gables with external stacks with clustered shafts between;

cross-mullioned windows and 3-light transomed stair window on

strapwork apron; 2-light single-chamfered mullioned windows to

turrets.

Single-storey east range of blue brick has 2 bay windows with

octagonal pinnacles with pepper-pot finials and arcaded

balustrades over 1:4:1-light transomed windows; central panel

with Lucy Arms in strapwork setting has date 1833; coped

parapet with 3 gables with lights; returns similar with

3-light transomed windows.

Range behind has 3 renewed central gables and 2 lateral stacks

each with 6 shafts; gable to each end, that to south over

Tudor-arched verandah with arcaded balustrade to central arch

and above, entrance behind arch to left with half-glazed door,

blocked arch to right; first floor with cross-mullioned window

and blocked window, turret to right is wholly C19. South

return has cross-mullioned window to each floor and external

stack with clustered shafts.

South-west wing of 2 storeys; west side is a 7-window range;

recessed block to north end has window to each floor, the next

4 windows between octagonal pinnacles; gabled end breaks

forward under gable with turret to angle; rosette balustrade;

stacks have diagonal brick shafts, gable has lozenge with Lucy

Arms impaling Williams Arms (for Mary Elizabeth Lucy).

Cross-mullioned windows, but 2 southern ground-floor windows

are 3-light and transomed.

South end 4-window range between turrets has cross-mullioned

windows, but each end of first floor has bracketed oriel with

strapwork apron with Lucy/Williams Arms in lozenge and dated

1866, rosette balustrade with to each end a gable with 2-light

single-chamfered mullioned window with label, and 3 similar

windows to each turret, one to each floor.

East side has 3-window range with recessed range to right.

South end has Tudor-arched entrance and 3-light transomed

window, cross-mullioned window and 3-light transomed window to

first floor and gable with lozenge to south end; gable to

full-height kitchen to north has octagonal pinnacles flanking

4-light transomed window and gable above with square panel

with Lucy/Williams Arms to shield; recessed part to north has

loggia with entrance and flanking windows, to left a

single-storey re-entrant block with cross-mullioned windows;

first floor has 5 small sashed windows. South side of

south-east wing has varied brickwork with mullioned and

transomed windows, 2 external stacks and 2 gables with 3-light

windows.

INTERIOR: great hall remodelled by Willement with wood-grained

plaster ceiling with 4-centred ribs and Tudor rose bosses;

armorial glass attributed to Eiffler, restored and extended by

Willement; wainscoting and panelled doors; ashlar fireplace

with paired reeded pilasters and strapwork to entablature, and

fire-dogs; white and pink marble floor, Italian, 1845.

Dining room and library in west wing have rich wood panelling

by JM Willcox of Warwick and strapwork cornices, and strapwork

ceilings with pendants; wallpaper by Willement; dining room

has richly carved buffet, 1858, by Willcox and simple coloured

marble fireplace, the latter with bookshelves and fireplace

with paired pilasters and motto to frieze of fireplace, paired

columns and strapwork frieze to overmantel with armorial

bearings; painted arabesques to shutter backs.

Main staircase, c1700, but probably extensively reconstructed

in C19, open-well with cut string, 3 twisted balusters to a

tread, carved tread ends and ramped handrail;

bolection-moulded panelling in 2 heights, the upper panels and

panelled ceiling probably C19.

Morning room to south of hall has Willement decoration: white

marble Tudor-arched fireplace with cusped panels; plaster

ceiling with bands.

Ebony bedroom, originally billiard room, and drawing room to

north-east wing have 1856 scheme with cornices and

Jacobean-style plaster ceilings; white marble C18-style

fireplaces, that to Ebony Bedroom with Italian inserts with

Lucy crest. Drawing room has gilded and painted cornice and

ceiling, and large pier glasses.

Rooms to first floor originally guest bedrooms: doors with

egg-and-dart and eared architraves; C18-style fireplaces, that

to end room, originally Ebony Bedroom, has wood Rococo-style

fireplace with Chinoiserie panel; 1950s stair to attic.

South-east wing has c1700 stair, probably altered in C19, with

symmetrical balusters with acanthus, closed string; first

floor has wall and ceiling paintings: land and sea battle

scenes painted on canvas, male and female grisaille busts.

First floor has to west the Green Room, with Willement

wallpaper and simple Tudor-arched fireplace with

wallpaper-covered chimney board; adjacent room has marble

fireplace.

Death Room and its dressing room to east end have wallpaper of

gold motifs on white, painted 6-panel doors and architraves,

papier-mache ceilings; bedroom has fireplace with marble

architrave. Adjacent room has bolection-moulded panelling with

c1700 Dutch embossed leather. Stair to attic has c1700

balusters with club-form on acorn. Attics over great hall and

north-east and south-east wings have lime-ash floors and

servants' rooms, each with small annex and corner fireplace;

some bells.

South wing has kitchen with high ceiling and 2

segmental-arched recesses for C19 ranges; Tudor-arched recess

with latticed chamber for smoked meats over door.

Servants' hall has dark marble bolection-moulded fireplace and

cornice; scullery has bread oven, small range, pump and former

south window retaining glass.

First floor has to south end a pair of rooms added for Mary

Elizabeth Lucy in her widowhood; bedroom to east with deep

coved cornice and Adam-style fireplace, sitting room to west

similar, with gold on white wallpaper, white marble fireplace

with painted glass armorial panels and 1830s-40s carpet; door

to spiral timber turret staircase.

Nursery has fireplace with faceted panels and C19 Delft tiles;

probably 1920s wallpaper.

Other rooms with similar fireplaces and coloured glazed tiles.

While dating back to the C16, the house is one of the best

examples of the early C19 Elizabethan Revival style. Property

of National Trust.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 227-9; The National Trust

Guide to Charlecote Park: 1991-; Wainwright C: The Romantic

Interior).

Listing NGR: SP2590656425

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

A look around the inside of the house / hall.

Bedrooms on the first floor.

Servant's Bedroom

+++ 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?

A high-energy petawatt (quadrillion-watt) laser, the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), will conduct multiframe, hard-X-ray radiography of imploding capsules at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The short pulses for ARC will be produced by compressing the laser pulse with gratings in the large ARC compression chamber shown in the photo. Photo by Jacqueline McBride

All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade: Most Capable Small SUV Expands the Brand's Global Portfolio

- All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade marks the brand's first entry in the small SUV segment

- Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class 4x4 Trail Rated capability with class-exclusive Jeep Active Drive Low, which includes 20:1 crawl ratio and Jeep Selec-Terrain system

- Designed to expand the Jeep brand globally, the all-new 2015 Renegade combines the brand's heritage with fresh new styling to appeal to youthful and adventurous customers

- Nothing else like it: Renegade displays a powerful stance with aggressive wheel-to- body proportions, plus the freedom of two My Sky open-air roof systems

- Renegade's all-new interior exudes an energetic appearance with rugged and functional details, crafted in high-quality materials and inspired colors

- All-new "small-wide 4x4 architecture" combines best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics

- Designed for global markets – with 16 fuel-efficient powertrain combinations for different markets around the world – including the world's first nine-speed automatic transmission in a small SUV

- Renegade will offer a best-in-class combination of fuel efficiency and off-road capability

- Technology once limited to premium SUVs: award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreen radios and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster

- Loaded with up to 70 available advanced safety and security features

- Designed in America, crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade highlights the Jeep brand's global resources and dedication to meeting customer needs in more than 100 countries

The all-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade expands the brand's global vehicle lineup, entering the growing small SUV segment, while staying true to the adventurous lifestyle Jeep is known for. Renegade delivers a unique combination of best-in-class off-road capability, open-air freedom and convenience, a segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission that contributes to outstanding on- road and off-road driving dynamics, fuel-efficient engines, world-class refinement, and a host of innovative safety and advanced technology offerings. The result is an efficient vehicle created to attract youthful and adventurous customers around the world to the Jeep brand.

The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade expands the brand's product portfolio and targets the rapidly expanding small SUV segment around the globe with benchmark levels of efficiency and driving dynamics, while at the same time delivering best-in-class 4x4 capability that customers expect from Jeep,‖ said Mike Manley, President and CEO - Jeep Brand, Chrysler Group LLC. ―Renegade symbolizes the brand's renowned American design, ingenuity and innovation, marking the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe.

Best-in-class off-road capability thanks to two all-new 4x4 systems

Leveraging 4x4 technology from the all-new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers two of the most advanced and intelligent 4x4 systems in its class, all to deliver best-in-class off-road capability. Both systems can provide up to 100 percent of the engine's available torque to the ground, through any wheel, for optimal grip.

- Jeep Active Drive – full-time 4x4 system

- Jeep Active Drive Low – class-exclusive full-time 4x4 system with 20:1 crawl ratio

Innovation is also at the forefront of any new Jeep vehicle, and the Renegade is the first small SUV to feature a disconnecting rear axle and power take-off unit (PTU) – all to provide Jeep Renegade 4x4 models with enhanced fuel economy. The system instantly engages when 4x4 traction is needed.

Both Jeep Active Drive and Active Drive Low 4x4 systems include the Jeep Selec-Terrain system, providing up to five modes (Auto, Snow, Sand and Mud modes, plus exclusive Rock mode on the Trailhawk model) for the best four-wheel-drive performance on- or off-road and in any weather condition.

Trail Rated: Renegade Trailhawk 4x4 model

For customers who demand the most off-road capability from their Jeep vehicles, the Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class Trail Rated 4x4 capability with:

- Standard Jeep Active Drive Low (20:1 crawl ratio)

- Selec-Terrain system with exclusive Rock mode

- Increased ride height 20 mm (0.8 inches)

- Skid plates, and red front and rear tow hooks

- Unique fascias deliver 30.5 degree approach, 25.7 degree breakover and 34.3 degree departure angles

- 17-inch all-terrain tires

- Up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation

- Hill-descent Control

- Up to 480 mm (19 inches) of water fording

- Up to 1,500 kg (3,300-lb.) towing capability with MultiJet II diesel engine and 907 kg (2,000- lb.) towing capability with 2.4-liter Tigershark engine, with available tow package

A global Jeep design for a rapidly growing global brand

From the start, Jeep designers knew the Renegade would need to deliver best-in-class off-road capability with city-sized proportions that exuded the brand's rugged style while at the same time enhancing versatility, maneuverability and style. Additionally designers were tasked to create an all- new SUV that would symbolize the brand's renowned American design and ingenuity, as it would mark the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe. Last, Renegade had to offer the open-air freedom that dates back to its 1941 roots with the Willys MB Jeep.

The result is the all-new 2015 Renegade, a vehicle that builds on the Jeep Wrangler's powerful stance, and features fresh new styling with rugged body forms and aggressive proportions that enable best-in-class approach and departure angles purposely designed to deliver best-in-class off- road capability. And for segment-exclusive panoramic views, two available My Sky open-air roof panel systems conveniently stow to provide passengers open-air freedom with ease.

All-new interior exudes a rugged and energetic appearance

The all-new Jeep Renegade interior features a rugged and energetic appearance that builds upon Jeep's legendary brand heritage. Its precisely crafted detail, innovative and high-quality color and material appointments, state-of-the-art technology, and clever storage features draw inspiration from contemporary extreme sports gear and lifestyles.

The interior of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has a distinctive form language which Jeep designers have titled ―Tek-Tonic.‖ This new design theme is defined by the intersections of soft and tactile forms with rugged and functional details. Major surfaces such as the sculpted soft-touch instrument panel are intersected with bold functional elements like the passenger grab handle – indispensable for off-road adventures and borrowed from its big brother, the legendary Jeep Wrangler. Unique ―protective clamp fasteners,‖ anodized design accents and inspired colors are derived from extreme sports equipment, while the newly familiar ―X‖ shapes inspired by its roof and tail lamps add to Renegade's Tek-Tonic interior look. And to make sure all of the needed passenger gear fits, the Renegade is designed with an efficient and flexible interior package that includes a removable, reversible and height-adjustable cargo floor panel and fold-forward front-passenger seat.

My Sky: continuing Jeep open-air freedom since 1941

Keeping the tradition of the legendary 1941 Willys MB Jeep, the all-new 2015 Renegade offers open-air freedom with two available My Sky open-air roof systems. With a manual removable, or removable with premium power tilt/slide feature, the segment-exclusive My Sky roof-panel systems quickly bring the outdoors inside. Designed for convenience, the honeycomb fiberglass polyurethane roof panels are lightweight and stow neatly in the rear cargo area. For added design detail, both My Sky roof systems feature a debossed ―X‖ stamped into the roof that exude strength and play on the brand's utilitarian history.

Best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics

Designed and engineered to first and foremost deliver legendary Jeep 4x4 capability, the all-new 2015 Renegade is the first small SUV from Chrysler Group to use the all-new ―small-wide 4x4 architecture.‖

With its fully independent suspension capable of up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation and 220 mm (8.7 inches) of ground clearance (Trailhawk), Renegade raises the bar in the small SUV segment with best-in-class off-road capability. Extensive use of advanced steels, composites and advanced computer-impact simulations enable the all-new 2015 Renegade's architecture to deliver world-class torsional stiffness and Jeep brand's durability required for Trail Rated adventures.

The all-new Renegade is the first Jeep to integrate Koni's frequency selective damping (FSD) front and rear strut system. This damping system enables the Jeep Renegade to deliver world-class road-holding and handling characteristics.

Designed for global markets: 16 powertrain combinations

True to the Jeep brand, the all-new Renegade will offer customers in global markets maximum off- road capability and fuel efficiency. The Renegade will offer up to 16 strategic powertrain combinations – the most ever in a Jeep vehicle – customized to markets around the world to meet a range of performance and efficiency needs. Powertrain options include:

- Four MultiAir gasoline engine offerings

- Two MultiJet II diesel engine offerings

- Efficient and flex-fuel capable E.torQ engine

- Emissions and fuel-saving Stop&Start technology

- Segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission

- Two manual and one dual-dry clutch transmission (DDCT) offerings

World's first small SUV with nine-speed automatic transmission

Like the new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has raised the bar - this time in the small SUV class - with the first available nine-speed automatic transmission. When paired with either the 2.0-liter MultiJet II diesel engine, or 2.4-liter MultiAir2 gas engine, the nine-speed transmission delivers numerous benefits customers will appreciate, including aggressive launches, smooth power delivery at highway speeds and improved fuel efficiency versus a six-speed automatic transmission.

Segment-exclusive technologies once found only on higher classed SUVs

The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers technology features once found only in upper-segment vehicles, and makes them attainable to customers in the growing small SUV segment – including award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreens and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster.

- Uconnect Access: Utilizes embedded cellular technology to allow Jeep Renegade occupants to get directly in contact with local emergency-service dispatchers – all with the push of the 9-1-1 Assist button on the rearview mirror. Uconnect Access applies the same logic to roadside assistance. One push of the ―ASSIST‖ button summons help directly from Chrysler Group's roadside assistance provider, or the Vehicle Customer Care Center. Further peace of mind comes from the system's ability to receive text messages, announce receipt of texts, identify senders and then ―read‖ the messages aloud with Bluetooth-equipped cell phones. AOL Autos named Uconnect Access its ―Technology of the Year for 2013.‖ (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)

- Uconnect touchscreen radio systems: Award-winning in-vehicle handsfree communication, entertainment and available navigation. Key features available on the Uconnect 5.0 and 6.5AN systems include a 5.0-inch or 6.5-inch touchscreen display, Bluetooth connectivity, single or dual-turner, radio data system capability (RDS), digital audio broadcast (DAB), HD Radio, digital media broadcasting (DMB), SiriusXM Radio, SiriusXM Travel Link, SiriusXM Travel Link, USB port and auxiliary audio jack input. (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)

- Segment's largest full-color instrument cluster display: Filling the Jeep Renegade's gauge cluster in front of the driver is an available 7-inch, full-color, premium multiview display, featuring a reconfigurable function that enables drivers to personalize information inside the instrument cluster. The information display is designed to visually communicate information, using graphics and text, quickly and easily.

Renegade features up to 70 advanced safety and security features

Safety and security were at the forefront in the development of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, setting the stage for up to 70 available safety and security features – including the availability of Forward Collision Warning-Plus and LaneSense Departure Warning-Plus.

In addition, engineers added both active and passive safety and security features, including Blind- spot Monitoring; Rear Cross Path detection; ParkView rear backup camera with dynamic grid lines; electronic stability control (ESC) with electronic roll mitigation and seven standard air bags.

Jeep brand's global resources

Designed in America and crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade continues the Jeep brand's dedication to the global marketplace and demonstrates the depths of its available resources. The final assembly location for the Renegade will be at the Melfi Assembly Plant. The Renegade's global portfolio of powertrain production includes the United States, Italy and Brazil.

Members of 16 Air Assault Brigade prepare to jump from a RAF C130 aircraft onto Salisbury Plain.

The largest military parachute drop in the UK in more than decade has demonstrated the airborne capability jointly provided by 16 Air Assault Brigade and the Royal Air Force.

Some 200 Regular and Reserve soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade jumped from four RAF C-130J Hercules transport aircraft onto Salisbury Plain today (Tue 8 Dec).

Up Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica 25 August 2011

Search-and-rescue (SAR) capability training in Jamaica

Sergeant (Sgt) Eric Soubrier and Master Corporal (MCpl) Bruno Robitaille, Search and Rescue (SAR) Technicians) give a familiarization briefing to members of Task Force (TF) Jamaica and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in a Canadian Forces SAR CH-146 Griffon helicopter at the Jamaican Air Field at Up Park Camp in Kingston, Jamaica on August 25, 2011.

Operation JAGUAR is Canada's contribution of military aviation and search-and-rescue (SAR) capability to support the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and to conduct essential training for Canadian Forces search-and-rescue teams.

Task Force (TF) Jamaica is responsible for flying life-saving missions such SAR and medical evacuations in support of JDF operations. The SAR teams deployed with TF Jamaica will also conduct training activities required to ensure the long-term availability of SAR aircrew for operations in Canada. Deploying in August, the aircraft and personnel of TF Jamaica will return to Canada when the JDF search-and-rescue capability is sufficiently developed to meet the operational requirement.

Canadian Forces Image Number VL2011-0190-05

By Corporal Roxanne Shewchuk with Imagery Section Valcartier

_____________________________Traduction

Camp Up Park, Kingston, Jamaïque 25 août 2011

Le Sergent (Sgt) Eric Soubrier et le Caporal-chef (Cplc) Bruno Robitaille, techniciens en recherche et sauvetage (SAR), donnent une séance d’information à des membres de la Force opérationnelle en Jamaïque et de la Force de défense de la Jamaïque (FDJ) depuis un hélicoptère de recherche et de sauvetage (SAR) CH146 Griffon des Forces canadiennes, au terrain d’aviation du Camp Up Park, à Kingston (Jamaïque), le 25 août 2011.

L’opération Jaguar est la contribution du Canada aux efforts en vue de mettre en place une capacité d’aviation militaire et de recherche et sauvetage dans la Force de défense de la Jamaïque (FDJ). Il s’agit aussi d’une occasion de tenir des exercices essentiels pour les équipes canadiennes de recherche et sauvetage.

La Force opérationnelle (FO) en Jamaïque est responsable de missions aériennes de recherche et sauvetage et d’évacuation de blessés ayant pour but d’appuyer les opérations de la FDJ. Les équipes de SAR de la FO Jamaïque prendront également part à des exercices essentiels pour assurer leur disponibilité opérationnelle à long terme. Partis en août, les aéronefs et le personnel de la FO Jamaïque rentreront au Canada lorsque la capacité de recherche et sauvetage de la FDJ sera prête à satisfaire à ses exigences opérationnelles.

Image des Forces canadiennes numéro VL2011-0190-05

Par le Caporal Roxanne Shewchuk avec Section de l’imagerie – Valcartier

A visit to Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire.The dome was being restored so part of the building was under scaffolding inside and out (including up the main staircase).

Berrington Hall is a country house located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family.

It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby furniture collection, paintings by, amongst others, Thomas Luny (1759–1837), and the Charles Paget Wade costume collection from Snowshill, which can be viewed by appointment. The 'below stairs' areas and servants' quarters that are open to the public include a Victorian laundry and Georgian dairy. Berrington has been in the care of the National Trust since 1957 and is, along with its gardens, open to the public.

Berrington features Capability Brown's last landscape design. A notable feature is the ha-ha wall, which was subject to extensive renovation in the late 20th century by local craftsmen. Berrington Pool, a lake and island, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Berrington had been in the possession of the Cornewall family since 1386, but was sold in 1775 to Thomas Harley, a banker and government contractor who in 1767 had been Lord Mayor of London. He commissioned the rebuilding in 1778-1781 of the present Berrington Hall in place of the previous old house. He made it available to his daughter Anne and her new husband George Rodney, the son of Admiral Rodney. After Harley's death the house descended in the Rodney family for 95 years.

In 1901 the Manchester businessman Frederick Cawley MP, later Baron Cawley, purchased the estate. In 1957 the 3rd Lord Cawley transferred it to the Treasury, which passed in on to the National Trust. Lady Crawley was allowed to remain in occupation until her death in 1978.

It was classified as a Grade I listed building in 1959.

Grade I Listed Building

Berrington Hall and Adjoining Outbuildings

Listing Text

EYE, MORETON &

SO 56 SW ASHTON CP

7/2 Berrington Hall and

adjoining outbuildings

11.6.59

GV I

Country house. 1778 - 1781 by Henry Holland for Thomas Harley. Alterations

of c1890 - 1900 involved the addition of a tower at the rear of the house,

this was removed in 1968 and the pediment to this face was reinstated. Set

in parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Brick core, faced with sandstone

ashlar with dressings of the same material, hipped Welsh slate roofs.

Rectangular plan main house with central entrance and stairwell, axial

stacks. Main entrance faces south-west, quadrant walls connect the main

block with the three outbuildings which form a courtyard to the rear (these

adjoining walls have been altered and one has been removed). Main house:

two storeys, attics and basements, south-west entrance front: seven bays

with plinth, dentilled cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet,

steps up to central projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico; frieze is decorated

only to central part by a floral type design which replaces the original one

of putti, ox heads and garlands, pediment has a lunette window. Dormer windows

to attics with glazing bar sash windows, glazing bar sash windows to first

floor with semi-circular heads and decorative glazing to those flanking the

portico. Square-headed glazing bar sash windows to ground floor, the semi-

circular headed basement windows have rusticated surrounds. Central tall

and narrow semi-circular headed doorway with panelled door has keystone

depicting Roman head flanked by narrow side lights with reliefs depicting

urns above. The north-west front is of five bays with a pediment over the

central three bays. The north-east front to the courtyard entrance is of

2:3:2 bays with central pedimented slightly forward break, semi-circular

headed glazing bar sash windows to upper floor, square-headed windows to

ground floor with central three openings set in semi-circular headed surrounds,

right-hand opening now forms a doorway and has a six-panelled door. The out-

buildings enclosing the courtyard are of two storeys. The range to the north-

east is of nine bays with central pedimented archway flanked by pairs of Doric

pilasters, clock face in pediment, string course to flanking bays with 6-pane

square-headed windows to upper floor and semi-circular headed windows with

decorative glazing to ground floor. The ranges enclosing the courtyard to

the north-west and south-east are also of nine bays, each with similar windows

to the upper and lower floors, the central window to each range having a moulded

architrave, semi-circular headed window and doorway openings to ground floors.

To the outer walls of these flanking ranges (ie facing the gardens) are central

niches with coffered semi-domes with ball cresting above. The south-western

ends of both ranges have a blank semi-circular headed arch flanked by oculi.

Interior: the main house retains many of its original features on both main

floors, with decorative surrounds to doorways, decorative plastered ceilings

and marble fireplaces. The entrance hall has trophies in roundels above the

doors and a central circular ceiling panel is carried to the corners on spandrels,

pedimented surround to doorway opposite the entrance; polychrome marble patterned

floor. The Drawing Room retains original elaborate pelmets above the three

windows, marble fireplace with caryatids and griffon frieze. Delicately patterned

ceiling with painted roundels depicting scenes and characters from classical

mythology and with putti and sea horses; entwined roundels to outer border

which flank central theme. The boudoir has an alcove with segmental arch and

a screen of two blue scagliola columns. The Dining Room has a good marble

fireplace with carved panels to the jambs, decorative plastered and painted

ceiling with central painted roundel and swagged and wreathed plastered

surround. Pedimented bookcases to the library with continuous "greekkey"

type frieze. Decorative painted panels to ceiling depicting authors from

Chaucer to Addison. Central staircase hall is lit by delicately iron ribbed

glass domed lantern, opposite the staircase is a coffered archway; staircase

and landings carried on screens of scagliola columns, decorative dolphin

frieze to the entablature. The staircase has bronze lyre-shaped balustrading.

The outbuilding to the north-west formed the laundry and retains many of its

fittings. A tiled dairy has been restored in the south-east range and the

north-east range contains part stabling. (National Trust, 1986, Berrington Hall:

BoE, p 72).

Listing NGR: SO5093063660

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Heading down through the parkland towards the Berrington Pool and back. The path goes through fields. Electric fences keep the sheep away from the visitors.

Former astronaut Bob Cabana, director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, speaks during a news conference where it was announced that Boeing and SpaceX have been selected to transport U.S. crews to and from the International Space Station using the Boeing CST-100 and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014. These Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts are designed to complete the NASA certification for a human space transportation system capable of carrying people into orbit. Once certification is complete, NASA plans to use these systems to transport astronauts to the space station and return them safely to Earth. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and they were Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the mansion's rooms were designed by Robert Adam. St Mary Magdalene's Church, Croome D'Abitot that sits within the grounds of the park is now owned and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust and leased to the National Trust, which operates it as a tourist attraction. The National Trust owns the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location

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

Croome Court South Portico

History

See also: History of Worcestershire § Georgian society, politics and religion

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]

George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate in 1751, 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 was visited by George III,[2][11] as well as by Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (when Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built near Pershore railway station by George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry 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, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust during the First World War to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12] The First World War deeply affected Croome; there were 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] Croome Court was requisitioned during the Second World War 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 Queen Wilhelmina stayed for two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and the fear created by the proximity of RAF Defford. The Dutch Royal family later emigrated to Canada for the duration of the war.

The Croome Estate Trust sold the Court in 1948, 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[14] from 1950[11] until 1979.[14] In 1979, the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement) which used it as its UK headquarters and a training college,[15] called Chaitanya College.[14] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[16] ISKCON left the estate in 1984 for financial reasons. It held a festival at the hall in 2011.[15] 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,[14] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][14] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[14]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[17] in October 2007,[18] 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 been restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][19] 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.[20] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[14] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[21] The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

Exterior

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 Coade 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 1751–1752.[21] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior

The Tapestry Room, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

... and the Tapestry Room at Croome Court today

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by Joseph 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 chimneypiece. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758–1759 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[16]

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 chimneypieces, and Palladian doorcases.[22] King 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 chimneypiece.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763–1771, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by François Boucher and Maurice Jacques, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the 9th Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, chimneypiece, chair rails, doors and door surrounds in 1949; they 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 is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[16] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble chimneypiece.[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 element 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 chimneypiece designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery....Wikipedia

Croome Park was Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s first complete landscape design. He was brought to Croome in 1752 by George William Coventry, the 6th Earl of Coventry, who had just inherited Croome Court and its deer parks together with 15,000 acres of Worcestershire.

Croome Park has a man made lake and river, statues, temples and other buildings with the Court as the central focus. The other buildings around the park include Gatehouses, a Grotto, a Church and buildings termed "eye-catchers". These are Pirton Tower, Panorama Tower, Dunstall Castle and Park Seat. They are set away from the core of the Park and are intended to draw the eye into the wider landscape.[citation needed] Croome and Hagley Hall have more follies and other similar features than any estate in the England.

The National Trust own and have restored the core of the original 18th century parkland and it is open to visitors throughout the of the year. To visit many of the features below, you have to enter the pay for entry National Trust parkland. Some areas, however, are accessible via public footpaths.

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House.

Also Tack Room & Second-Hand Book Shop.

Grade I Listed Building

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House Immediately South of Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/25 Laundry, brewhouse, stables and

05/04/67 coach house immediately S of

Charlecote Park

(Formerly Listed as:

Outbuildings at Charlecote Park)

GV I

Laundry, brewhouse, coach house, stables and deer

slaughterhouse. Laundry and brewhouse: C16 with later

restoration. Brick laid to English bond with limestone

dressings and high plinth; steeply pitched old tile roof with

octagonal brick ridge and internal stacks. L-plan.

Stables: C16 with early C19 cladding and interior alterations.

Brick laid to Flemish bond with diaper pattern in vitrified

headers; old tile roof.

EXTERIOR: laundry/brewhouse wing: south side of 2 storeys plus

attic; 5-window range; 2 cross-gables. To right, 2 entrances

have 4-centred heads and plank doors and flank 2 C19

round-headed coach entrances with keystones and paired doors.

Double-chamfered mullioned windows of 2, 3 or 8 lights with

leaded glazing. Left end has entrance to brewhouse and blocked

windows. Lead rainwater goods.

Slaughterhouse for deer attached to east end; gabled

single-storey structure with modillioned brick cornice; north

entrance has grille to overlight and to south an entrance and

2-light window.

Stables: 2 storeys; 8-window range with cross-wing and cupola

to left of centre. Moulded stone plinth and first-floor drip

course; stone-coped brick parapet. Wing breaks forward with

coped gable; elliptical-arched carriageway with moulded

responds and arch and groin vault; oriel has 1:2:1-light

transomed windows over panels (central panel has Lucy Arms)

and pierced parapet copied from gatehouse (qv).

Ground floor to left of wing: 2 coach house entrances as above

and entrance with single-chamfered Tudor arch with label mould

and fanlight to paired panelled doors and a 3-light

ovolo-mullioned window with 4/4 sashes to right. To right of

wing: 2 similar stable entrances but with plank doors each

with similar window to left.

First floor has 2-light double-chamfered mullioned windows

with decorative leaded glazing and returns to drip, 3 to left

and 4 to right. South end similar, with 3-light windows.

Rear has plain arch to carriageway with 2-light window above

and small stack; to left of wing C16 brick to ground floor

with C19 brick corbelled out above; to right some C16 diapered

brick with ashlar opening to 8/8 sash and attached loose-box

block with stone-coped parapet over 3 Tudor-headed entrances

with overlights to plank doors; coped gable with finial;

attached brick gate pier with plank gate; 2 loose boxes in

gabled rear range.

INTERIOR: brewhouse has mostly C18 brewing equipment, water

pumps, coppers and stalls. Laundry has hearth and coppers; 3

segmental-headed recesses to one wall; slaughterhouse has

channels to brick/flag floor and a hoist.

Stables: full-height tack room has fittings including gallery

to 3 sides and bolection-moulded fireplace; stables to south

have stop-chamfered beams and posts; stable and loose-box

partitions; loft above has wall posts supporting 5 trusses

with braced tie beams, collars and struts, that to north with

lath and plaster infill, one with plank partition; double

purlins, wind braces and riven rafters.

The brewhouse is a particularly interesting survival complete

with equipment; the deer slaughterhouse is a rare example of

its kind.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 228-9; Charlecote Park:

guidebook: 1991-: 38-44).

Listing NGR: SP2594556378

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Coach House

Battlesden Car Late 19th Century

RAF Fairford - EGVA / FFD

By Greg Fuderer

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – The Los Angeles District will be well prepared for its next disaster response with the recent acquisition of one of the Corps’ newest Emergency Command and Control Vehicles.

The ECCV, built on an International truck chassis, is a 47-foot vehicle designed to serve as a temporary mobile command post. It provides 11 work stations that each have a computer jack, 110- and 12-volt power sockets, and a phone that has cell, Voice over Internet Protocol and satellite capabilities. There is also onboard Wi-Fi capability to provide access for additional computers, and a rear compartment that houses a conference table, video camera and large screen TV for video conferencing.

“The old RRVs were extremely functional in their time,” said Alex Watt, referring to the 12-year old Response and Recovery Vehicle that served as the District’s previous emergency command vehicle. “But these are state-of-the-art. I’m so glad the Corps went this route with the truck chassis, because where we’re going is not just into town. We have to be able to get into and out of rough situations.”

Watt, a rehired annuitant and one of three District employees licensed to drive the ECCV, is a classic car enthusiast. He speaks that language when he describes the new vehicle’s capabilities.

“The old RRV was thirty-seven feet long and powered by a seven-and-a-half liter diesel engine,” Watt said. “It was similar to a roach-coach or UPS van. It was woefully underpowered for our needs and would have trouble getting over a two-by-four without a running start. This one is powered by an International six-cylinder, twelve-and-a-half liter twin turbo engine and an Allison six-speed automatic transmission. It’s the second-most powerful engine International makes.”

Sgt. Maj. Jeffery Koontz worked in the previous RRV when he deployed to hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He is another of the drivers qualified to operate the ECCV, and he echoed Watt’s comments.

“In comparison, the old vehicle couldn’t get out of its own way,” Koontz said. “The ease of setup with the new ECCV is a drastic improvement. The satellite uplink is fully operational in minutes, not to mention the operational staff reduction for the new equipment. You know, ‘Faster, smarter, better.’”

When compact and travelling, the ECCV sports a narrow interior hallway from front to back. When deployed and operational, the vehicle becomes an emergency response “Transformer,” extending leveling pads, four side-compartments, a satellite dish and radio antennas, emergency floodlights and, of course, the Corps flag. The process is a two-man (one outside for safety purposes), 15-minute evolution that allows responders near-immediate access to the equipment and capabilities necessary to conduct response and recovery operations in a disaster environment.

The vehicle has rearview and sideview cameras to eliminate blind spots, and a CB-radio to keep up with current traffic and weather conditions. In addition, a “trucker’s GPS” unit provides the driver with information about the height of upcoming underpasses, tunnels and bridges, weight capacities and curves, and other physical restrictions that could impact the vehicle’s ability to traverse roads and highways.

“I have been a driver for Emergency Operations since 2001, when the request went out for people who would like to drive the Emergency Response Vehicle,” Watt said. “As I love driving I immediately volunteered, and four of us went through a two-week training course learning to drive tractor trailers. EM is always looking for additional drivers and currently two other members of the ECCV team are working to obtain their commercial driving licenses.”

According to the Corps’ website, ECCVs provide an expedient tactical operations and communications platform for first responders where there are no available facilities or communications to support response operations. Each ECCV has onboard radio, interagency voice interoperability, satellite and cellular capabilities that deliver both voice and data communications. It is totally self-contained for up to 72 continuous hours with onboard fuel before additional fuel or alternative shore power is required.

The ECCV is about 13.5 feet high and 8.5 feet wide (about 15 feet with the side compartments extended) and weighs 44,000 pounds. A class 'B' Commercial Driver License with air brakes endorsement is required to drive the ECCV.

The Corps has 15 of the new ECCVs located across the continental United States. Mobile District maintains six, Sacramento District three, and Baltimore, Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Nashville, Portland, Ore. and St. Louis districts one each.

In June 1938, Lockheed began design work on an airliner to satisfy a Transcontinental Western & Air (later Trans-World Airlines) (TWA), requirement for a non-stop transcontinental airliner with a 3,500-mile range and 6,000 lb. payload capability. Construction of a prototype began in 1940. The U.S. was soon involved in the Second World War and all transport production was directed to military needs and consequently the prototype first flew on January 9, 1943, as a military aircraft. Hydraulic-powered controls were used, full feathering and reversing propellers were also installed. First known by its civil designator as Model 049, it soon became better known during wartime by its military designation, the C-69 Constellation. Improvements were steadily made, beginning with the L-649, which was the first Constellation built as a commercial type and the L-749 which was the long-range version of the 649.

The next stage in development led to the L-1049 Super Constellation. The first prototype Super Constellation was a "stretched" version of the original Model 049 (C-69), modified by lengthening the fuselage from 95’ 2" to 113’ 7", adding more fuel capacity, more powerful engines, higher gross weight, and increasing its tourist-class seating from 69 to 92. These L-1049 aircraft were powered by four 2700 hp Wright engines. The prototype aircraft was first flown on October 13, 1950. The production version of the Model L-1049, of which fourteen were built for Eastern Airlines, and ten for TWA, ended up with a strengthened fuselage, stiffened outer wing panels and rectangular windows instead of the Constellation’s round ones. This production version was first flown on July 14, 1951, and the type entered service on December 7, 1951, with Eastern Airlines (EAL). The last Model 1049 produced was delivered in September 1952. Passenger accommodations on the 1049 varied - 88 for Eastern; 65 over water or 75 domestic for TWA, with adaptation to 102 in high density configuration. The flight crew consisted of three, with two cabin attendants.

The Model 1049 was followed by an A version (military WV-2, WV-3, and RC-121D) the B version (USN R7V-1, USAF RC-121C, the presidential VC-121E), and the C version, the first commercial transport certificated with turbo-compound engines. These Double Cyclone Wright engines had three "blow-down" turbines, which converted the heat energy of exhaust gases into additional power, with a 20% reduction in fuel consumption.

The engine produced 3,250 h.p. for take-off for which the aircraft weight had been increased to 133,000 lb. The Model 1049C, Turbo-Cyclone-powered Super Constellation began flight trials on February 17, 1953. A convertible model, the 1049D was built for Seaboard and Western Airlines in 1954. They were fitted with reinforced flooring and they had main deck cargo loading doors on the part side of the fuselage, fore and aft of the wings. They could carry either 18 tons of freight or up to 104 passengers. Maximum take—off weight was 135,400 lb. A Model 1049E was delivered between May 1954 and April 1955 which was identical to the 1049C but with the increased take-off and landing weight of the 1049D. Next on the model list was the Model 1049F, which was Lockheed’s designation for 33 C-121C cargo/personnel transports built for the USAF and fitted with stronger landing gear. The F was followed by a "G" model which was determined to be the most successful version of the Super Constellation. It was powered by 3,400 h.p. engines, it had longer range than the E, and the maximum take-off weight was increased to 137,500 lb. with some models modified to 140,000 lb. Often known as Super Gs, 42 of these aircraft were delivered to domestic carriers (20 to TWA, 10 to EAL, and 4 to NW), and 50 to foreign carriers. The final version to the Super Constellation was the Model 1049H, a combination of Model 1049D, and the convertible and improved Model 1049G.

The Super Constellation and its derivatives represent, along with the Douglas DC-7, the ultimate step in the development of longer range, more capacity and more powerful piston-engined aircraft to meet the needs of both commercial and military aviation. Eastern Air Lines, the first airline to order Super Constellations, introduced the type on its New York-Miami route on December 15, 1951. It was able to take advantage of the 1049s additional capacity to absorb an increased holiday seasonal demand. A decade later on April 30, 1961, Eastern inaugurated its revolutionary air shuttle, no-reservation service, Washington-New York-Boston with Super Constellations. Incidentally, as it turns out, the last use of the Super Constellations by a major U.S. domestic airline was a backup for the shuttle until February 1968.

TWA, a co-sponsor with EAL on the design of the Super Constellation, first used the Model 1049 on its domestic network in September 1952, and when it received the higher performance "C" version, it began scheduled non-stop transcontinental service on October 19, 1953, a first for the industry. On its trans-Atlantic routes, TWA made use of its early Super Constellation models, but on November 1, 1955, it could offer improved service, using its newer Model l049Gs which enabled it to operate non-stop most of the time, at least in the eastbound direction.

Over the Atlantic and other long distance routes, the Super Constellation was also operated by several former Constellation operators, until Lockheed was again challenged by Douglas and its DC-7C, the first aircraft capable of flying non-stop in both directions over the North Atlantic. To compete, Lockheed responded by mating the Super Constellation’s fuselage and tail surfaces with an entirely new wing, resulting in a major redesign. The outcome, the Model 1649A Starliner, which entered service on June 1, 1957, it was the most attractive of the Constellation series, but its success was short lived for in six months it was overtaken in 1958 by the faster, turbine-powered (Bristol Britannia) and jet aircraft (the Boeing 707-120) which finally made all propeller-driven aircraft obsolescent in October 1958. A total of 44 Lockheed L-1649As were built, 29 went to TWA, 10 to Air France, 4 to Lufthansa.

When the age of piston-powered passenger transport aircraft was coming to a close, Lockheed offered to carriers a convertible Model 1049H, suggesting that when they were no longer competitive in the passenger market they could convert to carrying cargo. This second hand market did materialize briefly with the H model but the market for 1049s soon dried up as they were becoming too expensive to operate and maintain. The engines were giving problems not only in the Lockheed Super Connies, but also in the Douglas DC-7s, and the aircraft were becoming known as the "world’s best trimotors." A total of 579 Super Constellations were built but by the end of 1980 only four Super Constellations remained in airline service..

The Museum’s Lockheed C-121C (1049F-55-96), with former Air Force serial number 54-177, and now registered N-1104W, is one of the thirty-three C-l2lCs delivered to the USAF and the Atlantic Division of the Military Air Transport Service at Charleston AFB, South Carolina. This airplane arrived there in March 1956 and was assigned to the 1608th Air Transport Wing. Its original configuration was that of an over-water cargo/passenger transport, having eight crew members and accommodations for up to 80 passengers.

While with the 1608th ATW, the "Super Connies" flew throughout the Caribbean, made crossings of the North and South Atlantic to Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and as far east as India. They participated in the Hungarian airlift during 1956-57, carrying refugees from Eastern Europe to the U.S. and flew troops to Lebanon during the crisis there in 1958. In general, this "Connie" and others of the unit flew a variety of transport missions including cargo, passenger, medical evacuation, and humanitarian support.

On October 30, 1962, the Museum’s C-121C left the regular USAF and was transferred to the 183rd Air Transport Squadron of the Mississippi Air National Guard. This unit was re-designated the 183rd Military Airlift Squadron as of January 1, 1966. While with the 183rd, it flew transport, evacuation, and support missions across the North Atlantic. It remained with the Guard unit until April 19, 1967, at which time it was transferred to the West Virginia ANG and the 167th Military Airlift Squadron. This and other C-l2lCs of this unit flew across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Caribbean, and to South America, taking part in operation "Creek Guardlift" in Europe from June 1971 to March 1972.

This Super Constellation served with the 167th until 1972 and was again transferred, this time to the 193rd Tactical Electronic Warfare (TEW) Squadron, Pennsylvania ANG, at Olmstead AFB, Middletown, Pennsylvania. This squadron had one other C-121, an electronic countermeasure configured aircraft. Together they took part in many exercises and training missions such as "Reforger VI," "Flintlock" and "Northern Merger" in 1974. While operating out of Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico, they took part in "Gallant Shield" and "Solid Shield," both in 1975.

This "Connie" remained with the 193rd and operations with the ANG until November 1977, when it was retired after 21½ years of military service, thousands of flying hours, and countless ocean crossings, which for propeller driven aircraft were long endurance flights often exceeding 12 or 14 hours. When taken out of service, it was transferred to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC), at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona, for storage. It remained there until August 1981, at which time it was sold at auction to Ascher Ward of Classic Air Inc., and flown to Van Nuys Airport, California, where the new company was forming. As a civil aircraft in a hoped-for new career, it was assigned FAA registration number Nll04W. It retained its 193rd TEW paint scheme of a royal blue cheat-line outlined in gold, with a white cabin roof and empennage, and pale blue under surfaces. It carried its small serial number on the left side under the stabilizer and a U.S. flag on the center fin.

The newly formed company Classic Air Inc., which intended to operate two or three passenger—carrying "Connies" between Los Angeles and Reno, Nevada, failed to receive FAA approval and the airplanes remained dormant. At this time the National Air and Space Museum was seeking a Super Constellation. Mr. Darryl Greenameyer soon became a party to this transaction as he had acquired two of the Constellations from Air Classics. He negotiated a trade with NASM a C-121C, NllO4W in exchange for two Grumman HU-16 Albatrosses drawn from the remaining holdings of spare Albatross belonging to the Smithsonian, and which had been used in support of one Albatross that was operated by the Museum of Natural History.

The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere.

Petworth House and Park in Petworth, West Sussex, England, has been a family home for over 800 years. The estate was a royal gift from the widow of Henry I to her brother Jocelin de Louvain, who soon after married into the renowned Percy family. As the Percy stronghold was in the north, Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use.

Petworth, formerly known as Leconfield, is a major country estate on the outskirts of Petworth, itself a town created to serve the house. Described by English Heritage as "the most important residence in the County of Sussex", there was a manorial house here from 1309, but the present buildings were built for the Dukes of Somerset from the late 17th century, the park being landscaped by "Capability" Brown. The house contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures.

The house itself is grade I listed (List Entry Number 1225989) and the park as a historic park (1000162). Several individual features in the park are also listed.

It was in the late 1500s that Petworth became a permanent home to the Percys after Elizabeth I grew suspicious of their allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and confined the family to the south.

The 2nd Earl of Egremont commissioned Capability Brown to design and landscape the deer park. The park, one of Brownâs first commissions as an independent designer, consists of 700 acres of grassland and trees. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 12-hectare (30-acre) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.

Brown removed the formal garden and fishponds of the 1690âs and relocated 64,000 tons of soil, creating a serpentine lake. He bordered the lake with poplars, birches and willows to make the ânaturalâ view pleasing. A 1987 hurricane devastated the park, and 35,000 trees were planted to replace the losses. Gracing the 30 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds around the home are seasonal shrubs and bulbs that include lilies, primroses, and azaleas. A Doric temple and Ionic rotunda add interest in the grounds.

Petworth House is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.

Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Ben Harms, classical and neoclassical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to be the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.

For the past 250 years the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family â currently Lord Egremont. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.

The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street, Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth-house

All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade: Most Capable Small SUV Expands the Brand's Global Portfolio

- All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade marks the brand's first entry in the small SUV segment

- Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class 4x4 Trail Rated capability with class-exclusive Jeep Active Drive Low, which includes 20:1 crawl ratio and Jeep Selec-Terrain system

- Designed to expand the Jeep brand globally, the all-new 2015 Renegade combines the brand's heritage with fresh new styling to appeal to youthful and adventurous customers

- Nothing else like it: Renegade displays a powerful stance with aggressive wheel-to- body proportions, plus the freedom of two My Sky open-air roof systems

- Renegade's all-new interior exudes an energetic appearance with rugged and functional details, crafted in high-quality materials and inspired colors

- All-new "small-wide 4x4 architecture" combines best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics

- Designed for global markets – with 16 fuel-efficient powertrain combinations for different markets around the world – including the world's first nine-speed automatic transmission in a small SUV

- Renegade will offer a best-in-class combination of fuel efficiency and off-road capability

- Technology once limited to premium SUVs: award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreen radios and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster

- Loaded with up to 70 available advanced safety and security features

- Designed in America, crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade highlights the Jeep brand's global resources and dedication to meeting customer needs in more than 100 countries

The all-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade expands the brand's global vehicle lineup, entering the growing small SUV segment, while staying true to the adventurous lifestyle Jeep is known for. Renegade delivers a unique combination of best-in-class off-road capability, open-air freedom and convenience, a segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission that contributes to outstanding on- road and off-road driving dynamics, fuel-efficient engines, world-class refinement, and a host of innovative safety and advanced technology offerings. The result is an efficient vehicle created to attract youthful and adventurous customers around the world to the Jeep brand.

The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade expands the brand's product portfolio and targets the rapidly expanding small SUV segment around the globe with benchmark levels of efficiency and driving dynamics, while at the same time delivering best-in-class 4x4 capability that customers expect from Jeep,‖ said Mike Manley, President and CEO - Jeep Brand, Chrysler Group LLC. ―Renegade symbolizes the brand's renowned American design, ingenuity and innovation, marking the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe.

Best-in-class off-road capability thanks to two all-new 4x4 systems

Leveraging 4x4 technology from the all-new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers two of the most advanced and intelligent 4x4 systems in its class, all to deliver best-in-class off-road capability. Both systems can provide up to 100 percent of the engine's available torque to the ground, through any wheel, for optimal grip.

- Jeep Active Drive – full-time 4x4 system

- Jeep Active Drive Low – class-exclusive full-time 4x4 system with 20:1 crawl ratio

Innovation is also at the forefront of any new Jeep vehicle, and the Renegade is the first small SUV to feature a disconnecting rear axle and power take-off unit (PTU) – all to provide Jeep Renegade 4x4 models with enhanced fuel economy. The system instantly engages when 4x4 traction is needed.

Both Jeep Active Drive and Active Drive Low 4x4 systems include the Jeep Selec-Terrain system, providing up to five modes (Auto, Snow, Sand and Mud modes, plus exclusive Rock mode on the Trailhawk model) for the best four-wheel-drive performance on- or off-road and in any weather condition.

Trail Rated: Renegade Trailhawk 4x4 model

For customers who demand the most off-road capability from their Jeep vehicles, the Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class Trail Rated 4x4 capability with:

- Standard Jeep Active Drive Low (20:1 crawl ratio)

- Selec-Terrain system with exclusive Rock mode

- Increased ride height 20 mm (0.8 inches)

- Skid plates, and red front and rear tow hooks

- Unique fascias deliver 30.5 degree approach, 25.7 degree breakover and 34.3 degree departure angles

- 17-inch all-terrain tires

- Up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation

- Hill-descent Control

- Up to 480 mm (19 inches) of water fording

- Up to 1,500 kg (3,300-lb.) towing capability with MultiJet II diesel engine and 907 kg (2,000- lb.) towing capability with 2.4-liter Tigershark engine, with available tow package

A global Jeep design for a rapidly growing global brand

From the start, Jeep designers knew the Renegade would need to deliver best-in-class off-road capability with city-sized proportions that exuded the brand's rugged style while at the same time enhancing versatility, maneuverability and style. Additionally designers were tasked to create an all- new SUV that would symbolize the brand's renowned American design and ingenuity, as it would mark the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe. Last, Renegade had to offer the open-air freedom that dates back to its 1941 roots with the Willys MB Jeep.

The result is the all-new 2015 Renegade, a vehicle that builds on the Jeep Wrangler's powerful stance, and features fresh new styling with rugged body forms and aggressive proportions that enable best-in-class approach and departure angles purposely designed to deliver best-in-class off- road capability. And for segment-exclusive panoramic views, two available My Sky open-air roof panel systems conveniently stow to provide passengers open-air freedom with ease.

All-new interior exudes a rugged and energetic appearance

The all-new Jeep Renegade interior features a rugged and energetic appearance that builds upon Jeep's legendary brand heritage. Its precisely crafted detail, innovative and high-quality color and material appointments, state-of-the-art technology, and clever storage features draw inspiration from contemporary extreme sports gear and lifestyles.

The interior of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has a distinctive form language which Jeep designers have titled ―Tek-Tonic.‖ This new design theme is defined by the intersections of soft and tactile forms with rugged and functional details. Major surfaces such as the sculpted soft-touch instrument panel are intersected with bold functional elements like the passenger grab handle – indispensable for off-road adventures and borrowed from its big brother, the legendary Jeep Wrangler. Unique ―protective clamp fasteners,‖ anodized design accents and inspired colors are derived from extreme sports equipment, while the newly familiar ―X‖ shapes inspired by its roof and tail lamps add to Renegade's Tek-Tonic interior look. And to make sure all of the needed passenger gear fits, the Renegade is designed with an efficient and flexible interior package that includes a removable, reversible and height-adjustable cargo floor panel and fold-forward front-passenger seat.

My Sky: continuing Jeep open-air freedom since 1941

Keeping the tradition of the legendary 1941 Willys MB Jeep, the all-new 2015 Renegade offers open-air freedom with two available My Sky open-air roof systems. With a manual removable, or removable with premium power tilt/slide feature, the segment-exclusive My Sky roof-panel systems quickly bring the outdoors inside. Designed for convenience, the honeycomb fiberglass polyurethane roof panels are lightweight and stow neatly in the rear cargo area. For added design detail, both My Sky roof systems feature a debossed ―X‖ stamped into the roof that exude strength and play on the brand's utilitarian history.

Best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics

Designed and engineered to first and foremost deliver legendary Jeep 4x4 capability, the all-new 2015 Renegade is the first small SUV from Chrysler Group to use the all-new ―small-wide 4x4 architecture.‖

With its fully independent suspension capable of up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation and 220 mm (8.7 inches) of ground clearance (Trailhawk), Renegade raises the bar in the small SUV segment with best-in-class off-road capability. Extensive use of advanced steels, composites and advanced computer-impact simulations enable the all-new 2015 Renegade's architecture to deliver world-class torsional stiffness and Jeep brand's durability required for Trail Rated adventures.

The all-new Renegade is the first Jeep to integrate Koni's frequency selective damping (FSD) front and rear strut system. This damping system enables the Jeep Renegade to deliver world-class road-holding and handling characteristics.

Designed for global markets: 16 powertrain combinations

True to the Jeep brand, the all-new Renegade will offer customers in global markets maximum off- road capability and fuel efficiency. The Renegade will offer up to 16 strategic powertrain combinations – the most ever in a Jeep vehicle – customized to markets around the world to meet a range of performance and efficiency needs. Powertrain options include:

- Four MultiAir gasoline engine offerings

- Two MultiJet II diesel engine offerings

- Efficient and flex-fuel capable E.torQ engine

- Emissions and fuel-saving Stop&Start technology

- Segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission

- Two manual and one dual-dry clutch transmission (DDCT) offerings

World's first small SUV with nine-speed automatic transmission

Like the new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has raised the bar - this time in the small SUV class - with the first available nine-speed automatic transmission. When paired with either the 2.0-liter MultiJet II diesel engine, or 2.4-liter MultiAir2 gas engine, the nine-speed transmission delivers numerous benefits customers will appreciate, including aggressive launches, smooth power delivery at highway speeds and improved fuel efficiency versus a six-speed automatic transmission.

Segment-exclusive technologies once found only on higher classed SUVs

The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers technology features once found only in upper-segment vehicles, and makes them attainable to customers in the growing small SUV segment – including award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreens and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster.

- Uconnect Access: Utilizes embedded cellular technology to allow Jeep Renegade occupants to get directly in contact with local emergency-service dispatchers – all with the push of the 9-1-1 Assist button on the rearview mirror. Uconnect Access applies the same logic to roadside assistance. One push of the ―ASSIST‖ button summons help directly from Chrysler Group's roadside assistance provider, or the Vehicle Customer Care Center. Further peace of mind comes from the system's ability to receive text messages, announce receipt of texts, identify senders and then ―read‖ the messages aloud with Bluetooth-equipped cell phones. AOL Autos named Uconnect Access its ―Technology of the Year for 2013.‖ (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)

- Uconnect touchscreen radio systems: Award-winning in-vehicle handsfree communication, entertainment and available navigation. Key features available on the Uconnect 5.0 and 6.5AN systems include a 5.0-inch or 6.5-inch touchscreen display, Bluetooth connectivity, single or dual-turner, radio data system capability (RDS), digital audio broadcast (DAB), HD Radio, digital media broadcasting (DMB), SiriusXM Radio, SiriusXM Travel Link, SiriusXM Travel Link, USB port and auxiliary audio jack input. (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)

- Segment's largest full-color instrument cluster display: Filling the Jeep Renegade's gauge cluster in front of the driver is an available 7-inch, full-color, premium multiview display, featuring a reconfigurable function that enables drivers to personalize information inside the instrument cluster. The information display is designed to visually communicate information, using graphics and text, quickly and easily.

Renegade features up to 70 advanced safety and security features

Safety and security were at the forefront in the development of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, setting the stage for up to 70 available safety and security features – including the availability of Forward Collision Warning-Plus and LaneSense Departure Warning-Plus.

In addition, engineers added both active and passive safety and security features, including Blind- spot Monitoring; Rear Cross Path detection; ParkView rear backup camera with dynamic grid lines; electronic stability control (ESC) with electronic roll mitigation and seven standard air bags.

Jeep brand's global resources

Designed in America and crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade continues the Jeep brand's dedication to the global marketplace and demonstrates the depths of its available resources. The final assembly location for the Renegade will be at the Melfi Assembly Plant. The Renegade's global portfolio of powertrain production includes the United States, Italy and Brazil.

Ickworth House, Horringer, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

The House was built between the years of 1795 and 1829 to the designs of the Italian Architect Mario Asprucci, his most noted work being the Villa Borghese. It was this work that Frederick Hervey, the then 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry had seen.

Asprucci’s plans were then taken up by the brothers Francis & Joseph Sandys, English architects.

The Parkland, of which there is 1,800 acres in total, was designed by Capability Brown and was Italianate in style. This style much loved by the 4th Earl.

Most of the friezes running around the rotunda were based upon John Flaxman’s illustrations of The Iliad and The Odyssey although, within the entrance portico there are some panels designed by Lady Caroline, the Earl’s Granddaughter and are based upon the Roman Olympic Games.

There are many works of art inside the house and very much well worth the visit.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Israel Aircraft Industries Nesher (Hebrew: נשר, "Vulture" - often mistranslated as "Eagle") is the Israeli version of the Dassault Mirage 5 multi-role fighter aircraft. Most were later sold to the Argentine Air Force as Daggers, and later upgraded as Fingers.

In 1981, the Kfir had supplanted the Nesher in Heyl Ha'avir, and the Neshers were renovated, for sale overseas. Neshers were sold to the Argentine Air Force in two batches, 26 in 1978 and 13 in 1980, under the name Dagger, comprising 35 Dagger A single-seat fighters and four Dagger B two-seat trainers. The Daggers then saw much action against the British in the Falklands War.

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length incl. pitot: 15.65m (51 ft 3 in)

Wingspan: 8.22m (26 ft 11 in)

Height: 4.25m (13 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 34.8m² (373 sq. ft)

Empty weight: 6,600kg (14,535 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,500kg (29,735 lb)

Powerplant:

SNECMA Atar 09 engine with 4,280 kg (9,430 lbf)dry thrust

and 6,200 kg (13,660 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: mach 2.1 (39,370ft)

Range: 1,300km (810 ml), clean and with internal fuel only

1,186km (736 ml) with 4700 litres of auxiliary fuel in drop tanks

plus 2 Air to Air missiles and 2600 lb of bombs

Service ceiling: 17,680 (55,775ft)

Rate of climb: 16,400ft/min (83.5 m/s)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 125 rounds per gun under the air intakes

Five pylons for a wide range of up to 4.200kg (9,250 lb) of disposable stores

The kit and its assembly:

This short notice build towards the end of the 2016 "Cold War GB" at whatifmodelers.com was inspired by a CG rendition of an IAF F-4 in the unique brown/blue paint scheme, posted by fellow user SPINNERS a couple of days before. Seeing that design variant I wondered how a Kfir in this livery would look like...?

I had a C-2 Kfir in the stash, but also stumbled across a Heller Mirage IIIE/R/5BA kit without a real purpose in the stash and remembered the Kfir's predecessor, the Nesher, which was more or less a bluntly copied Mirage 5. Since the type was earlier and more appropriate for the brown/blue livery, I decided to convert the Heller Mirage into a Nesher, since it comes pretty close.

The Heller kit is old and rather basic by today's standards. You get fine but raised panel lines, only a rough interior, mediocre fit and a brittle plastic that catches scratches and dents when you only look at it.

Anyway, creating a Nesher from the Heller kit is not really complicated. Two major mods have to be made: the fin has to be enlarged or replaced, and the nose needs a special pitot installation.

The Nesher carried the bigger Mirage III/5 fin, and the Heller kit only bears the short version. Since I had a donation PM Model Nesher/Dagger kit in store (horrible kit, it rather resembles a mutated Mirage III but neither the israeli nor the Argentinian aircraft!) I just transplanted the fin. This appeared easier than adding a fin fillet, and having just the right donation part at hand made the decision even easier. :D

The nose is the Mirage 5's, but the tip was slightly modified and the pitot needed a separate fairing/attachment under the nose tip. The latter was created from a piece of round styrene and blended with the lower front fuselage.

After the major body work was done, some antennae/sensors were replaced or added, a Panzer IV’s sprocket wheel as an afterburner interior (just to have something inside the gaping exhaust hole) as well as launch rails under the outer wings for a pair of Shafrir-2s. The sleek drop tanks come OOB from the Heller kit – it only offers a pair of bigger tanks with fins, but no offensive ordnance at all.

In the cockpit I used a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Kfir, a slightly better option than the OOB part.

Painting and markings:

This is the actual whif aspect about this build, which is just the fictional application of a real world IAF scheme that was in use about 10 years before the Yom Kippur War. In real life the Nesher just came too late to carry the murky brown/blue pattern, because it was phased out in 1967, after the Six Days War. But putting it onto a more modern aircraft creates interesting results!

The scheme is based upon the original grey/green French pattern, just with the colors replaced with RAL 8000 (Grüngrau) or Field Drab (FS 30215) and RAL 5008 (Graublau), the authentic upper surface tones for this strange camouflage.

I’ve already built a (real world) IAF Ouragan in this style, so I had some practice and good references at hand. Model Master 1702 (alternatively: Humbrol 142) is a good option for the brown/tan tone, even though it is a bit too dark for my taste. "Israeli Armor Grey" from ModelMaster is a more approriate tone - it's lighter and actually an equivalent for RAL 8000, which is also used on Israeli tanks!

For the greyish-green dark blue I used Humbrol 77 (Navy Blue) which comes IMHO close. The undersides were painted in a pale grey, I used FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey, Humbrol 129 in this case). Some sources claim it to be RAL 7044 (Seidengrau), but the FS tone is practically identical.

All Neshers (even in later Argentinian service) had their nose painted black. There was no radar oder radome fitted, it was rather a deception in order to make enemies confuse the simple ground attack Neshers with the more potent (and radar-equipped) Mirage IIIs.

The kit received a light black ink wash and some dry-brushing for panel emphasis. The decals come mostly from the PM Model Nesher, including the large, yellow Yom Kippur War ID triangles which create a powerful contrast on the dark underground. Interesting result!

Anyway, while the decals might be the best thing about the PM kit, they have thier drawbacks, too. While they are 100% opaque the carrier film is thick, stiff and brittle, and they do not adhere well to the underground, despite decals softener and other tricks. :(

As a small detail I put the aircraft's tactical code on a silver background, as if the aircraft had originally been bare metal with the camouflage rather hastily applied. Since I had no IAF squadron markings left I added a yellow/black checkerboard pattern to the fin's rudder - the marking of the 113 Tayaset "Ha'Tsira'a (The Wasps), which actually operated the Nesher in the Yom Kippur conflict, just with a different camouflage.

Finally, the kit received some smoke/exhaust marks with graphite and was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish. To make matters worse, the Revell varnish turned white, so I had to repair that damage as good as I could, and the finish now is far from what I had originally hoped for, despite the general troubles with the PM Model kit's decals.

A rather subtle whif, and even the aircraft itself is real (or at least a "realistic" model replica). Anyway, the paint scheme application changes things considerably, and the model ended - with the ID trinagles and the other bright markings - more colorful than expected. But the finish ended up rather poor, so that I am a bit disappointed.

Besides, a highly recommended source for this aircraft is Amos Dor's "IAI Nesher (From Mirage to Kfir, pt. 2 of 3)" book from "The IAI Aircraft Series", AD Graphics/Milano, 2000. All the other publications from this series of books are also generally recommended for any IAF builds.

This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:

www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-331

SOUTHWEST BORDER SECURITY: Additional Actions Needed to Better Assess Fencing's Contributions to Operations and Provide Guidance for Identifying Capability Gaps

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

From the garden.

Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry, and they were Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the mansion's rooms were designed by Robert Adam. St Mary Magdalene's Church, Croome D'Abitot that sits within the grounds of the park is now owned and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

The mansion house is owned by Croome Heritage Trust and leased to the National Trust, which operates it as a tourist attraction. The National Trust owns the surrounding parkland, which is also open to the public.

Location

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

Croome Court South Portico

History

See also: History of Worcestershire § Georgian society, politics and religion

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]

George Coventry, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate in 1751, 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 was visited by George III,[2][11] as well as by Queen Victoria[7] during summers when she was a child, and George V (when Duke of York).[11]

A jam factory was built near Pershore railway station by George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry 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, the building was leased by the Croome Estate Trust during the First World War to the Huddersfield Fruit Preserving Company as a pulping station.[12] The First World War deeply affected Croome; there were 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] Croome Court was requisitioned during the Second World War 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 Queen Wilhelmina stayed for two weeks at the most, perhaps because of the noise and the fear created by the proximity of RAF Defford. The Dutch Royal family later emigrated to Canada for the duration of the war.

The Croome Estate Trust sold the Court in 1948, 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[14] from 1950[11] until 1979.[14] In 1979, the hall was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement) which used it as its UK headquarters and a training college,[15] called Chaitanya College.[14] During their tenure they repainted the Dining Room.[16] ISKCON left the estate in 1984 for financial reasons. It held a festival at the hall in 2011.[15] 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,[14] before once more becoming a private family home,[2][14] with outbuildings converted to private houses.[14]

The house was purchased by the Croome Heritage Trust, a registered charity,[17] in October 2007,[18] 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 been restored, costing £400,000, including the Saloon. It was estimated that another £4 million[2][19] 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.[20] An oral history project to record recollections about Croome was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[14] As of 2009, the service wing was empty and in need of substantial repair.[21] The house was listed on 11 August 1952; it is currently Grade I listed.[10]

Exterior

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 Coade 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 1751–1752.[21] On the far side of the service wing, a wall connects it to a stable court.[10]

Interior

The Tapestry Room, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

... and the Tapestry Room at Croome Court today

The interior of the house was designed partially by Capability Brown, with plasterwork by G. Vassalli, and partially by Robert Adam, with plasterwork by Joseph 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 chimneypiece. The three rooms were probably decorated around 1758–1759 by Capability Brown.[10] The dining room was vibrantly repainted by the Hare Krishnas in the 1970s-80s.[16]

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 chimneypieces, and Palladian doorcases.[22] King 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 chimneypiece.[10]

To the east of the saloon is the Tapestry Room.[10] This was designed in 1763–1771, based on a design by Robert Adam, and contained tapestries and furniture covers possibly designed by François Boucher and Maurice Jacques, and made by Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[23] Around 1902 the 9th Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, chimneypiece, chair rails, doors and door surrounds in 1949; they 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 is used to explain what happened to the tapestry room;[16] the former library was designed by Adam, and was dismantled except for the marble chimneypiece.[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 element 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 chimneypiece designed by J Wilton.[10] As of 2016, modern sculptures are displayed in empty niches along the Long Gallery....Wikipedia

View full size to read placards

The News Line Wednesday March 4 2015 page 2

THERE was a lively picket of St Mary's House in Norwich Monday lunchtime by disabled people against government policies and the inaccessibility of the assessment centre which has now been taken over by Maximus.

News Line spoke to Marion Fallon from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Norfolk, who said: 'I can't quite believe that we are here three years on from all the campaigns, all the protests.

'We've had letters back and forth to the MPs to the Minister For Disabled People; we're now on the second Minister For Disabled People who has taken over.

'We've had promises and promises that this St Mary's House ground floor rooms access would be resolved.

'Here we are 2nd March a new company, Maximus, has taken over from ATOS and it's still not been resolved; so it just looks like things are going on as they were before.'

Mark Harrison of the disabled people's charity 'Equal Lives' said 'Two reasons for this protest today. One is that today's the day that Maximus have taken over from ATOS the discredited and disgraceful Work Capability Assessments and they are another bastardoutsourcing company brought in to destroy disabled people's lives.

'Secondly because strangely enough we've got a disabled assessment centre in Norwich that is not accessible to disabled people and we've campaigned here for three years and the government has refused to close it or make it accessible.'

Asked about how government legislation has affected disabled people over the last five years Harrison said: 'Disabled people have lost their lives, have committed suicide as a result of their so-called "Welfare Reforms", the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund, the scrapping of DLA, the millions and millions of cuts to local authority care budgets and the £20 billion they cut out of the Health Service.

'The sooner we see the back end of this government the better. We need a government that is going to put the needs of disabled people, poor people, and the population first.'

www.wrp.org.uk/

The Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC)'s Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (03 F-211/SAC-3 C/N 50212) taxiing at the Swiss Air Force base at Payerne. The SAC is a consortium of 12 nations, 10 of which are member states of NATO and two of which are Partners For Peace, to pool resources to purchase and operate Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for joint strategic airlift purposes. Based at Papa in Hungary, they are operated and flown by members of the SAC's armed forces. However, the aircraft are maintained by Boeing as described by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). specified European standards. Photo taken by my son.

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

Medallions portrait busts on the wall.

This magnificent informal landscape garden was laid out in the 18th century by 'Capability' Brown and further developed in the early years of the 20th century by its owner, Arthur G. Soames. The original four lakes form the centrepiece. There are dramatic shows of daffodils and bluebells in spring, and the rhododendrons and azaleas are spectacular in early summer. Autumn brings stunning colours from the many rare trees and shrubs, and winter walks can be enjoyed in this garden for all seasons. Visitors can now also explore South Park, 107 hectares (265 acres) of historic parkland, with stunning views.

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House.

Also Tack Room & Second-Hand Book Shop.

Grade I Listed Building

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House Immediately South of Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/25 Laundry, brewhouse, stables and

05/04/67 coach house immediately S of

Charlecote Park

(Formerly Listed as:

Outbuildings at Charlecote Park)

GV I

Laundry, brewhouse, coach house, stables and deer

slaughterhouse. Laundry and brewhouse: C16 with later

restoration. Brick laid to English bond with limestone

dressings and high plinth; steeply pitched old tile roof with

octagonal brick ridge and internal stacks. L-plan.

Stables: C16 with early C19 cladding and interior alterations.

Brick laid to Flemish bond with diaper pattern in vitrified

headers; old tile roof.

EXTERIOR: laundry/brewhouse wing: south side of 2 storeys plus

attic; 5-window range; 2 cross-gables. To right, 2 entrances

have 4-centred heads and plank doors and flank 2 C19

round-headed coach entrances with keystones and paired doors.

Double-chamfered mullioned windows of 2, 3 or 8 lights with

leaded glazing. Left end has entrance to brewhouse and blocked

windows. Lead rainwater goods.

Slaughterhouse for deer attached to east end; gabled

single-storey structure with modillioned brick cornice; north

entrance has grille to overlight and to south an entrance and

2-light window.

Stables: 2 storeys; 8-window range with cross-wing and cupola

to left of centre. Moulded stone plinth and first-floor drip

course; stone-coped brick parapet. Wing breaks forward with

coped gable; elliptical-arched carriageway with moulded

responds and arch and groin vault; oriel has 1:2:1-light

transomed windows over panels (central panel has Lucy Arms)

and pierced parapet copied from gatehouse (qv).

Ground floor to left of wing: 2 coach house entrances as above

and entrance with single-chamfered Tudor arch with label mould

and fanlight to paired panelled doors and a 3-light

ovolo-mullioned window with 4/4 sashes to right. To right of

wing: 2 similar stable entrances but with plank doors each

with similar window to left.

First floor has 2-light double-chamfered mullioned windows

with decorative leaded glazing and returns to drip, 3 to left

and 4 to right. South end similar, with 3-light windows.

Rear has plain arch to carriageway with 2-light window above

and small stack; to left of wing C16 brick to ground floor

with C19 brick corbelled out above; to right some C16 diapered

brick with ashlar opening to 8/8 sash and attached loose-box

block with stone-coped parapet over 3 Tudor-headed entrances

with overlights to plank doors; coped gable with finial;

attached brick gate pier with plank gate; 2 loose boxes in

gabled rear range.

INTERIOR: brewhouse has mostly C18 brewing equipment, water

pumps, coppers and stalls. Laundry has hearth and coppers; 3

segmental-headed recesses to one wall; slaughterhouse has

channels to brick/flag floor and a hoist.

Stables: full-height tack room has fittings including gallery

to 3 sides and bolection-moulded fireplace; stables to south

have stop-chamfered beams and posts; stable and loose-box

partitions; loft above has wall posts supporting 5 trusses

with braced tie beams, collars and struts, that to north with

lath and plaster infill, one with plank partition; double

purlins, wind braces and riven rafters.

The brewhouse is a particularly interesting survival complete

with equipment; the deer slaughterhouse is a rare example of

its kind.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 228-9; Charlecote Park:

guidebook: 1991-: 38-44).

Listing NGR: SP2594556378

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Coach House

Victoria Late 19th century

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

The Israel Aircraft Industries Nesher (Hebrew: נשר, "Vulture" - often mistranslated as "Eagle") is the Israeli version of the Dassault Mirage 5 multi-role fighter aircraft. Most were later sold to the Argentine Air Force as Daggers, and later upgraded as Fingers.

In 1981, the Kfir had supplanted the Nesher in Heyl Ha'avir, and the Neshers were renovated, for sale overseas. Neshers were sold to the Argentine Air Force in two batches, 26 in 1978 and 13 in 1980, under the name Dagger, comprising 35 Dagger A single-seat fighters and four Dagger B two-seat trainers. The Daggers then saw much action against the British in the Falklands War.

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length incl. pitot: 15.65m (51 ft 3 in)

Wingspan: 8.22m (26 ft 11 in)

Height: 4.25m (13 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 34.8m² (373 sq. ft)

Empty weight: 6,600kg (14,535 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,500kg (29,735 lb)

Powerplant:

SNECMA Atar 09 engine with 4,280 kg (9,430 lbf)dry thrust

and 6,200 kg (13,660 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: mach 2.1 (39,370ft)

Range: 1,300km (810 ml), clean and with internal fuel only

1,186km (736 ml) with 4700 litres of auxiliary fuel in drop tanks

plus 2 Air to Air missiles and 2600 lb of bombs

Service ceiling: 17,680 (55,775ft)

Rate of climb: 16,400ft/min (83.5 m/s)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 125 rounds per gun under the air intakes

Five pylons for a wide range of up to 4.200kg (9,250 lb) of disposable stores

The kit and its assembly:

This short notice build towards the end of the 2016 "Cold War GB" at whatifmodelers.com was inspired by a CG rendition of an IAF F-4 in the unique brown/blue paint scheme, posted by fellow user SPINNERS a couple of days before. Seeing that design variant I wondered how a Kfir in this livery would look like...?

I had a C-2 Kfir in the stash, but also stumbled across a Heller Mirage IIIE/R/5BA kit without a real purpose in the stash and remembered the Kfir's predecessor, the Nesher, which was more or less a bluntly copied Mirage 5. Since the type was earlier and more appropriate for the brown/blue livery, I decided to convert the Heller Mirage into a Nesher, since it comes pretty close.

The Heller kit is old and rather basic by today's standards. You get fine but raised panel lines, only a rough interior, mediocre fit and a brittle plastic that catches scratches and dents when you only look at it.

Anyway, creating a Nesher from the Heller kit is not really complicated. Two major mods have to be made: the fin has to be enlarged or replaced, and the nose needs a special pitot installation.

The Nesher carried the bigger Mirage III/5 fin, and the Heller kit only bears the short version. Since I had a donation PM Model Nesher/Dagger kit in store (horrible kit, it rather resembles a mutated Mirage III but neither the israeli nor the Argentinian aircraft!) I just transplanted the fin. This appeared easier than adding a fin fillet, and having just the right donation part at hand made the decision even easier. :D

The nose is the Mirage 5's, but the tip was slightly modified and the pitot needed a separate fairing/attachment under the nose tip. The latter was created from a piece of round styrene and blended with the lower front fuselage.

After the major body work was done, some antennae/sensors were replaced or added, a Panzer IV’s sprocket wheel as an afterburner interior (just to have something inside the gaping exhaust hole) as well as launch rails under the outer wings for a pair of Shafrir-2s. The sleek drop tanks come OOB from the Heller kit – it only offers a pair of bigger tanks with fins, but no offensive ordnance at all.

In the cockpit I used a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Kfir, a slightly better option than the OOB part.

Painting and markings:

This is the actual whif aspect about this build, which is just the fictional application of a real world IAF scheme that was in use about 10 years before the Yom Kippur War. In real life the Nesher just came too late to carry the murky brown/blue pattern, because it was phased out in 1967, after the Six Days War. But putting it onto a more modern aircraft creates interesting results!

The scheme is based upon the original grey/green French pattern, just with the colors replaced with RAL 8000 (Grüngrau) or Field Drab (FS 30215) and RAL 5008 (Graublau), the authentic upper surface tones for this strange camouflage.

I’ve already built a (real world) IAF Ouragan in this style, so I had some practice and good references at hand. Model Master 1702 (alternatively: Humbrol 142) is a good option for the brown/tan tone, even though it is a bit too dark for my taste. "Israeli Armor Grey" from ModelMaster is a more approriate tone - it's lighter and actually an equivalent for RAL 8000, which is also used on Israeli tanks!

For the greyish-green dark blue I used Humbrol 77 (Navy Blue) which comes IMHO close. The undersides were painted in a pale grey, I used FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey, Humbrol 129 in this case). Some sources claim it to be RAL 7044 (Seidengrau), but the FS tone is practically identical.

All Neshers (even in later Argentinian service) had their nose painted black. There was no radar oder radome fitted, it was rather a deception in order to make enemies confuse the simple ground attack Neshers with the more potent (and radar-equipped) Mirage IIIs.

The kit received a light black ink wash and some dry-brushing for panel emphasis. The decals come mostly from the PM Model Nesher, including the large, yellow Yom Kippur War ID triangles which create a powerful contrast on the dark underground. Interesting result!

Anyway, while the decals might be the best thing about the PM kit, they have thier drawbacks, too. While they are 100% opaque the carrier film is thick, stiff and brittle, and they do not adhere well to the underground, despite decals softener and other tricks. :(

As a small detail I put the aircraft's tactical code on a silver background, as if the aircraft had originally been bare metal with the camouflage rather hastily applied. Since I had no IAF squadron markings left I added a yellow/black checkerboard pattern to the fin's rudder - the marking of the 113 Tayaset "Ha'Tsira'a (The Wasps), which actually operated the Nesher in the Yom Kippur conflict, just with a different camouflage.

Finally, the kit received some smoke/exhaust marks with graphite and was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish. To make matters worse, the Revell varnish turned white, so I had to repair that damage as good as I could, and the finish now is far from what I had originally hoped for, despite the general troubles with the PM Model kit's decals.

A rather subtle whif, and even the aircraft itself is real (or at least a "realistic" model replica). Anyway, the paint scheme application changes things considerably, and the model ended - with the ID trinagles and the other bright markings - more colorful than expected. But the finish ended up rather poor, so that I am a bit disappointed.

Besides, a highly recommended source for this aircraft is Amos Dor's "IAI Nesher (From Mirage to Kfir, pt. 2 of 3)" book from "The IAI Aircraft Series", AD Graphics/Milano, 2000. All the other publications from this series of books are also generally recommended for any IAF builds.

A variety of material is employed for loading practice by Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) logisticians during a hands-on segment of Uganda ADAPT 2010, a mentoring program conducted in Entebbe, Uganda, that resulted in certifying 25 soldiers as C-130 aircraft load planners.

U.S. Army photo by Gordon Christensen

A U.S. Army Africa (USARAF) organized Africa Deployment Assistance Partnership Team (ADAPT) recently trained, and for the first time ever, certified 25 soldiers of the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) as C-130 aircraft load planners in Entebbe, Uganda.

A five-person team, led by Gordon Christensen of Army Africa’s G-4 Mobility Division, completed Phase III training with UPDF soldiers Aug. 27 in Entebbe, Uganda, said John Hanson, chief of the G-4 Policy and Programs Branch.

“This was the first actual air load certification we’ve done, of all the previous ADAPT engagements,” Hanson said. “That’s what makes it unique.”

Two weeks of classroom instruction and hands-on training enabled 25 of 31 students to earn U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command Form 9 certification, significantly augmenting the Uganda land force’s air deployment capability, while developing greater interoperability with U.S. military forces, Hanson said.

The ADAPT program, developed to enhance the force projection capabilities of African militaries, is managed by the USARAF G-4 staff. Its aim is to bridge the gap between limited deployment capacity and the need to provide forces in support of peacekeeping or humanitarian relief operations, Hanson said.

“We’re building capacity for people to deploy, to do their own missions,” he said.

Even when the training doesn’t lead to actual U.S. Air Force certification, as it did this time in Uganda, it contributes to an enhanced deployment capacity for the land force involved, Hanson said.

“That’s the intent. They can’t do the certification, but they can continue to train their own people. Then we back off and they continue to do that,” he said.

The program is a Title 22 tactical logistics engagement funded by the U.S. Department of State, and focuses on African countries that contribute troops to peacekeeping operations, Hanson said.

Training is executed in four installments in order to create a long-term, phased approach to building deployment capacity, Hanson said. Instructors take students from a general orientation to tactical deployment principles to an advanced level of practical proficiency.

Instructors for the UPDF course were sourced using the Request For Forces (RFF) process, Hanson said.

Christensen was accompanied U.S. Army Capt. Jedmund Greene of 21st Theater Support Command’s 16th Sustainment Brigade, based in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and three Air Force noncommissioned officers: Tech. Sgt. Venus Washington, Robbins Air Force Base, Ga.; Tech. Sgt. Byran Quinn, Pope Air Force Base, N.C.; and Senior Master Sgt. Anthony D. Tate of the Illinois Air National Guard.

“The training helped to strengthen the relationship with our Ugandan partners, and also helped them build a self-sustaining deployment capacity,” Greene said. “I hope 21st TSC can increase its support to USARAF logistics theater security cooperation events in the future.”

Army Africa’s G-4 staff is presently working to synchronize ADAPT with the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. A proof of concept joint training was conducted with ACOTA in Rwanda earlier this year, combining tactical- and support-staff training in logistics with the more complex operational techniques of force deployment and mobility, Hanson said.

The Rwanda training demonstrated the feasibility of combining available U.S. government resources to achieve the most efficient and focused effort to advance common foreign policy objectives with U.S. partners in Africa, he said.

To date, ADAPT missions have been funded for eight African countries. Previous training sessions have been conducted in Rwanda, Ghana and Burkina Faso as well as Uganda, and the number is likely to grow in coming years, Hanson said.

“The programs were identified as being of interest to several other countries during the Army Africa Theater Army Security Cooperation Conference, held in Vicenza in August,” Hanson said.

The next planned ADAPT mission is for Phase I training in Botswana, scheduled for the first quarter of 2011, he said.

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

A striking statue of Lancelot “Capability” Brown - the renowned landscape garden designer whose tercentenary has been celebrated throughout 2016 - has gone on show at Trentham Gardens. The bronze statue has been a part of an international sculpture exhibition at Doddington Hall near Lincoln, and is soon due to take up permanent residence beside the River Thames in Hammersmith close to where Brown lived for thirteen years.

Prior to its journey south, however, it has now gone on show until next spring at The Trentham Estate.

M74 Coatsgate 14/06/2017

U.S. Navy engineers from Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 133, Gulfport, Mississippi, fill in an excavated hole during an Expedient and Expeditionary Airfield Damage Repair (E-ADR) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, April 22, 2021. The demonstration field tests the “just enough, just-in-time” repair capability on a decommissioned runway at McEntire Joint National Guard Base. The Department of Defense’s E-ADR concept uses local materials and minimal personnel and equipment in order to expedite a temporary runway repair. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Lt. Col. Jim St.Clair, 169th Fighter Wing Public Affairs)

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.

[1]

Broadway Tower was inspired by the famous Capability Brown and completed in 1799 from designs by the renowned architect James Wyatt. It was built for the Earl of Coventry as a folly to his Springhill Estate and dedicated to his wife Peggy.

Legend has it Broadway Tower was used as a signalling tower between Springhill Estate and Croome Court near Worcester, which can be seen from the roof platform.

Many famous people have had association with Broadway Tower, including Sir Thomas Phillips and the pre-Raphaelite artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Rosetti.

Broadway Tower is open to the public allowing you to travel into the past of this important building and visit the viewing platform constituting the highest point in the Cotswolds at 1089 feet or 331.6 metres altitude.

[2]

Broadway Tower is a folly located on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second highest point of the Cotswolds after Cleeve Hill. Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 55 feet (17 metres) high.

The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester - approximately 22 miles (35 km) away - and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s.

Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee as well as a gift shop. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village. Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

I

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

Entrance / way in.

The annual pilgrimage to Stourhead - and autumn is late!

Hulne Park, near Alnwick, Northumberland

Nature as man intended, crafted by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 18th century.

DPAC & UK Uncut protest against benefit cuts at DWP - 31.08.2012

Following their earlier joint protest that morning at the Euston headquarters of ATOS Origin - the French IT company which has sponsored the paralympics, despite its role in forcing tens of thousands of severely sick and disabled people off their life-saving benefits after declaring them "Fit for Work" following the seriously flawed Work Capability Assessment stipulated by the Dept. fo0r Work and Pensions (DWP), DPAC and UK Uncut activists descended on the Westminster headquarters of the DWP and protested outside.

Several activists managed to get inside the entrance foyer of the government building, which was the trigger for a short-but-overly-aggressive encounter with a large number of Territorial Support Group police who waded into the disabled and able-bodied protesters to force them away from the front of the building which houses the offices of Secretary for State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith and Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller.

During the quite unnecessary action against the peaceful protesters - several in wheelchairs - one disabled man was thrown out of his wheelchair to the ground, breaking his shoulder. Another man's motorised wheelchair was broken in the fracas, and one man was arrested.

Some of the protesters managed to speak to Maria Miller, MP, and told her to her facve how much misery and human despair her department's policies of demonisation of the disabled - portraying them publicly as workshy scroungers and benefits cheats, even though Disability Benefit fraud is extremely small, only 0.4% of the overall benefits budget, despite frequent, outrageous lies peddled by the DWP and minister Ian Duncan Smith as it behaves no better than the German government in the years running up to World War II as they turn the public against the very weakest, most vulnerable members of the British population, blaming disabled people for the country's economic misery - cause by corrupt bankers.

All photos © 2012 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter, re-transmit or reblog my images without my written permission.

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A ceremony to commemorate the production, handover and acceptance of the first group of Mobile Surveillance Capability vehicles for enhanced situational awareness along our Nation's borders with Office of Border Patrol and FLIR Systems inc. photo by James Tourtellotte

A visit to Charlecote Park for an afternoon visit to this National Trust property in Warwickshire. Near Stratford-upon-Avon. A deer park with a country house in the middle of it.

Charlecote Park (grid reference SP263564) is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.

From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).

Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from who's extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.

From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House.

Also Tack Room & Second-Hand Book Shop.

Grade I Listed Building

Laundry and Brewhouse and Stables and Coach House Immediately South of Charlecote Park

Listing Text

CHARLECOTE

SP2556 CHARLECOTE PARK

1901-1/10/25 Laundry, brewhouse, stables and

05/04/67 coach house immediately S of

Charlecote Park

(Formerly Listed as:

Outbuildings at Charlecote Park)

GV I

Laundry, brewhouse, coach house, stables and deer

slaughterhouse. Laundry and brewhouse: C16 with later

restoration. Brick laid to English bond with limestone

dressings and high plinth; steeply pitched old tile roof with

octagonal brick ridge and internal stacks. L-plan.

Stables: C16 with early C19 cladding and interior alterations.

Brick laid to Flemish bond with diaper pattern in vitrified

headers; old tile roof.

EXTERIOR: laundry/brewhouse wing: south side of 2 storeys plus

attic; 5-window range; 2 cross-gables. To right, 2 entrances

have 4-centred heads and plank doors and flank 2 C19

round-headed coach entrances with keystones and paired doors.

Double-chamfered mullioned windows of 2, 3 or 8 lights with

leaded glazing. Left end has entrance to brewhouse and blocked

windows. Lead rainwater goods.

Slaughterhouse for deer attached to east end; gabled

single-storey structure with modillioned brick cornice; north

entrance has grille to overlight and to south an entrance and

2-light window.

Stables: 2 storeys; 8-window range with cross-wing and cupola

to left of centre. Moulded stone plinth and first-floor drip

course; stone-coped brick parapet. Wing breaks forward with

coped gable; elliptical-arched carriageway with moulded

responds and arch and groin vault; oriel has 1:2:1-light

transomed windows over panels (central panel has Lucy Arms)

and pierced parapet copied from gatehouse (qv).

Ground floor to left of wing: 2 coach house entrances as above

and entrance with single-chamfered Tudor arch with label mould

and fanlight to paired panelled doors and a 3-light

ovolo-mullioned window with 4/4 sashes to right. To right of

wing: 2 similar stable entrances but with plank doors each

with similar window to left.

First floor has 2-light double-chamfered mullioned windows

with decorative leaded glazing and returns to drip, 3 to left

and 4 to right. South end similar, with 3-light windows.

Rear has plain arch to carriageway with 2-light window above

and small stack; to left of wing C16 brick to ground floor

with C19 brick corbelled out above; to right some C16 diapered

brick with ashlar opening to 8/8 sash and attached loose-box

block with stone-coped parapet over 3 Tudor-headed entrances

with overlights to plank doors; coped gable with finial;

attached brick gate pier with plank gate; 2 loose boxes in

gabled rear range.

INTERIOR: brewhouse has mostly C18 brewing equipment, water

pumps, coppers and stalls. Laundry has hearth and coppers; 3

segmental-headed recesses to one wall; slaughterhouse has

channels to brick/flag floor and a hoist.

Stables: full-height tack room has fittings including gallery

to 3 sides and bolection-moulded fireplace; stables to south

have stop-chamfered beams and posts; stable and loose-box

partitions; loft above has wall posts supporting 5 trusses

with braced tie beams, collars and struts, that to north with

lath and plaster infill, one with plank partition; double

purlins, wind braces and riven rafters.

The brewhouse is a particularly interesting survival complete

with equipment; the deer slaughterhouse is a rare example of

its kind.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N & Wedgwood, A:

Warwickshire: Harmondsworth: 1966-: 228-9; Charlecote Park:

guidebook: 1991-: 38-44).

Listing NGR: SP2594556378

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Brewhouse