These were some of the ships destroyed or damaged in the Great Storm of 1854. Top row: Ganges, Wild Wave, Asia

Second row: Apollo, Lord Raglan, Retribution

Third row: Niger, Prince, Harbinger

 

Taken from Cookesley's letter of this event:

"On Tuesday the 14th we had a most dreadful storm here out in which we lost 18 large ships, fifteen of which are transports. I will give you their names, The Prince steamer, Pyrenees, Her Majesty, Resolute, Ganges, Kenilworth, Rodsley, Asia, Tyrone, Wild Wave, Harbinger, Georgiana, Lord Raglan, Rip Van Winkle, sailing transports, besides four ships The Progress, Wanderer, Peltona and Apollo. The three first were chartered by Government with stores and the latter was full of sick men who of course are all drowned.

All the ships who were in the harbour suffered also severely, amongst which we are about the worse, for we have lost our rudder and our sternpost. We are now making a temporary rudder in the shape of a spare that which will go right across our stern and with which we shall steer her either to Constantinople or Malta where we shall get repaired.

Several ships were forced to slip their chains and anchors and run into the harbour amongst which were the Niger, Sampson, Retribution, men of war, the latter of which had the Duke of Cambridge on board. She was all but lost. She did lose her rudder and hove some of her guns over to lighten her. All the ships that did manage to ride through the gale were obliged to cut away their masts and although they are safe enough in the harbour now they cannot go to sea for they are minus their masts and therefore they are at present no use whatever.

You would have been disgusted to see how two or three days after the storm, the dead bodies all cut and torn against the rocks, floated in the harbour. Boats could not move in the harbour for it was all covered with wood, hay, spars, casks, dead bullocks, bodies etc."

 

Apollo - A frigate, but not mentioned in the list of damaged/wrecked ships in Wikipedia where all the others are mentioned but Cookesley mentions it in his letter as being full of sick men who drowned during the storm. Some conflicting info online so perhaps Cookesley got the ship name confused with another?

 

Asia - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Yevpatoria. She was subsequently salvaged.

 

Ganges - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was driven into

Pyrenees ( United Kingdom) and HMS Sampson ( Royal Navy) and was then ashore and wrecked at the mouth of the Katcha River on the coast of Russia. Her crew were rescued.

Kenilworth The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of all on board.

 

Georgiana - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Yevpatoria.

 

Harbinger - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was driven ashore and wrecked at Yevpatoria.

 

Her Majesty - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Yevpatoria. She was subsequently salvaged.

 

Kenilworth - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of all on board.

 

Lord Raglan - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was driven ashore and wrecked at the mouth of the Katcha River. Her crew were rescued.

 

Niger - Broke her chains and anchors and ran into the harbour.

 

Peltona - The barque sank at Balaklava. All on board were rescued.

 

Prince - The storeship foundered in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of 144 of her 150 crew. She was one of many ships lost in the anchorage when a storm with hurricane-force winds arrived. While she had both steam and sail, she had to cut away her masts due to the power of the storm and her mizzen mast rigging fouled her propeller, rendering her steam power useless. She was valued at £150,000, and her cargo – stores for the winter siege of Sevastopol – at £500,000.

 

Progress - The troopship was driven ashore and wrecked at Balaklava with the loss of 20 of her 26 crew.

 

Pyrenees - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was run into by Ganges ( United Kingdom) and was then driven into HMS Sampson ( Royal Navy). She was set adrift, driven ashore and wrecked at the mouth of the Katcha River. Her crew were rescued by HMS Sampson. Pyreneses was subsequently set afire.

 

Resolute - The storeship, a full-rigged ship, foundered in the Black Sea off Balaklava, with the loss of 143 of her 150 crew. She was one of many ships lost in the anchorage when a storm with hurricane-force winds arrived. She had been ordered out of the harbour a few days before the storm by the Admiralty agent in spite of energetic protests by her commanding officer, Captain Lewis, about the danger to her. She became a total loss after first her starboard anchor chain, then her port chain parted in the violent storm. Her cargo of 900 long tons (914 tonnes/metric tons) of gunpowder also was lost.

 

Retribution - The Centaur-class frigate was driven ashore on the Russian coast. She was refloated after throwing her guns overboard and taken in to Constantinople for repairs. HRH Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was on board at the time.

 

Rip Van Winkle - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of all 60 crew.

 

Rodsley - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, was driven ashore and wrecked at the mouth of the Katcha River on the coast of Russia. All on board were rescued the next day by HMS Sampson.

 

Tyrone - The troopship, a full-rigged ship, sank in the Black Sea off the mouth of the Katcha River. All on board were rescued by HMS London.

 

Victoria - The steamship was severely damaged at Balaklava. From Cookesley's letter the ship lost it's sternpost and rudder.

 

Wanderer - The troopship, a barque, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of all on board.

 

Wild Wave - The clipper, a full-rigged ship, was wrecked in the Black Sea off Balaklava with the loss of all but one of her 25 crew.

 

There were many more ships wrecked in that storm. Here is a list on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_November_1854

   

The City of London, widely referred to simply as the City, is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the ancient centre, and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London and one of the leading financial centres of the world. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the modern area referred to as London has since grown far beyond the City of London boundary. The City is now only a small part of the metropolis of Greater London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, the City of London is not one of the London boroughs, a status reserved for the other 32 districts (including Greater London's only other city, the City of Westminster). It is also a separate ceremonial county, being an enclave surrounded by Greater London, and is the smallest ceremonial county in England.

 

The City of London is known colloquially as the Square Mile, as it is 1.12 sq mi (716.80 acres; 2.90 km2) in area. Both the terms the City and the Square Mile are often used as metonyms for the UK's trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being largely based in the City. The name London is now ordinarily used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 Greater London boroughs, in addition to the City of London itself.

 

The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council, such as being the police authority. It is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries, e.g. Hampstead Heath. The corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London (an office separate from, and much older than, the Mayor of London). The Lord Mayor, as of November 2023, is Michael Mainelli. The City is made up of 25 wards, with administration at the historic Guildhall. Other historic sites include St Paul's Cathedral, Royal Exchange, Mansion House, Old Bailey, and Smithfield Market. Although not within the City, the adjacent Tower of London, built to dominate the City, is part of its old defensive perimeter. The City has responsibility for five bridges in its capacity as trustee of the Bridge House Estates: Blackfriars Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Southwark Bridge, London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

 

The City is a major business and financial centre, with both the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange based in the City. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the world's primary business centre, and it continues to be a major meeting point for businesses. London came second (after New York) in the Global Financial Centres Index, published in 2022. The insurance industry is located in the eastern side of the city, around Lloyd's building. Since about the 1980s, a secondary financial district has existed outside the city, at Canary Wharf, 2.5 miles (4 km) to the east. The legal profession forms a major component of the northern and western sides of the City, especially in the Temple and Chancery Lane areas where the Inns of Court are located, of which two—Inner Temple and Middle Temple—fall within the City of London boundary.

 

The City has a resident population of 8,583 based on 2021 census figures, but over 500,000 are employed there (as of 2019) and some estimates put the number of workers in the City to be over 1 million. About three-quarters of the jobs in the City of London are in the financial, professional, and associated business services sectors.

 

The history of London, the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, extends over 2000 years. In that time, it has become one of the world's most significant financial and cultural capital cities. It has withstood plague, devastating fire, civil war, aerial bombardment, terrorist attacks, and riots.

 

The City of London is the historic core of the Greater London metropolis, and is today its primary financial district, it represents only a small part of the wider metropolis.

 

Foundations and prehistory

Some recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area. In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the Thames's south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge.[1] This bridge either crossed the Thames or went to a now lost island in the river. Dendrology dated the timbers to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2001, a further dig found that the timbers were driven vertically into the ground on the south bank of the Thames west of Vauxhall Bridge.

 

In 2010, the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC were found, again on the foreshore south of Vauxhall Bridge. The function of the mesolithic structure is not known. All these structures are on the south bank at a natural crossing point where the River Effra flows into the Thames.

 

Archaeologist Leslie Wallace notes, "Because no LPRIA [Late pre-Roman Iron Age] settlements or significant domestic refuse have been found in London, despite extensive archaeological excavation, arguments for a purely Roman foundation of London are now common and uncontroversial."

 

Early history

Roman London (47–410 AD)

Londinium was established as a civilian town by the Romans about four years after the invasion of 43 AD. London, like Rome, was founded on the point of the river where it was narrow enough to bridge and the strategic location of the city provided easy access to much of Europe. Early Roman London occupied a relatively small area, roughly equivalent to the size of Hyde Park. In around 60 AD, it was destroyed by the Iceni led by their queen Boudica. The city was quickly rebuilt as a planned Roman town and recovered after perhaps 10 years; the city grew rapidly over the following decades.

 

Although some sources claim that during the 2nd century Londinium replaced Colchester as the capital of Roman Britain (Britannia) there is no surviving evidence to prove it was ever the capital of Roman Britain. Its population was around 60,000 inhabitants. It boasted major public buildings, including the largest basilica north of the Alps, temples, bath houses, an amphitheatre and a large fort for the city garrison. Political instability and recession from the 3rd century onwards led to a slow decline.

 

At some time between 180 AD and 225 AD, the Romans built the defensive London Wall around the landward side of the city. The wall was about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) long, 6 metres (20 ft) high, and 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) thick. The wall would survive for another 1,600 years and define the City of London's perimeters for centuries to come. The perimeters of the present City are roughly defined by the line of the ancient wall.

 

Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from across the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.[9]

 

In the late 3rd century, Londinium was raided on several occasions by Saxon pirates. This led, from around 255 onwards, to the construction of an additional riverside wall. Six of the traditional seven city gates of London are of Roman origin, namely: Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate (Moorgate is the exception, being of medieval origin).

 

By the 5th century, the Roman Empire was in rapid decline and in 410 AD, the Roman occupation of Britannia came to an end. Following this, the Roman city also went into rapid decline and by the end of the 5th century was practically abandoned.

 

Anglo-Saxon London (5th century – 1066)

Until recently it was believed that Anglo-Saxon settlement initially avoided the area immediately around Londinium. However, the discovery in 2008 of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Covent Garden indicates that the incomers had begun to settle there at least as early as the 6th century and possibly in the 5th. The main focus of this settlement was outside the Roman walls, clustering a short distance to the west along what is now the Strand, between the Aldwych and Trafalgar Square. It was known as Lundenwic, the -wic suffix here denoting a trading settlement. Recent excavations have also highlighted the population density and relatively sophisticated urban organisation of this earlier Anglo-Saxon London, which was laid out on a grid pattern and grew to house a likely population of 10–12,000.

 

Early Anglo-Saxon London belonged to a people known as the Middle Saxons, from whom the name of the county of Middlesex is derived, but who probably also occupied the approximate area of modern Hertfordshire and Surrey. However, by the early 7th century the London area had been incorporated into the kingdom of the East Saxons. In 604 King Saeberht of Essex converted to Christianity and London received Mellitus, its first post-Roman bishop.

 

At this time Essex was under the overlordship of King Æthelberht of Kent, and it was under Æthelberht's patronage that Mellitus founded the first St. Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to be on the site of an old Roman Temple of Diana (although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this). It would have only been a modest church at first and may well have been destroyed after he was expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors.

 

The permanent establishment of Christianity in the East Saxon kingdom took place in the reign of King Sigeberht II in the 650s. During the 8th century, the kingdom of Mercia extended its dominance over south-eastern England, initially through overlordship which at times developed into outright annexation. London seems to have come under direct Mercian control in the 730s.

 

Viking attacks dominated most of the 9th century, becoming increasingly common from around 830 onwards. London was sacked in 842 and again in 851. The Danish "Great Heathen Army", which had rampaged across England since 865, wintered in London in 871. The city remained in Danish hands until 886, when it was captured by the forces of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and reincorporated into Mercia, then governed under Alfred's sovereignty by his son-in-law Ealdorman Æthelred.

 

Around this time the focus of settlement moved within the old Roman walls for the sake of defence, and the city became known as Lundenburh. The Roman walls were repaired and the defensive ditch re-cut, while the bridge was probably rebuilt at this time. A second fortified Borough was established on the south bank at Southwark, the Suthringa Geworc (defensive work of the men of Surrey). The old settlement of Lundenwic became known as the ealdwic or "old settlement", a name which survives today as Aldwich.

 

From this point, the City of London began to develop its own unique local government. Following Æthelred's death in 911 it was transferred to Wessex, preceding the absorption of the rest of Mercia in 918. Although it faced competition for political pre-eminence in the united Kingdom of England from the traditional West Saxon centre of Winchester, London's size and commercial wealth brought it a steadily increasing importance as a focus of governmental activity. King Athelstan held many meetings of the witan in London and issued laws from there, while King Æthelred the Unready issued the Laws of London there in 978.

 

Following the resumption of Viking attacks in the reign of Æthelred, London was unsuccessfully attacked in 994 by an army under King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. As English resistance to the sustained and escalating Danish onslaught finally collapsed in 1013, London repulsed an attack by the Danes and was the last place to hold out while the rest of the country submitted to Sweyn, but by the end of the year it too capitulated and Æthelred fled abroad. Sweyn died just five weeks after having been proclaimed king and Æthelred was restored to the throne, but Sweyn's son Cnut returned to the attack in 1015.

 

After Æthelred's death at London in 1016 his son Edmund Ironside was proclaimed king there by the witangemot and left to gather forces in Wessex. London was then subjected to a systematic siege by Cnut but was relieved by King Edmund's army; when Edmund again left to recruit reinforcements in Wessex the Danes resumed the siege but were again unsuccessful. However, following his defeat at the Battle of Assandun Edmund ceded to Cnut all of England north of the Thames, including London, and his death a few weeks later left Cnut in control of the whole country.

 

A Norse saga tells of a battle when King Æthelred returned to attack Danish-occupied London. According to the saga, the Danes lined London Bridge and showered the attackers with spears. Undaunted, the attackers pulled the roofs off nearby houses and held them over their heads in the boats. Thus protected, they were able to get close enough to the bridge to attach ropes to the piers and pull the bridge down, thus ending the Viking occupation of London. This story presumably relates to Æthelred's return to power after Sweyn's death in 1014, but there is no strong evidence of any such struggle for control of London on that occasion.

 

Following the extinction of Cnut's dynasty in 1042 English rule was restored under Edward the Confessor. He was responsible for the foundation of Westminster Abbey and spent much of his time at Westminster, which from this time steadily supplanted the City itself as the centre of government. Edward's death at Westminster in 1066 without a clear heir led to a succession dispute and the Norman conquest of England. Earl Harold Godwinson was elected king by the witangemot and crowned in Westminster Abbey but was defeated and killed by William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. The surviving members of the witan met in London and elected King Edward's young nephew Edgar the Ætheling as king.

 

The Normans advanced to the south bank of the Thames opposite London, where they defeated an English attack and burned Southwark but were unable to storm the bridge. They moved upstream and crossed the river at Wallingford before advancing on London from the north-west. The resolve of the English leadership to resist collapsed and the chief citizens of London went out together with the leading members of the Church and aristocracy to submit to William at Berkhamstead, although according to some accounts there was a subsequent violent clash when the Normans reached the city. Having occupied London, William was crowned king in Westminster Abbey.

 

Norman and Medieval London (1066 – late 15th century)

The new Norman regime established new fortresses within the city to dominate the native population. By far the most important of these was the Tower of London at the eastern end of the city, where the initial timber fortification was rapidly replaced by the construction of the first stone castle in England. The smaller forts of Baynard's Castle and Montfichet's Castle were also established along the waterfront. King William also granted a charter in 1067 confirming the city's existing rights, privileges and laws. London was a centre of England's nascent Jewish population, the first of whom arrived in about 1070. Its growing self-government was consolidated by the election rights granted by King John in 1199 and 1215.

 

On 17 October 1091 a tornado rated T8 on the TORRO scale (equivalent to an F4 on the Fujita scale) hit London; it directly struck the church of St. Mary-le-Bow; four rafters 7.9 meters long (26 feet) were said to have been buried so deep into the ground that only 1.2 meters (4 feet) was visible. Other churches in the area were destroyed as well; it was reported to have also destroyed over 600 houses (although most of them were primarily wood) and hit the London Bridge, after the tornado the bridge was rebuilt in stone. The tornado caused 2 deaths and an unknown number of injuries; this tornado is mentioned in chronicles by Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, the latter of the two describing it as "a great spectacle for those watching from afar, but a terrifying experience for those standing near".

 

In 1097, William Rufus, the son of William the Conqueror, began the construction of 'Westminster Hall', which became the focus of the Palace of Westminster.

 

In 1176, construction began of the most famous incarnation of London Bridge (completed in 1209), which was built on the site of several earlier timber bridges. This bridge would last for 600 years, and remained the only bridge across the River Thames until 1739.

 

Violence against Jews took place in 1190, after it was rumoured that the new King had ordered their massacre after they had presented themselves at his coronation.

 

In 1216, during the First Barons' War London was occupied by Prince Louis of France, who had been called in by the baronial rebels against King John and was acclaimed as King of England in St Paul's Cathedral. However, following John's death in 1217 Louis's supporters reverted to their Plantagenet allegiance, rallying round John's son Henry III, and Louis was forced to withdraw from England.

 

In 1224, after an accusation of ritual murder, the Jewish community was subjected to a steep punitive levy. Then in 1232, Henry III confiscated the principal synagogue of the London Jewish community because he claimed their chanting was audible in a neighboring church. In 1264, during the Second Barons' War, Simon de Montfort's rebels occupied London and killed 500 Jews while attempting to seize records of debts.

 

London's Jewish community was forced to leave England by the expulsion by Edward I in 1290. They left for France, Holland and further afield; their property was seized, and many suffered robbery and murder as they departed.

 

Over the following centuries, London would shake off the heavy French cultural and linguistic influence which had been there since the times of the Norman conquest. The city would figure heavily in the development of Early Modern English.

 

During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, London was invaded by rebels led by Wat Tyler. A group of peasants stormed the Tower of London and executed the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop Simon Sudbury, and the Lord Treasurer. The peasants looted the city and set fire to numerous buildings. Tyler was stabbed to death by the Lord Mayor William Walworth in a confrontation at Smithfield and the revolt collapsed.

 

Trade increased steadily during the Middle Ages, and London grew heavily as a result. In 1100, London's population was somewhat more than 15,000. By 1300, it had grown to roughly 80,000. London lost at least half of its population during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, but its economic and political importance stimulated a quick recovery despite further epidemics. Trade in London was organised into various guilds, which effectively controlled the city, and elected the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

 

Medieval London was made up of narrow and twisting streets, and most of the buildings were made from combustible materials such as timber and straw, which made fire a constant threat, while sanitation in cities was of low-quality.

 

Modern history

Tudor London (1485–1604)

In 1475, the Hanseatic League set up its main English trading base (kontor) in London, called Stalhof or Steelyard. It existed until 1853, when the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg sold the property to South Eastern Railway. Woollen cloth was shipped undyed and undressed from 14th/15th century London to the nearby shores of the Low Countries, where it was considered indispensable.

 

During the Reformation, London was the principal early centre of Protestantism in England. Its close commercial connections with the Protestant heartlands in northern continental Europe, large foreign mercantile communities, disproportionately large number of literate inhabitants and role as the centre of the English print trade all contributed to the spread of the new ideas of religious reform. Before the Reformation, more than half of the area of London was the property of monasteries, nunneries and other religious houses.

 

Henry VIII's "Dissolution of the Monasteries" had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. The process started in the mid-1530s, and by 1538 most of the larger monastic houses had been abolished. Holy Trinity Aldgate went to Lord Audley, and the Marquess of Winchester built himself a house in part of its precincts. The Charterhouse went to Lord North, Blackfriars to Lord Cobham, the leper hospital of St Giles to Lord Dudley, while the king took for himself the leper hospital of St James, which was rebuilt as St James's Palace.

 

The period saw London rapidly rising in importance among Europe's commercial centres. Trade expanded beyond Western Europe to Russia, the Levant, and the Americas. This was the period of mercantilism and monopoly trading companies such as the Muscovy Company (1555) and the British East India Company (1600) were established in London by royal charter. The latter, which ultimately came to rule India, was one of the key institutions in London, and in Britain as a whole, for two and a half centuries. Immigrants arrived in London not just from all over England and Wales, but from abroad as well, for example Huguenots from France; the population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. The growth of the population and wealth of London was fuelled by a vast expansion in the use of coastal shipping.

 

The late 16th and early 17th century saw the great flourishing of drama in London whose preeminent figure was William Shakespeare. During the mostly calm later years of Elizabeth's reign, some of her courtiers and some of the wealthier citizens of London built themselves country residences in Middlesex, Essex and Surrey. This was an early stirring of the villa movement, the taste for residences which were neither of the city nor on an agricultural estate, but at the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, London was still relatively compact.

 

Xenophobia was rampant in London, and increased after the 1580s. Many immigrants became disillusioned by routine threats of violence and molestation, attempts at expulsion of foreigners, and the great difficulty in acquiring English citizenship. Dutch cities proved more hospitable, and many left London permanently. Foreigners are estimated to have made up 4,000 of the 100,000 residents of London by 1600, many being Dutch and German workers and traders.

 

Stuart London (1603–1714)

Paul's Cathedral had lost its spire by this time. The two theatres on the foreground (Southwark) side of the Thames are The Bear Garden and The Globe. The large church in the foreground is St Mary Overie, now Southwark Cathedral.

London's expansion beyond the boundaries of the City was decisively established in the 17th century. In the opening years of that century the immediate environs of the City, with the principal exception of the aristocratic residences in the direction of Westminster, were still considered not conducive to health. Immediately to the north was Moorfields, which had recently been drained and laid out in walks, but it was frequented by beggars and travellers, who crossed it in order to get into London. Adjoining Moorfields were Finsbury Fields, a favourite practising ground for the archers, Mile End, then a common on the Great Eastern Road and famous as a rendezvous for the troops.

 

The preparations for King James I becoming king were interrupted by a severe plague epidemic, which may have killed over thirty thousand people. The Lord Mayor's Show, which had been discontinued for some years, was revived by order of the king in 1609. The dissolved monastery of the Charterhouse, which had been bought and sold by the courtiers several times, was purchased by Thomas Sutton for £13,000. The new hospital, chapel, and schoolhouse were begun in 1611. Charterhouse School was to be one of the principal public schools in London until it moved to Surrey in the Victorian era, and the site is still used as a medical school.

 

The general meeting-place of Londoners in the day-time was the nave of Old St. Paul's Cathedral. Merchants conducted business in the aisles, and used the font as a counter upon which to make their payments; lawyers received clients at their particular pillars; and the unemployed looked for work. St Paul's Churchyard was the centre of the book trade and Fleet Street was a centre of public entertainment. Under James I the theatre, which established itself so firmly in the latter years of Elizabeth, grew further in popularity. The performances at the public theatres were complemented by elaborate masques at the royal court and at the inns of court.

 

Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625. During his reign, aristocrats began to inhabit the West End in large numbers. In addition to those who had specific business at court, increasing numbers of country landowners and their families lived in London for part of the year simply for the social life. This was the beginning of the "London season". Lincoln's Inn Fields was built about 1629. The piazza of Covent Garden, designed by England's first classically trained architect Inigo Jones followed in about 1632. The neighbouring streets were built shortly afterwards, and the names of Henrietta, Charles, James, King and York Streets were given after members of the royal family.

 

In January 1642 five members of parliament whom the King wished to arrest were granted refuge in the City. In August of the same year the King raised his banner at Nottingham, and during the English Civil War London took the side of the parliament. Initially the king had the upper hand in military terms and in November he won the Battle of Brentford a few miles to the west of London. The City organised a new makeshift army and Charles hesitated and retreated.

 

Subsequently, an extensive system of fortifications was built to protect London from a renewed attack by the Royalists. This comprised a strong earthen rampart, enhanced with bastions and redoubts. It was well beyond the City walls and encompassed the whole urban area, including Westminster and Southwark. London was not seriously threatened by the royalists again, and the financial resources of the City made an important contribution to the parliamentarians' victory in the war.

 

The unsanitary and overcrowded City of London has suffered from the numerous outbreaks of the plague many times over the centuries, but in Britain it is the last major outbreak which is remembered as the "Great Plague" It occurred in 1665 and 1666 and killed around 60,000 people, which was one fifth of the population. Samuel Pepys chronicled the epidemic in his diary. On 4 September 1665 he wrote "I have stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them about 6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells."

 

Great Fire of London (1666)

The Great Plague was immediately followed by another catastrophe, albeit one which helped to put an end to the plague. On the Sunday, 2 September 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out at one o'clock in the morning at a bakery in Pudding Lane in the southern part of the City. Fanned by an eastern wind the fire spread, and efforts to arrest it by pulling down houses to make firebreaks were disorganised to begin with. On Tuesday night the wind fell somewhat, and on Wednesday the fire slackened. On Thursday it was extinguished, but on the evening of that day the flames again burst forth at the Temple. Some houses were at once blown up by gunpowder, and thus the fire was finally mastered. The Monument was built to commemorate the fire: for over a century and a half it bore an inscription attributing the conflagration to a "popish frenzy".

 

The fire destroyed about 60% of the City, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, 87 parish churches, 44 livery company halls and the Royal Exchange. However, the number of lives lost was surprisingly small; it is believed to have been 16 at most. Within a few days of the fire, three plans were presented to the king for the rebuilding of the city, by Christopher Wren, John Evelyn and Robert Hooke.

 

Wren proposed to build main thoroughfares north and south, and east and west, to insulate all the churches in conspicuous positions, to form the most public places into large piazzas, to unite the halls of the 12 chief livery companies into one regular square annexed to the Guildhall, and to make a fine quay on the bank of the river from Blackfriars to the Tower of London. Wren wished to build the new streets straight and in three standard widths of thirty, sixty and ninety feet. Evelyn's plan differed from Wren's chiefly in proposing a street from the church of St Dunstan's in the East to the St Paul's, and in having no quay or terrace along the river. These plans were not implemented, and the rebuilt city generally followed the streetplan of the old one, and most of it has survived into the 21st century.

 

Nonetheless, the new City was different from the old one. Many aristocratic residents never returned, preferring to take new houses in the West End, where fashionable new districts such as St. James's were built close to the main royal residence, which was Whitehall Palace until it was destroyed by fire in the 1690s, and thereafter St. James's Palace. The rural lane of Piccadilly sprouted courtiers mansions such as Burlington House. Thus the separation between the middle class mercantile City of London, and the aristocratic world of the court in Westminster became complete.

 

In the City itself there was a move from wooden buildings to stone and brick construction to reduce the risk of fire. Parliament's Rebuilding of London Act 1666 stated "building with brick [is] not only more comely and durable, but also more safe against future perils of fire". From then on only doorcases, window-frames and shop fronts were allowed to be made of wood.

 

Christopher Wren's plan for a new model London came to nothing, but he was appointed to rebuild the ruined parish churches and to replace St Paul's Cathedral. His domed baroque cathedral was the primary symbol of London for at least a century and a half. As city surveyor, Robert Hooke oversaw the reconstruction of the City's houses. The East End, that is the area immediately to the east of the city walls, also became heavily populated in the decades after the Great Fire. London's docks began to extend downstream, attracting many working people who worked on the docks themselves and in the processing and distributive trades. These people lived in Whitechapel, Wapping, Stepney and Limehouse, generally in slum conditions.

 

In the winter of 1683–1684, a frost fair was held on the Thames. The frost, which began about seven weeks before Christmas and continued for six weeks after, was the greatest on record. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 led to a large migration of Huguenots to London. They established a silk industry at Spitalfields.

 

At this time the Bank of England was founded, and the British East India Company was expanding its influence. Lloyd's of London also began to operate in the late 17th century. In 1700, London handled 80% of England's imports, 69% of its exports and 86% of its re-exports. Many of the goods were luxuries from the Americas and Asia such as silk, sugar, tea and tobacco. The last figure emphasises London's role as an entrepot: while it had many craftsmen in the 17th century, and would later acquire some large factories, its economic prominence was never based primarily on industry. Instead it was a great trading and redistribution centre. Goods were brought to London by England's increasingly dominant merchant navy, not only to satisfy domestic demand, but also for re-export throughout Europe and beyond.

 

William III, a Dutchman, cared little for London, the smoke of which gave him asthma, and after the first fire at Whitehall Palace (1691) he purchased Nottingham House and transformed it into Kensington Palace. Kensington was then an insignificant village, but the arrival of the court soon caused it to grow in importance. The palace was rarely favoured by future monarchs, but its construction was another step in the expansion of the bounds of London. During the same reign Greenwich Hospital, then well outside the boundary of London, but now comfortably inside it, was begun; it was the naval complement to the Chelsea Hospital for former soldiers, which had been founded in 1681. During the reign of Queen Anne an act was passed authorising the building of 50 new churches to serve the greatly increased population living outside the boundaries of the City of London.

 

A view of London from the east in 1751

The 18th century was a period of rapid growth for London, reflecting an increasing national population, the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and London's role at the centre of the evolving British Empire.

 

In 1707, an Act of Union was passed merging the Scottish and the English Parliaments, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain. A year later, in 1708 Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral was completed on his birthday. However, the first service had been held on 2nd of December 1697; more than 10 years earlier. This Cathedral replaced the original St. Paul's which had been completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London. This building is considered one of the finest in Britain and a fine example of Baroque architecture.

 

Many tradesmen from different countries came to London to trade goods and merchandise. Also, more immigrants moved to London making the population greater. More people also moved to London for work and for business making London an altogether bigger and busier city. Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War increased the country's international standing and opened large new markets to British trade, further boosting London's prosperity.

 

During the Georgian period London spread beyond its traditional limits at an accelerating pace. This is shown in a series of detailed maps, particularly John Rocque's 1741–45 map (see below) and his 1746 Map of London. New districts such as Mayfair were built for the rich in the West End, new bridges over the Thames encouraged an acceleration of development in South London and in the East End, the Port of London expanded downstream from the City. During this period was also the uprising of the American colonies.

 

In 1780, the Tower of London held its only American prisoner, former President of the Continental Congress, Henry Laurens. In 1779, he was the Congress's representative of Holland, and got the country's support for the Revolution. On his return voyage back to America, the Royal Navy captured him and charged him with treason after finding evidence of a reason of war between Great Britain and the Netherlands. He was released from the Tower on 21 December 1781 in exchange for General Lord Cornwallis.

 

In 1762, George III acquired Buckingham Palace (then called Buckingham House) from the Duke of Buckingham. It was enlarged over the next 75 years by architects such as John Nash.

 

A phenomenon of the era was the coffeehouse, which became a popular place to debate ideas. Growing literacy and the development of the printing press meant that news became widely available. Fleet Street became the centre of the embryonic national press during the century.

 

18th-century London was dogged by crime. The Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force. Penalties for crime were harsh, with the death penalty being applied for fairly minor crimes. Public hangings were common in London, and were popular public events.

 

In 1780, London was rocked by the Gordon Riots, an uprising by Protestants against Roman Catholic emancipation led by Lord George Gordon. Severe damage was caused to Catholic churches and homes, and 285 rioters were killed.

 

Up until 1750, London Bridge was the only crossing over the Thames, but in that year Westminster Bridge was opened and, for the first time in history, London Bridge, in a sense, had a rival. In 1798, Frankfurt banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild arrived in London and set up a banking house in the city, with a large sum of money given to him by his father, Amschel Mayer Rothschild. The Rothschilds also had banks in Paris and Vienna. The bank financed numerous large-scale projects, especially regarding railways around the world and the Suez Canal.

 

The 18th century saw the breakaway of the American colonies and many other unfortunate events in London, but also great change and Enlightenment. This all led into the beginning of modern times, the 19th century.

 

19th century

During the 19th century, London was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire. Its population expanded from 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million a century later. During this period, London became a global political, financial, and trading capital. In this position, it was largely unrivalled until the latter part of the century, when Paris and New York began to threaten its dominance.

 

While the city grew wealthy as Britain's holdings expanded, 19th-century London was also a city of poverty, where millions lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slums. Life for the poor was immortalised by Charles Dickens in such novels as Oliver Twist.

 

In 1829, the then Home Secretary (and future prime minister) Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police as a police force covering the entire urban area. The force gained the nickname of "bobbies" or "peelers" named after Robert Peel.

 

19th-century London was transformed by the coming of the railways. A new network of metropolitan railways allowed for the development of suburbs in neighbouring counties from which middle-class and wealthy people could commute to the centre. While this spurred the massive outward growth of the city, the growth of greater London also exacerbated the class divide, as the wealthier classes emigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poor to inhabit the inner city areas.

 

The first railway to be built in London was a line from London Bridge to Greenwich, which opened in 1836. This was soon followed by the opening of great rail termini which eventually linked London to every corner of Great Britain, including Euston station (1837), Paddington station (1838), Fenchurch Street station (1841), Waterloo station (1848), King's Cross station (1850), and St Pancras station (1863). From 1863, the first lines of the London Underground were constructed.

 

The urbanised area continued to grow rapidly, spreading into Islington, Paddington, Belgravia, Holborn, Finsbury, Shoreditch, Southwark and Lambeth. Towards the middle of the century, London's antiquated local government system, consisting of ancient parishes and vestries, struggled to cope with the rapid growth in population. In 1855, the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was created to provide London with adequate infrastructure to cope with its growth. One of its first tasks was addressing London's sanitation problems. At the time, raw sewage was pumped straight into the River Thames. This culminated in The Great Stink of 1858.

 

Parliament finally gave consent for the MBW to construct a large system of sewers. The engineer put in charge of building the new system was Joseph Bazalgette. In what was one of the largest civil engineering projects of the 19th century, he oversaw construction of over 2100 km of tunnels and pipes under London to take away sewage and provide clean drinking water. When the London sewerage system was completed, the death toll in London dropped dramatically, and epidemics of cholera and other diseases were curtailed. Bazalgette's system is still in use today.

 

One of the most famous events of 19th-century London was the Great Exhibition of 1851. Held at The Crystal Palace, the fair attracted 6 million visitors from across the world and displayed Britain at the height of its Imperial dominance.

 

As the capital of a massive empire, London became a magnet for immigrants from the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. A large Irish population settled in the city during the Victorian period, with many of the newcomers refugees from the Great Famine (1845–1849). At one point, Catholic Irish made up about 20% of London's population; they typically lived in overcrowded slums. London also became home to a sizable Jewish community, which was notable for its entrepreneurship in the clothing trade and merchandising.

 

In 1888, the new County of London was established, administered by the London County Council. This was the first elected London-wide administrative body, replacing the earlier Metropolitan Board of Works, which had been made up of appointees. The County of London covered broadly what was then the full extent of the London conurbation, although the conurbation later outgrew the boundaries of the county. In 1900, the county was sub-divided into 28 metropolitan boroughs, which formed a more local tier of administration than the county council.

 

Many famous buildings and landmarks of London were constructed during the 19th century including:

Trafalgar Square

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

The Royal Albert Hall

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Tower Bridge

20th century

 

1900 to 1939

London entered the 20th century at the height of its influence as the capital of one of the largest empires in history, but the new century was to bring many challenges.

 

London's population continued to grow rapidly in the early decades of the century, and public transport was greatly expanded. A large tram network was constructed by the London County Council, through the LCC Tramways; the first motorbus service began in the 1900s. Improvements to London's overground and underground rail network, including large scale electrification were progressively carried out.

 

During World War I, London experienced its first bombing raids carried out by German zeppelin airships; these killed around 700 people and caused great terror, but were merely a foretaste of what was to come. The city of London would experience many more terrors as a result of both World Wars. The largest explosion in London occurred during World War I: the Silvertown explosion, when a munitions factory containing 50 tons of TNT exploded, killing 73 and injuring 400.

 

The period between the two World Wars saw London's geographical extent growing more quickly than ever before or since. A preference for lower density suburban housing, typically semi-detached, by Londoners seeking a more "rural" lifestyle, superseded Londoners' old predilection for terraced houses. This was facilitated not only by a continuing expansion of the rail network, including trams and the Underground, but also by slowly widening car ownership. London's suburbs expanded outside the boundaries of the County of London, into the neighbouring counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey.

 

Like the rest of the country, London suffered severe unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the East End during the 1930s, politically extreme parties of both right and left flourished. The Communist Party of Great Britain and the British Union of Fascists both gained serious support. Clashes between right and left culminated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. The population of London reached an all-time peak of 8.6 million in 1939.

 

Large numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany settled in London during the 1930s, mostly in the East End.

 

Labour Party politician Herbert Morrison was a dominant figure in local government in the 1920s and 1930s. He became mayor of Hackney and a member of the London County Council in 1922, and for a while was Minister of Transport in Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet. When Labour gained power in London in 1934, Morrison unified the bus, tram and trolleybus services with the Underground, by the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board (known as London Transport) in 1933., He led the effort to finance and build the new Waterloo Bridge. He designed the Metropolitan Green Belt around the suburbs and worked to clear slums, build schools, and reform public assistance.

 

In World War II

During World War II, London, as many other British cities, suffered severe damage, being bombed extensively by the Luftwaffe as a part of The Blitz. Prior to the bombing, hundreds of thousands of children in London were evacuated to the countryside to avoid the bombing. Civilians took shelter from the air raids in underground stations.

 

The heaviest bombing took place during The Blitz between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. During this period, London was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high explosive. One raid in December 1940, which became known as the Second Great Fire of London, saw a firestorm engulf much of the City of London and destroy many historic buildings. St Paul's Cathedral, however, remained unscathed; a photograph showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous image of the war.

 

Having failed to defeat Britain, Hitler turned his attention to the Eastern front and regular bombing raids ceased. They began again, but on a smaller scale with the "Little Blitz" in early 1944. Towards the end of the war, during 1944/45 London again came under heavy attack by pilotless V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets, which were fired from Nazi occupied Europe. These attacks only came to an end when their launch sites were captured by advancing Allied forces.

 

London suffered severe damage and heavy casualties, the worst hit part being the Docklands area. By the war's end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000 seriously injured, tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless.

 

1945–2000

Three years after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war. London's rebuilding was slow to begin. However, in 1951 the Festival of Britain was held, which marked an increasing mood of optimism and forward looking.

 

In the immediate postwar years housing was a major issue in London, due to the large amount of housing which had been destroyed in the war. The authorities decided upon high-rise blocks of flats as the answer to housing shortages. During the 1950s and 1960s the skyline of London altered dramatically as tower blocks were erected, although these later proved unpopular. In a bid to reduce the number of people living in overcrowded housing, a policy was introduced of encouraging people to move into newly built new towns surrounding London. Living standards also rose, with real earnings rising by approximately 70.% in the 20 years after the end of the war.

 

Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions this often caused a characteristic smog, and London became known for its typical "London Fog", also known as "Pea Soupers". London was sometimes referred to as "The Smoke" because of this. In 1952, this culminated in the disastrous Great Smog of 1952 which lasted for five days and killed over 4,000 people. In response to this, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, mandating the creating of "smokeless zones" where the use of "smokeless" fuels was required (this was at a time when most households still used open fires); the Act was effective.

 

Starting in the mid-1960s, and partly as a result of the success of such UK musicians as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, London became a centre for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture which made Carnaby Street a household name of youth fashion around the world. London's role as a trendsetter for youth fashion continued strongly in the 1980s during the new wave and punk eras and into the mid-1990s with the emergence of the Britpop era.

 

From the 1950s onwards London experienced an increase in immigration, largely from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, the integration of the new immigrants was not always easy. Racial tensions emerged in events such as the Brixton Riots in the early 1980s.

 

From the beginning of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, London was subjected to repeated terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA.

 

The outward expansion of London was slowed by the war, and the introduction of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Due to this outward expansion, in 1965 the old County of London (which by now only covered part of the London conurbation) and the London County Council were abolished, and the much larger area of Greater London was established with a new Greater London Council (GLC) to administer it, along with 32 new London boroughs.

 

Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after World War II, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. However, it then began to increase again in the late 1980s, encouraged by strong economic performance and an increasingly positive image.

 

London's traditional status as a major port declined dramatically in the post-war decades as the old Docklands could not accommodate large modern container ships. The principal ports for London moved downstream to the ports of Felixstowe and Tilbury. The docklands area had become largely derelict by the 1980s, but was redeveloped into flats and offices from the mid-1980s onwards. The Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the North Sea.

 

In the early 1980s political disputes between the GLC run by Ken Livingstone and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher led to the GLC's abolition in 1986, with most of its powers relegated to the London boroughs. This left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration.

 

In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority (GLA) by Tony Blair's government, covering the same area of Greater London. The new authority had similar powers to the old GLC, but was made up of a directly elected Mayor and a London Assembly. The first election took place on 4 May, with Ken Livingstone comfortably regaining his previous post, becoming first elected mayor of London. London was recognised as one of the nine regions of England. In global perspective, it was emerging as a World city widely compared to New York and Tokyo.

 

21st century

Around the start of the 21st century, London hosted the much derided Millennium Dome at Greenwich, to mark the new century.[50] Other Millennium projects were more successful. One was the largest observation wheel in the world, the "Millennium Wheel", or the London Eye, which was erected as a temporary structure, but soon became a fixture, and draws four million visitors a year. The National Lottery also released a flood of funds for major enhancements to existing attractions, for example the roofing of the Great Court at the British Museum.

 

The London Plan, published by the Mayor of London in 2004, estimated that the population would reach 8.1 million by 2016, and continue to rise thereafter. This was reflected in a move towards denser, more urban styles of building, including a greatly increased number of tall buildings, and proposals for major enhancements to the public transport network. However, funding for projects such as Crossrail remained a struggle.

 

On 6 July 2005 London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics making it the first city to host the modern games three times. However, celebrations were cut short the following day when the city was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. More than 50 were killed and 750 injured in three bombings on London Underground trains and a fourth on a double decker bus near King's Cross.

 

London was the starting point for countrywide riots which occurred in August 2011, when thousands of people rioted in several city boroughs and in towns across England. They were the biggest riots in modern English history. In 2011, the population grew over 8 million people for the first time in decades. White British formed less than half of the population for the first time.

 

In the public there was ambivalence leading-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in the city,[58] though public sentiment changed strongly in their favour following a successful opening ceremony and when the anticipated organisational and transport problems never occurred.

 

Boris Johnson, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party, served as mayor of London from 1 May 2008 until 5 May 2016, being elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012.

 

In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, London was the only region in England, where Remain won the highest share of the vote. The voter turnout was the highest in London since the 1950 general election.[61] However, Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) in early 2021 (Brexit) only marginally weakened London’s position as an international financial center (IFC).

 

In May 2021, Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital city, won a second term as London's mayor.

 

In 2022, the Elizabeth line railway opened, connecting Heathrow and Reading to Shenfield and Abbey Wood through a tunnel in the city between Paddington and Liverpool Street, revolutionising east-west travel in London.

 

On 6 May 2023, the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, took place at Westminster Abbey, London.

Swanley (SJ) depot. Driven by my dad, the fitter.

My Caniche Royal..... Barbie Q Holly Day

Gunditjmara Aboriginal people.

When Robertson the Protector of Aborigines visit Edward Henty at Portland in 1841 he also visited the people around Lake Condah and made notes in his journal of their ingenious eel fishing traps. Like other areas of the Western Districts the Gunditjmara people were sophisticated engineers making woven eel traps from water reeds, building permanent stone shelters and digging canals, stone channels and stone traps to catch the annual spring eel migration downstream to the ocean for breeding. This distinguished them from most other Aboriginal groups in Australia. The richness of wildlife meant they could live semi permanently in one spot. The Gunditjmara lived in a relatively small area between Lake Condah, Mount Eccles and Mount Napier on a volcanic plain riddled with lava flows and lava stones comprising about 100 square kms. The landscape itself was formed about 27,000 years ago after volcanic eruptions by Eccles and Napier. The fish and short finned eel traps here on Darlot Creek are dated to around 8,000 years ago and along with their dams, weirs and channels their engineering works stretched 40 kms. The eels travel to New Caledonia for breeding and return to live in the lakes of Mt Eccles after that. They grow to a metre long and as thick as a man’s arm. Some stonewalls constructed by the Gunditjmara were about 50 metres long. They were built to block particular water channels. Channels were also built at different heights to capture the eels no matter how much water was coming down Darlots Creek. The Gunditjmara supplemented their diet of eels with water birds, ducks, plains turkeys, kangaroos and vegetable foods such as daisy yam and rhizomes of bracken fern. They had not great need to be nomadic here. This was Australia Felix for them too.

 

This ability to harvest eels and other fish annually meant that they modified the landscape, built engineering works, lived here throughout the year and altered their social systems. Although disputed by some, others claim that Gunditjmara people even “owned” particular spots along the creeks and channels giving them a totally different land system to any other Aboriginal groups in Australia. They had hereditary chiefs and a fairly stratified society. And they had permanent stone shelters covered with reeds like thatch and sods of earth to make them rainproof. The shelter walls were only about one metre high and the houses were semi-circular. The dome roof had a wooden structure beneath it to support the weight of sods. The remains of more than 175 houses have been recorded by archaeologists including 145 in one paddock indicating that the Gunditjmara lived in a village like community. But once white pastoralists came in 1840 the end was nigh for the Gunditjmara. They were driven off the land and eventually into Lake Condah Mission. More archaeological surveys now are being conducted on their lands.

 

But before the Gunditjmara went on to Lake Condah Mission they resisted the white pastoralists. The so-called Eumeralla Wars erupted and lasted for around twenty years. Eumeralla was a location just south of Macarthur. Thomas Browne squatted on 50,000 acres here in 1844 on a property which he called Squattelsea Mere but the leasehold was held by Benjamin Boyd. At 17 years of age Browne was just one of the workers or managers on site. Browne began by admiring the Aboriginals but once the sheep flocks were raided he retaliated. With other squatters a number of raids were made and many of the family of Jupiter and Cocknose the local warriors were slaughtered in 1845. But the warriors attacked again and this time it was the homestead where Thomas Browne and others lived and this time the Aboriginals stole flour, tea and even silver spoons. Concerned about his safety Browne then asked for police assistance and they in turn mounted another attack on the followers of Jupiter and Cocknose. The warriors were never seen again and more Aboriginal people were killed. This ended the Eumeralla Wars but surprisingly, especially given that police became involved, there is no official record of this event occurring. Contemporary newspaper reports mention the theft of cattle in 1845 but there was no reference to reprisals or murders. In fact the newspaper went on to lament the lack of police assistance for settlers under threat of Aboriginal attack. Was the story just part of Browne’s vivid literary imagination? Browne left this run in 1856. Thomas Browne went on to write about these times (but not these events) under the pseudonym of Rolf Boldrewood. His most famous book was Robbery Under Arms but he also wrote The Squatter’s Dream and The Home Run. Regardless of the veracity of this particular incident there were plenty of other incidents of resistance and massacre in the Western Districts.

 

Lake Condah Station and Mission 1869-1918.

Lake Condah was discovered in 1841 by Edgar and Thompson two settlers from Hamilton. They called it Lake Condon or Condom which was gradually changed to Condah to avoid confusion. The land here was part of a 35,000-acre pastoral lease taken out by George Coghill in 1843 and sold on to Pybus Cooke in 1849. Nearby his brother-in-law Samuel Winter had Murndal station which he had taken up around 1845. Cooke kept Lake Condah run for most of his life and was known for his excellent treatment and relations with the Gunditjmara people. Partly because of these good relations between black and white the Anglican Mission board selected Lake Condah for an Aboriginal mission. Pybus Cooke donated the land and £2,000 for the erection of an Anglican Church at the Mission but the rest of the land (3,000 acres later reduced to 2,000 acres) came from the government which resumed part of his Lake Condah station in 1867. Cooke died in 1895 and his property was inherited by a son who also inherited Murndal from his uncle. Murndal is one of the great historic homesteads of Australia.

 

The proud and remarkably different Gunditjmara Aboriginal people for good or bad were forced into a strict and severe Anglican mission in 1869. NSW Aboriginal protection officers disappeared in 1850 when Victoria became a separate self-governing state. The Victorian government from 1851 encouraged church mission stations and from 1858 they had a policy of segregating Aboriginal people onto reserves or missions. Victoria only established a Board for the Protection of Aborigines in 1869 when the government starting setting aside land for Aboriginal reserves. By 1874 the Board had control of 50,000 acres. Back in the 1850s the Moravian Mission board in London decided to operate Aboriginal mission to Christianise Aboriginal people in Victoria and the first was at Ebenezer which we visit another day. The Anglican Church joined in too and established Yelta Mission near Mildura in 1855 and Lake Condah in 1869. The Mission was 3 kms from Lake Condah (which is 4kms long and one kms wide) on high ground near Darlots Creek. As it was close to Lake Condah some Gunditjmara people continued trapping eels and using the natural food resources of the lake and Darlots Creek. But generally they were very closely supervised and outside work for other farmers was forbidden. To the north of the Mission was Condah Swamp which is 18 kms long and 2 kms wide. As the winter rains came down Darlots Creek they partially flooded the swamp and filled Lake Condah but importantly they allowed eels to travel downstream in the spring towards the coast. This was when they were trapped by the Gunditjmara people. The eels travelled upstream in late autumn to reproduce.

 

Although it was an Anglican Mission its first serving and very strict supervisor was a Moravian clergyman Rev. Job Francis. Within a few years houses and mission buildings were erected in a quadrangle around the village green. The Mission had a schoolroom, orchard, dairy etc. The church was not built until 1883 and completed in 1885. Its tower stood 75 feet high. Prior to the church opening the schoolroom was used for Sunday services. By 1871 around 80 people lived on the Mission and by the late 1880s around 120 resided here. In 1875 Rev Stahle another disciplinarian of Moravian faith came from Ebenezer Mission near Dimboola to take charge. He stayed on until 1913 just before the Mission closed. He whipped two boys once and he banished seven families from the Mission and refused to give them rations because he disapproved of their behaviour. But he was a stayer and the Aboriginal people eventually respected this and he was mourned greatly by all involved with the mission when he died in Portland. The Gothic St. Marys Church was a Stahle dream although he could not conduct services there because he was not an Anglican! After the government passed the 1886 Act to ban part Aboriginal people from government reserves and Missions the numbers of residents on the Mission declined quickly to around 34 by 1905. Many Gunditjmara moved to nearby towns and returned to attend church weekly. In 1902 the Mission acreage was reduced from 2,000 acres to a mere 850 acres. Stahle retired in 1913 and the last superintendent arrived. Men from the Mission enlisted and fought during World War One. Both Aboriginals and whites resisted the closing of the Mission but it was inevitable. It closed 1918 and the government confirmed this in 1919. Local whites argued for an Aboriginal reserve but most of the land was subdivided for white farmers except for 46 acres which covered the church and village. The church was dynamited in 1957 but the cemetery remains. A project began in 1984 to restore some of the 23 former mission buildings. Around 2,100 acres were returned to local Aboriginal control in 1987. Today they control about 4,000 acres freehold.

  

Subaru STI x ACE Alloy Driven

Driven by David Randall

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Lettice is nursing a broken heart. Her beau, Selwyn Spencely, son of the Duke of Walmsford, has been sent to Durban for a year by his mother, the Duchess of Walmsford, Lady Zinnia in an effort to destroy their relationship which she wants to end so that she can marry Selwyn off to his cousin, Pamela Fox-Chavers. Lettice returned home to Glynes to lick her wounds, however it only served to make matters worse as she grew even more morose. It was from the most unlikely of candidates, her mother Lady Sadie, with whom Lettice has always had a fraught relationship, that Lettice received the best advice, which was to stop feeling sorry for herself and get on with her life and wait patiently for Selwyn’s eventual return. Since then, Lettice has been trying to follow her mother’s advice and has thrown herself into the merry dance of London’s social round of dinners, dances and balls. However, even she could only keep this up for so long, and on New Year’s Eve, her sister, Lally, suggested that she spend a few extra weeks resting and recuperating with her in Buckinghamshire before returning to London and trying to get on with her life. Lettice happily agreed, however her rest cure ended abruptly with a letter from her Aunt Egg in London, summoned Lettice back to the capital and into society in general. Through her social connections, Aunt Egg has contrived an invitation for Lettice and her married Embassy Club coterie friends Dickie and Margot Channon, to an amusing Friday to Monday long weekend party of Sir John and Lady Caxton, who are very well known amongst the smarter bohemian set of London society for their amusing weekend parties at their Scottish country estate and enjoyable literary evenings in their Belgravia townhouse. Lady Gladys is a successful authoress in her own right and writes under the nom de plume of Madeline St John, so they attract a mixture of witty writers and artists mostly.

 

Now we find ourselves in the cosy and cluttered, old fashioned Art and Crafts decorated drawing room of Gossington, the Scottish Baronial style English Art and Crafts castle near the hamlet of Kershopefoot in Cumberland belonging to Sir John and Lady Gladys, where Lettice, Margot and Dickie have joined their hosts along with a few stragglers who arrived on a later train to Carlisle who were chauffeured to the house from the railway station there.

 

Lady Gladys stands by one of the full length windows looking out at the countryside beyond. Her face crumples up as she stares at the roiling and dark clouds in the sky. She pats her finger waved grey hair anxiously, as though trying to protect it from being spoiled by the rain she perceives is coming, “Looks like the weather is on the turn, John.”

 

“What’s that, Gladys?” her husband pipes up, glancing over the top of his book from his Savonarola chair by the crackling fire.

 

“I said it’s starting to cloud over.” she replies in a slightly louder voice, turning to face him so he can hear her more clearly. “I do hope that it doesn’t rain on Pheobe and the other ramblers.”

 

“I’m sure they can all shelter in a barn somewhere.” he replies. “It will be a new and novel experience for some of them.”

 

Snorts and muffles giggles come from a few of the guests sitting about the room enjoying indoor pursuits.

 

Sir John looks over at the clusters of heads lowered together and chuckles good-naturedly as he remarks, “Don’t get so self-righteous you lot!” He closes his book. “I bet it would be a new and novel experience for most of you too!”

 

Lady Gladys wanders across the room, toying with the long string of pearls about her neck and takes a seat, just as Lettice appears at the door of the drawing room.

 

“Oh, do come in Lettice,” Lady Gladys says warmly from a corner of the Knole sofa* upholstered in William Morris’** ‘Strawberry Thief’ fabric. “Come and sit with me.” She softly pats the cushion next to her, the action emitting a small cloud of dust motes.

 

“Thank you Lady Caxton.” Lettice replies as she walks across the room, squeezing between the clusters of chairs and occasional tables, some occupied by the late arriving guests, including Dickie and Margot, playing a range of parlour games on offer from the Gossington games cupboard.

 

“Ah!” the hostess wags her finger admonishing at Lettice. “I might be older than your mother, my dear, but here, we are egalitarian. We are all on a first name basis. I am Gladys and Sir John is just, John. Hmmm?”

 

“Very well, thank you, Gladys.” Lettice replies awkwardly, a little startled by this revelation, as she sits on the opposite end of the sofa, closest to the fire.

 

“Gladys is an old Fabian*** from before you were born, Lettice.” Sir John adds with a kindly wink from his seat opposite her.

 

“Not so much of the old, thank you John!” Gladys remarks, pretending to be offended. “Remember, I’m younger than you.”

 

“That doesn’t say much when you compare yourself to all these youngsters!” He waves his hand about the room.

 

“That’s why I like young people,” Gladys smiles indulgently at Lettice, directing her comment to her rather than her husband. “They help keep me young with their talk of nightclubs, the latest shows and the like.”

 

“More like it gives you fodder for your next novel, Gladys.” He looks lovingly at his wife, a mischievous glint in his sparkling blue eyes and a cheeky smile playing across his lips. “Writing vicariously through others.”

 

“It pays to keep up to date with the latest trends, John. I don’t want to fall out of fashion.”

 

“I don’t think your novels will ever fall out of fashion, Lady… err, Gladys.” Lettice remarks magnanimously.

 

“You’re a flatterer, that’s for certain!” Lady Gladys chuckles. “You’ll get on. I shall graciously accept your compliment.” Her pale, wrinkled face stills for a moment as a far away look glazes over her eyes. “We none of us think we will fall out of fashion, but we do, in one way or another – especially as we get older. Take this room for example. Decorated in what was once the height of fashion. Would you decorate your home in this way, my dear Lettice?”

 

From her vantage point, Lettice gazes around the room. Looking at the William Morris ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern on the sofa, woven carpet and the Morris ‘Poppies’ wallpaper, Lettice estimates the room, like most around the grey stone castle, were decorated in the late Nineteenth Century during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts Movement. A hotch-potch of furnishings that jostle comfortably for space suggests a period of prosperity driven acquisition over the ensuing years up until the Great War, yet each piece is of high quality and well made, implying her hosts’ dedication to the arts, as do the ornaments that cover surfaces around the room, all of which are beautiful and handmade. Old paintings of Scottish landscapes remind Lettice of Sir John’s proud heritage, whilst the large number of books tell her of Lady Caxton’s literary pursuits and success.

 

“Oh, I think it’s charming,” Lettice replies. “You obviously have an eye for fine workmanship and artistry.”

 

“But?” Lady Gladys picks up Lettice’s unspoken thought.

 

“But no, I wouldn’t decorate my home like this.”

 

“That’s the correct answer, Lettice.” Lady Gladys replies kindly. “And, if I were your age, I wouldn’t either. It’s fusty and old fashioned.”

 

“It is lovely though, and all my modern ideas would look out of place in a room like this. You need to have older things here, not what is fashionable and up-to-date. It would look out of place.”

 

“Tea, Lettice?” Gladys leans forward towards the low beautifully hand embroidered footstool before her and picks up an empty cup. “Or would you prefer coffee?”

 

“Oh, tea will be fine Lady Cax… err, I mean, Gladys.” She chuckles awkwardly at such familiarity with people she barely knows. “White and one sugar, please.”

 

“Good. I’ve never been one for coffee myself.” Lady Gladys pours tea from the silver pot into the cup over the sugar, and adds a slosh of milk, before she passes it to Lettice to stir. “I do hope you found your room to be satisfactory, Lettice.”

 

“It’s lovely. Thank you. I shall feel like Sleeping Beauty when I retire.”

 

“Hhmmm,” Gladys smiles understandingly. “Yes. I thought you’d like the décor in there.”

 

“The Art Nouveau wallpaper is lovely. It is William Morris, like in here, is it not?”

 

“Yes,” Lady Gladys remarks with a surprised lilt in her voice. “How clever of you to notice. It’s ‘Sweet Briar’, so your reference to Briar Rose is most apt, my dear.”

 

“My Aunt Eglantine has it in her bedroom in Chelsea. She loves William Morris too.”

 

“And you, Lettice? Do you like William Morris?” Lady Gladys asks.

 

“I like a mixture of old and new, Lad… Gladys. I think a well placed antique on a modern table adds elegance, and I think a William Morris cushion,” She pulls the cushion from behind her back and looks at it thoughtfully. “Could look splendid as an accent on a plain coloured settee.”

 

“How is Eglantine?” Sir John asks, changing the subject as he takes a sip of his own cup of tea.

 

“I didn’t know you were acquainted with my Aunt, Sir John, until my aunt told me of my invitation to this weekend.”

 

“Just John, my dear.” he corrects Lettice politely, causing her to blush. “Remember the old Fabian in the room.” He nods at his wife. “And yes, Gladys and I have similar artistic and literary pursuits to her, so we know Eglantyne quite well.”

 

“I have some of her pieces,” Lady Gladys remarks proudly and indicates firstly to two dainty pots of hand painted petunias on the mantlepiece, which are part of Eglantyne’s pre-war work, and then to a pedestal next to a very full bookcase, where one of Lettice’s aunt’s more modern pottery pieces sits. “She is a wonderful ceramicist and artist. She can create such beautiful sinuous lines in pottery. It really is remarkable.”

 

“She doesn’t do that so much now,” Lettice remarks.

 

“That’s a pity.” Lady Gladys replies a little sadly. “It’s a shame to waste such a gift.”

 

“Her arthritis slows her somewhat when it comes to ceramics, and she is seldom happy with the results. She’s following different pursuits these days.”

 

“She paints now, doesn’t she?” Sir Caxton asks.

 

“She does… John. She’s currently painting a piece for the Royal Academy.”

 

“Excellent! We shall look forward to seeing that, shan’t we Gladys?”

 

“Oh indeed, John. And of course, she has her embroidery.” Lady Gladys adds.

 

Lettice laughs softly. “I fear sometimes that if I sit still in her drawing room for long enough, one day she might embroider me.”

 

A thunderclap breaks outside. It’s noise echoes through the atmosphere inside, sending a collective shiver through the guests in the room.

 

“I told you, John. Pheobe and the others are sure to get rained upon now.” She glances around the high wing of the Knole sofa to the window. Looking back at Lettice, she picks up her own teacup and tops it up with tea from the pot before continuing, “Pheobe, our niece and ward, has taken all the other young guests for the weekend on a ramble about the estate to help everyone work up an appetite for dinner. I do hope they will be back soon, especially now that it’s going to pour.”

 

“I bet they all went to the pub in the village for a lark.” Dickie remarks from where he sits. “And they are quite cosy and warm in there. They’ll be back when they are good and ready.”

 

“You may be right, young Dickie!” Sir John chortles.

 

“I’m puzzled,” Lettice says, her face crumpling up in thought. “As to why you asked me here for the weekend.”

 

“Puzzled, my dear?” Lady Gladys asks.

 

“Yes. I must confess I was very surprised to receive your kind invitation – delighted, but surprised. I mean, we’ve never met as far as I’m aware. Is it because of your connection to my aunt?”

 

“Well, that does have a little to do with it, Lettice,” Sir John explains. “You are your aunt’s favourite niece…”

 

“She says that to all of us Si… err, John.”

 

“Well, be that as it may, she has spoken to us about you and your talents over many years, particularly since you have come of age. However, Gladys and I keep our own eye on the artistic scene in London, so your name has been mentioned to us a number of times on different occasions.”

 

“Really?” Lettice asks in astonishment.

 

“Oh yes,” adds Lady Gladys. “Surely you must know that you’re gaining quite a reputation now, for your stylish interior designs.”

 

“Especially after that article in Country Life, showing the work you did for Margot and Dickie,” Sir John nods in the direction of the couple, ensconced together on an Art Nouveau sofa, happily playing cards. “It looked wonderful! So fresh and elegant with all those clean lines that are so fashionable now.”

 

“We did so want to finally meet you, dear Lettice.” Lady Gladys adds.

 

“Well,” Lettice blushes. “I’m very flattered, and honoured to be invited to Gossington. Your weekend parties are famous for being filled with fun and enjoyment.”

 

“Then I hope we shall not disappoint, dear Lettice.” Sir John beams.

 

“I’m sure with the return of the others, you won’t be starved for wit and aristocratic intelligentsia.” Lady Gladys adds. “Your aunt tells us that you can be quite witty yourself, and you obviously have intelligence amongst other attributes.”

 

Lettice notices a look exchanged between her two hosts but can’t read what it means.

 

“Ahem, Lettice,” Sir John clears his throat awkwardly. “I’m afraid that Gladys and I have a confession to make.”

 

“A confession?”

 

“Yes,” Lady Gladys explains. “I’m afraid that we’ve invited you here with an ulterior motive, my dear.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Not that we aren’t delighted to have you here for your charm, beauty and obvious intelligence.” Sir John assures her with hands raised in defence.

 

“Yes.” Lady Gladys soothes in agreement with her husband. “As I said before, we’ve heard such great things about your interior designs, so you are under no obligation to agree to our request.”

 

Lettice suddenly looks about the room again, her eyes darting anxiously from surface to cluttered surface as she makes a calculated assumption. Her eyes grow wide and her cheeks pale. “You’re your request, La… Gladys?”

 

“Gladys my dear, you’ll scare the poor girl! She’ll think we want her to redecorate this old pile of stones from the cellar to the battlements.”

 

“Oh no!” Lady Gladys assures Lettice. “We don’t want you to redecorate our home! No, I have far too many treasures here to ever think of parting with. Good heavens no!”

 

“Then what?” Lettice asks cautiously.

 

“Well, it’s Pheobe.” Lady Gladys explains. “She’s moving to London. Now that she’s of age, she has decided to pursue a career in garden design, and she’s been accepted to a school in Regent’s Park associated to the Royal Academy, so she’ll be in London more often than she has been.”

 

Lettice looks on, puzzled and unsure as to how she can be of service to her hosts’ ward. “You want me to decorate her rooms in your London townhouse?”

 

“Oh no my dear!” Sir John defends. “Like here, our London house is very much an Arts and Crafts relic.”

 

“No. Pheobe’s father, my youngest brother Reginald, was part of the civil service in India before the war.” Lady Gladys continues. “He and Pheobe’s mother, Marjorie, died of cholera out there.”

 

“Oh, I am sorry.” Lettice says sadly, putting her hand to her chest.

 

“Thank you my dear. My brother bought a pied-à-terre**** in Bloomsbury for when they were in London.”

 

“Gladys actually lived in it when she worked as my secretary before she married me.” Sir John adds.

 

“Yes.” Lady Gladys acknowledges. “Anyway, when Reginald died, he bequeathed his pied-à-terre to his only surviving child, Pheobe. It was to be held in trust for her by us until she came of age. Now she is of age, we’re giving her the flat to live in. It will be more efficient, as when we go to London, we take staff from here, and when we aren’t in London, there is only a caretaker looking after the house. Pheobe can manage the flat without the need for any live-in staff, and she can finally have some independence from us, which I suspect she craves.”

 

“The flat hasn’t been redecorated since Reginal and Marjorie lived there.” Sir John adds.

 

“It’s so old fashioned.” Lady Gladys agrees. “It isn’t good for Pheobe to live in a flat surrounded by the ghosts of parents she hardly even knew. You’ll be sitting next to her at dinner tonight, and dear Nettie, who has some considerable sway with Pheobe. We’ve suggested that Pheobe talk to you herself. We’ll obviously foot any bills if she likes your ideas, which we’re quite sure she will. Will you consider it, my dear Lettice? It would be such a great favour to us, and to Pheobe of course.”

 

“Well, I’ll certainly consider it, Gladys.” Lettice replies.

 

“Splendid! Splendid!” Lady Gladys claps her hands in delight. “I knew you’d be open to the idea!”

 

*The original Knole Settee (also known as the Knole Sofa) is a couch chair that was made in the 17th century, probably around 1640. It is housed at Knole in Kent, a house owned by the Sackville-West family since 1605 but now in the care of the National Trust. It was originally used not as a comfortable sofa but as a formal throne-like seat on which an aristocrat or monarch would have sat to receive visitors. It was wide enough that a monarch and consort could be seated side by side. As of 2021, it is kept at Knole House in a transparent case.

 

**William Morris (24th of March 1834 – 3rd of October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in fin de siècle Great Britain. In 1861, Morris founded the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, which became highly fashionable and much in demand. The firm profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period, with Morris designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. In 1875, he assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co.

 

***The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fabian Society was also historically related to radicalism, a left-wing liberal tradition.

 

****A pied-à-terre is a small flat, house, or room kept for occasional use.

 

This very cluttered and overstuffed room may appear like something out of a historical stately country house, but it is in fact part of my 1:12 miniatures collection and includes items from my childhood, as well as those I have collected as an adult.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The Knole Sofa covered in William Morris’ ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. The cushions on it, and on the Savonarola chair opposite also feature the Morris ‘Strawberry Thief’ pattern in 1:12 size, and came from an American seller on E-Bay. The Savonarola chairs are made by high-end miniature furniture manufacturer JBM Miniatures.

 

The large embroidered footstool in front of the fireplace was made by the high-end miniature furniture maker, Bespaq, but what is particularly special about it is that it has been covered in antique English floral micro petite point by V.H. Miniatures in the United Kingdom, which makes this a one-of-a-kind piece. The artisan who made this says that as one of her hobbies, she enjoys visiting old National Trust Houses in the hope of getting some inspiration to help her create new and exciting miniatures. She saw some beautiful petit point chairs a few years ago in one of the big houses in Derbyshire and then found exquisitely detailed petit point that was fine enough for 1:12 scale projects.

 

The small round footstool in front of Sir John’s Savonarola chair has been hand embroidered as well, and was acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the united Kingdom.

 

The silver tea and coffee set on the large embroidered footstool, consisting of milk jug, sugar bowl coffee pot and teapot come from Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The silver tray upon which they stand also comes from Warwick Miniatures. The four dainty floral teacups with gilt edging scattered about the room are part of a larger tea set that I acquired from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.

 

The books on the table to the left of the photograph between the two Savonarola chairs are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. They are novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection, but so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. These books are amongst the rarer exceptions that have been designed not to be opened. Nevertheless, the covers are copies of real Victorian bindings. What might amaze you even more is that all Ken Blythe’s books and magazines are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make this a miniature artisan piece. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

The wonderfully detailed red and white chess set in the foreground of the photograph came from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom. The set came in its own hand crafted compartmented wooden box with a working sliding lid which can be seen just in front of the Pig-a-Back and Ludo game boxes. The chess game is set up correctly with a match in progress. I wonder who will win? The table on which the chess game is being played comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, whilst the two red velvet seated chairs drawn up to it, I acquired from an auction some years ago. The pieces date from the 1970s and are very well made.

 

The box of Ludo and Pig-a-Back are both 1:12 artisan pieces, produced authentically to scale with great attention to detail by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.

 

Sir John and Lady Gladys’ family photos on the mantlepiece are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The frames are from various suppliers, but all are metal. Only one, the larger square frame at the back, leaning against the tall blue vase on the left-hand side of the mantle is sterling silver. I t was made in Birmingham in 1908 and is hallmarked on the back of the frame. It has a red leather backing.

 

The two small vases of primroses on the mantle are delicate 1:12 artisan porcelain miniature ornaments made and painted by hand by ceramicist Ann Dalton.

 

The two dark blue double handled gilt vases with floral banding at either end of the mantlepiece, I have had since I was a child. I was given them as a birthday gift when I was nine.

 

The two tall blue glazed jugs featuring irises at either end of the fireplace came from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, as did the brown glazed jug on the tall pedestal in the corner of the room next to the bookcase.

 

The grey marble French barrel clock on the mantlepiece is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Hall’s Miniature Clocks, supplied through Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniatures in England.

 

The Georgian style fireplace with its heavy wooden surround and deep mantle in the background was made by Town Hall Miniatures supplied through Melody Jane’s Dolls’ House Suppliers in the United Kingdom.

 

The glass fronted bookcase is a replica of a bookcase belonging to Abraham Lincoln and is part of the Lincoln Collection, made and distributed in America.

 

Lady Gladys’ book collection inside the glass fronted bookcase are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Ken Blythe was famous in miniature collectors’ circles mostly for the miniature books that he made: all being authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. Each book is a 1:12 replica of a life sized volume with an authentic cover. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make these miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago and through his estate courtesy of the generosity of his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

The paintings hanging on the walls are all 1:12 artisan pieces made by Amber’s Miniatures in the United States. The wallpaper is William Morris’ ‘Poppies’ pattern, featuring stylised Art Nouveau poppies. William Morris papers and fabrics were popular in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period before the Great War.

 

The miniature Arts and Crafts rug on the floor is made by hand by Mackay and Gerrish in Sydney.

.

 

Driven like 20km Backside the main road of Dubai and inside the desert, that’s what you see in the middle of nowhere; a real size model (From Plywood) for a new coming project! What is it? No clue.

PACIFIC OCEAN (Oct. 23, 2017) Marines assigned to 1st Marines, 4th Division embark aboard an MV-22 Osprey Tiltrotor aircraft assigned to the “Sea Elks” of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 166 on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) during Dawn Blitz 2017. Dawn Blitz is a scenario-driven exercise designed to train and integrate Navy and Marine Corps units by providing a robust training environment where forces plan and execute an amphibious assault, engage in live-fire events, and establish expeditionary advanced bases in a land and maritime threat environment to improve naval amphibious core competencies. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Chandler Harrell/Released)

 

Clock Cigar Store, Mackay, Idaho. The old Clock Cigar Store on the east side of of Mackay's Main Street is one of Mackay's oldest landmarks. The building was built in 1901 and first housed the Mackay Miner Telegraph newspaper until 1905, and then the Mackay Miner newspaper until 1917. After the Mackay Miner newspaper moved to their second location across Main Street and one block up toward the Union Pacific Oregon Short Line Railroad station, the original building was used by a jewelry store owner, Mr. Emanuel Frank who installed the large clock outside the building to bring attention to his business and provide the city with a timepiece. This was at a time when not everyone owned a pocket or wrist watch and the large clock outside the building helped the Mackay citizens track time. Mr. Frank was pretty sure it was the only clock like it in the state of Idaho and was similar to a clock located on Broadway in New York City. The clock was 14 feet tall, the lighted dial measured 30 inches in diameter and was adorned with 3 street lamp-type lights. Due to the lighting, the clock was quite eye-catching at night. The Mackay Light and Power Company supplied power for the clock and its lights. The clock was unique in that it had no clocking workings inside the lighted dial. The hands were driven and controlled via wires from a master clock works inside the store.

 

Mr. Emanuel Frank passed away suddenly in September 1920, soon after revealing plans to remodel and expand the building. Ownership of the building and the clock throughout the next years is sketchy. The city of Idaho Falls attempted to buy the clock from the Frank Estate, but bowing to local public pressure, the Mackay city fathers interceded, purchased the timepiece, and vowed to keep it a part of Mackay's Main Street decor. The former jewelry store was converted to a cigar shop and the signage added by Charles and Hattie Donnelly. With prohibition in place, the shop sported pool and billiard tables along with a good game of poker. With the repeal of prohibition in 1933, the Clock Cigar Shop was one of the first Mackay establishments to offer draft and bottled beer along with a few slot machines.

 

Charles Donnelly's died suddenly at the age of 51 on July 10, 1940. The Clock Cigar Store became the property of Scott Vaught who brought in Elmer Peterson to manage the business. Scott Vaught's sister, Marie Vaught Peterson was married to Elmer Peterson. The shop continued to have card playing and drinks, along with an outlet for fishing tackle which included hand-made fishing flies by Elmer Peterson. Elmer Peterson died in 1972.

 

The clock outside remained a fixture on Mackay's Main Street through the early 1940's and was gone by 1951. However, the exact date of the removal of the clock is unknown. In the minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Mackay for September 1, 1942, Mrs. Ralph Larter appeared before the Board and brought up the matter of the Village Board paying for the repair of her car which was damaged by the clock in the front of the Clock Cigar Store when it fell over on her car, causing $18.75 in damages. The location of the clock after its removal from Mackay Main Street is unknown.

 

A later owner of the building was Bart Kent. In the 1980's Rex Lundberg and Rowsel Ellis rented the space for a carpentry shop. The building is currently owned by a man from Las Vegas, Nevada (2013).

I must have driven past this a few times over the years but had never noticed either of them until work took me to a place across the road.

 

The house is apparently being done up - looks like a long-term project....

This car seemed to be full of children, even the driver looked far too young to be driving (or am I just getting middle aged?)! The car is a four seater 1904 Darracq.

 

The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is for cars that were made in 1905 or before. It's run on the first Sunday in November each year (this year is its 80th running), and covers 60 miles of southern England.

Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia

(large + on black)

took legohaulic's design and reconstructed just about everything, i think the doors are the only thing i kept the same, its longer, taller, and i had to change the suspension a little. but i like the outcome.

New and beginning farmers are able to recieve education, experience and support from the Agricultural Land Based Training Association (ALBA), whose graduates of their Farmer Education Course (PEPA) can then move on to agricultural related careers or continue a farming association for up to five incubator years where they can rent farm land, at their 100-acre facility in Salinas, Ca., on Nov. 14, 2018.

  

The Agricultural Land Based Training Association (ALBA) is a training program that helps low income farmworkers and others learn how to become farmers. New farmers begin with a series of classroom courses and on-hands training, and graduate to farming their own piece of land on the farm. Eventually these new graduates hope to become successful farmers.

 

ALBA’s Farmer Education and Enterprise Development (FEED) Program educates and trains new farmer-entrepreneurs to plan, launch, and establish viable organic farm businesses or advance their careers. To accomplish this, ALBA has 100 acres of organic land, an experienced team with diverse expertise, and a hands-on, 5-year farmer development program. FEED is comprised of three main components:

  

1.The Farmer Education Course (PEPA) is a one year, bilingual, 300-hour curriculum featuring classroom instruction and field-based training, readying participants to launch an organic farm business.

 

2.The Organic Farm Incubator allows course graduates to launch their farm on ALBA’s land. Starting at ½ acre, farmers gradually scale up to 5 acres over 4 years under ALBA’s supervision before transitioning to fully independent farming.

 

3.ALBA Organics, aggregates, markets and ships participants’ products to growing markets around California. Doing so gives farmers access to clients that would otherwise be out of reach and allows them to focus on growing and business management in their initial years.

 

For more information about PEPA please see www.albafarmers.org/programs/

  

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the USDA’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs. The FPAC team includes, Farm Service Agency (FSA) (www.fsa.usda.gov/), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/), and Risk Management Agency (RMA) (www.rma.usda.gov/).

  

USDA FPAC Farm Service Agency (FSA) is equitably serving all farmers, ranchers, and agricultural partners through the delivery of effective, efficient agricultural programs for all Americans. FSA is a customer-driven agency with a diverse and multi-talented work force, dedicated to achieving an economically and environmentally sound future for American Agriculture. The vision is to be a market-oriented, economically and environmentally sound American agriculture delivering an abundant, safe, and affordable food and fiber supply while sustaining quality agricultural communities.

  

Here, FSA works with non-profit organizations such as ALBA to provide program information and outreach to beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers and limited income farmers. ALBA works with a unique farmer base of nontraditional, diverse and beginning farmers.

   

FSA staff has worked with ALBA for many years in the following ways:

   

1. Provide classroom training to new ALBA students at the ALBA farm during their regular coursework. FSA provides training on:

 

a. How to apply for a farm loan and prepare a cash flow statement.

 

b. How to apply for FSA programs that help with risk management on the farm, such as the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or other regional crop insurance options.

 

c. How to apply for Disaster Assistance through FSA in case of an adverse weather event or other emergency.

   

2. FSA has provided micro loans, operating loans and ownership loans to help ALBA farmers become independent and successful in their operations. FSA has provided Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) payments to these farmers.

   

3. FSA has provided bookkeeping training courses to ALBA students, on farm tours, and has helped students apply for USDA scholarships to attend agricultural conferences and other trainings.

   

4. FSA has referred ALBA farmers to NRCS for help with resource management issues.

   

“These farmers are the future face of American Agriculture. It is so important for FSA to help them get a strong start in ensuring the success of their operations, said FSA County Executive Director Vivian Soffa. Carlos will need support when he graduates from ALBA and hopefully FSA will be able to assist him with his capital needs when he is farming on his own in this very competitive agriculture market. Familiarity with FSA’s programs at the beginning of a new farmer’s endeavor may be the difference between success and failure.”

 

For more information please see www.usda.gov.

 

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

  

A 48 H.P., chain driven 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical, Class 48DS locomotive, built by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd, Lincoln, to Works No. 237928, in 1946 and fitted with Engine No.236343, and sold ex-works, 04/09/1946, to British Titan Products Ltd, Pyewipe Works, Grimsby. This locomotive was subsequently sold to ICI, Billingham Works, in 1958, or 1959, before being sold on to Yorkshire Tar Distillers Ltd in 1963. Seen here, stored out of use on 20/01/1973. Its current status and fate unknown.

 

COPYRIGHT RETAINED; N. JORDAN - I would ask that you please note that the copyright of this image is fully retained by N. Jordan. Should you wish to either copy this image, for anything other than for private research purposes, or you wish to reproduce and publish this image elsewhere, then I would be obliged, if you would be good enough to seek and secure my express written agreement beforehand.

22/05/14 Bus under Bridge.A Stagecoach bus is driven away after losing it's roof under a low bridge on Elstow Road in Bedford.

To wherever he takes you...

Having driven 475 miles in 8 hrs to get here with one meal stop and one gas stop *AND* to catch the trains I was after, in some of the locations I wanted them in...with that good fortune today, forget the lottery ticket, I have already used it up. Heading North from Mt. Braddock after a crew change. this was 5 yrds ago now, but seems like yesterday, I gotta do this again. 4002 is an Allegheny Valley GP40-3 and 4006 and 406 are South West Pennsylvania Units. 406 was converted to a road slug. and 4006 is a GP40-3 The Southwest Pa RR runs over trackage that I remember from Childhood as B&O.

MARS MAPS MUD

MUD | Market-driven Unintentional Development

 

The city: man’s greatest invention, or clumsy byproduct of civilization? China’s historic building frenzy is a hallmark of man’s dominance over the landscape. With speed and efficacy its urban spaces have been planned and then built, rolling out the modern cityscapes that are shaping our future. However, observing the outcome of three decades of flash urbanization reveals a disturbing reality. While every block is meticulously planned, the resulting urban form is not. The amorphous cities printed on these tables undermine the staunch belief we have control over the urbanization process.

 

Through GIS data we traced the footprints of eight urban clusters for the year 2000, and their expansion by 2010. The resulting patterns are wholly unintentional, revealing an organic logic at best. Moreover, the speed of their expansion has outpaced any strategy to streamline development: in ten short years Shanghai has doubled its built-up area. As the periphery merges with countryside, eluding planners in it wake, the profession finds itself in crisis. The urban edges fragmented, activities scattered, these oozing entities defy the very notion of the city. Set against the backdrop of China’s goal for new ecocities, this raises a fundamental question: if we cannot plan our cities, how do we plan ecocities?

 

Part of the upcoming publication “Manifesto of Mistakes - urban solutions for the new world”.

Exhibition @ Dashilar Beijing Design Week, The Nurturing House Sanjing Hutong 21

Forum: Countryside Revisited @ Dashilar, The Factory, Sat 26, 12.00-19.00 with MARS, OMA, Jiang Jun, Juan Du, et all.

 

城市到底是人类最伟大的发明，还是文明发展进程中拙劣的副产品？放眼历史，中国城市建设的狂乱将人类对城市景观的支配彰显得淋漓尽致。在中国，城市空间的规划极速而高效，紧接着投入建设，涌现的现代城市风光更塑造着我们的未来。然而，若仔细观察过去三十年间疾速都市化的成果，展现在我们眼前的是一片令人不安的现实。尽管每条道路、每个住宅群、每座工厂、甚至是整个村镇的规划过程都一丝不苟，所生成的都市形态却不尽然。这间小展厅的桌上所印的杂乱而无定形的城市动摇了我们的一种坚定信念，即我们有能力控制都市化的进程。通过采集的GIS数据，我们追踪研究了2000年的八大城市发展中心，以及它们2010年后续产生的城市膨胀。

 

研究数据证明，中国主要经济群的发展模式是完全无序的，最多象征了一种潜在的有机逻辑。此外，这些城市足迹膨胀的速度彻底超越了任何旨在控制它们发展的规划方案；举例来说，中国最大的城市上海的建成面积在短短十年里足足翻了一倍。城市边缘渗入郊区，发展步伐完全不再受城市规划者和决策者的掌控—城市规划这一专业领域陷入了危机。这一切情有可原。城市边缘的分裂现象极其严重，建设规划分散于城郊中，这些不断渗出的实体向城市这一概念本身发起了挑战。这一发现对城市理论家而言也许仅仅是一片值得玩味的沼泽，但在中国所提出的建设新生态城市的宏伟目标的大背景下，它提出了一个关键问题：如果我们无法规划城市，生态城市规划的愿景要如何实现呢？

 

该项目是即将问世的《试与错的宣言：新世界中的都市建设方案》的一部分。北京设计周， 大栅栏三井胡同21

 

HIGHEST POINT

This summer construction reached highest point on the flagship headquarters by MARS Architects. The project, won in an International competition along Sofia's main avenue, is a sustainable proposal that intertwines office program, retail, leisure and indoor climbing into a single continuous folding space. See more on Design Boom and M-A-R-S.asia

 

何新城建筑事务所设计的旗舰店总部,建设施工在这个夏天达到了最高点。此备受瞩目的国际获奖项目位于保加利亚首都索菲亚主大道上，是将办公楼、零售、休闲和室内攀岩整合在一个连续折叠空间的可持续性规划方案。

         

NEW | MARS Architects on Wechat ! 何新城建筑事务所的微信二维码

 

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Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village 2022

Driven by Tommi Makinen, Alister McRae and Mark Higgins.

1029-286-24

 

The 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment at sunrise in Gettysburg, Adams County, PA.

 

11th Mississippi

 

Infantry Regiment

 

Davis’ Brigade – Heth’s Division

A.P. Hill’s Corps

Army of Northern Virginia

Confederate States of America

Afternoon July 2 – July 4, 1863

 

The 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, under the command of Col. Francis M. Green and Maj. Reuben O. Reynolds, formed west of the tree line on Seminary Ridge behind Maj. William Pegram’s Battalion of Artillery and immediately south of McMillan’s Woods on July 3, 1863. Shortly after 3:00 p.m., Color Sgt. William O’Brien of Company C, memorialized on this monument, raised the colors and the regiment stepped forward. Although clusters of men reached the stone wall near Brian’s Barn, the attack was driven back with heavy loss, and the remnants of the regiment reformed in this vicinity.

 

Combatants – 393

Killed in action/died of wounds – 110

Wounded/wounded captured – 193

Captured unwounded – 37

Non-casualty – 53

I just posted the power gear on the Westside Lumber Shay engine and added a load of notes. I realized that I needed to add the shot of the gear on the tender and further explain a Shay's operation. As you can see, the drive shaft continues on to the tender for more power in the form of tractive effort. A Shay tender could consist of two of the trucks on the really large locos. This means up to 16 driven wheels, drivers; that's twice #346 and #844. This engine has 12 driven wheels having a smaller tender. Near the "No Aqua" water tank at "Delay Junction" at the Colorado Railroad Museum, the WestSide Lumber Company #12 Shay locomotive sits on the siding rails. I know a lot of folks have knowledge of the history and construction of the Shay locomotives. If I remember correctly, Ephraim Shay, born in 1839, soon ended up associated with the lumber industry in Michigan. He had a brain explosion and designed his Shay locomotive originally to run on pole (lumber) rails in the woods. His idea worked and the Lime Locomotive Works in Ohio was to manufacture this oddity. Needless to say, they were expected to operate in foul conditions and on absurd trackage. He hung vertical cylinders on the side of the boiler and spun a drive shaft along the side of the engine and tender. That is not entirely unlike your car. Usng a design of bevel gears and universal joints allowed the contraption to power bogie trucks that swivel. All the trucks: the front truck under the boiler, the truck under the cab and either one or two trucks under the tender provided for maximum tractive effort powered through extremely tight curves. The top speed was of course, very limited and CRRM volunteers told me that the enjoyment of a ride wore very short but not short enough. Fortunately, the light was on the correct side but horribly directional and harsh. Here it is anyway. I work hard to expand the shadows on this so I could read the lettering on the frame; OWNED BY LOCO LEASE II. I doubt it now. CRRM does not have a Heisler locomotive; donations anyone? I'm not sure if there was one in Colorado.

 

Eddie and I spaced the Christmas Steamup this year but he found there was a "Black on Track" costume event upcoming. He really wanted to see this steam up. We are REALLY waiting for the RSG #20 to return for a steamup. Donate generously at the CRRM.That day will be shoulder to shoulder at the Colorado Railroad Museum; keep an eye on upcoming events on their web site. Outlanders could target Colorado trips with the expectations of hitting an event here in Golden. Someone will have already been here from your home town and/or country. These are the takes everyone is foaming at the mouth to see.

 

Outrageous light here for the bold early steam, IMHO. Steam is a winner in winter but the wind made it a blustery day. Are you ready for some steam? The first excursion was not quite full but is building on this blustery Saturday morning runby. The re-enactors are busy putting on a show now that we took our ride..

  

Rather windswept on this Good Friday of 40 years ago. My girlfriend and I had just arrived, having driven from London in the Volvo 264 Estate that my stepfather had lent me over Easter. We had found lodging for our stay and set out to explore the town and its beach. This was only my third visit to Dorset, the previous forays being in 1973 and 1975, and the whole area represented something exotic in my mind.

 

March 1983

Yashica FR-1 camera

Agfa CT18 film.

Westburys from Childers big Louie Driven by my Bother Brad here at Trafalgar 1991

Me, Larry and Louise.

 

Negotiating a broken light socket fitting, jutting out into the hallway, and an overturned plastic chair blocking what looked an otherwise disused stairwell, we made our way up to the hostel on the first floor.

 

Osama had driven us to the hostel through the wet evening streets of Nablus in his beaten up Peugeot, all the while frantically gesticulating, trying to impress on us the severity of the situation in this city, perhaps seeing us as his or Nablus’s only chance to share a Palestinian perspective with some internationals. With one eye on the road and one arm on the back of the passenger seat, turning to talk to us in the back seat, Osama told us of the closures, the curfews, the checkpoints and the difficulty of moving about freely. Between narrowly avoiding oncoming cars as he occasionally veered into the opposite lane he told us of the nightly Israeli military incursions, the rocket attacks on the refugee camps, the shootings and assassinations, the house demolitions, the funerals and the loss of innocent lives. But for all we were told perhaps the most upsetting thing for me was to see this desperate attempt to squeeze as much information as possible into what was no more than a 10 minute car journey. Most, if not all, Palestinians have shocking stories to tell, and are more than willing to share their opinions about the occupation and the hardship it has created, but nowhere as much as Nablus have I felt that this to be a need and certainly never one so desperate. Osama questioned us, “What life is this? Where is my dignity? Where is my dignity? And what of my son? What life is there for him?” We had no answers. All we could do was sit solemnly and nod, the windscreen wipers jolting back and forth as we continued through the wet streets. My mind wandering, I remembered that very morning when we had come through Hawara checkpoint, just to the south of the city. As we passed through wire mesh walkways, not unlike the pens used for livestock herding before a final despatching at the abattoir, and crossed a wasteland to where Nablus bound minibus taxis waited in muddy pot-holed car park, I watched an old lady, perhaps of grandmother age, tiptoe through sloppy mud to a wheel spinning taxi, its back end sliding out down the slippery dirt mounds. The old lady hitched her traditional style black embroidered dress, at the same time trying to pass her plastic bagged wares to a fellow passenger, finally being dragged aboard before the mud sprayed taxi bounced and skidded off across the wasteland rank. I thought of my own grandmother in a similar scenario, humbled by the relative immobility of old age and humiliated by a blind oppressive system that continues to punish the innocent in ways that are slowly becoming an excepted norm. While the Palestinians continue to put up with life as it is, to see it anew with an outsiders perspective is shocking. It simply isn’t right. Osama’s question came back to me then as it always will whenever the immense disparity between freedom and oppression makes itself even subtly apparent. Where is the dignity? What life is this?

 

The hostel’s reception desk, tucked away in a dingy corner of a strip lit room, was dead apart from where between nicotine yellowed walls the proprietor sat, stooped over a cigarette and a game of cards with another of the guests. A television set flickered and chattered away, ignored in the corner, and from an ashtray on the card table a column of Brownian smoke rose from the lodger’s unstubbed butt. Creaking out of his low chair, and shuffling across the room he took a key from the wall behind the desk and beckoned us to follow him. The better of the two rooms we were shown had what looked to be a relatively new a bullet-hole in the window. Broken reflected light from the florescent on the rear wall accentuated the fissures emanating from the crude hole, and a dent in the opposite wall betrayed the bullets trajectory. “Don’t worry.” Osama told us, “It’s just a stray bullet, probably from children throwing stones at soldiers from the roof.” With that and a recommendation that we didn’t go out, just to be on the safe side, Osama left us. Deciding on a supermarket purchased bread and hommous dinner and an early night, we took Osama’s advice.

 

Later, back in the smoke-filled reception room I sat with Samer, a construction worker from Hebron, in the south of the West Bank. Over the game of cards he continued to play with the proprietor, communicating in broken Arabic and English I learnt that he had no choice but to stay in the hostel during the week due to the difficulty in travel between Hebron and Nablus. Hebron would be just an hours drive away, unhindered, but with at least three main Israeli military checkpoints, and the further possibility of “flying checkpoints”, a system of permanent structures manned only on what seems a random basis, travel has become extremely difficult with no guarantee of reaching work on time, if at all. This, coupled to the rise in oil prices and the longer tortuous routes Palestinians are forced to take around any Israeli territory, including the illegal West Bank settlements, has become a serious issue for travel between all of the West Bank’s major cities and regions. This inefficiency of flow through the West Bank, these restrictive measures upon money, trade and people, has to be looked upon as a very shrewd move by Israel that has a very predictable outcome; a slow death for the Palestinian economy and a gradual chipping away at any chance of a viable Palestinian state. Looked at in terms of Nature, impeding blood circulation between body organs is a sure fire way of killing any organism.

 

At least the closures and checkpoints benefit hostels. The dribs and drabs of tourists though Nablus are certainly too few to keep the hostel industry afloat. In the centre of the city the tourist information centre is now used as mission control for Nablus’s street cleaning operations. We dropped in just to share the fact of our tourist status only to be met with apparent confusion and asked if we wanted the Turkish Bath, Nablus’s biggest attraction. When we again tried to make ourselves understood, we were just met with a shaking head, a smile, and asked if we wanted tea.

 

Just a short walk through the bustling new city reveals obvious signs of ongoing violence. Bullet dents in shops’ steel shutters, shattered, bullet pierced windows in some of the high rise buildings, bill board sized posters of young and proud Kalashnikov toting “militants”, the latest to be killed or assassinated by the Israeli military; one even of a father with his arm around the shoulder of, presumably, his son, not older than 12 years old and bearing an AK47 machine gun. In the old city, these “martyr” bill posters can be found on every free wall and shop shutter, the older sunlight faded faces progressively covered with those of new victims. I can’t help but feel that these serious posters lend further an underlying oppressive air to the everyday comings and goings of an otherwise culturally peaceful society. While I understand the natural principle of action and reaction, these young militants must understand that their activity can only ever at best be a gesture of resistance, never the real thing.

 

Due to its geographical location in the mountainous north of the West Bank, Nablus was at one time a stronghold of the West Bank Palestinian resistance whose militants posed a real problem to Israeli troops during the second Intifada. Now, however, the grinding occupation, closure, siege, and continuing violence has seen this resistance all but crushed, and large parts of the city’s infrastructure damaged with little hope of near future repair. The destruction that Israel has caused the city, both infrastructurally and socially, in retaliation for the actions of relatively few Palestinian militants really amounts to a collective punishment of the city’s population, a population that still live in fear of nightly Israeli military incursions, and even, as a visiting friend experienced last year, sonic boundary breaking Israeli fighter jets flying just hundreds of feet above Nablus city rooftops. I hate to think of the effect these deafening sonic booms have upon the developing inner ear of any young child. Beyond 10 o’clock in the evening the city’s streets are abandoned to Israeli soldiers and whoever they manage to taunt into a showdown. In the narrow alleyways of the old city, Israeli soldiers have been known, locals say, to shout out to anyone in range, “Mujahideen. Show yourselves and fight.” Any rise, usually from stone throwing youths, will be met with live ammunition and more often than not new statistics to add to the ever growing discrepancy between Israeli and Palestinian casualties. The fight, slowly but surely, is becoming a one sided campaign that not only represents continued harassment of the local Palestinian population and provokes disenfranchised youths into bloody confrontations; this fight is even further polarising the impressionable minds of teenage Israeli soldiers, youths that grow up believing popular right wing media and what life in the military instils – hatred for a perceived enemy.

 

Earlier in the day I had visited Al Lod Charitable Society in Nablus’s Asker refugee camp. Asker camp along with the infamous “Balata”, are among the most frequently targeted areas on the Israeli military’s agenda, and where any trouble can rapidly escalate. These camps are the usual sites of stone, Molotov cocktail, and gunfire exchange between angry yet apathetic Palestinian youths in disbelief of their ability to affect social change through peaceful means, and young indoctrinated Israeli soldiers. It was, in fact, the riot in Balata camp following the funeral of a youth killed by an Israeli sniper in 2000, that is partly attributed to the sparking of the second Intifada. I had been sent to photograph some of the donations and projects funded by Muslim Aid UK, an NGO that channels money, food, and education to Al Lod and similar organisations. I sat with Jamal in his office at the Al Lod centre while, over a cup of tea, he showed me some of the centre’s work: charitable donations of meat and money during the Eid festival; computer and Internet facilities for the surrounding camp neighbourhoods; educational and school materials for local children; even a “Charitable Cheese Project”, distributing 400 tons of cheese to camp residents. Besides charitable donations the centre is also involved in art workshop programs that help children deal with internalised emotional issues. Jamal showed me a collection of some of the art produced. One workshop was based around each child producing two drawings; one of a world in which the children would like to live, and one with life as it is in the camp. Flicking through the pages I was met time and time again with the same, or similar images; the idealism of young minds, rainbowed pastures and sunny hillsides, large rabbits eating carrots from a child’s outstretched hand, kite flying and park scenes – nothing materialistic, simple desires. Contrasting these images to the scenes of perceived camp life, green men chain-sawing trees, tanks demolishing homes, barbed wire, walls, rocket launchers, and war planes, a faceless brutality, it is austerely apparent that the occupation is forging young minds warped to the extremity. As I played with local children, called in off the streets to model for a impromptu photo shoot, some of whom had probably produced the drawings I had seen, I realised that these are the Palestinians in need of real help. These are the children whose only contact with Israelis is with armed soldiers sent to demolish a neighbour’s house, or arrest and drag away a youth in the middle of the night. These are the children amongst which real seeds of anger are being sown. All the while Israel is busy tackling its own perceived “security threat”, it is in the process of creating another perhaps more real future threat. If this brutal contact between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers, this inequality, is propagated much further into the future, Israel will only respond with ever more extreme measures; measures that will not only further escalate violence, but measures that will portray the State of Israel’s already tainted human rights track record as beyond all international acceptance. This further alienation of an already insecure state is not only dangerous; it is far from being in the global community’s interests. Without concerted effort and political pressure, Israel is itself in danger of becoming a “rogue” state.

 

That night, as I lay in bed, I could hear the distant bangs and echoes of stun grenades and bullet split air reverberate up and down streets and alleyways. Jeeps passed by outside, given away by the whirring of off-road tyres on tarmac, and their familiar throaty engine tone. I could not help but think that, in the morning, after sleep has come to us all, maybe, just maybe in those awakening moments, before the reality of the world we live in comes flooding back, before all the complex interactions that have formed the evolution of our social structures, there is a moment when all is well, when peace seems the only possible way, and every sole is equal. If only we could hold on to this innocence and let it permeate into our day.

       

ACE Driven

True Directional Concave Design

20x9 / 20x10.5

Mica Gray with Machined Face

Email Me For Any Wheel or Fitment Question: oscar@kaneiusa.com

Composition with 1:43 Miniatures.

Audi R8 GT / Schuco

Peugeot 504 Coupe / Norev

Another one for Beyond Driven gear and nutrition with professional bodybuilder Brian Ahlstrom.

 

Beauty Dish High and camera left. I believe for this shot that was the only light. We did a few different set-ups in a short amount of time...so even I have to look at the picture again to remember!

 

Belt driven..

flic.kr/p/2kw1CcX

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jack of Diamonds

 

“As a jewel thief, you go for the challenge. It's dangerous, it's glamorous, there's an adrenalin rush."

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The Thief of Hearts Affair

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The setting is a black tie only, evening wedding, being held at Iscoyd Park, Wales.

 

A large number of wealthy guests from both the Bride and Groom’s servant wealthy families are invited.

 

After the multitude of brilliantly decked-out guests, brimming with flashy jewelry had entered the reception area, the bridal party came in to add to the alluring ambiance.

 

The bride was wearing a designer gown of white taffeta, along with a collection of diamonds that one watching almost needed sunglasses to observe. The 14 bridesmaids were in long silk salmon-coloured gowns. Of the 12 bridesmaids, the 10 older ones wore off-shoulder gowns, and the younger two teenage bridesmaids wore gowns with hanging scalloped shoulders.

 

All 14 were wearing copious ropes of expensively gleaming white pearls.

 

They all settled in and the lights dimmed, the music from the band started up, and the reception officially began.

 

Security was tight, considering the wealth of valuables on display that evening.

 

Tempting targets for thievery.

 

But no matter how guarded an event such as this was, there were bound to be those uninvited guests with devious intent who managed to slip through the cracks.

 

Also slipping through the cracks were some very well-dressed youthfully gullible ladies sporting some rather pricy jewellery who were unwisely being left on their own.

 

The vulnerable, silky soft underbelly of the party as it were.

 

Seen by some as an easy way to garner bits of telling information on their family's vulnerabilities, or as easy marks to relieve of any valuables they may have on their person.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Into this mix a handsome young man, looking far younger than his actual age, was dancing with a young blonde girl of the vulnerably sweet age of 16.

 

He was clad in a most definitely tailored black tux, with a bright red cummerbund. His roving blue eyes twinkled as he smiled down at his young dance partner whose entire being quivered with enthrallment at his attention

 

He also wore a nattily trimmed down thin beard, and his fingers were well manicured. A gold ring was on his left pinkie. A fancy Rolex watch on his left wrist.

 

His dance partner Ginny was wearing an absolutely adorable deep canary yellow silk dress with long sleeves and a slit up the leg to about mid-thigh. The collar went up about a centimeter up her neck, the whole effect being adorably cute.

 

Ginny’s jewellery was also adorably cute, and just as adorably expensive.

 

Consisting of 7 centimeters long gold earrings set with yellow diamonds

( £2,500), a long yellow diamond set chain with a pendant in the shape of a gold owl with ruby eyes, a yellow diamond-filled body, and folding wings, perched with ruby-tipped claws on a white diamond chip embedded solid gold branch(£16,000). A gold bracelet set with yellow diamonds(£4,500) wrapped around her left wrist, and a gold ruby and yellow diamond ring(3,500) on her left ring finger. Her hair was held off to one side by a glittering yellow diamond comb(£4,000)

 

The lad knew he had his dance partner under his command, and he now had her talking up about herself, her sister, and her parents with, unbridled, unguarded, ease.

 

Then from over his chittering partner's shoulder, his eye caught a brite flicker by the wall where the side alcove sitting areas were located.

 

He managed to maneuver his unwary dance partner over for a closer look.

 

A very pretty package indeed was sitting there all alone, looking very sad. She also was dressed and jewelled like a million bucks.

 

The dance now couldn’t end soon enough for him, especially now that he had drained Ginny of some very pertinent details about her family.

 

When the dance ended, he took one last soaking look at his dance partners' richly glittering, ravishingly valuable, owl-shaped pendant, and abruptly dismissed the now understandably confused young lady.

 

He had found richer prey.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Cadie was a child of ultra-wealthy parents, all of 16, with makeup that had her looking more like 22.

 

Tonight she looked smashing, elegantly wearing a smoothly soft high-necked silk gown of deep violet, a shear bodice, long cuffed sleeves, and a dangling pleated skirt, that simply poured over her almost fully developed figure, from the gentle swells of her breasts, to her thin waist and along her curvy hips, then spilling out down along her legs till it lay sweeping at her ankles.

 

To complete the ensemble she was wearing purple satin pumps and carried a black satin clutch purse.

 

She had worn the same gown a fortnight ago at her Aunt’s equally formal wedding held up at Caer Beris Manor reception area.

 

Like she had at her aunt's wedding, Cadie was wearing diamonds. A lot of diamonds. Her Mum had not won the argument over that without her parents, or brother there with her, she should wear her pearls. instead.

 

She was one of many wealthy guests attending this black-tie evening wedding held at Iscoyd Park, Wales.

 

Cadie herself had been invited by a close classmate ((Lilly), who was a bridesmaid at the wedding. Other than Lilly, she knew no one there. And her friend, being a bridesmaid, was too busy to be hanging out with her.

 

This is why it was with a grateful thrill that a handsome young male who appeared to be only a few years older than her ( actually he was some 9 years her senior), came up and introduced himself to her as she was standing off watching the dancers at the entrance of one of the side alcove rooms.

 

After introducing himself(Sebastian)and learning her name(Cadie), he raised her hand and kissed a shimmery ringed finger in greeting, sending shivers of chills racing along her spine.

 

He gently guided her into a side alcove where several comfortable couches were located.

 

There they spent a good hour talking, telling each other about themselves.

 

He then rose, and politely he asked if they could have a dance.

 

Cadie nodded with euphoric enthusiasm and took his offered hand. He helped her up, and they went out to the dance floor.

 

It was a slow dance and he held her warm figure tightly against his. She could feel his heart beating quickly, she could tell that he was excited to be dancing with her.

 

She was also, her whole figure quivering with antsy exhilaration as his firm fingers gently stroked along her sleekly gown-covered figure.

 

He murmured into her ear

“You look very beautiful this evening Cadie. Perhaps even the prettiest young lady I’ve met this evening.”

 

She squirmed in his arms, like an excited puppy, as he complimented her in this fashion, the expensive chinchilla softness of her gown not lost under his fingertips.

 

Cadie turned her head away, blushing. Diamonds twinkling richly from her ears.

 

When the dance finished they stayed on the floor till the second one started and taking her in his arms the magic once again enveloped her, feeding her lonely hunger for companionship.

 

Cadie and her dance partner were in the thicke of it, dancing their little hearts and souls out. Bumping and sliding against one another, Cadie’s slippery gown performed the most fluid of provocative sliding motions along her partner's figure, allowing him a reason to hold no tighter less she slipped from his grasp.

 

Cadie was relishing, swimming in the feeling her rubbing breasts produced. Then the music ended all too soon and a swooning Cadie was led back to the alcove her partner kissing her hand as he mysteriously took leave.

 

Soon he was back Cadie felt her heart fluttering with sensuously filled excitement.

 

Sebastian apologized for leaving so abruptly, and with a sweet guilty expression, admitted to what he had been up to:

 

“I requested a slow dance! It should be coming up next,” he said with conviction.

“What about the girl you requested it for?” Cadie asked coyly, exhibiting a sexuality way beyond her years.

“There is no one, I was looking around to find the right one!” he teased in a most becoming manner.

“Rather like placing the cart before the horse!” She teased back

He smiled at that but did not answer, keeping his hand on my arm, not tightly, but there nonetheless!

 

Meanwhile, the music had stopped and he was right, a slow dance started, and most of the single girls fled, leaving the couples to stay out on the dancefloor.

He took young swooning Cadie by hand and they headed out, joined by several fresh couples.

 

The pair started discreetly apart, but he gently pulled Cadie in closer. She could feel his heart beating against her chest and thought something hard was beginning to bulge out just in between his hips. She pressed in closer, instinctively allowing her gown to slip up and over his hardened bulge as they danced. Cadie looked up, his eyes were closed.

 

Cadie Reached up and pulled the lapels of his tux jacket close to her. He responded by wrapping his arms around her silky soft waist, relishing in the softness of her fetchingly pretty gown.

 

It was perfect, Cadie’s heart started to beat a bit quicker, and the adrenalin started its all-too-welcomed tingling rush.

 

Then she leaned in close, placing her hands up around his neck, he responded by nuzzling his face into her shoulder.

 

The song ended, and the magic feeling came to a halt as he looked at his Rolex watch, apologizing that he had to leave the wedding, he had promised to meet up with a friend.

 

If he had only known he would have met someone like her he whispered into his dance partner’s diamond earring holding ear.

 

He left with a kiss on her hand, and a promise to try and meet up with her the next day, with a wink.

 

Sebastian left Cadie, who was literally holding ring sparkling fingers to her breast, feeling her heart thumping with exhilarating excitement.

 

For both of them, it had turned into a brilliant evening.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Outside of the Iscoyd Park manor house, In a dark corner of the gardens, a figure waits in the shadows watching a young male approaching. She puckers her lips and imitates the hoot of an owl.

 

‘Sebastian’ was coming up along the path, when suddenly he heard the soft hooting of an owl.

 

He stops and waits.

 

The figure emerges from the shade. It is a slender female his age, dressed in black.

 

She approached the young male.

 

‘Sebastian’ tips his head in her direction.

“I’ve got it, she sang like a canary.”

 

She looks at him quizzically…

“All of it? Address, layout, time schedules?”

 

Sebastian nods:

“The family you pointed out will be at their hotel suite tonight, back at their mansion tomorrow late afternoon. The banks will be closed so the three ladies of the house will still have the jewels they were wearing with them. I have their address, train schedules, the works.”

 

With excitement, the lady goes up to Sebastian and they hug and kiss. Then she breaks happily away…

“And I’m sure they have more in their Jewelry cases. Tomorrow night it is then. Perfect, we should be going now, we have what we came for.”

 

Sebastian clears his throat.

“Luv, There is another.”

 

The lady looks at him thoughtfully...

 

“Another my dear?”

 

“I met a young girl, Cadie, she is 16. I know, young, but I checked her out. She is wearing real diamonds, positively dripping with them.”

 

Sebastian purses. looking around, lowering his voice.

“I was scoping them out as we danced. The silly twit has no clue to be wary of strangers taking an interest in her.

She Lives nearby. Here with a friend. Will be dropped off at her manor house tonight. Parents are gone for the weekend. Just her twin brother and her there tonight.”

 

The lady in black grins…

“Sounds delicious. Describe her jewelry luv.”

 

As they are speaking, off in the distance a door slams. Girlish giggling is heard close by, but not enough to warrant any worries.

 

Sebastian eagerly tells his partner Emylee about the easily deceiving young lady…

“She is wearing an expensively fitted lavender silk gown. Her jewellery is all diamonds, nothing paste.

Long wide earrings(£5,000) matching wide ‘Y’ shaped necklace (£10,000)

a 7-strand diamond bracelet(£6,000) and 4 diamond rings(£20,000) the lot)Her long hair is held back by a pair of diamond clips(£3,000 both).

She willingly gave me the address. I think she is hoping I’ll drop in on her tomorrow. These rich young ones are way too gullible.”

 

The lady thief was busy calculating the value of the jewellery young Cadie was wearing.

“£44,000 hmm. She is a little bit loaded down with the ice. It’s real you say, lad, why would they let a young one out wearing all that?”

 

“Sebastian “ nodded.

“Just there for the taking luv. I’m sure it’s not a trap. Almost too easy to pass up, don’t you agree?”

 

Emylee looked at him with apprehension.

“Sweet 16. I don’t know really, about mugging a child Sebastian.”

 

Sebastian laid a hand on her arm

“No luv. We don’t do her over like that lass In Soho. { a brunette wearing a red satin dress and some lovely emeralds lured outside to a dark alley sprang to mind). Not talking about luring her here to the gardens and you robbing her. I thought about that, but, Look now luv, I’ve been practicing haven’t I? I’m ready to do a house job on my own.”

 

Emylee nods her head yes.

“Well, you’ve wanted to try a burgle on your own. Switching roles, me being the outside with you on the inside? I’d say this is your chance. So you’ll be keeping your promise, just early morning instead of later. tomorrow. “

 

“Tie them up, Do the whole house?”

 

Emylee shakes her head no…

“Baby steps lad. In and out quickly. Just burgle the chick’s room. Wait till they sleep. Grab the goods stuff first. But also make it thorough. check under her pillow, lingerie drawer, that type of thing. Something tells me that her room will be a gold mine to rob. We can keep the place on our radar, perhaps do a proper job next year on the whole house.”

 

“Sebastian” nods, and arm in arm the pair begin to walk off deep in conversation.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

They had driven for nearly an hour when Emylee pulled the car over by an old church cemetery, keeping the engine running.

 

“Okay, Sebastian. We’ve scoped the house and area. Cut straight through the cemetery, The house is just on the other side of those woods. It’s midnight, I’ll be back in 4 hours to pick you up. If you’re not there, well it will be a long walk home won’t it, lad?”

 

Sebastian nodded and got out of the car. He watched as Emylee pulled away

 

Keeping as much to the shadows as possible Sebastian quickly navigated the woods and located the house. Circling he verified he had the right one.

 

It was a large three-story stone house, 15 rooms by his estimation, reflecting the impressive wealth of the family living within its walls.

 

There was only one light on in a lower room. He snuck up, and from a hiding spot conveniently offed by a tall hedge, Saw a young male watching the Telly.

 

He sighed. Waiting.

 

Which was a good thing, for less than a half-hour into it a chauffeur-driven limo pulled in. He watched as the young girl whose diamonds were his target was let off.

 

Waving the limousine off, she turned and happily walked to the door, her lovely gown shimmering, its beauty only outdone by her glittering diamonds.

 

Going back to the window he watched as she came into the room. Greeted by her brother they made conversation for a few minutes before she turned and went upstairs.

 

He saw a light go on, revealing which room was hers, where the good stuff would be kept.

 

It was 12:30 when she came back down she had taken off the sensuous gown and put on a pair of long-sleeved deep brown shiny satin pajamas over her petite figure.

 

Cadie surprisingly was still wearing the diamond necklace, but had removed all her other diamonds.

 

She sat down and cuddled into her brother as they both talked while watching a movie. Her necklace sparkled provocatively.

 

If the girl hadn’t still been wearing it, Sebastian may have broken into her too and burgled it while they were both downstairs.

 

It was now 1:30 am

 

Precious time ticked on as Sebastian swigged, watching. The pair started to doze off.

 

Then Thsnkfilly the movie ended, waking them.

 

He saw the sister rise and ask her twin brother to help undo her necklace. Apparently, it had a tight clasp.

 

The bother did so. Cadie held the necklace dangling from her hand as she turned and went upstairs.

 

The brother watched her and then settled in to watch the movie.

 

“Damn!” Thought Sebastian looking at his watch.

 

It was now 2:00.sm

 

Sebastian’s fingers tinkled, it was a waiting game anyway. 2;30 should be about enough time for her to be fast asleep.

 

He waited, and the brother finally fell asleep on the couch.

 

Now or never.

At 2:45 Sebastian slipped out of the shadows to the rear patio that led to a sunroom. There he found a glass door and using a circle glass cutting tool easily removed a round section of glass and let himself in.

 

The thick pads of his shoes muffled his steps as he stole his way through the house to the bottom step of the stairwell leading upstairs.

 

The whole place is oozed by wealth.

 

He peered into the room where the movie was playing. He saw the brother was still not moving.

 

At the bottom, he listened. All was quiet upstairs. Sneaking up the stairs he made the landing. The girl Cadie’s room was on the right. Her door was conveniently open.

 

He tiptoed over to it. A large window off to the side was letting in enough light that he didn’t need his torch.

 

In the moonlight streaming through that window, he could see her lying curled upon on the bed, black satin sheets were pulled up to the waist of Cadie’s richly chocolate satin-clad figure.

 

She was fast asleep, facing away from her bedside vanity, out upon which an oak jewel case sat to one side, its 3 drawers facing her.

 

He crept into her room. Looking around., all her room’s pricey decorations, starkly indicated that this was indeed a rich girl's lair.

 

A warm tingling rush of adrenaline swept over Sebastian, this was what it was all about for him. The overwhelming allure to break in and steal jewels without being caught out. So much more enticing when the victim who had worn them was there also

 

He had practiced this using Emylee as the sleeping victim, but that was no substitute for the real thing.

 

He could see that now, as the arousing feeling that any cat burglar worth his salt had when seeing a sleeping lady’s diamonds, invitingly laid out in the open was intensified tenfold.

 

Cadie looked vulnerable, fast asleep, wearing her shiny satin pjs. Sebastian saw her equally shiny gown reflected in her vanity mirror as it hung from the back of her bedroom door.

 

Sebastian went directly to her vanity, one eye on her, the. other on her jewelry case, heart thumping with increasing force as he got closer, undetected by the sleeping girl

Whose shiny back was facing him.

 

He lifted her satin clutch purse from the side table and opened it, daringly laying it on the satin sheets of her bed, centimeters away from her sleek back.

 

Then turned his undivided attention to the area where the case containing the sleeping girl's jewels sat

 

Next to the jewel case lay a thin leather box. Upon it, carefully laid out, were, the earrings necklace, and bracelet she had worn blazed up into a stormy fire.

 

Sebastian carefully lifted the gorgeous diamond necklace she had been wearing watching it glittering itself up a storm.

 

He carefully slipped it inside her purse.

 

Sebastian quickly scooped the remaining pieces, taking a precious few seconds to dangle them in front of his eyes, with the sleeping Cadie in the background, before slipping them into the purse on the bed

 

He then turned to the jewel case, but stopped, on a whim he picked up the thin leather box and opened it. His eyes were greeted by the shimmering sight of a magnificent diamond broach(£10,000) that she had not been wearing on her gown.

 

Rookie error, almost an expensive one, forgetting to check inside of a jewel case he had thought was empty.

 

He then slowly opened the wooden top lid of the 3 drawer case. Her now fully exposed jewels glittered. Emeralds, rubies, and sapphires glittering inside, all dinner-out jewellery, none of it as expensive as her formal evening-out diamonds.

 

Slowly, carefully Sebastian extracted each glimmering piece. Taking everything, even those set with rhinestones. (£23,000)

 

What proper thief wouldn’t?

 

He then slowly opened the three drawers and removed the glittering trinkets they contained. Gold and silver in the top two,(£8,000) the bottom one containing a nice collection of rings(£23,000)

 

But no pearls. Rich girls always had pearls. Especially debutantes like the sleeping Cadie, whose white A-line satin gown with rhinestone trimmings he had seen hanging from a hook in a corner of her room.

 

So the hunt was on

 

Pillows checked underneath, fingers edged around the mattress, then ruffled through her dresser drawers. Then on a whim, he checked the oak wardrobe and bingo, found a wide thin hinged velvet-covered case hidden in a drawer underneath a rack of coats, a fur, a black leather jacket, and a satin cape.

 

He opened it and found a nice collection of gleaming pearls, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets(19,500).

 

At that moment he heard noisier on the stairs. Holding the case. Sebastian moved back between the wardrobe and an open corner.

 

He saw a shadow on the sister's wall by the door. Her brother then popped his head in, watching his sleeping sister.

 

Thankfully the small black clutch purse blended in the black satin sheets, the brother never noticed.

 

Seeing her gown on the backside of the door the brother fingered it.

 

“Don’t blame you, lad.” Sebastian thought.

 

The brother then left and Sebastian heard his bedroom door open and close.

 

As it did, the girl turned over in bed. He held his breath. She did not wake, but her nose was almost touching her satin purse, filled with the jewels he was stealing.

 

He waited for ten long minutes, listening, hearing nothing more than the sleeping girl's breathing.

 

Finally, he crept from the corner, taking the case over to the vanity. Gently lifting the purse from the bed, he scooped the Pearls out sad dropped them on the pile inside Cadie’s small satin purse.

 

Stealing looks at the bedroom door, as well as Cadie’s sleeping form, Sebastian then went to the sleeping girls' closet and ruffled through the expensive clothes hanging there. On a satiny party dress he found a rhinestone clip, and on principles removed it.

 

It then occurred to Sebastian that he had not found the twin diamond hairclips Cadie had been wearing holding up her silky hair.

 

He went back over to the bed.

 

Kneeling her went in for a closer examination of Cadie, confirming they were not in her hair. He looked over her fingers for any rings she may have still been wearing. But they were all bare

 

However, as Sebastian examined her, he saw a hint of gold. She was wearing a thin chain around her neck. The end is hidden inside her chocolate satin pj top.

 

She must have been wearing it underneath her gown this evening. Whatever was at its end may not be worth the risk of being caught in the acte of robbing her, but taking risks was all this was about.

 

He took off his gloves, and reached in, lifting the gold chain from her neck. He then began pulling it up.

 

She must have felt something, for Suddenly Cadie stirred, and he froze.

She rubbed her nose with a satin sleeve, But her eyes did not open.

 

When she settled back down(and Sebastian’s heart came back down from up his throat) he looked the situation over

 

The chain had fallen out, and against her satin-clad breasts was a diamond chip-embedded gold cross (£2,500) that had been at the chain end

 

Sebastian reached in and delicately pulled the chain until the clasp came into view.

 

Holding his breath he held the jewelled cross in one hand, while he undid the clasp with the other. Then with the delicate touch of a surgeon, pulled the chain off from around Cadie’s neck.

 

He exhaled while plopping the stolen jewel on top of the sparkling stash already inside the purse.

 

Sebastian looked around. There was a door at the end of the room he had not opened yet

 

He went over and discovered it led to a shared bathroom. And there on the sink, lay the pair of missing diamond clips. He went over and lifted them both from the sink.

 

Sebastian went back to the bed and added the glimmering clips to the stash inside the purse.

 

He then picked up the now much heavier purse and backed out of his victim's room, along with her purse full of jewels.

 

He stopped at her door, watching Cadie sleep while fingering the far too-soft gown hanging there. He pictured how pretty Cadie had been that evening, dressed expensively up in silk, how deliciously exquisite she had felt in his arms.

 

He remembered the exhilaration when he confirmed that she was actually wearing real diamonds.

 

He would have loved to be there when she woke and see her reaction upon finding she had been robbed of those diamonds while asleep.

 

With. With a deep sigh, he turned and made his way out of the house, retracing his steps to meet up with Emylee at their rendezvous point.

 

He stopped at the edge of the woods leading back towards the cemetery. Looking back at the large manor house with satisfaction at how he had handled tonight’s burglary.

 

He saw that the light was on in Cadie’s room. Then suddenly the light flickered on in her twin brothers.

 

He smiled wickedly to himself, figuring that young satin-clad Cadie had just now discovered that while she slept, her jewel case had been cleaned out.

 

He turned and disappeared into the woods. Rehashing how he had lured the devastatingly gorgeous young Cadie into his confidence, the success of which was richly encouraging him to look forward to the next job.

 

And perhaps down the road meet up with Cadie again. And then revisit her home to do a full and proper Job of it.

  

At the end of May 1866 a large force of Fenians (Irish-Americans) for desired freedom from British rule from Ireland invaded the Niagara Region of Canada West in an effort to occupy the Province in order to force the British to grant independence for Ireland. After Occupying the village of Fort Erie, they marched and on the 2nd of June, 1866 engaged a force of Canadian Militia of the 13th Battalion, Volunteer Militia (Infantry) of Canada and the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Own Rifles. While the Canadians saw initial success they were driven from the field by superior numbers and training of the Fenian Forces. The Fenians would again engage a second small force of Canadian Militia at Fort Erie and would again defeat them. But facing dwindling numbers would withdraw in the early hours of the 3rd of June. The Angur Farmhouse as it stands today played a roll in marking where the Fenians pinned down the Canadians, the house stands much as it did in 1866 and has some bullet holes left in the brick, although I was unable to locate them.

 

Mamiya m645 - Mamiya-Sekor C 45mm 1:2.8 N - Ilford FP4+ @ ASA-100

Kodak D-23 (Stock) 6:00 @ 20C

Meter: Pentax Spotmeter V

Scanner: Epson V700

Editor: Adobe Photoshop CC

Parts of the loop road through Monument Valley run right over bare rock, complete with all the bare rock pot holes. The Honda handled it all just fine. Here's the Honda looking car-commercial cool.

Greenlees Grove is located in Federation Forest State Park off of Highway 410. I’ve driven by this small state park many times on my way to Mount Rainier National Park and the surrounding area but I’ve never stopped there. Well this past Mother’s Day my wife wanted to do a hike so we headed out to this place. We started on a trail from the parking lot that took us down by the White River and the trail was pretty overgrown and in desperate need of clearing. There were fallen trees everywhere and it was a little hard to pick up the trail. We eventually made it back up a hill to a nice loop trail that goes by Greenlees Grove that has some pretty impressive trees. I thought it was cool and I just read that there’s a little Hobbit Village there. I will for sure head back there to check it out.

 

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed'” – Isaiah 56:1

 

For purchasing, licensing, or more information you can find me at www.bSharpPhoto.com (or contact me through flickr). Thanks for looking!

+ viscous damped tonearms

 

JEL blog

Corvair Monza, driven by Mrs F C Usin, in August 1960.

 

Please go here to see more photographs of the Family Car -

www.flickr.com/photos/69559277@N04/sets/72157628124351754...

 

Produced from the original negative in my collection.

This site was not on my list and required a second look as I had driven past without noticing it. My mate who was with me at the time said that it looked like and old garage, this prompted me to turn the car around and go back for a look

Just at that moment a chap who lives across the road returned home on his bike after a few drinks down the local, I then collared him asking if he knew of any history on this place.

At first he thought I'd ran out of petrol so kindly offered to get his five litre jerry can out his garage before realising what I had asked.

He confirmed that it was no longer a petrol station but had been a garage/petrol station but quite a long time ago.

From the extra information I'd been given this had been a BP/Cleveland/Esso and Fina filling station, Fina being the last brand sold before the petrol station closed back in 1989.

I can only get a street view image from 2009, this shows the site still operating as a garage operating under Queniborough Auto Services.

Traces of petrol station evidence can be seen, a fire switch still remains at the far end end of the building as well as part of the pump island can be seen between the sale cars.

In the present day the garage is looking a bit scruffy with the site used for garden maintenance machinery hire and repair.

Google street view 2009

maps.app.goo.gl/AkGrstDwTDmaxALX9

ACE Driven Mica Grey With Machined Face 20x9 / 20x10.5