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Chantilly 2016 - Concours d'élégance
Commentaire Artcurial lors de Retromobile février 2016
1995 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport
Carte grise française
Châssis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Moteur n° 0103
- Histoire et provenance exceptionnelles
- Livrée avec un deuxième moteur neuf
- Voiture du record de vitesse sur glace en 1995
- Très faible kilométrage (1 373 km)
- Modèle exceptionnellement performant et rare
Le développement des supercars à transmission intégrale a donné l'idée à Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur de compétition automobile, actuel directeur de Venturi et membre de la famille Pastor, entrepreneurs monégasques fortunés, de battre le record de vitesse sur glace. Initialement prévue avec une Porsche Turbo, la tentative sera finalement effectuée à bord de cette Bugatti EB110 SS qu'il achète neuve à l'usine. Préparée en Italie (avec principalement une adaptation des rapports de boîte et la pose d'un lest de 270 kg) la voiture est acheminée en Finlande, à proximité de la ville d'Oulu, sur une piste de 7 km. Elle est équipée de simples pneus à lamelles de série, sans clous et, le 3 mars 1995, Gildo Pallanca Pastor atteint la vitesse de 315 km/h, la FIA homologuant finalement 296,34 km/h. Cette performance a bien résisté dans le temps puisque le record n'a été battu qu'en mars 2013, par une Audi RS6.
Lors d'une interview accordée le 2 mai 2013 à Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor précisait : "C'était le 3 mars 1995 à Oulu, en Finlande, sur une mer gelée. J'ai atteint une vitesse finale de 315 km/h avec des pneus sans clous. C'était un record assez insensé car je voyais les vagues au bout de la piste. Le plus grand challenge était d'ailleurs de ne pas me retrouver dans l'eau. J'ai eu droit à tout. Aux rennes qui traversaient la piste par exemple... Les Finlandais étaient en tout cas assez intrigués de voir un Monégasque aller plus vite qu'eux sur la glace..."
C'est la voiture de ce record que nous présentons aujourd'hui. Elle fait partie des quelque 31 exemplaires de Bugatti EB110 SS produites. Apparu en 1992, ce modèle était plus puissant et plus léger, disposant de 603 ch à 8 250 tr/mn. Il était capable d'atteindre une vitesse de pointe de 355 km/h et de passer de 0 à 100 km/h en 3,26 secondes. Voiture plus exclusive que les 106 exemplaires de McLaren F1, ses performances sont comparables, avec une plus grande facilité d'utilisation grâce à ses 4 roues motrices et son V12 3,5 litres suralimenté par quatre turbocompresseurs.
En parfait état de présentation, cette voiture du record sur glace a vraisemblablement reçu un voile de peinture par les ateliers Monaco Racing Team il y a quelques années. Quelques très légers éclats de peintures apparaissent au niveau des ouvertures de portes ou sur le bouclier avant mais cela est vraiment anecdotique. La carrosserie est ornée des quelques stickers Michelin et Elf qui soutenaient Gildo Pastor dans son record. Vierge de toute usure, l'habitacle présente des cuirs, moquettes et joints impeccables, et le compartiment moteur est très propre. Doté d'une carte grise française et d'un contrôle technique vierge de tout défaut l'auto est tout simplement exceptionnelle.
Plusieurs éléments seront livrés avec : une housse sur mesure, et les quatre jantes évoquant celles de la Bugatti Royale et avec lesquelles le record du monde a été établi ! Un second moteur neuf sur palette (B110-01-003) accompagnera également la voiture ainsi que le manuel d'entretien et de réglage usine !
Très attaché à cette voiture, Gildo Pallanca Pastor l'a conservée précieusement pendant plusieurs années à Monaco avant de la vendre l'année dernière à un autre collectionneur de la marque. Cette Bugatti EB110 SS, dont le compteur n'affiche que 1 373 km, fonctionne très bien et bénéficiera d'une révision effectuée avant la vente. Elle a été récemment exposée au 32e Festival Bugatti au parc des Jésuites de Molsheim, en septembre dernier, où elle s'est rendue par la route. Depuis, elle a régulièrement roulé entre les mains de son second propriétaire sur les routes d'Alsace.
Pièce d'exception, elle témoigne du début de l'époque des hypercars et de la course à la puissance et à la vitesse qu'ils ont engendré. A ses performances et son faible kilométrage, elle ajoute la rareté et la performance historique que constitue son record.
French title
Chassis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Engine n° 0103
- Exceptional history and provenance
- Delivered with a second brand new engine
- Ice speed record car in 1995
- Very low mileage (1 373 km)
- Exceptionally rare and powerful car
The development of four-wheel drive supercars gave Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur racing driver, CEO of Venturi and member of the wealthy entrepreneurial Monegasque Pastor family, the idea of breaking the ice speed record.
The initial plan was to use a Porsche Turbo, but the attempt was finally made in this Bugatti EB110 SS, bought new from the factory. Prepared in Italy (which principally involved adapting the gearing and adding ballast of 270 kg), the car was taken to a 7 km track in Finland, near the city of Oulu. On 3 March 1995, fitted with regular production tyres, without spikes, Gildo Pallanca Pastor achieved a speed of 315 km/h, ultimately homologated by the FIA at 296,34 km/h. This record stood for some time and was only beaten in March 2013 by an Audi RS6.
During an interview on 2 May 2013 with the Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor said : " It was 3 March 1995 Oulu, in Finland, on the frozen sea. I reached a top speed of 315 km/h on tyres without spikes. It was a pretty crazy record as I could see waves at the end of the track. The greatest challenge was to avoid ending up in the water. I had it all. Reindeer crossing the track for example...In any case, the Finns were intrigued to see a Monagesque go faster than them on the ice... "
It is this record-breaking car that we are presenting today. It is one of some 31 examples of the Bugatti EB110 SS built. First appearing in 1992, this model was lighter and more powerful, producing some 603 bhp at 8 250 rpm. It was capable of a top speed of 355 km/h and travelled from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.26 seconds. A more exclusive car than the McLaren F1, with a comparable performance, it was easy to use with four-wheel drive and a V12 3.5-litre engine with four turbochargers.
Presented in perfect condition, this ice record-breaking car is likely to have had a layer of paint added in the Monaco Racing Team workshop a few years ago. There are a few incidental marks to the paintwork on the door openings and front bumper. The coachwork sports Michelin and Elf stickers, both sponsors of Gildo Pastor for his record attempt. The interior presents no wear at all and the leather, carpets and seals are immaculate. The engine compartment is also extremely clean. With a French title and new technical inspection (MOT), this car is simply outstanding. Items to be delivered with the car include : a made to measure cover, the four wheels, echoing those of the Bugatti Royale, that were used to break the world record ! A second engine on a palette (B110-01-003) will accompany the car along with the service book and factory record !
Very attached to this car, Gildo Pallanca Pastor kept it carefully for many years in Monaco, before selling it last year to another marque enthusiast. This Bugatti EB110 SS, with the odometer recording just 1 373 km, is in good running order and will be serviced before the sale. Last September the car was driven to, and exhibited at, the 32rd Bugatti Festival at the Jesuits' park in Molsheim. Since then it has been used regularly by its second owner on the roads in Alsace.
An exceptional lot, this car is a testament to the early period of hypercars and the race for power and speed that ensued. With such a performance and so few miles on the clock, this rare machine also boasts a history as a record-breaking car.
Estimation 800 000 - 1 200 000 €
Vendu 904,800 €
www.RochesterAstronomy.org/supernova.html#2023ixf
please find my observation of SN 2023ixf in the attachments. I also placed the brightness of comparison stars from the AAVSO chart. My estimation for SN is 11.7 magnitude.
Cheers,
Balázs Benei
bit of controversy over this one...This coach without a doubt last year should have won coach of the year but we know who won...This year for me it was the goodwins neoplan but this was also high up in my estimation and a contender for coach of the year...Instead again for the second year running it only went away with the top Volvo award...WHY....starting to think that this event is rigged...How did brethertons Volvo 9900 GL22HOL NOT WIN COACH OF THE YEAR LAST YEAR OR THIS YEAR !!!!!!!!!. Photo taken 02/04/22
A reprocess and uncropped version of another image of this pair I uploaded a few days ago. This one is the full field of view from my 80ED f/6.
Fireworks Galaxy NGC 6946 and Open Cluster NGC 6939
I've been experimenting with this image. It's a reprocess and uncropped version of the image I posted yesterday (bit.ly/2aZeH54). This time, I tried using the stacking in Photoshop instead of using my tried and true DeepSkyStacker.
What I find most interesting is that despite NOT using dark frames for noise reduction in this stack, the image actually turned out cleaner and with less noise than the version I stacked with DSS including dark frames. And I think the overall result is actually much nicer as a result of this.
That said, Photoshop lacks a lot of what I would consider critical features for doing this (like image quality estimation) and other tools, but in the case where I have a uniformly good data, the results were pretty astonishing.
Nikon D5100
Explore Scientific ED80
Celestron AVX mount, unguided
1H 30m of 2 min exposures @ ISO 1600
The SU-76 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76) was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during and after World War II. The SU-76 was based on a lengthened and widened version of the T-70 tank chassis. Its simple construction made it the second most produced Soviet armoured vehicle of World War II, after the T-34 tank.
Crews loved this vehicle for its simplicity, reliability, and ease of use, affectionately calling it suka ("bitch"), Suchka ("little bitch") or Golozhopiy Ferdinand ("bare-arsed Ferdinand") for its layout which recalled the massive Porsche-designed German tank hunter.
History
Design of the SU-76 began in November 1942, when the State Defense Committee ordered the construction of infantry support self-propelled guns armed with the ZiS-3 76.2 mm gun and the M-30 122 mm howitzer. The T-70 chassis was chosen for mounting the ZiS-3 gun, and was lengthened, adding one road wheel per side, to facilitate better gun mounting. The vehicle was completely enclosed by armour.
In the rush for fast completion of the order, a quite unreliable powerplant setup was installed in the first mass produced SU-76s. Two GAZ-202 automobile engines were used mounted in "parallel", each engine driving one track. It was found to be difficult for the driver to control the two engines simultaneously. Moreover, strong vibrations led to early failures of engines and transmission units. After 320 SU-76s had been made, mass production was halted in order to fix the problems. Two chief designers at the GAZ plant, N. A. Astrov and A. A. Lipgart, changed the powerplant arrangement to that of T-70 - the two engines were mounted in tandem on the right hand side of the vehicle. The roof of the compartment was removed for better gun servicing. This modified version, called the SU-76M, began mass production in early 1943. As an interim replacement during the halt of production the SU76i - the 76.2mm gun on captured German tank chassis - were produced.
After the pause, GAZ and two factories in Kirov and Mytishchi produced 13,932 SU-76Ms; the larger part of the order, over 9,000 vehicles, were built solely by GAZ. Mass production of the SU-76M ceased in the second half of 1945. In contemporary accounts SU-76Ms are often referred to in texts, public radio and TV broadcasting as SU-76s with the "M" omitted, due to their ubiquity in comparison with the original SU-76s.[citation needed] The SU-76 was the basis for the first Soviet tracked armoured anti-aircraft vehicle, the ZSU-37. Mass production of the ZSU-37 was continued after SU-76M production ceased. The SU-76M was withdrawn from Soviet Army service after the Second World War ended.
The SU-76M virtually replaced infantry tanks in the close support role. Its thin armour and open top made it vulnerable to antitank weapons, grenades, and small arms. Its light weight and low ground pressure gave it good mobility.
The SU-76M combined three main battlefield roles: light assault gun, mobile anti-tank weapon and mobile gun for indirect fire. As a light assault gun, the SU-76M had good estimation from Soviet infantrymen (in contrast with their own crews). It had more powerful weapons than any previous light tank for close support and communication between infantry and the SU-76M crew was simple due to the open crew compartment. This was extremely useful in urban combat where good teamwork between infantry and AFVs is a key to success. Although the open compartment was highly vulnerable to small arms fire and hand grenades, it very often saved the crew's lives in the case of a hit by a Panzerfaust, whose concussion blast would mean death in an enclosed vehicle[citation needed].
The SU-76M was effective against any medium or light German tank. It could also knock out the Panther tank with a flank shot, but the ZiS-3 gun was not sufficient against Tiger tanks. Soviet manuals for SU-76M crews usually instructed the gunner to aim for the tracks or gun barrel against Tigers. To improve the SU-76M's anti-armour capabilities, armour-piercing composite rigid (APCR) and hollow charge projectiles were introduced. This gave the SU-76M a better chance against heavily armoured German vehicles. A low profile, a low noise signature and good mobility were other advantages of the SU-76M. This was ideal for organizing ambushes and sudden flank or rear strikes in close combat, where the ZiS-3 gun was sufficient against most German armoured fighting vehicles.
The maximum elevation angle of the ZiS-3 was the greatest amongst all other Soviet self-propelled guns. The maximum indirect fire distance was nearly 17 km. SU-76Ms were sometimes used as light artillery vehicles (like the German Wespe) for bombardments and indirect fire support. However the power of the 76.2 mm shells was not sufficient in many cases.
The SU-76M was the single Soviet vehicle able to operate in swamps with minimal support from engineers. During the Belarus liberation campaign in 1944 it was extremely useful for organizing sneak attacks through swamps; bypassing heavy German defenses on firmer ground. Usually only lightly armed infantry could pass through large swampy areas. With SU-76M support, Soviet soldiers and engineers could effectively destroy enemy strongpoints and continue to advance.
The SU-76M had a large number of ammunition types. They included armour-piercing (usual, with ballistic nose and subcaliber hyper-velocity), hollow charge, high explosive, fragmentation, shrapnel and incendiary projectiles. This made the SU-76M a true multi-purpose light armoured fighting vehicle.
One famous crewman was Rem Nikolaevich Ulanov. In his younger days he was a mechanic-driver and later a commander of a SU-76. He and some other soldiers called their SU-76 Columbina after the female Renaissance Italian Commedia dell'Arte personage.
After World War II, the SU-76 was used by Communist forces in the Korean War.
Designed 1942
Produced1942–1945
Number built~14,292 (13,932 SU-76M & 360 SU-76)
Specifications
Weight10,600 kg (23,320 lb)
Length4.88 m (16 ft)
Width2.73 m (8 ft 11 in)
Height2.17 m (7 ft 1 in)
Crew4
ArmorFront: 35 mm (1.4 in)
Side: 16 mm (0.63 in)
Main armament76 mm (2.99 in) ZIS-3Sh gun
Engine2×GAZ-203 engines 170 hp (126 kW)
Power/weight17 hp/tonne
Suspensiontorsion bar
Operationalrange320 km (200 miles)
Speed45 km/h (28 mph)
St Margaret,
Horsmonden,
Kent.
I get to visit all sorts of place in the persuit of orchids and churches, and on occasion, your breath gets taken away by arriving at the most perfect of place.
Horsmonden is such a place.
Sitting in the shadow of the hill on which Goudhurst sits, but the high road passes far enough away so not to be heard.
The church is some distance from the village it serves, and can be found down a dead end lane, ending with a farm and two fine cottages that are covered in Kentish pantiles..
We had been searching for churches based on the symbols on our country A-Z, finding two churches not there.
Oh well.
Good to report that not only was St Margaret there, it was open.
More shots in due course.
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What a delightful and fascinating church! West tower, nave with aisles and long chancel make this building sound so commonplace. Yet its atmosphere and furnishings make this stand out as one of the most easily recognisable churches in the county. Set in a farmyard some distance from its village, St Margaret's church holds much of note. The chancel has been stripped of its limewash making it an interesting (though historically incorrect) contrast with the clerestoried nave. Firstly it has two Rood Loft Staircases - an obvious sign that over the course of the late middle ages the screen changed its position, or access. On the south wall is a memorial bust to an extraordinary inventor, John Read. This nineteenth century genius invented the round oast-house, the stomach pump and a tobacco enema! Nearby is an early eighteenth century `spider` chandelier. A huge brass is situated in the centre of the chancel (with a rubbing nearby). This is to Henry Grofhurst and dates from the mid fourteenth century. There are two very colourful windows by Rosemary Everett dating from the 1940s.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Horsmonden+1
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HORSEMONDEN
IS the next parish northward from Lamberhurst, a small part of it is within the borough of Rugmerhill, which lies at the western side of it adjoining to that of Brenchley, and is as such within the antient demesne of the manor of Aylesford, and consequently exempt from the jurisdiction of this hundred.
A small part of this parish is said to be within the hundred of Larkfield.
THE PARISH OF HORSEMONDEN is situated much like that of Lamberhurst last described. being a surface of continued hill and dale. It is bounded towards the north-east and south by different streams of the river Medway, which flow from hence, and join the main river at Yalding, besides which it is watered by two other smaller rivulets, and several lesser springs interspersed over it, all which join the larger stream on the southern side of the parish. It is full four miles in length from north to south, but its breadth is but small, in some places not more than one, and in its broadest part not more than two miles. The high road from Maidstone through Yalding to Lamberhurst and Sussex, runs through the whole length of the parish; that from Watringbury over Brandt bridge through Brenchley towards Goudhurst crosses this parish and the other road, at a small green called Horsemonden-heath, which is built round with houses, forming the only village in the parish, the rest of the houses being dispersed singly over different parts of it. The soil, near the high road, is in general a sand intermixed with the rock or sand stone, the remainder is a deep stiff clay, exceeding miry in wet weather. It is much interspersed with coppice woods of oak, especially on the west and north sides of it, where the soil abounds with iron ore; the whole is much covered with fine spreading oak trees, which here from the soil being very kindly to their nourishment grow to a large size, and become sometimes nearly equal in value to the freehold of the estates.
The church stands, with the parsonage, about a quarter of a mile distant from it, very near the southeast boundary of the parish. In the upper part of itnear the river is a seat called Baynden, late belonging to Sir Charles Booth, of Stede-hill, deceased.
A fair is held here on St. Swithin's day, now by the alteration of the style on July 26, for cattle, pedlery and toys.
THE MANOR of Horsemonden was part of the antient possessions of the archbishopric of Canterbury, the archbishop holding it of the king in capite as one knight's fee, of whom it was again held by the noble family of Clare, earls of Gloucester and Hertford.
It appears by the inquisitions returned into the exchequer in the 13th and 14th years of king John, of the knights fees and other services held in capite, that this place was then in the possession of the family of Albrincis, (fn. 1) one of whom, William de Albrincis, or Averenches, dying s. p. Maud, his sister, at length became her brother's heir, and entitled her husband, Hamo de Crevequer, to the possession of it. He died in the 47th year of king Henry the IIId.'s reign, before which however, this manor seems to have passed in marriage with one of his daughters, Elene, to Bertram de Criol.
In the 42d year of king Henry III. there was a composition entered into between archbishop Boniface and Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, in relation to the customs and services which the archbishop claimed on account of the lands, which the earl held of him in Tunbridge, Horsemonden, and other places in this county, by which it was agreed that the earl should do homage, and the service of one knight's see for the manor of Horsemonden, and suit at the court of the archbishop and his successors at Canterbury.
In the 8th year of king Edward II. this manor was part of the possessions of the family of Rokesle, the heirs of Roger de Rokesle then holding it of the honor of Clare; one of these was Sir Richard de Rokesle, who died without male issue, leaving by his wife Joane, sister and heir of John de Criol, son of Bertram above-mentioned, two daughters his coheirs; of whom Agnes, the eldest, married Thomas de Poynings; and Joane, the youngest, first Hugh de Pateshull, and secondly Sir William le Baud, each of whom in her right became possessed of this manor, and the latter of them died possessed of it in the 4th year of king Edward III. His widow, in the 20th year of that reign, paid aid for it, being then held of the earl of Gloucester.
After which, although their son, Sir William Baud, seems to have had some interest in this estate, at his death in the 50th year of that reign, yet on hers, the manor itself came to her nephew Michael, son of Thomas de Poynings above mentioned, by Joane de Rokesle her sister, in whose descendants it continued down to his grandson Robert de Poynings, who died in the 25th year of king Henry VI. leaving Alianore, the wife of Sir Henry Percy, lord Percy, eldest son of Henry, earl of Northumberland, daughter of Richard de Poynings, his eldest son, who died in his life-time, his next heir; upon which the lord Percy, in her right, became entitled to this manor, and from him it continued down to Henry, earl of Northumberland, who died without issue in the 29th year of Henry the VIIIth.'s reign. The year before which, he by deed, granted to the king, all his manors, castles and estates, (fn. 2) although the year before this, an act had passed for assuming to the king all his lands and possessions, in case of failure of heirs of his body.
This manor thus coming to the crown, stayed not many years there, for the king in his 36th year, granted it to Stephen Darell, esq. and Agnes his wife, to hold in capite. He died in the 2d year of queen Elizabeth, after which his two sons, Henry and George successively, possessed it, the latter of whom in the 10th year of that reign, alienated this manor to Richard Payne, who anno 17 queen Elizabeth, levied a fine of it, and some time afterwards alienated it to William Beswicke, esq. of Spelmonden, in this parish, sheriff in the year 1616. He was son of William Beswicke, alias Berwicke, alderman and lord-mayor of London, the son of Roger Beswicke, of Cheshire. They bore for their arms, Gules, three bezants, a chief or. His son, Arthur Beswicke, was of Spelmonden, and married Martha, daughter of Laurence Washington, esq. of Maidstone, by whom he left an only daughter Mary his heir, who in her life-time settled this manor on Mr. Haughton, descended from those of Haughton Tower, in Lancashire. He left two daughters his coheirs, the eldest of whom Anne, carried it in marriage to James Marriott, esq. of Hampton, in Middlesex, who bore for his arms, Barry of six, or, and sable. His son, of the same name, died s p. in 1741, and gave it by will to his sister Anne, for her life, and then to his second cousin, Hugh Marriott, esq. who died in 1753, leaving by Lydia, his wife, widow of Dr. Hutton, two sons, James; and Thomas, slain at the siege of Madras in 1765, and one daughter Anne. James the eldest son is in holy orders, and LL. D. He married in 1767, Miss Bosworth, and is the present possessor of this manor, and other estates in this parish.
There is no court held for this manor.
SPELMONDEN is an antient seat at the southern boundary of this parish, which was once possessed by a family which took its surname from it. John de Spelmonden, one of the proprietors of it, is frequently mentioned in the deeds and evidences belonging to this estate; after they were become extinct here, this seat became part of the possessions of the eminent family of Poynings, one of whom Michael, son of Thomas de Poynings, by Joane de Rokesle, possessed it at his death in the 43d year of king Edward III.
He left two sons, Thomas, who died s. p. and Richard, who became his brother's heir, and died possessed of this estate in the 11th year of Richard II. He was succeeded in it by Robert de Poynings his only son, at whose death in the 25th year of king Henry VI. Robert, his younger son, seems to have inherited Spelmonden, and died in the 9th year of king Edward IV. His son and heir, Sir Edward Poynings, in the 14th year of that reign, alienated it to John Sampson, whose son, Christopher Sampson, in the 37th year of king Henry VIII. passed it away by sale to Stephen Davell, who afterwards resided here, and his son, George Darell, in the 10th year of queen Elizabeth, conveyed it to Richard Payne, of Twyford, in Middlesex, who in the 28th year of it sold this estate to William Nutbrown, and he next year alienated it to George Cure, esq. of Surry, from whom it immediately after was sold to Arthur Langworth, and from him again as quickly to William Beswicke, esq. who afterwards resided here, and was sheriff in 1616. Since which this seat has passed in like man ner as the manor of Horsemonden down to the Rev. Dr. Marriott, who is the present possessor of it.
LEWIS-HEATH is a manor situated in the centre of this parish, which was antiently part of the possessions of the family of Groveherst, or Grotherst, one of whom, John de Grotherst, rector of this church, as his epitaph still remaining in it informs us, gave this manor of Leueshothe to the abbot and convent of Begeham, to find one perpetual chaplain to celebrate in the church of Horsemonden and chapel of Leueshothe; and it continued part of the possessions of that abbey till the dissolution of it in the 17th year of king Henry VIII. who that year granted it with all its possessions, among which was this manor, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of Cardinal's college, in Oxford; but on his being cast in a præmunire, about four years afterwards, all the estates of that college, which, for want of time, had not been firmly settled on it, came into the king's hands, where this manor lay till queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, granted it to Anthony Brown, viscount Montague, who, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, died possessed of it in 1593. He was succeeded in it by his eldest son and heir, who not long afterwards alienated it to William Beswicke, esq. of Spelmonden, in this parish, since which it has passed in like manner as that seat, and the rest of his estates in this parish, to the Rev. Dr. Marriott, the present possessor of it.
SPRIVERS is a manor situated on the western side of this parish, which had antiently owners of that surname, one of whom, Robert Sprivers, died possessed of it in 1447, anno 26 Henry VI. and by his will devised it to his son of the same name. After this family was become extinct here, the Vanes became proprietors of it, from whom it passed into the name of Bathurst.
Robert Bathurst possessed this manor and resided here in the reign of queen Elizabeth. He was second son of Laurence Bathurst, of Staplehurst, whole eldest son Edward was ancestor of the Bathursts, of Franks, in this county, under which more may be seen of them. Robert Bathurst, above-mentioned, was ancestor by his first wife to those of Letchlade, in Gloucestershire, and of Finchcocks and Wilmington, in this county, and by his second wife of those of Richmond, in Yorkshire; soon after this it was alienated to Malbert, and from thence again, after no long intermission, to Morgan, in which name it remained till it was sold to Holman, whose descendant Anne Holman, in 1704, passed it away by sale to Mr. Courthope, who bore for his arms, Or, a fess azure between three estoils sable. Some account of the different branches of whose family has already been given before under Brenchley. That branch of it, from which the Courthopes of Danny, in Sussex, and those of Horsemonden were descended, was seated at Goddards-green, in Cranbrook, in the reign of king Henry VIII. one of whom, Alexander Courthope, of Cranbrook, possessed lands there, in Biddenden, and Maidstone, as appears by his will in the Prerogativeoffice, Canterbury, as early as the year 1525.
Mr. Courthope, the purchaser of this estate, left by his wife, one of the sisters of Edward Maplesden, of Cheveney, in Marden, a son, Alexander, and five daughters, who all died unmarried, except Barbara, who married Mr. Cole, of Marden, and died in 1783, by whom she had two surviving sons, Peter and John. Alexander Courthope, esq. the son, rebuilt the mantion house of Sprivers at some distance from the antient one, and afterwards resided in it with true old English hospitality, and with a reputation of the highest integrity. He died unmarried in 1779, and by his will gave this manor, with the estate belonging to it, to his nephew, John Cole, esq. the present possessor, who resides in it.
A court baron is regularly holden for this manor.
Grovehurst is a manor which lies on the eastern side of this parish, and was in very early times part of the possessions of a family who took their surname from it. William Grovhurst died possessed of it, with Puleyns in this parish, (now the property of the Rev. Richard Bathurst, late of Finchcocks in Goudhurst) in the 7th year of king Edward III; his descendant Richard Groveherst left three daughters his coheirs, one of whom, Anne, carried this manor in marriage, about the latter end of the reign of king Richard II. to Richard Hextall, of Hextalls-court in East Peckham. His eldest son William, in the beginning of king Henry VI.'s reign, increased his property in this parish by the purchase of four estates here, called Hothe, Smeeths, Capell, and Augustpitts. He left Margaret his sole daughter and heir, who carried them in marriage to William Whetenhall, esq commonly called Whetnall, whose descendant of the same name, was sheriff in the 18th year of king. Henry VIII.'s reign, and in the 31st year of it procured his lands to be disgavelled by the act passed that year.
His descendant, Henry Whetenhall, in the reign of king James I. passed away the manors of Grovehurst, Hoathe, Smeethe, and Capell, (for that of Augustpitts had been before sold off, being now the property of Mr. John Osborne, who resides at it,) together with a seat in this parish, called Broadford, situated near the bridge of that name over the river here, to Francis Austen, the fifth son of Mr. John Austen, of this parish, who dying in 1620, was buried in this church, where his arms still remain, viz. Or, on a chevron sable three plates, between three lions paws erect and erased, sable. He afterwards resided at Grovehurst, of which he died possessed in 1687, and was buried here. He left a son, John Austen, who was likewise of Grovehurst, where he died in 1705, and was buried here. His son; John Austen, esq. resided at Broadford, and died the year before him, leaving six sons and one daughter, of whom John, the eldest, became his grandfather's heir to his estates in this parish, and Francis, the second son, was father of Francis Motley Austen, esq. now of Sevenoke in this county.
John Austen, esq. the eldest son, was of Broadford, and married Mary, daughter and coheir of Stephen Stringer, esq. of Goudhurst, by whom he had John Austen, esq. now of Broadford, who married Miss Joanna Weekes, of Sevenoke, by whom he has one daughter Mary, and he is the present possessor of these manors and estates.
There is a court baron regularly held for the manors of Grovehurst, Hoathe, and Smeethe.
BADMONDEN is a reputed manor in this parish, in which there was formerly a cell, but not conventual, belonging to the priory of Beaulieu, in Normandy; in which situation it continued till the general suppression of the alien priories throughout England, in the 2d year of king Henry V. anno 1414, when their houses and possessions were in parliament given to the king and his heirs, who the next year gave it to the priory of St. Andrew, in Rochester, where it remained till the dissolution of that society in 1540; when all the rents and revenues of it were surrendered into the king's hands, who by his dotation charter in his 33d year, settled it on his new-founded dean and chapter of Rochester, with whom the inheritance of it remains at this time.
The manor of East Farleigh and East Peckham claims over this part of Horsemonden; the freeholders in Badmonden holding their lands of it in free socage tenure.
BRAMBLES is a small manor in this parish, which was heretofore the property of Mr. John Barnes, and now belongs to Mr. Usherwood.
A court baron is held for this manor.
The manor of Gillingham claims over the tithing or hamlet of Baveden, in this parish, being one of the four denns in the Weald holden of that manor, the freeholders holding their lands of it in free socage tenure.
Charities.
WILLIAM WYKES gave by will in 1682, for the maintenance of the poor in land, vested in trustees, the yearly produce of 14l. 6s. 6½d.
LADY ABERGAVENNY gave by will for the like purpose, in money and jewels, which were recovered by a decree in chancery in 1618, and laid out in the purchase of two farms, one in Tunbridge, of the clear annual produce of 19l. 16s. 5d. the other in Ticehurst, of 7l. 8s.
The number of poor constantly relieved here is yearly about fifty, those casually twenty.
HORSEMONDEN is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church is dedicated to St. Margaret; it is a handsome building; in it are memorials of Groshurst, Browne, Austen, Courthope and Campion, and in the chancel, on the south side, a fair altar tomb, without the appearance of having ever had any inscription on it. Over the west door are the arms of Poynings and Fitzpaine; one of the former might very probably be the builder, or at least a considerable benefactor to the building of it.
It is valued in the king's books at 26l. 3s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 2l. 12s. 4½d.
The patronage of this church was, from the earliest time, an appendage to the manor of Horsemonden, and consequently has had the same proprietors. There are two small manors annexed to it, called the manors of Hasellets alias Radmanden, and Cossington alias Heyden, for which there are court barons held—These, with the rectory, are now part of the possessions of the Rev. Dr. Marriot, lord of the manor of Horsemonden.
¶Robert de Grosshurst, of Horsemonden, in 1338, founded a perpetual chantry in this church, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in honor of her annunciation in the north part of it, to the praise of God, and for the souls of himself, his wife, &c. And he ordained, that after the first vacancy, the parishioners should nominate the priest of it, to be presented to the bishop of Rochester, to be instituted and inducted into the said chantry. The priest to reside constantly, and to celebrate daily in it, according to the rules therein mentioned. And he ordained, that Sir William Langford, the first priest, and his successors, perpetual chaplains of it, should receive yearly for their maintenance, and the burthens incumbent on it, from the abbot and convent of Boxley, six marcs sterling yearly rent, which he had purchased of them for the endowment of it. Anno 1445, the bishop directed his official, &c. to enquire by inquisition, among other matters, concerning the dotation and endowment of this chantry, when it was returned that it consisted in six marcs annual rent from the abbot of Boxlay, of forty shillings annual rent from lands in the parish of Merden, granted to the chaplain for a term of years, and in one messuage and gardens of the value of twelve-pence, and in rent in Horsemonden of six shillings per annum; and that the house of the chantry was so much out of repair, that six marcs would scarce be sufficient to put it in good repair; and that thus the true value of this chantry, the burthens belonging to the chaplain of it being borne by him, amounted according to their estimation to eight marcs per annum.
Sir Edward Poynings gave twenty-four acres of land to the maintenance of lights in this church; from whence they obtained their present name of Torchfield. (fn. 3)
In the year 1701, this church was repaired by the aid of a brief collected for that purpose.
Visual interpretation of relief on Ariel based on depth estimation from a single image - Ariel at Voyager Closest Approach
Zoedepth was not trained for DTM - the 3D image may contain errors, since it's not based on a DTM but on an AI model that hasn't been trained on planets.
3D relief characterization test at a distance of 130,000 km from Ariel without digital terrain model.
The set may present problems of resolution and projection.
Process on 2d image : false color, not RGB
Enlargement, enhancement and colorisation
Crop of a black and white image - cleaned version available on Seti PDS
Surface of Ariel taken by Voyager 2 / NASA - january 24, 1986
Process on 3d image :
Not based on a DTM, but a visual interpretation of the surface
Thank you ZoeDepth: Zero-shot Transfer by Combining Relative and Metric Depth : see it on arxiv.org/abs/2302.12288
Science Credit of image taken by Voyager 2 : NASA/JPL
Choice of processing method (2D/3D) and process execution : Thomas Thomopoulos
Credit for ZoeDepth: Shariq Farooq Bhat, Reiner Birkl, Diana Wofk, Peter Wonka, Matthias Müller
Link NASA photojournal : photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00037
NASA photojournal comment on original image :
"This picture is part of the highest-resolution Voyager 2 imaging sequence of Ariel, a moon of Uranus about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) in diameter. The clear-filter, narrow-angle image was taken Jan. 24, 1986, from a distance of 130,000 km (80,000 mi). The complexity of Ariel's surface indicates that a variety of geologic processes have occurred. The numerous craters, for example, are indications of an old surface bombarded by meteoroids over a long period. Also conspicuous at this resolution, about 2.4 km (1.5 mi), are linear grooves (evidence of tectonic activity that has broken up the surface) and smooth patches (indicative of deposition of material). The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory".
Things are a bit busy at this end of the season. Summer has hung on, and hung on. Ramadan has been and gone; Easter is just around the corner. So too is the first frost. Now's the time for getting in the harvest and putting away the tools.
That rush is why all you'll get on this April Fools Day is a few harmless pranks, and this quick snapshot. These are just some of the tools headed into storage.
On the left is my refractomer. It's calibrated to measure the wt% of dissolved sugar. For me, it's the piece of gear that extends the discussion about apple picking time. For any apple, it's the lift test first: has the abscission zone weakened? Then are the seeds changing from white through shades of brown. I don't use the iodine test; instead, I reach for the refractomer.
Next to it is one of my alcohol hydrometers. I could use it to measure the sugar in apple juice too. But that requires a bigger sample and cloudiness in the juice makes the scale difficult to read. Instead of bending light, it measures the specific gravity of the liquid: apple or grape juice, beer wort, whatever. The dissolved sugar makes the Sp.Gr. higher so when it is fermented out to alcohol the Sp.Gr. is lower. That's when I reach for a hydrometer — to determine the end point of fermentation. There's nothing worse than your cider exploding!
Out of curiosity, I also check the pH of my apple juice. Too low and the cider will be sour — so-called pig whistle cider. There's nothing fancy about my method — universal indicator paper is good enough.
This year's ripening season was weirdly early. It means I lost fruit I hadn't bothered to monitor because, on paper, it was too soon. That, and the hail storms messed up the apple yield. Typically there'd be so many apples and three distinct periods of ripening that I'd rack the two earliest batches to rest, then blend them back later before adding priming sugar and maybe a boosting shot of yeast to get the bottle fermentation I mostly use. Yes, I do some dry still varietal cider, or semi-sweet. But they're a lot of bother with multiple handling steps and for semi-sweet either the notion of chemical stabilisation or pasteurisation to prevent a secondary fermentation. Mostly, I can't be bothered. This year, I don't have to worry. There was so little fruit, high pH and high sugar, all at once, that the blending happened with the scratter and press. So instead of racking, decanting, blending and all the rest, this years cider has gone straight from the fermenter to the bottles with — touch wood — enough live yeast remaining to consume the priming sugar and carbonate the cider.
Righto, now back to work. Jack Frost is on his way!
Taken in Garden Grove, California. Things change in the span of half of a century. That tree is probably over 50 years old, too by my estimation.
First port all call this morning was Barham. Barham is always open, isn't it?
Apparently not.
No door unlocked despite there being a few cars in the car park, so I took a few shots and we returned to the car.
There's a coffee morning next week, we shall go back!
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A long and light church, best viewed from the south. Like nearby Ickham it is cruciform in plan, with a west rather than central, tower. Sometimes this is the result of a later tower being added, but here it is an early feature indeed, at least the same age (if not earlier) than the body of the church. Lord Kitchener lived in the parish, so his name appears on the War Memorial. At the west end of the south aisle, tucked out of the way, is the memorial to Sir Basil Dixwell (d 1750). There are two twentieth century windows by Martin Travers. The 1925 east window shows Our Lady and Child beneath the typical Travers Baroque Canopy. Under the tower, affixed to the wall, are some Flemish tiles, purchased under the will of John Digge who died in 1375. His memorial brass survives in the Vestry.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Barham
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Many churches in Kent are well known for their yew trees but St. John the Baptist at Barham is noteworthy for its magnificent beech trees.
The Church guide suggests that there has been a Church here since the 9th Century but the present structure was probably started in the 12th Century although Syms, in his book about Kent Country Churches, states that there is a hint of possible Norman construction at the base of the present tower. The bulk of the Church covers the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular periods of building. Many of the huge roof beams, ties and posts are original 14th Century as are the three arches leading into the aisle..
In the Northwest corner is a small 13th Century window containing modern glass depicting St. George slaying the dragon and dedicated to the 23rd Signal Company. The Church also contains a White Ensign which was presented to it by Viscount Broome, a local resident. The Ensign was from 'H.M.S. Raglan' which was also commanded by Viscount Broome. The ship was sunk in January, 1918 by the German light cruiser 'Breslau'.
The walls contain various mural tablets. Hanging high on the west wall is a helmet said to have belonged to Sir Basil Dixwell of Broome Park. The helmet probably never saw action but was carried at his funeral.
The floor in the north transept is uneven because some years ago three brasses were found there. According to popular medieval custom engraved metal cut-outs were sunk into indented stone slabs and secured with rivets and pitch. In order to save them from further damage the brasses were lifted and placed on the walls. The oldest dates from about 1370 is of a civilian but very mutilated. The other two are in good condition and dated about 1460. One is of a woman wearing the dress of a widow which was similar to a nun. The other is of a bare headed man in plate armour. These are believed to be of John Digges and his wife Joan.
At the west end of the church is a list of Rectors and Priests-in-Charge - the first being Otho Caputh in 1280. Notice should be made of Richard Hooker (1594), the author of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The tiles incorporated into the wall were originally in place in the Chancel about 1375. They were left by John Digges whose Will instructed that he was to be buried in the Chancel and "my executors are to buy Flanders tiles to pave the said Chancel".
The 14th century font is large enough to submerse a baby - as would have been the custom of the time. The bowl is octagonal representing the first day of the new week, the day of Christ's resurrection. The cover is Jacobean.
The Millennium Window in the South Transept was designed and constructed by Alexandra Le Rossignol and was dedicated in July 2001. The cost of the project (approximately £6,500) was raised locally with the first donation being made by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey.
The porch contains two wooden plaques listing the names of men from the village who were killed in the Great Wars - among them being Field Marshall Lord Kitchener of Broome Park.
www.barham-kent.org.uk/landmark_church.htm
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ANTIENTLY written Bereham, lies the next parish eastward. There are five boroughs in it, viz. of Buxton, Outelmeston, Derrington, Breach, and Shelving. The manor of Bishopsborne claims over almost the whole of this parish, at the court of which the four latter borsholders are chosen, and the manors of Reculver and Adisham over a small part of it.
BARHAM is situated at the confines of that beautiful country heretofore described, the same Nailbourne valley running through it, near which, in like manner the land is very fertile, but all the rest of it is a chalky barren soil. On the rise of the hill northward from it, is the village called Barham-street, with the church, and just beyond the summit of it, on the further side Barham court, having its front towards the downs, over part of which this parish extends, and gives name to them. At the foot of the same hill, further eastward, is the mansion of Brome, with its adjoining plantatious, a conspicuous object from the downs, to which by inclosing a part of them, the grounds extend as far as the Dover road, close to Denne-hill, and a costly entrance has been erected into them there. By the corner of Brome house the road leads to the left through Denton-street, close up to which this parish extends, towards Folkestone; and to the right, towards Eleham and Hythe. One this road, within the bounds of this parish, in a chalky and stony country, of poor barren land, there is a large waste of pasture, called Breach down, on which there are a number of tumuli, or barrows. By the road side there have been found several skeletons, one of which had round its neck a string of beads, of various forms and sizes, from a pidgeon's egg to a pea, and by it a sword, dagger, and spear; the others lay in good order, without any particular thing to distinguish them. (fn. 1)
In the Nailbourne valley, near the stream, are the two hamlets of Derrington and South Barham; from thence the hills, on the opposite side of it to those already mentioned, rise southward pretty high, the tops of them being covered with woods, one of them being that large one called Covert wood, a manor belonging to the archbishop, and partly in this parish, being the beginning of a poor hilly country, covered with stones, and enveloped with frequent woods.
BARHAM, which, as appears by the survey of Domesday, formerly lay in a hundred of its own name, was given anno 809, by the estimation of seven ploughlands, by Cenulph, king of Kent, to archbishop Wlfred, free from all secular demands, except the trinoda necessitas, but this was for the use of his church; for the archbishop, anno 824, gave the monks lands in Egelhorne and Langeduna, in exchange for it. After which it came into the possession of archbishop Stigand, but, as appears by Domesday, not in right of his archbishopric, at the taking of which survey, it was become part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:
In Berham hundred, Fulbert holds of the bishop Berham. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is thirty two carucates. In demesne there are three carucates, and fifty two villeins, with twenty cottagers having eighteen carucates. There is a church, and one mill of twenty shillings and four pence. There are twentlyfive fisheries of thirty-five shillings all four pence. Of average, that is service, sixty shilling. Of herbage twenty six shillings, and twenty acres of meadow Of pannage sufficient for one hundred and fifty hogs. Of this manor the bishop gave one berewic to Herbert, the son of Ivo, which is called Hugham, and there be has one carucate in demesne, and twelve villeins, with nine carucates, and twenty acres of meadow. Of the same manor the bisoop gave to Osberne Paisforere one suling and two mills of fifty sbillings, and there is in demesne one carucate, and four villeins with one carucate. The whole of Barbam, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, was worth forty pounds, when be received it the like, and yet it yielded to him one hundred pounds, now Berhem of itself is worth forty pounds, and Hucham ten pounds, and this which Osberne bas six pounds, and the land of one Ralph, a knight, is worth forty shillings. This manor Stigand, the archbishop held, but it was not of the archbishopric, but was of the demesne ferm of king Edward.
On the bishop's disgrace four years afterwards, and his estates being confiscated to the crown, the seignory of this parish most probably returned to the see of Canterbury, with which it has ever since continued. The estate mentioned above in Domesday to have been held of the bishop by Fulbert, comprehended, in all likelihood, the several manors and other estates in this parish, now held of the manor of Bishopsborne, one of these was THE MANOR AND SEAT OF BARHAM-COURT, situated near the church, which probably was originally the court-lodge of the manor of Barham in very early times, before it became united to that of Bishopsborne, and in king Henry II.'s time was held of the archbishop by knight's service, by Sir Randal Fitzurse, who was one of the four knights belonging to the king's houshould, who murdered archbishop Becket anno 1170; after perpetrating which, Sir Randal fled into Ireland, and changed his name to Mac-Mahon, and one of his relations took possession of this estate, and assumed the name of Berham from it; and accordingly, his descendant Warin de Berham is recorded in the return made by the sheriff anno 12 and 13 king John, among others of the archbishop's tenants by knight's service, as holding lands in Berham of him, in whose posterity it continued till Thomas Barham, esq. in the very beginning of king James I.'s reign, alienated it to the Rev. Charles Fotherbye, dean of Canterbury, who died possessed of it in 1619. He was eldest son of Martin Fotherby, of Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, and eldest brother of Martin Fotherby, bishop of Salisbury. He had a grant of arms, Gules, a cross of lozenges flory, or, assigned to him and Martin his brother, by Camden, clarencieux, in 1605. (fn. 2) His only surviving son Sir John Fotherbye, of Barham-court, died in 1666, and was buried in that cathedral with his father. At length his grandson Charles, who died in 1720, leaving two daughters his coheirs; Mary, the eldest, inherited this manor by her father's will, and afterwards married Henry Mompesson, esq. of Wiltshire, (fn. 3) who resided at Barhamcourt, and died in 1732, s. p. and she again carried this manor in marriage to Sir Edward Dering, bart. of Surrenden, whose second wife she was. (fn. 4) He lest her surviving, and three children by her, Charles Dering, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Farnaby, bart. since deceased, by whom he has an only surviving daughter, married to George Dering, esq. of Rolling, the youngest son of the late Sir Edw. Dering, bart. and her first cousin; Mary married Sir Robert Hilyard, bart. and Thomas Dering, esq. of London. Lady Dering died in 1775, and was succeeded by her eldest son Charles Dering, esq. afterwards of Barhamcourt, the present owner of it. It is at present occupied by Gen. Sir Charles Grey, bart. K. B. commanderin chief of the southern district of this kingdom.
THE MANORS OF BROME and OUTELMESTONE, alias DIGGS COURT, are situated in this parish; the latter in the valley, at the western boundary of it, was the first residence in this county of the eminent family of Digg, or, as they were asterwards called, Diggs, whence it gained its name of Diggs-court. John, son of Roger de Mildenhall, otherwise called Digg, the first-mentioned in the pedigrees of this family, lived in king Henry III.'s reign, at which time he, or one of this family of the same name, was possessed of the aldermanry of Newingate, in Canterbury, as part of their inheritance. His descendants continued to reside at Diggs-court, and bore for their arms, Gules, on a cross argent, five eagles with two heads displayed, sable, One of whom, James Diggs, of Diggs-court, died in 1535. At his death he gave the manor and seat of Outelmeston, alias Diggs-court, to his eldest son (by his first wife) John, and the manor of Brome to his youngest son, (by his second wife) Leonard, whose descendants were of Chilham castle. (fn. 5) John Diggs, esq. was of Diggs-court, whose descendant Thomas Posthumus Diggs, esq. about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, alienated this manor, with Diggs-place, to Capt. Halsey, of London, and he sold it to Sir Tho. Somes, alderman of London, who again parted with it to Sir B. Dixwell, bart. and he passed it away to Sir Thomas Williams, bart. whose heir Sir John Williams, bart. conveyed it, about the year 1706, to Daniel and Nathaniel Matson, and on the death of the former, the latter became wholly possessed of it, and his descendant Henry Matson, about the year 1730, gave it by will to the trustees for the repair of Dover harbour, in whom it continues at this time vested for that purpose.
BUT THE MANOR OF BROME, which came to Leonard Diggs, esq. by his father's will as above-mentioned, was sold by him to Basil Dixwell, esq. second son of Cha. Dixwell, esq. of Coton, in Warwickshire, then of Tevlingham, in Folkestone, who having built a handsome mansion for his residence on this manor, removed to it in 1622. In the second year of king Charles I. he served the office of sheriff with much honour and hospitality; after which he was knighted, and cveated a baronet. He died unmarried in 1641, having devised this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates, to his nephew Mark Dixwell, son of his elder brother William, of Coton above-mentioned, who afterwards resided at Brome, whose son Basil Dixwell, esq. of Brome, was anno 12 Charles II. created a baronet. He bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, gules, between three sleurs de lis, sable. His only son Sir Basil Dixwell, bart. of Brome, died at Brome,s. p. in 1750, and devised this, among the rest of his estates, to his kinsman George Oxenden, esq. second son of Sir Geo. Oxenden, bart. of Dean, in Wingham, with an injunction for him to take the name and arms of Dixwell, for which an act passed anno 25 George II. but he died soon afterwards, unmarried, having devised this manor and seat to his father Sir George Oxenden, who settled it on his eldest and only surviving son, now Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. who is the present owner of it. He resides at Brome, which he has, as well as the grounds about it, much altered and improved for these many years successively.
SHELVING is a manor, situated in the borough of its own name, at the eastern boundary of this parish, which was so called from a family who were in antient times the possessors of it. John de Shelving resided here in king Edward I.'s reign, and married Helen, daughter and heir of John de Bourne, by whom he had Waretius de Shelving, whose son, J. de Shelving, of Shelvingborne, married Benedicta de Hougham, and died possessed of this manor anno 4 Edward III. After which it descended to their daughter Benedicta, who carried it in marriage to Sir Edmund de Haut, of Petham, in whose descendants, in like manner as Shelvington, alias Hautsborne, above-described, it continued down to Sir William Haut, of Hautsborne, in king Henry VIII's reign, whose eldest daughter and coheir Elizabeth carried it in marriage to Tho. Colepeper, esq. of Bedgbury, who in the beginning of king Edward VI.'s reign passed it away to Walter Mantle, whose window carried it by a second marriage to Christopher Carlell, gent. who bore for his arms, Or, a cross flory, gules; one of whose descendants sold it to Stephen Hobday, in whose name it continued till Hester, daughter of Hills Hobday, carried it in marriage to J. Lade, esq. of Boughton, and he having obtained an act for the purpose, alienated it to E. Bridges, esq. of Wootton-court, who passed away part of it to Sir George Oxenden, bart. whose son Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. of Brome, now owns it; but Mr. Bridges died possessed of the remaining part in 1780, and his eldest son the Rev. Edward Timewell Brydges, is the present possessor of it.
MAY DEACON, as it has been for many years past both called and written, is a seat in the southern part of this parish, adjoining to Denton-street, in which parish part of it is situated. Its original and true name was Madekin, being so called from a family who were owners of it, and continued so, as appears by the deeds of it, till king Henry VI's reign, in the beginning of which it passed from that name to Sydnor, in which it continued till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when Paul Sydnor, who upon his obtaining from the king a grant of Brenchley manor, removed thither, and alienated this seat to James Brooker, who resided here, and his sole daughter and heir carried it in marriage, in queen Elizabeth's reign, to Sir Henry Oxenden, of Dene, in Wingham, whose grandson Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. sold it in 1664, to Edward Adye, esq. the second son of John Adye, esq. of Doddington, one of whose daughters and coheirs, Rosamond, entitled her husband George Elcock, esq. afterwards of Madekin, to it, and his daughter and heir Elizabeth carried it in marriage to Capt. Charles Fotherby, whose eldest daughter and coheir Mary, entitled her two successive husbands, Henry Mompesson, esq. and Sir Edward Dering, bart. to the possession of it, and Charles Dering, esq. of Barham-court, eldest son of the latter, by her, is at this time the owner of it. The seat is now inhabited by Henry Oxenden, esq.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly maintained are about forty, casually fifteen.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanryof Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. John Baptist, is a handsome building, consisting of a body and side isle, a cross or sept, and a high chancel, having a slim tall spire at the west end, in which are four bells. In the chancel are memorials for George Elcock, esq. of Madeacon, obt. 1703, and for his wife and children; for Charles Bean, A. M. rector, obt. 1731. A monument for William Barne, gent. son of the Rev. Miles Barne. His grandfather was Sir William Barne, of Woolwich, obt. 1706; arms, Azure, three leopards faces, argent. Several memorials for the Nethersoles, of this parish. In the south sept is a magnificent pyramid of marble for the family of Dixwell, who lie buried in a vault underneath, and inscriptions for them. In the north sept is a monument for the Fotherbys. On the pavement, on a gravestone, are the figures of an armed knight (his feet on a greyhound) and his wife; arms, A cross, quartering six lozenges, three and three. In the east window these arms, Gules, three crowns, or—Gules, three lions passant in pale, or. This chapel was dedicated to St. Giles, and some of the family of Diggs were buried in it; and there are memorials for several of the Legrands. There are three tombs of the Lades in the church-yard, the inscriptions obliterated, but the dates remaining are 1603, 1625, and 1660. There were formerly in the windows of this church these arms, Ermine, a chief, quarterly, or, and gules, and underneath, Jacobus Peccam. Another coat, Bruine and Rocheleyquartered; and another, Gules, a fess between three lions heads, erased, argent, and underneath,Orate p ais Roberti Baptford & Johe ux; which family resided at Barham, the last of whom, Sir John Baptford, lest an only daughter and heir, married to John Earde, of Denton.
¶The church of Barham has always been accounted as a chapel to the church of Bishopsborne, and as such is included in the valuation of it in the king's books. In 1588 here were communicants one hundred and eighty; in 1640 there were two hundred and fifty.
...in the oh so marvellous Albert's Schloss, Manchester, England.
I have been in a few pubs and bars in my lifetime but this place ranks near the very top in my estimation.
Not the best photo but it was taken with my cellphone when I was quite "schloss'd"
Acrocorinth (Greek: Ακροκόρινθος), "Upper Corinth", the acropolis of ancient Corinth, is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. "It is the most impressive of the acropoleis of mainland Greece," in the estimation of George Forrest. Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from archaic times to the early nineteenth century. The city's archaic acropolis, already an easily defensible position due to its geomorphology, was further heavily fortified during the Byzantine Empire as it became the seat of the strategos of the Thema of Hellas. It was defended against the Crusaders for three years by Leo Sgouros.
Afterwards it became a fortress of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks. With its secure water supply, Acrocorinth's fortress was used as the last line of defense in southern Greece because it commanded the Isthmus of Corinth, repelling foes from entry into the Peloponnese peninsula. Three circuit walls formed the man-made defense of the hill. The highest peak on the site was home to a temple to Aphrodite which was converted to a church, and then became a mosque. The American School began excavations on it in 1929. Currently, Acrocorinth is one of the most important medieval castle sites of Greece.
In a Corinthian myth related in the second century CE to Pausanias, Briareus, one of the Hecatonchires, was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios, between the sea and the sun: his verdict was that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) to Helios.
The Upper Pirene spring is located within the encircling walls. "The spring, which is behind the temple, they say was the gift of Asopus to Sisyphus. The latter knew, so runs the legend, that Zeus had ravished Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, but refused to give information to the seeker before he had a spring given him on the Acrocorinthus.
2G9A5510.jpg Member of Kwitunda group. Virunga National Park. One of my first picture of wild gorillas in Rwanda. Big emotion after a long travel.
The last estimation that happened in 2014 took an inventory of 880 Mountain Gorillas. About 350 in Rwanda side, 450 in Uganda and less than a hundred in Congo where they are always threatened.
But Uganda and Rwanda keepers are actually establishing a new inventory and as they had enough babies, they think that the number of Wild Mountain Gorillas is increased. So, it's a little spark of optimism in a stupid world.
You just need to imagine first what you want to shoot and then you need to place the required articles accordingly around the subject. For example in case of water droplets; broadly there would be three possibilities, drop just collapsed, about to touch the surface and de-bounce. It is bit difficult to predict these three conditions specifically when viewing through view finder and then result may be miss timed and blurred shots. To avoid this following procedure may be tried out:
1. Place a water pan on level of your camera which must me mounted on tripod.
2. Place a tiny steady object such as nail onto the place of your interest. May be center point of the water pan!
3. Set your camera with working distance allowed by macro lens.
4. Focus the nail as sharp as possible.
5. Set shutter speed faster around 1/200 to 1/300 to freeze the droplets.
6. Set aperture as large as possible, F/5 and 1.200 may give good results.
7. WB=Auto and ISO=100 may give desired results.
8. Once the object is well focused, replace it with a controlled water stream
9. Look this water stream through view finder and ensure whether is in focus or not.
10. Do slight adjustments in working distance if required to get the sharp picture.
11. Reduce down the speed of water stream up till one drop/seconds.
12. Wait and understand for the duration between two consecutive drops and once acclimatize with the frequency of dropping droplets, release the shutter with some estimation.
13. Just collapsed, about to touch the surface and de-bouncing drops can be frozen based upon synchronization of shutter release timing and some time estimation of drops.
Your setup is ready to produce some one of the fantastic shots. You may keep some colorful objects in the back ground to achieve diffused colorful DOF.
All the best.
Night shot taken in southern Finland, Porvoo, Emäsalo peninsula.
While shore rocks are sleeping on the foreground, Porvoo city lights glow behind the horizon, lighting up the night sky. Both interstellar dust (Great Rift) and hiding stars of our Milky Way galaxy are visible in the sky, regardless to the yellowish light pollution covering a part of the night sky dome.
Above, and slightly on the right side of the Milky Way dust cloud locates a star known as Vega, some 25 light years away from us. You can see another star shining below the dust cloud, almost straight below Vega. That another star is named as Altair, approximately 17 light years away from the Earth.
There is a third bright star which you can find by catching the middle of Vega and Altair stars, moving your eyes on the left side of both, over the galactic dust cloud. This star is known as Deneb, locating considerably further away than the two ones. Distance estimations vary between 1600-3200 light years.
These three stars, Vega, Altair and Deneb - form a Summer Triangle constellation. The nomination of the constellation originates in an assertion which states that it's visible in the sky even in the bright summer season.
As the Summer Triangle appears in the spring sky, it augurs ill for a night-time photographer, being a sign that astrophotography season for the spring 2014 is approaching its end. Reason for that is our own star, the Sun, which sets less and less down below the horizon in Finland as the Spring progresses. However, there are alternatives: either I have to gather my goods and travel toward the tropics, or enjoy finnish summer until the darkening evenings of autumn will roll once again to the sky.
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Iltaräpsy Porvoon Emäsalosta:
Etualalla rantakivikkoa, taustalla kajastaa Porvoon kaupungin valot. Iltataivaalla kotigalaksimme Linnunradan tähtienvälistä pölyä (Suuri Repeämä) sekä galaksissamme lymyileviä tähtiä. Löytyypä iltataivaalta keltaisena hehkuvaa valosaastettakin kiitettävästi.
Linnunradan pölykiekon yläpuolelta hieman oikealta puolelta löytyy noin 25 valovuoden päässä sijaitseva naapuritähti Vega. Vegasta alaspäin pölykiekon alalaidasta löytyy noin 17 valovuoden päässä sijaitseva tähti Altair.
Vegan ja Altairin puolesta välistä, vasemmalta puolelta galaktisen pölykiekon päältä löytyy huomattavasti kauempana sijaitseva tähti Deneb. Arviot Denebin etäisyydestä huitelevat välillä 1600-3200 valovuotta.
Nämä kolme tähteä - Vega, Altair ja Deneb - muodostavat Kesäkolmiona tunnetun tähtikuvion, jonka väitetään näkyvän jopa kesäaikaan iltataivaalla.
Kesäkolmion ilmestyminen keväiselle iltataivaalle tietää pulmallisia aikoja kameran kanssa yöaikaan liikkuvalle yökyöpelille, nimittäin tähtikuvausessioiden loppua vuoden 2014 kevään osalta. Syynä on oma tähtemme aurinko, joka ei kevään edetessä enää laske tarpeeksi alas horisontin alapuolelle Suomen leveyspiireillä. Vaihtoehtoina on ottaa kimpsut ja kampsut kasaan, ja nokka kohti tropiikkia taikka vietellä suomalaista kesää ja odotella syksyn pimeiden kelien vyörymistä yötaivaalle.
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Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture: F/3.2
Multiple ISO values applied.
Multiple exposures applied.
Panorama picture. Individual shots merged using Mercator projection.
Civaux, a village with a population of about 1000, has a history rooting very deep. Humans populated the area already, when stepp bisons and mammoths were hunted. Many "pre-historic" artefacts have been excavated in and around Civaux, proving that this place was inhabited over tens of thousands of years.
A settlement stood on the site of the village in Gallo-Roman times, and there are still traces of Roman temples. Excavations have revealed the sites of a theater (capacity 3000), a fortified camp, and the foundations of many villas.
This has been a place of very early christianisation. A funeral stele has been found dating to around 400, a pagan temple and a very early baptisterium were excavated next to the church. The polygonal apse was probably built as well around 400, what actually means that this church, dedicated to Saint Gervais and Saint Protais is one of the oldest in France.
At that time a kind of pilgrimage must have developed. The relics of Saint Gervais and Saint Protais had been miraculously discovered by Saint Ambrose in Milan in 386, so the saints got very popular in Merovingian times, but that does not explain the enigma of Civaux. The village stands in the center of a huge merovingian necropolis.
As many sarcophagi were sold as water basins or troughs in later time, the exact number of graves is unknown. Serious estimations are between 10.000 and 20.000 graves.
There are parallels to nearby Saint Pierre in Cauvigny (16 kms north). The same colours as in Chauvigny were used here during the restauration of the interior. At least one of the capitals is very similar to one in Saint Pierre, but some carvings are absolutely unique.
A decorative corbel in the left aisle.
This is not "Man eats Man", but the giant devil devouring a little soul.
Book NOW available through www.arvobrothers.com
DESCRIPTION:
After a long time, we are glad to present our new book “Alien Project”.
Inspired by the works of geniuses H.R. Giger and Ron Cobb, this new project presented us with an opportunity to build one of the greatest icons of fantasy art. A journey from organic to geometric shapes, from dark to light, and the deep admiration that drives us to build all our creations as our only luggage. This book includes detailed, step-to-step instructions showing how to build the model, together with comments, pictures and diagrams that help the description and will contribute to your understanding of the entire process.
Build your own model. The technology gives us the opportunity. Now is the time.
Content:
220 pages divided into four chapters:
C1.- ESTIMATIONS
C2.- CONSTRUCTION OF THE MODEL (description of the building process)
C3.- INSTRUCTIONS (steps, building alternatives & catalogue)
C4.- GALLERY
Offset printing, hard cover.
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Tiesto - Kaleidoscope, Wex Marche-en-Famenne Belgie, 24-09-2010. Showcasing my set from Tiesto - Kaleidoscope in Ardennes Belgium here!
In deze set een selectie van de 150 beste foto's van de totale shoot van 370 foto's. Staat je foto hier niet tussen? Je vindt je foto zeker terug in de set @ Dancegids.nl (www.dancegids.nl/). Wanneer je je foto niet terugvindt op Dancegids.nl, dan is die buiten de selectie gevallen, helaas! Better luck next time :)
De laatste serie 20 foto's is geschoten door Marco Boekel met een compact camera. Maar omdat daar zulke leuke foto's tussen zitten, heb ik een kleine selectie van hem online gezet. Marco, dank voor je bijdrage. En Hans, Brendie, Marco en Sonja, dank voor de ride die kanten op en de te gekke avond met elkaar. One night to remember for sure. De meet & greet met Tijs (Tiesto) was natuurlijk helemaal kicken!
Line-up: Hardwell, Tiesto
Check ook eens mijn eigen showgallery: www.dutchphotogallery.net/ (online soon, estimation: november 2010). En ook mijn YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/dutchpartypics
Nabestellen:
Foto's in high res nabestellen? Leuk voor gebruik voor allerlei creatieve doeleinden. Denk aan een kado voor iemand, zoals het afdrukken van je foto op Canvas, mokken, muismat etc. Maar ook een kwalitatieve afdruk op een printer kan natuurlijk met je nabestelling. Voor maar 2,50 Euro stuur ik je de high res foto(s) toe. Geef het betreffende fotonummer(s) door, of stuur mij de link van de betreffende foto(s) op Dancegids.nl, wanneer die hier op Flickr er niet tussen staat. Stuur deze info (fotonummer(s) en/of link) naar: dutchpartypics@yahoo.com. Hartelijk dank! Korsjan.
© Dutchpartypics | Korsjan Punt 2009. Powered by Nikon D50/D80/D3000 DSLR; Lenses: Nikon AF 50 mm, f 1.8; Nikon AF-S 18 - 55 mm, f 3.5 - 5.6; Nikon AF-S 18 - 105 mm VR, f: 3.5 - 5.6; Nikon AF-S 55 - 200 mm VR, f 4.0 - 5.6; Nikon AF 70 - 300 mm, f 4.0 - 5.6; Tamron SP XR DiII 17 - 50 mm, f 2.8; Tamron XR Di 28 - 75 mm, f: 2.8; Sigma Super Wide II 24 mm, f 2.8; Sigma EX DC-HSM 10 - 20 mm, f 4.0 - 5.6 and Sigma EX DC Macro 105 mm, f 2.8. Flash: Nikon Speedlight SB600 (Nikon D80) | Sunpak PZ42X (Nikon D3000) | Sunpak PF30X (Nikon D50), all including Stofen omnibounce. Compact: Nikon Coolpix L110 and Panasonic Lumix FX500. Flash Full HD Video: Kodak Zi8.
NIKON: At the heart of the image! & DUTCHPARTYPICS: Power of Imagination, for Pounding, Vivid Pictures! Make your photos come alive! And... ! Relive your most intense moments, over again!
57 London Road was originally in civilian occupation and named ‘Fairlawns’. The property was requisitioned in 1939 as a new headquarters for No.1 Group of the Royal Observer Corps, who had previously been stationed in rooms above Maidstone Post Office. An operations room was built in the house using the ground floor and basement. Fairlawns was in use throughout the war until stand down. In the 1950s Fairlawns was relegated to being a training centre for the group control at Beckenham (19 Group). In 1961 a new semi-sunk control was built to the rear of Fairlawns with administration located in the house. Beckenham was then relegated to being training centre for 1 Group at Maidstone. The former 19 Group HQ at Dura Den, Park Place, Beckenham was absorbed into No. 1 Group in 1953 but was retained for as a secondary training centre until 1968 In 1976 Fairlawns was renamed Ashmore House in memory of the Corps' founder Major Ashmore. On closure Ashmore House and the bunker behind was sold to a local solicitors.
Maidstone is similar in construction to other semi-sunken group controls, consisting of three levels. The upper level is a surface concrete blockhouse often referred to as an ‘Aztec Temple’. The middle level is partly below ground, mounded over with soil and grassed, the bottom level is completely below grown. Externally the bunker is in excellent condition and well maintained. The grass on top of the mound is regularly mown and the surface blockhouse is painted white. The telescopic aerial mast is still in place alongside the entrance steps and unusually the aerial is also still there on top of the mast. Two other UHF aerials are also still in place on top of an adjacent pole. On top of the mound the FSM and BPI pipes are in the middle and close to them is a metal cover over what might be part of the AWDREY (Atomic Weapon Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield) equipment consisting of a white metal box mounted at an angle on a square concrete plinth. Several pipes protrude from the mound alongside. At the east end of the mound is the original emergency exit consisting of an ROC post hatch on a raised concrete plinth with a rail around it. The later emergency exit door is at the back of the mound.
The surface blockhouse still has its external ladder giving access to the roof. Here the GZI mounting is to be found on top of one of the ventilation stacks.
At the top of the entrance stairs is a steel blast door giving access to the upper level corridor. There are two rooms on the left, the decontamination room and dressing room; both still contain sinks and water tanks. There are two rooms on the right, the first has a gas tight door and houses a small fan for cooling the plant in the room below, the adjacent room contains a bank of filters. Beyond these rooms is another gas tight wooden door which, together with the entrance door, forms an air lock. Beyond this door stairs to the left lead down to the middle floor and ahead was the winch room. The winch has been removed as has the floor. There are railings just inside the entrance door to stop anyone falling. A hole has been cut into the right hand side wall of the winch room to give access to a large water tank.
At the bottom of the stairs is a dog leg into the main east - west spine corridor. The first room on the right is the ventilation and filtration plant room which is in immaculate condition with all the brass still polished and gleaming. All the plant remains in place including two chiller pumps, the main ventilation fan, two smaller fans, two compressors and the floor standing electrical control cabinet. There is a filing cabinet full of wiring diagrams, instruction books, maintenance logs etc. Although unused for ten years the plant is almost certainly fully operational with the chiller system still charged.
In one corner of the plant room is a separate filter room with it’s own gas tight door. The bank of filters are still in place. At the back of the room two wooden door open into the generator room which is noticeably narrower then the same room in other semi-sunken group controls. The generator and its control equipment is also in excellent condition with 1518 hours on the clock.
The next room on the right is the canteen, accessed along a short corridor. On the right hand side of the corridor is the kitchen which is largely intact with a Creda industrial cooker, Creda grill, hot food heater, stainless steel sink and draining board and stainless steel covered units. There is a sliding glass hatch for serving food. The canteen is now used for storage of old files and retains nothing original apart from wall cabinets at the back with electrical switchgear.
Next door to the canteen is the BT equipment room, again this is now used for the storage of old files but there are two BT wall cabinets on the end wall and the remains of two racks with some wiring looms. Beyond the BT room is an empty store room and stairs down to the lower level. The final two doors on the right lead onto the balcony looking down onto the control room. Nothing is left in the room at all although in the triangulation alcove it still says ‘Triangulation’ on the wall and there is a small shelf with a slot for an FSM and in the ceiling the bottom of the FSM pipe.
There is a gas tight door in the corridor between the two doors onto the balcony with another gas tight door beyond giving access to the emergency exit. These two doors form a second airlock. There is a ladder on the wall up to a short landing and then a second ladder up to the emergency escape hatch. This was replaced in the 1970’s by a stairway with a door on the south side of the mound.
Back in the spine corridor the first door on the left is the sewage ejection room with two compressors and a compressed air receiver just inside the door and two pumps in the sump underneath a metal grille. This plant also looks immaculate. The next two rooms are the male and female toilets which are complete although no longer connected to the mains water supply. The female toilet has a hot water tank, two hand basins, two WC cubicles and a shower. The male toilet is similar with one of the WC cubicles replaced by a urinal. The next two rooms are the male and female dormitories, these are used for the storage of confidential client files and we had no access. The final room on the left is the small officers room which is empty apart from a Tanoy loudspeaker on the wall.
On the bottom level the control room at the bottom of the stairs to the left has been fitted out with Dexion racking and is the main storage area for old files. Nothing from ROC days remains apart from one floor standing display board. The adjacent communications centre is empty. The walls are covered with acoustic tiles and the original tables and chairs are still in place. There are three windows looking into the control room one with a small message hatch beneath one.
The radio room was to the right of the stairs, this has been divided into two rooms, both of which are empty. There is a small store room under the stairs which is also empty.
During the 1990’s numerous ROC items including maps and signs were sold to the Kelvedon Hatch cold war museum. The only remaining signs are fire prevention notices which are screwed to the wall in various rooms.
The owners have no plans to remove any of the remaining equipment and will continue to use the bunker for the storage of redundant files. It is clean and dry throughout and the lighting works in all the rooms.
'Purple 30th Anniversary'
Sale Retromobile 2016 by Artcurial Motorcars
5 Février 2016
Estimation € 250.000 - 300.000
Unsold
5,7 Liter
V12
Salon Retromobile 2016
Paris Expo - Porte de Versailles
Paris - France
Februari 2016
57 London Road was originally in civilian occupation and named ‘Fairlawns’. The property was requisitioned in 1939 as a new headquarters for No.1 Group of the Royal Observer Corps, who had previously been stationed in rooms above Maidstone Post Office. An operations room was built in the house using the ground floor and basement. Fairlawns was in use throughout the war until stand down. In the 1950s Fairlawns was relegated to being a training centre for the group control at Beckenham (19 Group). In 1961 a new semi-sunk control was built to the rear of Fairlawns with administration located in the house. Beckenham was then relegated to being training centre for 1 Group at Maidstone. The former 19 Group HQ at Dura Den, Park Place, Beckenham was absorbed into No. 1 Group in 1953 but was retained for as a secondary training centre until 1968 In 1976 Fairlawns was renamed Ashmore House in memory of the Corps' founder Major Ashmore. On closure Ashmore House and the bunker behind was sold to a local solicitors.
Maidstone is similar in construction to other semi-sunken group controls, consisting of three levels. The upper level is a surface concrete blockhouse often referred to as an ‘Aztec Temple’. The middle level is partly below ground, mounded over with soil and grassed, the bottom level is completely below grown. Externally the bunker is in excellent condition and well maintained. The grass on top of the mound is regularly mown and the surface blockhouse is painted white. The telescopic aerial mast is still in place alongside the entrance steps and unusually the aerial is also still there on top of the mast. Two other UHF aerials are also still in place on top of an adjacent pole. On top of the mound the FSM and BPI pipes are in the middle and close to them is a metal cover over what might be part of the AWDREY (Atomic Weapon Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield) equipment consisting of a white metal box mounted at an angle on a square concrete plinth. Several pipes protrude from the mound alongside. At the east end of the mound is the original emergency exit consisting of an ROC post hatch on a raised concrete plinth with a rail around it. The later emergency exit door is at the back of the mound.
The surface blockhouse still has its external ladder giving access to the roof. Here the GZI mounting is to be found on top of one of the ventilation stacks.
At the top of the entrance stairs is a steel blast door giving access to the upper level corridor. There are two rooms on the left, the decontamination room and dressing room; both still contain sinks and water tanks. There are two rooms on the right, the first has a gas tight door and houses a small fan for cooling the plant in the room below, the adjacent room contains a bank of filters. Beyond these rooms is another gas tight wooden door which, together with the entrance door, forms an air lock. Beyond this door stairs to the left lead down to the middle floor and ahead was the winch room. The winch has been removed as has the floor. There are railings just inside the entrance door to stop anyone falling. A hole has been cut into the right hand side wall of the winch room to give access to a large water tank.
At the bottom of the stairs is a dog leg into the main east - west spine corridor. The first room on the right is the ventilation and filtration plant room which is in immaculate condition with all the brass still polished and gleaming. All the plant remains in place including two chiller pumps, the main ventilation fan, two smaller fans, two compressors and the floor standing electrical control cabinet. There is a filing cabinet full of wiring diagrams, instruction books, maintenance logs etc. Although unused for ten years the plant is almost certainly fully operational with the chiller system still charged.
In one corner of the plant room is a separate filter room with it’s own gas tight door. The bank of filters are still in place. At the back of the room two wooden door open into the generator room which is noticeably narrower then the same room in other semi-sunken group controls. The generator and its control equipment is also in excellent condition with 1518 hours on the clock.
The next room on the right is the canteen, accessed along a short corridor. On the right hand side of the corridor is the kitchen which is largely intact with a Creda industrial cooker, Creda grill, hot food heater, stainless steel sink and draining board and stainless steel covered units. There is a sliding glass hatch for serving food. The canteen is now used for storage of old files and retains nothing original apart from wall cabinets at the back with electrical switchgear.
Next door to the canteen is the BT equipment room, again this is now used for the storage of old files but there are two BT wall cabinets on the end wall and the remains of two racks with some wiring looms. Beyond the BT room is an empty store room and stairs down to the lower level. The final two doors on the right lead onto the balcony looking down onto the control room. Nothing is left in the room at all although in the triangulation alcove it still says ‘Triangulation’ on the wall and there is a small shelf with a slot for an FSM and in the ceiling the bottom of the FSM pipe.
There is a gas tight door in the corridor between the two doors onto the balcony with another gas tight door beyond giving access to the emergency exit. These two doors form a second airlock. There is a ladder on the wall up to a short landing and then a second ladder up to the emergency escape hatch. This was replaced in the 1970’s by a stairway with a door on the south side of the mound.
Back in the spine corridor the first door on the left is the sewage ejection room with two compressors and a compressed air receiver just inside the door and two pumps in the sump underneath a metal grille. This plant also looks immaculate. The next two rooms are the male and female toilets which are complete although no longer connected to the mains water supply. The female toilet has a hot water tank, two hand basins, two WC cubicles and a shower. The male toilet is similar with one of the WC cubicles replaced by a urinal. The next two rooms are the male and female dormitories, these are used for the storage of confidential client files and we had no access. The final room on the left is the small officers room which is empty apart from a Tanoy loudspeaker on the wall.
On the bottom level the control room at the bottom of the stairs to the left has been fitted out with Dexion racking and is the main storage area for old files. Nothing from ROC days remains apart from one floor standing display board. The adjacent communications centre is empty. The walls are covered with acoustic tiles and the original tables and chairs are still in place. There are three windows looking into the control room one with a small message hatch beneath one.
The radio room was to the right of the stairs, this has been divided into two rooms, both of which are empty. There is a small store room under the stairs which is also empty.
During the 1990’s numerous ROC items including maps and signs were sold to the Kelvedon Hatch cold war museum. The only remaining signs are fire prevention notices which are screwed to the wall in various rooms.
The owners have no plans to remove any of the remaining equipment and will continue to use the bunker for the storage of redundant files. It is clean and dry throughout and the lighting works in all the rooms.
Item nº 53206.
Renault 4L "Guardia Civil" (España).
Escala 1/43.
Mondo S.p.A. (Italia).
Made in China.
Año 2014 (?)
More info about Mondo Motors 1:43 diecast collections:
www.mondomotors.org/products_category.cfm?id=827
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Renault 4
"La Renault 4 (couramment appelée 4L) est une petite voiture populaire de grande diffusion de conception simple et pratique. Ce fut aussi la première application de la traction sur une voiture automobile de tourisme de la marque Renault après que cette technique a été adoptée sur l'Estafette en 1958.
Elle est construite d'août 1961 à la fin 1992 dans 28 pays, initialement avec la Dauphine sur l'île Seguin à Boulogne-Billancourt ainsi qu'à l'usine Renault de Flins, en Espagne (par Fasa-Renault), en Argentine par IKA-Renault, en Italie par Alfa Romeo (sous licence), au Maroc, à Madagascar, en Afrique du Sud, puis en Slovénie pour les dernières années de sa production.
La Renault 4 connut un grand succès auprès des PME, des artisans, de la gendarmerie (c'était l'une des voitures françaises de l'époque qui permettait de conduire avec le képi sur la tête), mais également auprès des PTT, de France Télécom ou EdF dans sa version fourgonnette F4 ; ces contrats lui donnèrent une très grande visibilité.
En France, la Renault 4 fut en tête des ventes de 1962 à 1965 (succédant à la Renault Dauphine), puis de 1967 à 1968. Elle reste aujourd'hui [Quand ?] la deuxième voiture française la plus vendue avec 8 135 424 exemplaires derrière la Peugeot 206 et juste devant le duo Renault 9 et 11."
(...)
"Moteurs utilisés sur la Renault 4 au fil des années4 :
- 603 cm3 (49 x 80) : puissance 23 ch et couple de 4,3 mkg. Monté sur R3 (modèles 1962) ;
- 747 cm3 (54,5 x 80) : puissance 27,6 ch à 30 ch et couple de 5,1 à 5,6 mkg ;
- 782 cm3 (55 x 80) à partir des modèles 1972 : puissance 30 ch et couple de 5,4 mkg ;
- 845 cm3 (58 x 80) avec option 5 CV : puissance 30 ch et couple de 5,9 mkg. Montée en série pour 1983 ;
- 956 cm3 (65 x 72) : puissance 34 ch et couple de 6,2 mkg. Monté sur les derniers modèles TL Savane à partir de mai 1986 ;
- 1 108 cm3 (70 x 72) : puissance 34 ch et couple de 7,5 mkg. Équipe en série la 4 GTL à partir du début 1978."
(...)
Versions
- La R3
"La R3 est une déclinaison économique avec le petit « moteur Billancourt » de 603 cm³ « sous-alésé » dérivé du moteur de la 4 CV. (...) Elle ne fut produite que de 1961 à 1962, le nombre total d'exemplaires construits varie selon les estimations entre 2 526 et 2 571, ce qui en fait un modèle extrêmement recherché par les collectionneurs aujourd'hui."
- La R4 L
"À côté de la R3 et de la R4 de base — sensiblement équivalente à la R3 dans sa présentation — il existait une déclinaison « Luxe » dite R4 L, elle se caractérisait par sa troisième vitre latérale et différents accessoires et baguettes inox, qui la rendait plus luxueuse.
Cette version, qui s'appela bientôt R4 L Export, fut la plus vendue. À tel point que l'appellation générique de la Renault 4 deviendra progressivement 4L. Par rapport à la version de base, qui possédait des sièges du type « strapontins suspendus » de même type que la 2 CV, la R4 L Export possédait des sièges plus élaborés et plus confortables (séparés à l'avant) et une banquette arrière rabattable."
- La Parisienne (1963)
- Les R4 Export, 4 TL et TL Savane
"Hormis le modèle de base, la Renault traverse la fin des années 1960 et les années 1970 sous la forme de la R4 « Export », qui devint la 4 TL pour 1976. (...)
En 1986, le modèle TL est rebaptisé « TL Savane » (...) En 1989, Renault équipe ce modèle du « pack sécurité » (...) "
- La 4 GTL
"Début 1978, la 4 GTL reprend la formule qui a fait le succès de la Renault 5 GTL : un gros « moteur Cléon-Fonte » de 1 108 cm3 retravaillé pour consommer moins (5,4 litres aux 100) et des bandes de protection latérales grises avec pare-chocs et crosses avant assortis. La version GTL supplantera rapidement la 4 TL.
En mai 1986, lors du remaniement de la gamme, la GTL devient « GTL Clan », (...)
En 1989, Renault revient à de plus banales jantes tôles, et équipe ce modèle du même « pack sécurité » que la version TL Savane.
Trop âgée pour pouvoir respecter les normes antipollution qui doivent arriver en 1993 (pot catalytique obligatoire), la production de Renault 4 est arrêtée fin 1992 avec une série « Bye-Bye » de R4 GTL Clan, des modèles numérotés de 1 à 1 000 devenus collectors."
- Séries spéciales
"Dès le début de la production, Renault propose des modèles à diffusion limitées, afin de relancer les ventes, ou encore rajeunir l'image de la voiture. Plusieurs séries spéciales sont ainsi créées : la « Safari » (1976), la « Jogging » (1981), la « Sixties » (1985) avec sa sellerie flashy et ses deux toits ouvrants, la « Carte jeune » (1991)...
Durant les années 1960, d'autres modèles nettement plus rares ont été produits, tels la « Plein air », la « Parisienne » ou encore des adaptations 4x4 produites par Sinpar."
(...)
Source: fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_4
More info:
www.renaultclassiccarclub.com/ModelsRegister/r4_history.html
www.r4-4l.com/tous-les-modeles-de-4l/histoire-de-la-4l/
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50 aniversario del Renault 4L en España [1964-2014]
Emilio Salmoral
Periodista especializado en el mundo del motor. Colaborador en AUTO BILD
02/05/2014 - 10:35
"Aunque el Renault 4L llevaba fabricándose desde finales de 1963 (se hicieron 250 unidades), hasta el año siguiente no comenzaron las primeras entregas a los clientes.
Pero el Renault 4 no era un coche desconocido, ya que llevaba desde 1961 fabricándose en Francia.
Es posible que circularan algunas unidades construidas en el país vecino, pero tuvieron que pasar tres años para fabricar en España.
Por cierto, en Portugal también se construyó en la planta de Guarda y los aficionados sienten devoción por él.
Respecto a la versión francesa, el Renault 4L de FASA es diferente. Los parachoques son de un diseño distinto y tiene una especie de bigote en la placa de la matrícula posterior. Además, los coches españoles tampoco tienen los intermitentes laterales que sí tenían los franceses.
La historia nos ha demostrado que lo que buscaban los ingenieros españoles era, sobre todo, una mecánica con mayores capacidades. Por ello, nuestro 4L utilizó un motor de 845 centímetros cúbicos y 30 CV de potencia con los que podía ofrecer unas capacidades dinámicas superiores que los del 0,7 litros que también se vendía en Francia como versión de acceso.
Asimismo, todos los coches comercializados en España tienen un sistema eléctrico de 12 voltios que permite una mayor iluminación.
En 1965, Renault lanza al mercado la versión Super que ofrecía a su conductor unos asientos más lujosos y en 1967 empieza a utilizar los paragolpes del Renault 8."
(...)
"En 1968 se introduce al mercado el primer restyling del Renault 4. Las principales diferencias son una parrilla totalmente nueva que se hace evidente en todo el frontal del vehículo.
Pero los mayores cambios se encuentran en la mecánica: el R4 abandona el motor originario del 4/4 y estrena el tipo Sierra del Renault 8 que ofrecía una elevadísima fiabilidad. Con este bloque, la potencia se incrementó hasta los 35 CV. También era muy alabado por los conductores de su época el excelente sincronizado de su caja de cambios.
Así se mantuvo el Renault 4 hasta que en 1978 se sometió a su segunda puesta al día. La bonita parrilla de aluminio dejó paso a una de plástico; los intermitentes adoptaron el color naranja y ganaron en tamaño. Por cierto, volvió a cambiar de paragolpes. Como el Renault 8 ya no se fabricaba, recurrió a los que usaba el Renault 4 francés de 1968.
En 1982 se produjo un hecho histórico, ya que el 4L adoptó el motor de 1,1 litros con 40 CV. Este bloque es legendario para la marca francesa, ya que lo han usado coches como el 8 TS, Renault 5 o Twingo.
Pero el interior del Renault 4L seguía siendo el mismo y muchos conductores estaban cansados de ese salpicadero de tono beige que era demasiado simple.
En 1983 FASA decidió darle a su coche un aspecto visual más moderno y apostó el plástico negro, una renovada instrumentación y unos asientos más cómodos que llegaron a incluir hasta reposacabezas.
El último Renault 4 se fabricó en Valladolid en 1989.
Aunque el coche se comercializó hasta 1992, el que quería un 4L tenía que comprarse la versión Clan que estaba fabricada en Eslovenia y no tenía la calidad de construcción de nuestro paisano castellano."
(...)
Fuente: www.autobild.es/reportajes/50-aniversario-renault-4l-espa...
More info:
elautomovilenespana.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/renault-4-ii....
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_4
www.ocio.net/motor/historia-del-renault-4-un-automovil-un...
Châssis n°2928241
Conçue par les frères Bucciali (Corse) en 1930 et carrossée par Saoutchik (Paris).
Il s'agit d'une traction avant (TAV) qui disposait d'un moteur 8 cylindres en ligne.
La voiture fut présentée au salon de l'automobile au Grand Palais en octobre 1931 dans sa version cabriolet.
Elle ne fut jamais mise en production.
Ici, il s'agit d'une reconstruction sur base de Cord L-29 (traction avant) de 1931 en version cabriolet.
Cette réalisation représente 4 années de travail minutieux en mécanique et carrosserie, ainsi qu'une collecte de tous les accessoires d'époque.
Designed by the Bucciali brothers (from Corsica) in 1930 and bodied by Saoutchik (Paris)
This is a front wheel drive equipped with a 8 cylinders in line engine.
The car was presented in october 1931 to the Paris Salon de l'Automobile "Grand Palais" in his convertible version.
The car never got into production.
We have rebuilt the car starting off from a 1931 Cord L-29 (front wheel drive).
It took about 4 years of refined body and mechanic works to achieve the project and collect all the original accessories.
Estimation :
500.000 - 700.000 €
Vendu 596.000 €
Hello everyone. Thanks to some phenomenal donations from some phenomenal individuals the surface of the Heather Memorial Mosaic is 77% complete! This photo shows the progress. There are six more finished tiles at Robert's place so the final image is actually more complete than what is portrayed here. This is a pretty good place to be this early in September but BrickCon is the first weekend in October and we still need some more bricks and plates to complete the mosaic. Here is a pretty close estimation of what is still needed:
100 1x1 medium blue plates
20 4x8 medium blue plates
50 1x1 blue plates
50 1x3 green plates
50 1x2 green plates
100 1x3 dark green plates
150 1x1 dark green bricks
Our stats thus far:
completed tiles: 62 of 80 (77%)
WIP tiles: 9 of 80 (11%)
Incomplete tiles: 9 of 80 (11%)
I hope this can be the final push for parts. If anyone has any of these parts they'd like to donate, please let me know ASAP. Thank you in advance for anything you can do...and if you've already donated (you know who you are!) we are eternally grateful. Without your help, the project could not have gone this far, this early.
Thanks everyone.
Lino
The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Royal of the Almudena commonly known as the Almudena Cathedral for short, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Madrid, the capital city of Spain. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Madrid. A fairly young cathedral by Spanish standards, its construction began in 1883 and finished over a century later, when it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993.
It is located opposite the Royal Palace and much of its final appearance was defined considering this regal surrounding.
When the capital of Spain was transferred from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the seat of the Church in Spain remained in Toledo and the new capital had no cathedral. Plans for a cathedral in Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena were discussed as early as the 16th century but even though Spain built more than 40 cities overseas during that century, plenty of cathedrals and fortresses, the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first and the construction of Madrid's cathedral was postponed.
The building was designed by Francisco de Cubas. The original plan had been to create a parochial church. The foundation stone was laid in 1883, but when Pope Leo XIII granted a bull in 1885 for the creation of the Madrid-Alcalá bishopric, the plans for the church were changed to that of a Gothic revival cathedral.
The cathedral seems to have been built on the site of a medieval mosque that was destroyed in 1083 when Alfonso VI reconquered Madrid.
Construction was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, and the site lay abandoned until 1950, when Fernando Chueca Goitia adapted the plans of de Cubas to a baroque exterior to match the grey and white façade of the Palacio Real that stands directly opposite.
The cathedral was completed in 1993, when it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II. Its patron saints are Santa María la Real de la Almudena and Saint Isidro Labrador.
On 22 May 2004, the marriage of King Felipe VI, then crown prince, to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano took place at the cathedral.
The Neo-Gothic interior is uniquely modern, with chapels and statues of contemporary artists, in heterogeneous styles, from historical revivals to "pop-art" decor. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel features mosaics by Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik. The icons in the apse were painted by Kiko Argüello, artist and founder of the Neocatechumenal Way.
The Neo-Romanesque crypt houses a 16th-century image of the Virgen de la Almudena. Nearby along the Calle Mayor, excavations have unearthed remains of Moorish and medieval city walls.
People buried at Almudena Cathedral include:
Her Majesty Mercedes of Orléans, Queen of Spain (1860–1878)
His Highness Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria (1884–1958)
His Highness Jose Eugenio, Prince of Bavaria (1909–1966)
His Highness Luis Alfonso, Prince of Bavaria (1906–1983)
Her Highness Doña María de la Asunción Solange de Mesía y de Lesseps, Princess of Bavaria and Countess of Odiel (1911–2005)
Carmen Franco, 1st Duchess of Franco (1926–2017)
Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, 10th Marquess of Villaverde (1922–1998)
Francisco de Cubas, I Marquess of Cubas (1826–1899)
Francisco de Cubas y Erice, II Marquess of Cubas, II Marquess of Fontalba and Grandee of Spain (1868–1937)
Estanislao de Urquijo y Landaluce, I Marquess of Urquijo (1817-1889)
Estanislao de Urquijo y Ussía, III Marquess of Urquijo (1872-1948)
Isabel de Maltrana y de Novales, I Marquise de Maltrana (d. 1919)
Luis de Pedroso y Madan, V Count of San Esteban de Cañongo (1876-1952)
María Dolores de Pedroso y Sturdza, VI Countess of San Esteban de Cañongo
Margarita de Pedroso y Sturdza, VII Countess of San Esteban de Cañongo (1911-1989)
Cardinal Ángel Suquía Goicoechea (1916–2006)
Fernando Rielo Pardal (1923–2004)
Alfonso Peña Boeuf (1888–1966)
Enrique María Repullés (1845–1922)
Madrid is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and its monocentric metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU. The municipality covers 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi) geographical area. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at about 650 meters above mean sea level. The capital city of both Spain and the surrounding autonomous community of Madrid (since 1983), it is also the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country. The climate of Madrid features hot summers and cool winters.
The Madrid urban agglomeration has the second-largest GDP in the European Union and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre and the leading economic hub of the Iberian Peninsula and of Southern Europe. The metropolitan area hosts major Spanish companies such as Telefónica, Iberia, BBVA and FCC. It concentrates the bulk of banking operations in the country and it is the Spanish-speaking city generating the largest amount of webpages. For innovation, Madrid is ranked 19th in the world and 7th in Europe from 500 cities, in the 2022–2023 annual analysts Innovation Cities Index, published by 2ThinkNow.
Madrid houses the headquarters of the UN's World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB). It also hosts major international regulators and promoters of the Spanish language: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Instituto Cervantes and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (FundéuRAE). Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI and the Madrid Fashion Week. Madrid is home to two world-famous football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
While Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Royal Theatre with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; many national museums, and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which complements the holdings of the other two museums. Cibeles Palace and Fountain has become one of the monument symbols of the city. The mayor is José Luis Martínez-Almeida from the People's Party.
The documented history of Madrid dates to the 9th century, even though the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The primitive nucleus of Madrid, a walled military outpost in the left bank of the Manzanares, dates back to the second half of the 9th century, during the rule of the Emirate of Córdoba. Conquered by Christians in 1083 or 1085, Madrid consolidated in the Late Middle Ages as a middle to upper-middle rank town of the Crown of Castile. The development of Madrid as administrative centre began when the court of the Hispanic Monarchy was settled in the town in 1561.
The primitive urban nucleus of Madrid (Majriṭ) was founded in the late 9th century (from 852 to 886) as a citadel erected on behalf of Muhammad I, the Cordobese emir, on the relatively steep left bank of the Manzanares. Originally it was largely a military outpost for the quartering of troops. Similarly to other fortresses north of the Tagus, Madrid made it difficult to muster reinforcements from the Asturian kingdom to the unruly inhabitants of Toledo, prone to rebellion against the Umayyad rule. Extending across roughly 8 ha, Muslim Madrid consisted of the alcázar and the wider walled citadel (al-Mudayna) with the addition of some housing outside the walls. By the late 10th century, Majriṭ was an important borderland military stronghold territory with great strategic value, owing to its proximity to Toledo. The most generous estimates for the 10th century tentatively and intuitively put the number of inhabitants of the 9 ha settlement at 2,000. The model of repopulation is likely to have been by the Limitanei, characteristic of the borderlands.
The settlement is mentioned in the work of the 10th-century Cordobese chronicler Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Razi, with the latter locating the Castle of Madrid within the district of Guadalajara. After the Christian conquest, in the first half of the 12th century Al-Idrisi described Madrid as a "small city and solid fortress, well populated. In the age of Islam, it had a small mosque where the khuṭbah was always delivered," and placed it in the province of the sierra, "al-Sārrāt". It was ascribed by most post-Christian conquest Muslim commentators, including Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, to Toledo. This may tentatively suggest that the settlement, part of the cora of Guadalajara according to al-Razi, could have been transferred to Toledo following the Fitna of al-Andalus.
The city passed to Christian control in the context of the conquest of Toledo; historiography debates whether if the event took place in 1083, before the conquest of Toledo, in the wake of negotiations between Alfonso VI and al-Qadir, or afterwards, as a direct consequence of the seizure of Toledo in 1085.
The mosque was reconsecrated as the church of the Virgin of Almudena (almudin, the garrison's granary). The society in the 11th and 12th centuries was structured around knight-villeins as a leading class in the local public, social and economic life. The town had a Muslim and mozarabic preexisting population (a number of the former would remain in the town after the conquest while the later community would remain very large throughout the high middle ages before merging with the new settlers). The town was further repopulated by settlers with a dominant Castilian-Leonese extraction. Frank settlers were a minority but influential community. The Jewish community was probably smaller in number than the mudéjar one, standing out as physicians up until their expulsion. By the end of the middle ages, the best-positioned members of the mudéjar community were the alarifes ('master builders'), who were tasked with public works (including the management of the viajes de agua), and had a leading role in the urbanism of the town in the 15th century.
Since the mid-13th century and up to the late 14th century, the concejo of Madrid vied for the control of the Real de Manzanares territory against the concejo of Segovia, a powerful town north of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, characterised by its repopulating prowess and its husbandry-based economy, contrasted by the agricultural and less competent in repopulation town of Madrid. After the decline of Sepúlveda, another concejo north of the mountain range, Segovia had become a major actor south of the Guadarrama mountains, expanding across the Lozoya and Manzanares rivers to the north of Madrid and along the Guadarrama river course to its west.
The society of Madrid before the 15th century was an agriculture-based one (prevailing over livestock), featuring a noteworthy number of irrigated crops.[16] Two important industries were those of the manufacturing of building materials and leather.
John I of Castile gifted Leo V of Armenia the lordship of Madrid together with those of Villa Real and Andújar in 1383. The Madrilenian concejo made sure that the privilege of lordship did not become hereditary, also presumably receiving a non-sale privilege guaranteeing never again to be handed over by the Crown to a lord.
Later, Henry III of Castile (1379–1406) rebuilt the town after it was destroyed by fire, and he founded El Pardo just outside its walls.
During the 15th century, the town became one of the preferred locations of the monarchs of the Trastámara dynasty, namely John II of Castile and Henry IV of Castile (Madrid was the town in which the latter spent more time and eventually died). Among the appeals the town offered, aside from the abundant game in the surroundings, the strategic location and the closed link between the existing religious sites and the monarchy, the imposing alcázar frequently provided a safe for the Royal Treasure. The town briefly hosted a medieval mint, manufacturing coins from 1467 to 1471. Madrid would also become a frequent seat of the court during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, spending reportedly more than 1000 days in the town, including a 8-month long uninterrupted spell.
By the end of the Middle Ages, Madrid was placed as middle to upper-middle rank town of the Castilian urban network in terms of population. The town also enjoyed a vote at the Cortes of Castile (one out of 18) and housed many hermitages and hospitals.
Facing the 1492 decree of expulsion, few local Jews opted for leaving, with most preferring to convert instead, remaining as a non-fully assimilated converso community, subject to rejection by Old Christians. Likewise, adoption of Christianism by the mudéjar community facing the 1502 pragmatic law of forced conversion was also widespread. Seeking to protect its economic interests, the council actively promoted assimilation in the latter case by awarding tax and economic benefits, and gifts.
The 1520–21 Revolt of the Comuneros succeeded in Madrid, as, following contacts with the neighbouring city of Toledo, the comunero rebels deposed the corregidor, named Antonio de Astudillo, by 17 June 1520. Juan Zapata and Pedro de Montemayor found themselves among the most uncompromising supporters of the comunero cause in Madrid, with the former becoming the captain of the local militias while the later was captured by royalists and executed by late 1520. The end of revolt came through a negotiation, though, and another two of the leading figures of the uprising (the Bachelor Castillo and Juan Negrete) went unpunished.
Philip II (1527–1598), moved the court to Madrid in 1561. Although he made no official declaration, the seat of the court became the de facto capital. Unlikely to have more than 20,000 inhabitants by the time, the city grew approaching the 100,000 mark by the end of the 16th century. The population plummeted (reportedly reduced to a half) during the 5-year period the capital was set in Valladolid (1601–1606), with estimations of roughly 50–60,000 people leaving the city. The move (often framed in modern usage as a case of real estate speculation) was promoted by the valido of Philip III, Duke of Lerma, who had previously acquired many properties in Valladolid. Madrid undertook a mammoth cultural and economic crisis and the decimation of the price of housing ensued. Lerma acquired then cheap real estate in Madrid, and suggested the King to move back the capital to Madrid. The king finally accepted the additional 250,000 ducats offered by the town of Madrid in order to help financing the move of the royal court back to Madrid.
During the 17th century, Madrid had a estate-based society. The nobility, a quantitatively large group, swarmed around the royal court. The ecclesial hierarchy, featuring a nobiliary extraction, shared with the nobility the echelon of the Madrilenian society. The lower clergy, featuring a humble extraction, usually had a rural background, although clerics regular often required certifications of limpieza de sangre if not hidalguía. There were plenty of civil servants, who enjoyed considerable social prestige. There was a comparatively small number of craftsmen, traders and goldsmiths. Domestic staff was also common with servants such as pages, squires, butlers and also slaves (owned as symbol of social status). And lastly at the lowest end, there were homeless people, unemployed immigrants, and discharged soldiers and deserters.
During the 17th century, Madrid grew rapidly. The royal court attracted many of Spain's leading artists and writers to Madrid, including Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Velázquez during the so-called cultural Siglo de Oro.
By the end of the Ancient Regime, Madrid hosted a slave population, tentatively estimated to range from 6,000 to 15,000 out of total population larger than 150,000. Unlike the case of other Spanish cities, during the 18th century the slave population in Madrid was unbalanced in favour of males over females.
In 1739 Philip V began constructing new palaces, including the Palacio Real de Madrid. Under Charles III (1716–1788) that Madrid became a truly modern city. Charles III, who cleaned up the city and its government, became one of the most popular kings to rule Madrid, and the saying "the best mayor, the king" became widespread. Besides completing the Palacio Real, Charles III is responsible for many of Madrid's finest buildings and monuments, including the Prado and the Puerta de Alcalá.
Amid one of the worst subsistence crises of the Bourbon monarchy, the installation of news lanterns for the developing street lighting system—part of the new modernization policies of the Marquis of Esquilache, the new Sicilian minister—led to an increase on oil prices. This added to an increasing tax burden imposed on a populace already at the brink of famine.[42] In this context, following the enforcing of a ban of the traditional Spanish dress (long cape and a wide-brimmed hat) in order to facilitate the identification of criminal suspects, massive riots erupted in March 1766 in Madrid, the so-called "Mutiny of Esquilache".
During the second half of the 18th century, the increasing number of carriages brought a collateral increment of pedestrian accidents, forcing the authorities to take measures against traffic, limiting the number of animals per carriage (in order to reduce speed) and eventually decreeing the full ban of carriages in the city (1787).
On 27 October 1807, Charles IV and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which allowed French troops passage through Spanish territory to join Spanish troops and invade Portugal, which had refused to obey the order for an international blockade against England. In February 1808, Napoleon used the excuse that the blockade against England was not being respected at Portuguese ports to send a powerful army under his brother-in-law, General Joachim Murat. Contrary to the treaty, French troops entered via Catalonia, occupying the plazas along the way. Thus, throughout February and March 1808, cities such as Barcelona and Pamplona remained under French rule.
While all this was happening, the Mutiny of Aranjuez (17 March 1808) took place, led by Charles IV's own son, crown prince Ferdinand, and directed against him. Charles IV resigned and Ferdinand took his place as King Ferdinand VII. In May 1808, Napoleon's troops entered the city. On 2 May 1808 (Spanish: Dos de Mayo), the Madrileños revolted against the French forces, whose brutal behavior would have a lasting impact on French rule in Spain and France's image in Europe in general. Thus, Ferdinand VII returned to a city that had been occupied by Murat.
Both the king and his father became virtual prisoners of the French army. Napoleon, taking advantage of the weakness of the Bourbons, forced both, first the father and then the son, to meet him at Bayonne, where Ferdinand VII arrived on 20 April. Here Napoleon forced both kings to abdicate on 5 May, handing the throne to his brother Joseph Bonaparte.
On 2 May, the crowd began to concentrate at the Palacio Real and watched as the French soldiers removed the royal family members from the palace. On seeing the infante Francisco de Paula struggling with his captor, the crowd launched an assault on the carriages, shouting ¡Que se lo llevan! (They're taking him away from us!). French soldiers fired into the crowd. The fighting lasted for hours and is reflected in Goya's painting, The Second of May 1808, also known as The Charge of the Mamelukes.
Meanwhile, the Spanish military remained garrisoned and passive. Only the artillery barracks at Monteleón under Captain Luis Daoíz y Torres, manned by four officers, three NCOs and ten men, resisted. They were later reinforced by a further 33 men and two officers led by Pedro Velarde y Santillán, and distributed weapons to the civilian population. After repelling a first attack under French General Lefranc, both Spanish commanders died fighting heroically against reinforcements sent by Murat. Gradually, the pockets of resistance fell. Hundreds of Spanish men and women and French soldiers were killed in this skirmish.
On 12 August 1812, following the defeat of the French forces at Salamanca, English and Portuguese troops entered Madrid and surrounded the fortified area occupied by the French in the district of Retiro. Following two days of Siege warfare, the 1,700 French surrendered and a large store of arms, 20,000 muskets and 180 cannon, together with many other supplies were captured, along with two French Imperial Eagles.
"In the early years of this century, Madrid was a very ugly town, with few architectural monuments, with horrible housing."
Antonio Alcalá Galiano. Recuerdos de un anciano.
On 29 October, Hill received Wellington's positive order to abandon Madrid and march to join him. After a clash with Soult's advance guard at Perales de Tajuña on the 30th, Hill broke contact and withdrew in the direction of Alba de Tormes. Joseph re-entered his capital on 2 November.
After the war of independence Ferdinand VII returned to the throne (1814). The projects of reform by Joseph Bonaparte were abandoned; during the Fernandine period, despite the proposal of several architectural projects for the city, the lack of ability to finance those led to works often being postponed or halted.
After a liberal military revolution, Colonel Riego made the king swear to respect the Constitution. Liberal and conservative government thereafter alternated, ending with the enthronement of Isabella II.
At the time the reign of Isabella II started, the city was still enclosed behind its walls, featuring a relatively slow demographic growth as well as very high population density. After the 1833 administrative reforms for the country devised by Javier de Burgos (including the configuration of the current province of Madrid), Madrid was to become the capital of the new liberal state.
Madrid experienced substantial changes during the 1830s. The corregimiento and the corregidor (institutions from the Ancien Regime) were ended for good, giving rise to the constitutional alcalde in the context of the liberal transformations. Purged off from Carlist elements, the civil office and the military and palatial milieus recognised legitimacy to the dynastic rights of Isabella II.
The reforms enacted by Finance Minister Juan Álvarez Mendizábal in 1835–1836 led to the confiscation of ecclesiastical properties and the subsequent demolition of churches, convents and adjacent orchards in the city (similarly to other Spanish cities); the widening of streets and squares ensued.
In 1854, amid economic and political crisis, following the pronunciamiento of group of high officers commanded by Leopoldo O'Donnell garrisoned in the nearby town of Vicálvaro in June 1854 (the so-called "Vicalvarada"), the 7 July Manifesto of Manzanares, calling for popular rebellion, and the ousting of Luis José Sartorius from the premiership on 17 July, popular mutiny broke out in Madrid, asking for a real change of system, in what it was to be known as the Revolution of 1854. With the uprising in Madrid reaching its pinnacle on 17, 18 and 19 July, the rebels, who erected barricades in the streets, were bluntly crushed by the new government.
1858 was a marked year for the city with the arrival of the waters from the Lozoya. The Canal de Isabel II was inaugurated on 24 June 1858. A ceremony took place soon after in Calle Ancha de San Bernardo to celebrate it, unveiling a 30-metre-high water source in the middle of the street.
The plan for the Ensanche de Madrid ('widening of Madrid') by Carlos María de Castro was passed through a royal decree issued on 19 July 1860. The plan for urban expansion by Castro, a staunch Conservative, delivered a segregation of the well-off class, the middle class and the artisanate into different zones. The southern part of the Ensanche was at a disadvantage with respect to the rest of the Ensanche, insofar, located on the way to the river and at a lower altitude, it was a place of passage for the sewage runoff, thereby being described as a "space of urban degradation and misery". Beyond the Ensanches, slums and underclass neighborhoods were built in suburbs such as Tetuán, Prosperidad or Vallecas.
Student unrest took place in 1865 following the ministerial decree against the expression of ideas against the monarchy and the church and the forced removal of the rector of the Universidad Central, unwilling to submit. In a crescendo of protests, the night of 10 April 2,000 protesters clashed against the civil guard. The unrest was crudely quashed, leaving 14 deaths, 74 wounded students and 114 arrests (in what became known as the "Night of Saint Daniel"), becoming the precursor of more serious revolutionary attempts.
The Glorious Revolution resulting in the deposition of Queen Isabella II started with a pronunciamiento in the bay of Cádiz in September 1868. The success of the uprising in Madrid on 29 September prompted the French exile of the queen, who was on holiday in San Sebastián and was unable to reach the capital by train. General Juan Prim, the leader of the liberal progressives, was received by the Madrilenian people at his arrival to the city in early October in a festive mood. He pronounced his famous speech of the "three nevers" directed against the Bourbons, and delivered a highly symbolical hug to General Serrano, leader of the revolutionary forces triumphant in the 28 September battle of Alcolea, in the Puerta del Sol.
On 27 December 1870 the car in which General Prim, the prime minister, was travelling, was shot by unknown hit-men in the Turk Street, nearby the Congress of Deputies. Prim, wounded in the attack, died three days later, with the elected monarch Amadeus, Duke of Aosta, yet to swear the constitution.
The creation of the Salamanca–Sol–Pozas tram service in Madrid in 1871 meant the introduction of the first collective system of transportation in the city, predating the omnibus.
The economy of the city further modernized during the second half of the 19th century, consolidating its status as a service and financial centre. New industries were mostly focused in book publishing, construction and low-tech sectors. The introduction of railway transport greatly helped Madrid's economic prowess, and led to changes in consumption patterns (such as the substitution of salted fish for fresh fish from the Spanish coasts) as well as further strengthening the city's role as a logistics node in the country's distribution network.
The late 19th century saw the introduction of the electric power distribution. As by law, the city council could not concede an industrial monopoly to any company, the city experienced a huge competition among the companies in the electricity sector. The absence of a monopoly led to an overlapping of distribution networks, to the point that in the centre of Madrid 5 different networks could travel through the same street. Electric lighting in the streets was introduced in the 1890s.
By the end of the 19th century, the city featured access to water, a central status in the rail network, a cheap workforce and access to financial capital. With the onset of the new century, the Ensanche Sur (in the current day district of Arganzuela) started to grow to become the main industrial area of the municipality along the first half of the 20th century.
In the early 20th century Madrid undertook a major urban intervention in its city centre with the creation of the Gran Vía, a monumental thoroughfare (then divided in three segments with different names) whose construction slit the city from top to bottom with the demolition of multitude of housing and small streets. Anticipated in earlier projects, and following the signature of the contract, the works formally started in April 1910 with a ceremony led by King Alfonso XIII.
Also with the turn of the century, Madrid had become the cultural capital of Spain as centre of top knowledge institutions (the Central University, the Royal Academies, the Institución Libre de Enseñanza or the Ateneo de Madrid), also concentrating the most publishing houses and big daily newspapers, amounting for the bulk of the intellectual production in the country.
In 1919 the Madrid Metro (known as the Ferrocarril Metropolitano by that time) inaugurated its first service, which went from Sol to the Cuatro Caminos area.
In the 1919–1920 biennium Madrid witnessed the biggest wave of protests seen in the city up to that date, being the centre of innumerable strikes; despite being still surpassed by Barcelona's, the industrial city par excellence in that time, this cycle decisively set the foundations for the social unrest that took place in the 1930s in the city.
The situation the monarchy had left Madrid in 1931 was catastrophic, with tens of thousands of kids receiving no education and a huge rate of unemployment.
After the proclamation of the Second Republic on 14 April 1931 the citizens of Madrid understood the free access to the Casa de Campo (until then an enclosed property with exclusive access for the royalty), was a consequence of the fall of the monarchy, and informally occupied the area on 15 April. After the signing of a decree on 20 April which granted the area to the Madrilenian citizens in order to become a "park for recreation and instruction", the transfer was formally sealed on 6 May when Minister Indalecio Prieto formally delivered the Casa de Campo to Mayor Pedro Rico. The Spanish Constitution of 1931 was the first legislating on the state capital, setting it explicitly in Madrid. During the 1930s, Madrid enjoyed "great vitality"; it was demographically young, but also young in the sense of its relation with the modernity. During this time the prolongation of the Paseo de la Castellana towards the north was projected. The proclamation of the Republic slowed down the building of new housing. The tertiary sector gave thrust to the economy. Illiteracy rates were down to below 20%, and the city's cultural life grew notably during the so-called Silver Age of Spanish culture; the sales of newspaper also increased. Anti-clericalism and Catholicism lived side by side in Madrid; the burning of convents initiated after riots in the city in May 1931 worsened the political environment. The 1934 insurrection largely failed in Madrid.
In order to deal with the unemployment, the new Republican city council hired many jobless people as gardeners and street cleaners.
Prieto, who sought to turn the city into the "Great Madrid", capital of the Republic, charged Secundino Zuazo with the project for the opening of a south–north axis in the city through the northward enlargement of the Paseo de la Castellana and the construction of the Nuevos Ministerios administrative complex in the area (halted by the Civil War, works in the Nuevos Ministerios would finish in 1942). Works on the Ciudad Universitaria, already started during the monarchy in 1929, also resumed.
The military uprising of July 1936 was defeated in Madrid by a combination of loyal forces and workers' militias. On 20 July armed workers and loyal troops stormed the single focus of resistance, the Cuartel de La Montaña, defended by a contingent of 2,000 rebel soldiers accompanied by 500 falangists under the command of General Fanjul, killing over one hundred of rebels after their surrender. Aside from the Cuartel de la Montaña episode, the wider scheme for the coup in the capital largely failed both due to disastrous rebel planning and due to the Government delivering weapons to the people wanting to defend the Republic, with the city becoming a symbol of popular resistance, "the people in arms".
After the quelling of the coup d'état, from 1936–1939, Madrid remained under the control of forces loyal to the Republic. Following the seemingly unstoppable advance towards Madrid of rebel land troops, the first air bombings on Madrid also started. Immediately after the bombing of the nearing airports of Getafe and Cuatro Vientos, Madrid proper was bombed for the first time in the night of the 27–28 August 1936 by a Luftwaffe's Junkers Ju 52 that threw several bombs on the Ministry of War and the Station of the North. Madrid "was to become the first big European city to be bombed by aviation".
Rebel General Francisco Franco, recently given the supreme military command over his faction, took a detour in late September to "liberate" the besieged Alcázar de Toledo. Meanwhile, this operation gave time to the republicans in Madrid to build defenses and start receiving some foreign support.
The summer and autumn of 1936 saw the Republican Madrid witness of heavy-handed repression by communist and socialist groups, symbolised by the murder of prisoners in checas and sacas directed mostly against military personnel and leading politicians linked to the rebels, which, culminated by the horrific Paracuellos massacres in the context of a simultaneous major rebel offensive against the city, were halted by early December. Madrid, besieged from October 1936, saw a major offensive in its western suburbs in November of that year.
In the last weeks of the war, the collapse of the republic was speeded by Colonel Segismundo Casado, who, endorsed by some political figures such as Anarchist Cipriano Mera and Julián Besteiro, a PSOE leader who had held talks with the Falangist fifth column in the city, threw a military coup against the legitimate government under the pretext of excessive communist preponderance, propelling a mini-civil war in Madrid that, won by the casadistas, left roughly 2,000 casualties between 5–10 March 1939.
The city fell to the nationalists on 28 March 1939.
Following the onset of the Francoist dictatorship in the city, the absence of personal and associative freedoms and the heavy-hand repression of people linked to a republican past greatly deprived the city from social mobilization, trade unionism and intellectual life. This added to a climate of general shortage, with ration coupons rampant and a lingering autarchic economy lasting until the mid 1950s. Meat and fish consumption was scarce in Post-War Madrid, and starvation and lack of proteins were a cause of high mortality.
With the country ruined after the war, the Falange command had nonetheless high plans for the city and professionals sympathetic to the regime dreamed (based on an organicist conception) about the notion of building a body for the "Spanish greatness" placing a great emphasis in Madrid, what they thought to be the imperial capital of the New State. In this sense, urban planners sought to highlight and symbolically put in value the façade the city offered to the Manzanares River, the "Imperial Cornice", bringing projects to accompany the Royal Palace such as the finishing of the unfinished cathedral (with the start of works postponed to 1950 and ultimately finished in the late 20th century), a never-built "house of the Party" and many others. Nonetheless these delusions of grandeur caught up with reality and the scarcity during the Post-War and most of the projects ended up either filed, unfinished or mutilated, with the single clear success being the Gutiérrez Soto's Cuartel del Ejército del Aire.
The intense demographic growth experienced by the city via mass immigration from the rural areas of the country led to the construction of plenty of housing in the peripheral areas of the city to absorb the new population (reinforcing the processes of social polarization of the city), initially comprising substandard housing (with as many as 50,000 shacks scattered around the city by 1956). A transitional planning intended to temporarily replace the shanty towns were the poblados de absorción, introduced since the mid-1950s in locations such as Canillas, San Fermín, Caño Roto, Villaverde, Pan Bendito [es], Zofío and Fuencarral, aiming to work as a sort of "high-end" shacks (with the destinataries participating in the construction of their own housing) but under the aegis of a wider coordinated urban planning.
Together with the likes of Cairo, Santiago de Chile, Rome, Buenos Aires or Lisbon, Francoist Madrid became an important transnational hub of the global Neofascist network that facilitated the survival and resumption of (neo)fascist activities after 1945.
In the 1948–1954 period the municipality greatly increased in size through the annexation of 13 surrounding municipalities, as its total area went up from 68,42 km2 to 607,09 km2. The annexed municipalities were Chamartín de la Rosa (5 June 1948), Carabanchel Alto (29 April 1948), Carabanchel Bajo (29 April 1948), Canillas (30 March 1950), Canillejas (30 March 1950), Hortaleza (31 March 1950), Barajas (31 March 1950), Vallecas (22 December 1950), El Pardo (27 March 1951), Vicálvaro (20 October 1951), Fuencarral (20 October 1951) Aravaca (20 October 1951) and Villaverde (31 July 1954).
The population of the city peaked in 1975 at 3,228,057 inhabitants.
Benefiting from prosperity in the 1980s, Spain's capital city has consolidated its position as the leading economic, cultural, industrial, educational and technological center of the Iberian peninsula. The relative decline in population since 1975 reverted in the 1990s, with the city recovering a population of roughly 3 million inhabitants by the end of the 20th century.
Since the late 1970s and through the 1980s Madrid became the center of the cultural movement known as la Movida. Conversely, just like in the rest of the country, a heroin crisis took a toll in the poor neighborhoods of Madrid in the 1980s.
On 11 March 2004, three days before Spain's general elections and exactly 2 years and 6 months after the September 11 attacks in the US, Madrid was hit by a terrorist attack when Islamic terrorists belonging to an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell placed a series of bombs on several trains during the morning rush hour, killing 191 people and injuring 1,800.
The administrations that followed Álvarez del Manzano's, also conservative, led by Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ana Botella, launched three unsuccessful bids for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. Madrid was a centre of the anti-austerity protests that erupted in Spain in 2011. As consequence of the spillover of the 2008 financial and mortgage crisis, Madrid has been affected by the increasing number of second-hand homes held by banks and house evictions. The mandate of left-wing Mayor Manuela Carmena (2015–2019) delivered the renaturalization of the course of the Manzanares across the city.
Since the late 2010s, the challenges the city faces include the increasingly unaffordable rental prices (often in parallel with the gentrification and the spike of tourist apartments in the city centre) and the profusion of betting shops in working-class areas, equalled to an "epidemics" among the young people.
57 London Road was originally in civilian occupation and named ‘Fairlawns’. The property was requisitioned in 1939 as a new headquarters for No.1 Group of the Royal Observer Corps, who had previously been stationed in rooms above Maidstone Post Office. An operations room was built in the house using the ground floor and basement. Fairlawns was in use throughout the war until stand down. In the 1950s Fairlawns was relegated to being a training centre for the group control at Beckenham (19 Group). In 1961 a new semi-sunk control was built to the rear of Fairlawns with administration located in the house. Beckenham was then relegated to being training centre for 1 Group at Maidstone. The former 19 Group HQ at Dura Den, Park Place, Beckenham was absorbed into No. 1 Group in 1953 but was retained for as a secondary training centre until 1968 In 1976 Fairlawns was renamed Ashmore House in memory of the Corps’ founder Major Ashmore. On closure Ashmore House and the bunker behind was sold to a local solicitors.
Maidstone is similar in construction to other semi-sunken group controls, consisting of three levels. The upper level is a surface concrete blockhouse often referred to as an ‘Aztec Temple’. The middle level is partly below ground, mounded over with soil and grassed, the bottom level is completely below grown. Externally the bunker is in excellent condition and well maintained. The grass on top of the mound is regularly mown and the surface blockhouse is painted white. The telescopic aerial mast is still in place alongside the entrance steps and unusually the aerial is also still there on top of the mast. Two other UHF aerials are also still in place on top of an adjacent pole. On top of the mound the FSM and BPI pipes are in the middle and close to them is a metal cover over what might be part of the AWDREY (Atomic Weapon Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield) equipment consisting of a white metal box mounted at an angle on a square concrete plinth. Several pipes protrude from the mound alongside. At the east end of the mound is the original emergency exit consisting of an ROC post hatch on a raised concrete plinth with a rail around it. The later emergency exit door is at the back of the mound.
The surface blockhouse still has its external ladder giving access to the roof. Here the GZI mounting is to be found on top of one of the ventilation stacks.
At the top of the entrance stairs is a steel blast door giving access to the upper level corridor. There are two rooms on the left, the decontamination room and dressing room; both still contain sinks and water tanks. There are two rooms on the right, the first has a gas tight door and houses a small fan for cooling the plant in the room below, the adjacent room contains a bank of filters. Beyond these rooms is another gas tight wooden door which, together with the entrance door, forms an air lock. Beyond this door stairs to the left lead down to the middle floor and ahead was the winch room. The winch has been removed as has the floor. There are railings just inside the entrance door to stop anyone falling. A hole has been cut into the right hand side wall of the winch room to give access to a large water tank.
At the bottom of the stairs is a dog leg into the main east - west spine corridor. The first room on the right is the ventilation and filtration plant room which is in immaculate condition with all the brass still polished and gleaming. All the plant remains in place including two chiller pumps, the main ventilation fan, two smaller fans, two compressors and the floor standing electrical control cabinet. There is a filing cabinet full of wiring diagrams, instruction books, maintenance logs etc. Although unused for ten years the plant is almost certainly fully operational with the chiller system still charged.
In one corner of the plant room is a separate filter room with it’s own gas tight door. The bank of filters are still in place. At the back of the room two wooden door open into the generator room which is noticeably narrower then the same room in other semi-sunken group controls. The generator and its control equipment is also in excellent condition with 1518 hours on the clock.
The next room on the right is the canteen, accessed along a short corridor. On the right hand side of the corridor is the kitchen which is largely intact with a Creda industrial cooker, Creda grill, hot food heater, stainless steel sink and draining board and stainless steel covered units. There is a sliding glass hatch for serving food. The canteen is now used for storage of old files and retains nothing original apart from wall cabinets at the back with electrical switchgear.
Next door to the canteen is the BT equipment room, again this is now used for the storage of old files but there are two BT wall cabinets on the end wall and the remains of two racks with some wiring looms. Beyond the BT room is an empty store room and stairs down to the lower level. The final two doors on the right lead onto the balcony looking down onto the control room. Nothing is left in the room at all although in the triangulation alcove it still says ‘Triangulation’ on the wall and there is a small shelf with a slot for an FSM and in the ceiling the bottom of the FSM pipe.
There is a gas tight door in the corridor between the two doors onto the balcony with another gas tight door beyond giving access to the emergency exit. These two doors form a second airlock. There is a ladder on the wall up to a short landing and then a second ladder up to the emergency escape hatch. This was replaced in the 1970’s by a stairway with a door on the south side of the mound.
Back in the spine corridor the first door on the left is the sewage ejection room with two compressors and a compressed air receiver just inside the door and two pumps in the sump underneath a metal grille. This plant also looks immaculate. The next two rooms are the male and female toilets which are complete although no longer connected to the mains water supply. The female toilet has a hot water tank, two hand basins, two WC cubicles and a shower. The male toilet is similar with one of the WC cubicles replaced by a urinal. The next two rooms are the male and female dormitories, these are used for the storage of confidential client files and we had no access. The final room on the left is the small officers room which is empty apart from a Tanoy loudspeaker on the wall.
On the bottom level the control room at the bottom of the stairs to the left has been fitted out with Dexion racking and is the main storage area for old files. Nothing from ROC days remains apart from one floor standing display board. The adjacent communications centre is empty. The walls are covered with acoustic tiles and the original tables and chairs are still in place. There are three windows looking into the control room one with a small message hatch beneath one.
The radio room was to the right of the stairs, this has been divided into two rooms, both of which are empty. There is a small store room under the stairs which is also empty.
During the 1990’s numerous ROC items including maps and signs were sold to the Kelvedon Hatch cold war museum. The only remaining signs are fire prevention notices which are screwed to the wall in various rooms.
The owners have no plans to remove any of the remaining equipment and will continue to use the bunker for the storage of redundant files. It is clean and dry throughout and the lighting works in all the rooms.
Chantilly 2016 - Concours d'élégance
Commentaire Artcurial lors de Retromobile février 2016
1995 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport
Carte grise française
Châssis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Moteur n° 0103
- Histoire et provenance exceptionnelles
- Livrée avec un deuxième moteur neuf
- Voiture du record de vitesse sur glace en 1995
- Très faible kilométrage (1 373 km)
- Modèle exceptionnellement performant et rare
Le développement des supercars à transmission intégrale a donné l'idée à Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur de compétition automobile, actuel directeur de Venturi et membre de la famille Pastor, entrepreneurs monégasques fortunés, de battre le record de vitesse sur glace. Initialement prévue avec une Porsche Turbo, la tentative sera finalement effectuée à bord de cette Bugatti EB110 SS qu'il achète neuve à l'usine. Préparée en Italie (avec principalement une adaptation des rapports de boîte et la pose d'un lest de 270 kg) la voiture est acheminée en Finlande, à proximité de la ville d'Oulu, sur une piste de 7 km. Elle est équipée de simples pneus à lamelles de série, sans clous et, le 3 mars 1995, Gildo Pallanca Pastor atteint la vitesse de 315 km/h, la FIA homologuant finalement 296,34 km/h. Cette performance a bien résisté dans le temps puisque le record n'a été battu qu'en mars 2013, par une Audi RS6.
Lors d'une interview accordée le 2 mai 2013 à Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor précisait : "C'était le 3 mars 1995 à Oulu, en Finlande, sur une mer gelée. J'ai atteint une vitesse finale de 315 km/h avec des pneus sans clous. C'était un record assez insensé car je voyais les vagues au bout de la piste. Le plus grand challenge était d'ailleurs de ne pas me retrouver dans l'eau. J'ai eu droit à tout. Aux rennes qui traversaient la piste par exemple... Les Finlandais étaient en tout cas assez intrigués de voir un Monégasque aller plus vite qu'eux sur la glace..."
C'est la voiture de ce record que nous présentons aujourd'hui. Elle fait partie des quelque 31 exemplaires de Bugatti EB110 SS produites. Apparu en 1992, ce modèle était plus puissant et plus léger, disposant de 603 ch à 8 250 tr/mn. Il était capable d'atteindre une vitesse de pointe de 355 km/h et de passer de 0 à 100 km/h en 3,26 secondes. Voiture plus exclusive que les 106 exemplaires de McLaren F1, ses performances sont comparables, avec une plus grande facilité d'utilisation grâce à ses 4 roues motrices et son V12 3,5 litres suralimenté par quatre turbocompresseurs.
En parfait état de présentation, cette voiture du record sur glace a vraisemblablement reçu un voile de peinture par les ateliers Monaco Racing Team il y a quelques années. Quelques très légers éclats de peintures apparaissent au niveau des ouvertures de portes ou sur le bouclier avant mais cela est vraiment anecdotique. La carrosserie est ornée des quelques stickers Michelin et Elf qui soutenaient Gildo Pastor dans son record. Vierge de toute usure, l'habitacle présente des cuirs, moquettes et joints impeccables, et le compartiment moteur est très propre. Doté d'une carte grise française et d'un contrôle technique vierge de tout défaut l'auto est tout simplement exceptionnelle.
Plusieurs éléments seront livrés avec : une housse sur mesure, et les quatre jantes évoquant celles de la Bugatti Royale et avec lesquelles le record du monde a été établi ! Un second moteur neuf sur palette (B110-01-003) accompagnera également la voiture ainsi que le manuel d'entretien et de réglage usine !
Très attaché à cette voiture, Gildo Pallanca Pastor l'a conservée précieusement pendant plusieurs années à Monaco avant de la vendre l'année dernière à un autre collectionneur de la marque. Cette Bugatti EB110 SS, dont le compteur n'affiche que 1 373 km, fonctionne très bien et bénéficiera d'une révision effectuée avant la vente. Elle a été récemment exposée au 32e Festival Bugatti au parc des Jésuites de Molsheim, en septembre dernier, où elle s'est rendue par la route. Depuis, elle a régulièrement roulé entre les mains de son second propriétaire sur les routes d'Alsace.
Pièce d'exception, elle témoigne du début de l'époque des hypercars et de la course à la puissance et à la vitesse qu'ils ont engendré. A ses performances et son faible kilométrage, elle ajoute la rareté et la performance historique que constitue son record.
French title
Chassis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Engine n° 0103
- Exceptional history and provenance
- Delivered with a second brand new engine
- Ice speed record car in 1995
- Very low mileage (1 373 km)
- Exceptionally rare and powerful car
The development of four-wheel drive supercars gave Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur racing driver, CEO of Venturi and member of the wealthy entrepreneurial Monegasque Pastor family, the idea of breaking the ice speed record.
The initial plan was to use a Porsche Turbo, but the attempt was finally made in this Bugatti EB110 SS, bought new from the factory. Prepared in Italy (which principally involved adapting the gearing and adding ballast of 270 kg), the car was taken to a 7 km track in Finland, near the city of Oulu. On 3 March 1995, fitted with regular production tyres, without spikes, Gildo Pallanca Pastor achieved a speed of 315 km/h, ultimately homologated by the FIA at 296,34 km/h. This record stood for some time and was only beaten in March 2013 by an Audi RS6.
During an interview on 2 May 2013 with the Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor said : " It was 3 March 1995 Oulu, in Finland, on the frozen sea. I reached a top speed of 315 km/h on tyres without spikes. It was a pretty crazy record as I could see waves at the end of the track. The greatest challenge was to avoid ending up in the water. I had it all. Reindeer crossing the track for example...In any case, the Finns were intrigued to see a Monagesque go faster than them on the ice... "
It is this record-breaking car that we are presenting today. It is one of some 31 examples of the Bugatti EB110 SS built. First appearing in 1992, this model was lighter and more powerful, producing some 603 bhp at 8 250 rpm. It was capable of a top speed of 355 km/h and travelled from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.26 seconds. A more exclusive car than the McLaren F1, with a comparable performance, it was easy to use with four-wheel drive and a V12 3.5-litre engine with four turbochargers.
Presented in perfect condition, this ice record-breaking car is likely to have had a layer of paint added in the Monaco Racing Team workshop a few years ago. There are a few incidental marks to the paintwork on the door openings and front bumper. The coachwork sports Michelin and Elf stickers, both sponsors of Gildo Pastor for his record attempt. The interior presents no wear at all and the leather, carpets and seals are immaculate. The engine compartment is also extremely clean. With a French title and new technical inspection (MOT), this car is simply outstanding. Items to be delivered with the car include : a made to measure cover, the four wheels, echoing those of the Bugatti Royale, that were used to break the world record ! A second engine on a palette (B110-01-003) will accompany the car along with the service book and factory record !
Very attached to this car, Gildo Pallanca Pastor kept it carefully for many years in Monaco, before selling it last year to another marque enthusiast. This Bugatti EB110 SS, with the odometer recording just 1 373 km, is in good running order and will be serviced before the sale. Last September the car was driven to, and exhibited at, the 32rd Bugatti Festival at the Jesuits' park in Molsheim. Since then it has been used regularly by its second owner on the roads in Alsace.
An exceptional lot, this car is a testament to the early period of hypercars and the race for power and speed that ensued. With such a performance and so few miles on the clock, this rare machine also boasts a history as a record-breaking car.
Estimation 800 000 - 1 200 000 €
Vendu 904,800 €
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex is located in Austria
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex
Location of Mauthausen in Austria
Location in and around Mauthausen and St Georgen/Gusen, Upper Austria
Operated by DEST cartel and the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS)
Soviet Red Army (after World War II)
Commandant Franz Ziereis
Operational August 1938 – May 1945
Number of inmates mainly Soviet and Polish citizens
Killed between 122,766 and 320,000 (estimated)
Liberated by US Army, May 1945
Appellplatz at the Mauthausen main camp
The Mauthausen–Gusen concentration camp complex consisted of the Mauthausen concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Linz, Upper Austria) plus a group of nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany.[1][2] The three Gusen concentration camps in and around the village of St Georgen/Gusen, just a few kilometres from Mauthausen, held a significant proportion of prisoners within the camp complex, at times exceeding the number of prisoners at the Mauthausen main camp.
The Mauthausen main camp operated from the time of the Anschluss, when Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich in 8 August 1938, to 5 May 1945, at the end of the Second World War. Starting with the camp at Mauthausen, the number of subcamps expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 Mauthausen and its subcamps had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in the German-controlled part of Europe. As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen and its subcamps were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. Mauthausen and its subcamps included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft.[3][4] In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates.[5] The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex.
Mauthausen was one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany, and the last to be liberated by the Allies. The two largest camps, Mauthausen and Gusen I, were classed as "Grade III" (Stufe III) concentration camps, which meant that they were intended to be the toughest camps for the "incorrigible political enemies of the Reich".[6] Mauthausen never lost this Stufe III classification.[6] In the offices of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt; RSHA) it was referred to by the nickname Knochenmühle – the bone-grinder (literally bone-mill).[6] Unlike many other concentration camps, which were intended for all categories of prisoners, Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia – educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II.[7][8] The Mauthausen main camp is now a museum.
History
KL Mauthausen
On 9 August 1938, prisoners from Dachau concentration camp near Munich were sent to the town of Mauthausen in Austria, to begin the construction of a new slave labour camp.[9] The site was chosen because of the nearby granite quarry, and its proximity to Linz.[5][10] Although the camp was controlled by the German state from the beginning, it was founded by a private company as an economic enterprise.[10] The owner of the Wiener-Graben quarry (the Marbacher-Bruch and Bettelberg quarries) was a DEST Company: an acronym for Deutsche Erd– und Steinwerke GmbH.[11] The company was led by Oswald Pohl, who was a high-ranking official of the Schutzstaffel (SS).[12] It rented the quarries from the City of Vienna in 1938 and started the construction of the Mauthausen camp.[3] A year later, the company ordered the construction of the first camp at Gusen. The granite mined in the quarries had previously been used to pave the streets of Vienna, but the Nazi authorities envisioned a complete reconstruction of major German towns in accordance with plans of Albert Speer and other proponents of Nazi architecture,[13] for which large quantities of granite were needed.[10] The money to fund the construction of the Mauthausen camp was gathered from a variety of sources, including commercial loans from Dresdner Bank and Prague-based Escompte Bank; the so-called Reinhardt's fund (meaning money stolen from the inmates of the concentration camps themselves); and from the German Red Cross.[5][note 1]
Mauthausen initially served as a strictly-run prison camp for common criminals, prostitutes[14] and other categories of "Incorrigible Law Offenders".[note 2] On 8 May 1939 it was converted to a labour camp which was mainly used for the incarceration of political prisoners.[16]
Gusen camps
The Gusen camps were three different concentration camps in the Perg district of Upper Austria:
Gusen I, located at Gusen in the community of Langenstein
Gusen II, located at St Georgen in the community of St Georgen/Gusen
Gusen III, located at Lungitz in the community of Katsdorf
The three Gusen concentration camps held a significant proportion of prisoners within the Mauthausen-Gusen complex, at times exceeding the number of prisoners at the Mauthausen main camp itself.
"(...) In March 1940 I was brought to Mauthausen to build the Gusen camp. The building tempo had to be accelerated, because the "Aktion gegen die polnische Intelligenz" was designated for the month of April. What no one knew in the home country, we knew – the SS-men who were beating us, told us that we build a camp for our rotten brothers from Poland, who today can still spend Easter uneventfully, without an inkling what awaits them. They called the camp under construction Gusen "Vernichtungslager fur die polnische Intelligenz"". — Stefan Józefowicz, bank headmaster, no. 1129 in Mauthausen, 43069 Gusen.[17]
DEST began purchasing land at St Georgen/Gusen in May 1938. During 1938 and 1939, inmates of the nearby Mauthausen makeshift camp marched daily to the granite quarries at St Georgen/Gusen, which were more productive and more important for DEST than the Wienergraben Quarry.[3] After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the as-yet unfinished Mauthausen camp was already overcrowded with prisoners. The numbers of inmates rose from 1,080 in late 1938 to over 3,000 a year later.[18][19] At about that time, the construction of a new camp "for the Poles" began in Gusen (48°15′26″N 14°27′48″E), about 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) away. The new camp (later named Gusen I) became operational in May 1940. The first inmates were put in the first two huts (No. 7 and 8) on 17 April 1940,[20] while the first transport of prisoners – mostly from the camps in Dachau and Sachsenhausen – arrived just over a month later, on 25 May.[21]
Like nearby Mauthausen, the Gusen camps also rented inmates out to various local businesses as slave labour. In October 1941, several huts were separated from the Gusen subcamp by barbed wire and turned into a separate Prisoner of War Labour Camp (German: Kriegsgefangenenarbeitslager).[22][23] This camp had many prisoners of war, mostly Soviet officers.[24][23] By 1942 the production capacity of Mauthausen and the Gusen camps had reached its peak. The Gusen site was expanded to include the central depot of the SS, where various goods, which had been seized from occupied territories, were sorted and then dispatched to Germany.[25] Local quarries and businesses were in constant need of a new source of labour as more and more Austrians were drafted into the Wehrmacht.[26]
In March 1944, the former SS depot was converted to a new subcamp, named Gusen II, which served as an improvised concentration camp until the end of the war. Gusen II contained about 12,000 to 17,000 inmates, who were deprived of even the most basic facilities.[1] In December 1944, Gusen III was opened in nearby Lungitz. Here, parts of a factory infrastructure were converted into the third Gusen camp.[1] The rise in the number of subcamps could not catch up with the rising number of inmates, which led to overcrowding of the huts in Mauthausen and its subcamps. From late 1940 to 1944, the number of inmates per bed rose from two to four.[1]
Camp system
As the production in Mauthausen and its subcamps was constantly increasing, so were the numbers of detainees and subcamps themselves. Although initially the camps of Gusen and Mauthausen mostly served the local quarries, from 1942 onwards they began to be included in the German war machine. To accommodate the ever-growing number of slave workers, additional subcamps (German: Außenlager) of Mauthausen were built. By the end of the war, the list included 101 camps (including 49 major subcamps)[27] which covered most of modern Austria, from Mittersill south of Salzburg to Schwechat east of Vienna and from Passau on the pre-war Austro-German border to the Loibl Pass on the border with Yugoslavia. The subcamps were divided into several categories, depending on their main function: Produktionslager for factory workers, Baulager for construction, Aufräumlager for cleaning the rubble in Allied-bombed towns, and Kleinlager (small camps) where the inmates were working specifically for the SS.[citation needed]
Business enterprise
The production output of Mauthausen and its subcamps exceeded that of each of the five other large slave labour centres: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Marburg and Natzweiler-Struthof, in terms of both production quota and profits.[28] The list of companies using slave labour from Mauthausen and its subcamps was long, and included both national corporations and small, local firms and communities. Some parts of the quarries were converted into a Mauser machine pistol assembly plant. In 1943, an underground factory for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch company was built in Gusen. Altogether, 45 larger companies took part in making Mauthausen and its subcamps one of the most profitable concentration camps of Nazi Germany, with more than 11,000,000 Reichsmark[note 3] in profits in 1944 alone (EUR 144 million in 2018). The companies using slave laborers from Mauthausen included:[28]
DEST cartel (producing bricks and quarrying stone for German state construction projects)
Accumulatoren-Fabrik AFA (the main producer of batteries for German U-boats)
Bayer (the main German producer of medicines and medications)
Deutsche Bergwerks- und Hüttenbau (constructing mines and quarries)
Linz-based Eisenwerke Oberdonau (the largest World War II steel supplier for the German Panzer tanks)[31]
Flugmotorenwerke Ostmark (aeroplane engine manufacturer)
Otto Eberhard Patronenfabrik (munitions works)
Heinkel and Messerschmitt (Heinkel-Sud facilities in Floridsdorf, Vienna-Schwechat and Zwölfaxing, and other aeroplane factories, also a V-2 rocket factory)
Österreichische Sauerwerks (arms producer)
Rax-Werke (machinery and V-2 rockets)
Steyr-Daimler-Puch (arms and vehicles)
Universale Hoch und Tiefbau (construction of tunnels in the Loibl Pass)
Prisoners were also rented out as slave labour to work on local farms, road construction, reinforcing and repairing the banks of the Danube, and the construction of large residential areas in Sankt Georgen[3] as well as being forced to excavate archaeological sites in Spielberg.[citation needed]
When the Allied strategic bombing campaign started to target the German war industry, German planners decided to move production to underground facilities that were impenetrable to enemy aerial bombardment. In Gusen I, the prisoners were ordered to build several large tunnels beneath the hills surrounding the camp (code-named Kellerbau). By the end of World War II the prisoners had dug 29,400 square metres (316,000 sq ft) to house a small-arms factory. In January 1944, similar tunnels were also built beneath the village of Sankt Georgen by the inmates of Gusen II subcamp (code-named Bergkristall).[32] They dug roughly 50,000 square metres (540,000 sq ft) so the Messerschmitt company could build an assembly plant to produce the Messerschmitt Me 262 and V-2 rockets.[33] In addition to planes, some 7,000 square metres (75,000 sq ft) of Gusen II tunnels served as factories for various war materials.[3][34] In late 1944, roughly 11,000 of the Gusen I and II inmates were working in underground facilities.[35] An additional 6,500 worked on expanding the underground network of tunnels and halls. In 1945, the Me 262 works was already finished and the Germans were able to assemble 1,250 planes a month.[3][note 4] This was the second largest plane factory in Germany after the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, which was also underground.[35]
Weapons research
In January 2015, a "panel of archaeologists, historians and other experts" ruled out the earlier claims of an Austrian filmmaker that a bunker underneath the camp was connected to the German nuclear weapon project.[37] The panel indicated that stairs uncovered during an excavation prompted by the allegations led to an SS shooting range.[37]
Extermination through labour
The political function of the camp continued in parallel with its economic role. Until at least 1942, it was used for the imprisonment and murder of the Nazi's political and ideological enemies, real and imagined.[2][38] The camp served the needs of the German war machine and also carried out extermination through labour. When inmates became totally exhausted after having worked in the quarries for 12 hours a day, or if they were too ill or too weak to work, they were transferred to the Revier ("Krankenrevier", sick barrack) or other places for extermination. Initially, the camp did not have a gas chamber of its own and the so-called Muselmänner, or prisoners who were too sick to work, after being maltreated, under-nourished or exhausted, were then transferred to other concentration camps for extermination (mostly to the Hartheim Euthanasia Centre,[39] which was 40.7 kilometres or 25.3 miles away), or killed by lethal injection and cremated in the local crematorium. The growing number of prisoners made this system too expensive and from 1940, Mauthausen was one of the few camps in the West to use a gas chamber on a regular basis. In the beginning, an improvised mobile gas chamber – a van with the exhaust pipe connected to the inside – shuttled between Mauthausen and Gusen.[40] It was capable of killing about 120 prisoners at a time when it was completed.[41][42]
Inmates
Until early 1940, the largest group of inmates consisted of German, Austrian and Czechoslovak socialists, communists, homosexuals who were not Party members, anarchists and people of Romani origin. Other groups of people to be persecuted solely on religious grounds were the Sectarians, as they were dubbed by the Nazi regime, meaning Bible Students, or as they are called today, Jehovah's Witnesses. The reason for their imprisonment was their rejection of giving the loyalty oath to Hitler and their refusal to participate in any kind of military service.[16]
Subcamp
inmate counts
Late 1944 – early 1945[5][note 5]
Gusen (I, II and III combined) 26,311
Ebensee 18,437
Gunskirchen 15,000
Melk 10,314
Linz 6,690
Amstetten 2,966
Wiener-Neudorf 2,954
Schwechat 2,568
Steyr-Münichholz 1,971
Schlier-Redl-Zipf 1,488
In early 1940, many Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen–Gusen complex. The first groups were mostly composed of artists, scientists, Boy Scouts, teachers, and university professors,[5][43] who were arrested during Intelligenzaktion and the course of the AB Action.[44] Camp Gusen II was called by Germans Vernichtungslager für die polnische Intelligenz ("Extermination camp for the Polish intelligentsia").[45]
Later in the war, new arrivals were from every category of the "unwanted", but educated people and so-called political prisoners constituted the largest part of all inmates until the end of the war. During World War II, large groups of Spanish Republicans were also transferred to Mauthausen and its subcamps. Most of them were former Republican soldiers or activists who had fled to France after Franco's victory and then were captured by German forces after the defeat of France in 1940 or handed over to the Germans by the Vichy authorities. The largest of these groups arrived at Gusen in January 1941.[46] In early 1941, almost all the Poles and Spaniards, except for a small group of specialists working in the quarry's stone mill, were transferred from Mauthausen to Gusen.[36] Following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 1941, the camps started to receive a large number of Soviet POWs. Most of them were kept in huts separated from the rest of the camp. The Soviet prisoners of war were a major part of the first groups to be gassed in the newly built gas chamber in early 1942. In 1944, a large group of Hungarian and Dutch Jews, about 8,000 people altogether, was also transferred to the camp. Much like all the other large groups of prisoners that were transferred to Mauthausen and its subcamps, most of them either died as a result of the hard labour and poor conditions, or were deliberately killed.
After the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 and the outbreak of the partisan resistance in summer of the same year, many people suspected of aiding the Yugoslav resistance were sent to the Mauthausen camp, mostly from areas under direct German occupation, namely northern Slovenia and Serbia. An estimated 1,500 Slovenes died in Mauthausen.[47]
Throughout the years of World War II, the Mauthausen and its subcamps received new prisoners in smaller transports daily, mostly from other concentration camps in German-occupied Europe. Most of the prisoners at the subcamps of Mauthausen had been kept in a number of different detention sites before they arrived. The most notable of such centres for Mauthausen and its subcamps were the camps at Dachau and Auschwitz. The first transports from Auschwitz arrived in February 1942. The second transport in June of that year was much larger and numbered some 1,200 prisoners. Similar groups were sent from Auschwitz to Gusen and Mauthausen in April and November 1943, and then in January and February 1944. Finally, after Adolf Eichmann visited Mauthausen in May of that year, Mauthausen received the first group of roughly 8,000 Hungarian Jews from Auschwitz; the first group to be evacuated from that camp before the Soviet advance. Initially, the groups evacuated from Auschwitz consisted of qualified workers for the ever-growing industry of Mauthausen and its subcamps, but as the evacuation proceeded other categories of people were also transported to Mauthausen, Gusen, Vienna or Melk.[citation needed]
Over time, Auschwitz had to almost stop accepting new prisoners and most were directed to Mauthausen instead. The last group – roughly 10,000 prisoners – was evacuated in the last wave in January 1945, only a few weeks before the Soviet liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.[48] Among them was a large group of civilians arrested by the Germans after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising,[49][23] but by the liberation not more than 500 of them were still alive.[50] Altogether, during the final months of the war, 23,364 prisoners from other concentration camps arrived at the camp complex.[50] Many more perished from exhaustion during death marches, or in railway wagons, where the prisoners were confined at sub-zero temperatures for several days before their arrival, without adequate food or water. Prisoner transports were considered less important than other important services, and could be kept on sidings for days as other trains passed.[citation needed]
Many of those who survived the journey died before they could be registered, whilst others were given the camp numbers of prisoners who had already been killed.[50] Most were then accommodated in the camps or in the newly established tent camp (German: Zeltlager) just outside the Mauthausen subcamp, where roughly 2,000 people were forced into tents intended for not more than 800 inmates, and then starved to death.[51]
As in all other German concentration camps, not all the prisoners were equal. Their treatment depended largely on the category assigned to each inmate, as well as their nationality and rank within the system. The so-called kapos, or prisoners who had been recruited by their captors to police their fellow prisoners, were given more food and higher pay in the form of concentration camp coupons which could be exchanged for cigarettes in the canteen, as well as a separate room inside most barracks.[52] On Himmler's order of June 1941, a brothel was opened in the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps in 1942.[53][54] The Kapos formed the main part of the so-called Prominents (German: Prominenz), or prisoners who were given a much better treatment than the average inmate.[55]
Women and children in Mauthausen
Although the Mauthausen camp complex was mostly a labour camp for men, a women's camp was opened in Mauthausen, in September 1944, with the first transport of female prisoners from Auschwitz. Eventually, more women and children came to Mauthausen from Ravensbrück, Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. Along with the female prisoners came some female guards; twenty are known to have served in the Mauthausen camp, and sixty in the whole camp complex. Female guards also staffed the Mauthausen subcamps at Hirtenberg, Lenzing (the main women's subcamp in Austria), and Sankt Lambrecht. The Chief Overseers at Mauthausen were firstly Margarete Freinberger, and then Jane Bernigau. Almost all the female Overseers who served in Mauthausen were recruited from Austrian cities and towns between September and November 1944. In early April 1945, at least 2,500 more female prisoners came from the female subcamps at Amstetten, St. Lambrecht, Hirtenberg, and the Flossenbürg subcamp at Freiberg. According to Daniel Patrick Brown, Hildegard Lächert also served at Mauthausen.[56]
The available Mauthausen inmate statistics[57] from the spring of 1943, shows that there were 2,400 prisoners below the age of 20, which was 12.8% of the 18,655 population. By late March 1945, the number of juvenile prisoners in Mauthausen increased to 15,048, which was 19.1% of the 78,547 Mauthausen inmates. The number of imprisoned children increased 6.2 times, whereas the total number of adult prisoners during the same period multiplied by a factor of only four. These numbers reflected the increasing use of Polish, Czech, Russian, and Balkan teenagers as slave labour as the war continued.[58] Statistics showing the composition of juvenile inmates shortly before their liberation reveal the following major child/prisoner sub-groups: 5,809 foreign civilian labourers, 5,055 political prisoners, 3,654 Jews, and 330 Russian POWs. There were also 23 Romani children, 20 so-called "anti-social elements", six Spaniards, and three Jehovah's Witnesses.[57]
Mauthausen was not the only concentration camp where the German authorities implemented their extermination through labour (Vernichtung durch Arbeit) programme, but the regime at Mauthausen was one of the most brutal and severe. The conditions within the camp were considered exceptionally hard to bear, even by concentration camp standards.[59][60][61] The inmates suffered not only from malnutrition, overcrowded huts and constant abuse and beatings by the guards and kapos,[36] but also from exceptionally hard labour.[41] As there were too many prisoners in Mauthausen to have all of them work in its quarry at the same time, many were put to work in workshops, or had to do other manual work, whilst the unfortunate ones who were selected to work in the quarry were only there because of their so-called "crimes" in the camp. The reasons for sending them to work in the "punishment detail" were trivial, and included such "crimes" as not saluting a German passing by.[citation needed]
The work in the quarries – often in unbearable heat or in temperatures as low as −30 °C (−22 °F)[36] – led to exceptionally high mortality rates.[61][note 6] The food rations were limited, and during the 1940–1942 period, an average inmate weighed 40 kilograms (88 lb).[62] It is estimated that the average energy content of food rations dropped from about 1,750 calories (7,300 kJ) a day during the 1940–1942 period, to between 1,150 and 1,460 calories (4,800 and 6,100 kJ) a day during the next period. In 1945 the energy content was even lower and did not exceed 600 to 1,000 calories (2,500 to 4,200 kJ) a day – less than a third of the energy needed by an average worker in heavy industry.[1] The reduced rations led to the starvation of thousands of inmates.[citation needed]
The inmates of Mauthausen, Gusen I, and Gusen II had access to a separate part of the camp for the sick – the so-called Krankenlager. Despite the fact that (roughly) 100 medics from among the inmates were working there,[63] they were not given any medication and could offer only basic first aid.[5][63] Thus the hospital camp – as it was called by the German authorities – was, in fact, the last stop before death for thousands of inmates, and very few had a chance to recover.[citation needed]
The rock quarry in Mauthausen was at the base of the "Stairs of Death". Prisoners were forced to carry roughly-hewn blocks of stone – often weighing as much as 50 kilograms (110 lb) – up the 186 stairs, one prisoner behind the other. As a result, many exhausted prisoners collapsed in front of the other prisoners in the line, and then fell on top of the other prisoners, creating a domino effect; the first prisoner falling onto the next, and so on, all the way down the stairs.[64]
Four men dressed in SS uniforms climb the stone-cut stairs of death, one of them is smoking a cigarette.
SS officers including General Paul Hausser (far right, in overcoat) climbing the "Stairs of Death", April 1941
Such brutality was not accidental. The SS guards would often force prisoners – exhausted from hours of hard labour without sufficient food and water – to race up the stairs carrying blocks of stone. Those who survived the ordeal would often be placed in a line-up at the edge of a cliff known as "The Parachutists Wall" (German: Fallschirmspringerwand).[65] At gun-point each prisoner would have the option of being shot or pushing the prisoner in front of him off the cliff.[27] Other common methods of extermination of prisoners who were either sick, unfit for further labour or as a means of collective responsibility or after escape attempts included beating the prisoners to death by the SS guards and Kapos, starving to death in bunkers, hangings and mass shootings.[66][67] At times the guards or Kapos would either deliberately throw the prisoners on the 380 volt electric barbed wire fence,[67] or force them outside the boundaries of the camp and then shoot them on the pretence that they were attempting to escape.[68] Another method of extermination were icy showers – some 3,000 inmates died of hypothermia after having been forced to take an icy cold shower and then left outside in cold weather.[66] A large number of inmates were drowned in barrels of water at Gusen II.[69][70][note 7]
The Nazis also performed pseudo-scientific experiments on the prisoners. Among the doctors to organise them were Sigbert Ramsauer, Karl Gross, Eduard Krebsbach and Aribert Heim. Heim was dubbed "Doctor Death" by the inmates; he was in Gusen for seven weeks, which was enough to carry out his experiments.[71][72] Ramsauer also declared some 2,000 prisoners who applied to be transferred to a sanatorium mentally sick, and murdered them with injections of phenol in the course of the H-13 action.[66]
After the war one of the survivors, Dr. Antoni Gościński reported 62 ways of murdering people in the camps of Gusen I and Mauthausen.[66] Hans Maršálek estimated that an average life expectancy of newly arrived prisoners in Gusen varied from six months between 1940 and 1942, to less than three months in early 1945.[73] Paradoxically, with the growth of forced labour industry in various subcamps of Mauthausen, the situation of some of the prisoners improved significantly. While the food rations were increasingly limited every month, the heavy industry necessitated skilled specialists rather than unqualified workers and the brutality of the camp's SS and Kapos was limited. While the prisoners were still beaten on a daily basis and the Muselmänner were still exterminated, from early 1943 on some of the factory workers were allowed to receive food parcels from their families (mostly Poles and Frenchmen). This allowed many of them not only to evade the risk of starvation, but also to help other prisoners who had no relatives outside the camps – or who were not allowed to receive parcels.[74] Inmates were also beaten to death, like Viennese Jew Adolf Fruchthändler.
In February 1945, the camp was the site of Nazi war crime Mühlviertler Hasenjagd ("hare hunt") where around 500 escaped prisoners (mostly Soviet officers) were mercilessly hunted down and murdered by SS, local law enforcement and civilians.
Death toll
Estimated death toll, by nationality
The Germans destroyed much of the camp's files and evidence and often gave newly arrived prisoners the camp numbers of those who had already been killed,[41] so the exact death toll of Mauthausen and its subcamps is impossible to calculate. The matter is further complicated due to some of the inmates of Gusen being murdered in Mauthausen, and at least 3,423 were sent to Hartheim Castle, 40.7 km (25.3 mi) away. Also, several thousands were killed in mobile gas chambers, without any mention of the exact number of victims in the remaining files.[75] Before their escape from the camps on 4 May 1945, the SS tried to destroy the evidence, allowing only approximately 40,000 victims to be identified. During the first days after the liberation, the camp's main chancellery was seized by the members of a Polish inmate resistance organization; they secured it against the wishes of other inmates who wanted to burn it.[76] After the war, the archives of the main chancellery was brought by one of the survivors to Poland, then passed to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim.[77][78] Parts of the death register of Gusen I camp were secured by the Polish inmates, who took it to Australia after the war. In 1969 the files were given to the International Red Cross International Tracing Service.[75]
The surviving camp archives include personal files of 37,411 murdered prisoners, including 22,092 Poles, 5,024 Spaniards, 2,843 Soviet prisoners of war and 7,452 inmates of 24 other nationalities.[79] The surviving parts of the death register of KZ Gusen list an additional 30,536 names.[citation needed]
Apart from the surviving camp files of the subcamps of Mauthausen, the main documents used for an estimation of the death toll of the camp complexes are:
A report by Józef Żmij, a survivor who had been working in the Gusen I camp's chancellery. His report is based on personally-made copies of yearly reports from the period between 1940 and 1944, and the camps' commander's daily reports for the period between 1 January 1945 and the day of the liberation.
Original death register for the subcamp of Gusen held by the International Red Cross
Personal notes of Stanisław Nogaj, another inmate who had been working in the chancellery of Gusen
Death register prepared by the SS chief medic of the Mauthausen main chancellery for the subcamps of Gusen (similar records for the Mauthausen subcamp itself were destroyed)
As a result of these factors, the exact death toll of the entire system of Mauthausen and its subcamps varies considerably from source to source. Various scholars place it at between 122,766[note 8] and 320,000,[66] with other numbers also frequently quoted being 200,000[80] and "over 150,000".[81] Various historians place the total death toll in the four main camps of Mauthausen, Gusen I, Gusen II and Gusen III at between 55,000[41] and 60,000.[82][note 9] In addition, during the first month after the liberation additional 1,042 prisoners died in American field hospitals.[83]
Death Toll Statistics Gusen I, II and III[note 10]
Year Józef
Żmij Stanisław
Nogaj KZ
Gusen Hans
Maršálek[16] Stanisław
Dobosiewicz[84]
1940 1,784 1,430 1,389 1,762
1941 5,793 7,214 5,564 5,272 6,300
1942 6,088 7,203 5,005 7,410 9,534
1943 5,225 5,303 5,173 5,248 6,103
1944 5,921 4,790 4,691 4,091 5,488
1945 12,600 197 4,673 15,415
Undated 2,843
Total 37,411 24,707 30,536 33,451 44,602
Out of approximately 320,000 prisoners who were incarcerated in various subcamps of Mauthausen throughout the war, only approximately 80,000 survived,[85] including between 20,487[83] and 21,386[86][note 11] in Gusen I, II and III.
Several Norwegian Waffen SS volunteers worked as guards or as instructors for prisoners from Nordic countries, according to senior researcher Terje Emberland at the Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities.[87]
Liberation and post-war heritage
An M8 Greyhound armored car of the US Army's 11th Armored Division entering the Mauthausen concentration camp, with the banner in the background being roughly translated (from Spanish) as "Anti-fascist Spaniards salute the forces of liberation". This photograph was taken on 6 May 1945.[88]
Survivors of Gusen shortly after their liberation
During the final months before liberation, the camp's commander Franz Ziereis prepared for its defence against a possible Soviet offensive. Most of the inmates of German and Austrian nationality "volunteered" for the SS-Freiwillige Häftlingsdivision, an SS unit composed mostly of former concentration camp inmates and headed by Oskar Dirlewanger.[89] The remaining prisoners were rushed to build a line of granite anti-tank obstacles to the east of Mauthausen. The inmates unable to cope with the hard labour and malnutrition were exterminated in large numbers to free space for newly arrived evacuation transports from other camps, including most of the subcamps of Mauthausen located in eastern Austria. In the final months of the war, the main source of dietary energy, that is the parcels of food sent through the International Red Cross, stopped and food rations became catastrophically low. The prisoners transferred to the "Hospital Subcamp" received one piece of bread per 20 inmates and roughly half a litre of weed soup a day.[90] This made some of the prisoners, previously engaged in various types of resistance activity, begin to prepare plans to defend the camp in case of an SS attempt to exterminate all the remaining inmates.[90]
It is not known why the prisoners of Gusen I and II were not exterminated en-masse, despite direct orders from Heinrich Himmler to murder them and prevent the use of their workforce by the Allies.[91] [90] Ziereis' plan assumed rushing all the prisoners into the tunnels of the underground factories of Kellerbau and blowing up the entrances.[92][93] The plan was known to one of the Polish resistance organizations which started an ambitious plan of gathering tools necessary to dig air vents in the entrances.[93]
On 28 April, under cover of a fictional air-raid alarm, some 22,000 prisoners of Gusen were rushed into the tunnels.[94] However, after several hours in the tunnels all of the prisoners were allowed to return to the camp.[94] Stanisław Dobosiewicz, the author of a monumental monograph of Mauthausen and its subcamps, explains that one of the possible causes of the failure of the German plan was that the Polish prisoners managed to cut the fuse wires. Ziereis himself stated in his testimony written on 25 May that it was his wife who convinced him not to follow the order from above.[95] Although the plan was abandoned, the prisoners feared that the SS might want to massacre the prisoners by other means, and the Polish, Soviet and French prisoners prepared a plan for an assault on the barracks of the SS guards in order to seize the arms necessary to put up a fight. A similar plan was also devised by the Spanish inmates.[95]
On 3 May the SS and other guards started to prepare for evacuation of the camp. The following day, the guards of Mauthausen were replaced with unarmed Volkssturm soldiers and an improvised unit formed of elderly police officers and fire fighters evacuated from Vienna. The police officer in charge of the unit accepted the "inmate self-government" as the camp's highest authority and Martin Gerken, until then the highest-ranking kapo prisoner in the Gusen's administration (in the rank of Lagerälteste, or the Camp's Elder), became the new de facto commander. He attempted to create an International Prisoner Committee that would become a provisional governing body of the camp until it was liberated by one of the approaching armies, but he was openly accused of co-operation with the SS and the plan failed. All work in the subcamps of Mauthausen stopped and the inmates focused on preparations for their liberation – or defence of the camps against a possible assault by the SS divisions concentrated in the area.[95] The remnants of several German divisions indeed assaulted the Mauthausen subcamp, but were repelled by the prisoners who took over the camp.[14] Of the main subcamps of Mauthausen, only Gusen III was to be evacuated. On 1 May the inmates were rushed on a death march towards Sankt Georgen, but were ordered to return to the camp after several hours. The operation was repeated the following day, but called off soon afterwards. The following day, the SS guards deserted the camp, leaving the prisoners to their fate.[95]
On 5 May 1945 the camp at Mauthausen was approached by a squad of US Army Soldiers of the 41st Reconnaissance Squadron of the US 11th Armored Division, 3rd US Army. The reconnaissance squad was led by Staff Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek.[96] His troop disarmed the policemen and left the camp. By the time of its liberation, most of the SS-men of Mauthausen had already fled; around 30 who were remained were killed by the prisoners,[97] and a similar number were killed in Gusen II.[97] By 6 May all the remaining subcamps of Mauthausen, with the exception of the two camps in the Loibl Pass, were also liberated by American forces.[citation needed]
Among the inmates liberated from the camp was Lieutenant Jack Taylor, an officer of the Office of Strategic Services.[98][99] He had managed to survive with the help of several prisoners and was later a key witness at the Mauthausen–Gusen camp trials carried out by the Dachau International Military Tribunal.[100] Another of the camp's survivors was Simon Wiesenthal, an engineer who spent the rest of his life hunting Nazi war criminals. Future Medal of Honor recipient Tibor "Ted" Rubin was imprisoned there as a young teenager; a Hungarian Jew, he vowed to join the US Army upon his liberation and later did just that, distinguishing himself in the Korean War as a corporal in the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.[101]
Following the capitulation of Germany, Mauthausen fell within the Soviet sector of occupation of Austria. Initially, the Soviet authorities used parts of the Mauthausen and Gusen I camps as barracks for the Red Army. At the same time, the underground factories were being dismantled and sent to the USSR as a war booty. After that, between 1946 and 1947, the camps were unguarded and many furnishings and facilities of the camp were dismantled, both by the Red Army and by the local population. In the early summer of 1947, the Soviet forces had blown up the tunnels and were then withdrawn from the area, while the camp was turned over to Austrian civilian authorities.[citation needed]
Memorials
Mauthausen was declared a national memorial site in 1949. Bruno Kreisky, the Chancellor of Austria, officially opened the Mauthausen Museum on 3 May 1975, 30 years after the camp's liberation.[2] A visitor centre was inaugurated in 2003, designed by the architects Herwig Mayer, Christoph Schwarz, and Karl Peyrer-Heimstätt, covering an area of 2,845 square metres (30,620 sq ft).[102]
The Mauthausen site remains largely intact, but much of what constituted the subcamps of Gusen I, II and III is now covered by residential areas built after the war.[103] In 2016, a number of prominent Poles including Shevah Weiss and the Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich, sent a letter of protest to Ministry of Internal Affairs of Austria. [104] [105]
Documentaries
Mauthausen–Gusen: La memòria (2009) (in Valencian) by Rosa Brines. An 18-minute documentary about the republican Spaniards deported to Mauthausen and Gusen. It includes testimonies from survivors.
We visited Mereworth at some point last year. It was locked, and the notice suggested it might not reopen. Of course, things seemed very black at times in the last two years. So, I had low expectations that St Lawrence would be open. I didn't even take my cameras, instead walked to the door under the portico to see if it was open.
Not only was it open, there was a sign confirming it was open. And inside, a gentleman was sitting and reading in peace and quiet, a flask of coffee beside him.
I apologised for breaking the silence, and said I was going to get my camera. I also could not miss the fact, the steps to the gallery were leading to doors above that were open.
A rare treat.
Upon returning, the strong sunlight had returned from a cloud, and the glass in the east windows were not just bright with colour, but dazzling.
It is over a decade since we first saw the Italianate spire of St Lawrence, looking very out of place in the Weald. We stop that day, but it was locked, but I made sure we visited at the next Heritage weekend a few months later.
My shots were poor: overuse of the ultra-wide angle, so I have wanted to return for some time, but the two visits since I have found it locked.
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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth
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MEREWORTH.
EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.
THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.
Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.
Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.
In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.
Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)
The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.
The manors of Mereworth and Swanton, with others in this neighbourhood, were antiently bound to contribute towards the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge. (fn. 2)
THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.
In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.
This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.
In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.
Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)
William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.
Roger de Mereworth, in the 18th year of king Edward I. obtained the grant of a fair at his manor of Mereworth, to be held there on the feast day of St. Laurence, and likewise for free-warren in the same, and in Eldehaye, &c.
John de Mereworth held this manor in the beginning of the reign of king Edward II. and in the 15th and 16th years of the next reign of king Edward III. he was sheriff, and resided at Mereworth-castle. His son, of the same name, died in the 44th year of it, without issue, on which John de Malmains, of Malmains, in Pluckley, was found to be his heir; and he, in the 46th year of the same reign, alienated his interest in it to Nicholas, son of Sir John de Brembre, who bore for his arms, Argent, three annulets sable, on a canton of the second, a mullet of the first.
Nicholas de Brembre was a citizen and grocer of London, and was lord mayor in the 1st year of king Richard II. in the 5th year of which reign he was knighted for his good services against that rebel Wat Tyler, in the 6th parliament of it, he represented the city of London in it; but at length becoming obnoxious to the prevailing party of that time, he was attainted of high treason in the 10th year of that reign, and was afterwards beheaded, (fn. 4) and his body buried in the Grey Friars church, now Christ church, in London. His estate being thus forfeited to the crown, king Richard, in his 13th year, granted this manor to John Hermenstorpe, who shortly afterwards passed it away to Richard Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, lord treasurer and admiral of England, whose son, Thomas Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, dying without issue in the 4th year of king Henry V. anno 1415, his four sisters became his coheirs, and on the division of their inheritance, the manor of Mereworth became the property of Joane, lady Abergavenny, the second sister, who had married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and she died possessed of it in the 13th year of king Henry VI. (fn. 5) After which it appears to have been vested in Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of her son, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, who afterwards married Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who had possession granted of the lands of his wife's inheritance, and was afterwards, in the 29th year of Henry VI. summoned to parliament by the title of lord Bergavenny. He survived her, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, of the inheritance of Elizabeth his first wife before-mentioned, of the manor of Mereworth.
From him it descended to his great grandson, Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, who died in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, (fn. 6) when by inquisition he was found to die possessed, among other premises, of this manor with the advowson of the church of Mereworth, and the manor and farm of Oldhaie, alias Holehaie, in this parish, and that Mary, his daughter, was his sole heir, who had been married in the 17th year of that reign, to Sir Thomas Fane.
The family of Fane, (fn. 7) alias Vane, are of antient Welsh extraction, and for many generations wrote themselves solely Vane. They were first seated in this county in the reign of king Henry VI. when Henry Vane became possessed of Hilden, in Tunbridge, and resided there. He left three sons, the eldest of whom, John, was of Tunbridge; Thomas left a son Humphry; and Henry, the third son, was father of Sir Ralph Vane, who was attainted in the 4th year of king Edward VI.
John Vane, alias Fane, esq. of Tunbridge, the eldest son, had four sons; the eldest of whom Henry, was of Hadlow, but died s. p. Richard was ancestor of the Fanes, of Badsell, in Tudeley, the earls of Westmoreland, the viscounts Fane of Ireland, and the Fanes of Mereworth and Burston. Thomas, was of London, and John, the fourth son, was of Had low, and was ancestor of the two Sir Henry Vanes, whose descendant is the present earl of Darlington, as were the late viscounts Vane, and the Fanes, late of Winchelsea, in Sussex.
John Fane, esq. the father, dying in 1488, anno 4 king Henry VII. was buried in Tunbridge church. whose son Richard, heir to his elder brother Henry, married Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Stidolfe, esq. of Badsell, where he afterwards resided, as did his son George Fane, and grandson of the same name, the latter of whom was sheriff, anno 4 and 5 of Philip and Mary, and died in 1571, leaving two sons of the name of Thomas, the eldest of whom will be mentioned hereafter, and the youngest was seated at Burston, in Hunton, where a further account may be seen of him.
Thomas Fane, the eldest son and heir, having engaged in the rebellion raised by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in the first year of queen Mary, was attainted, and a warrant issued for his execution, but the queen having compassion on his youth, pardoned him, and he was soon afterwards restored to his liberty and estate. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, of Bedgbury, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, to lady Mary, sole daughter and heir of Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, by his wife Frances, daughter to Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland, and in her right possessed this manor of Mereworth, &c. as has been already mentioned.
Sir Thomas Fane, for he had been knighted the year before his last marriage, in the queen's presence, by the earl of Leicester, after this resided at times, both at Mereworth castle and at Badsell, of which latter place he wrote himself. He died in the 31st year of queen Elizabeth, and was buried at Tudely, whence his body was afterwards removed to Mereworth church. He left by the lady Mary, his wife, who survived him, Francis, his heir, and George, who succeeded to this manor and estate at Mereworth, after his mother's death, and who was made heir to his uncle, Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston.
Lady Mary Fane, on the death of her father, Henry, lord Abergavenny, had challenged the title of baroness of Bergavenny, against Edward Nevill, son of Sir Edward Nevill, a younger brother of George, lord Bergavenny, father of Henry, lord Bergavenny, before-mentioned, on which Sir Edward Nevill, the castle of Bergavenny had been settled both by testament and act of parliament.
This claim was not determined until after Sir Thomas Fane's death, in the first year of king James I. when after great argument used on both sides, the title of baron of Bergavenny, was both by judgment of the house of peers, and order of the lords commissioners for the office of earl marshal, decreed for the heir male, and to give some satisfaction to the heir female, the king, by his letters patent dated as before-mentioned, granted and restored to her and her heirs, the dignity of baroness le Despencer, (fn. 8) with the antient seat, place, and precedency of her ancestors.
The lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, survived her husband many years, and died at Mereworthcastle, in 1626, and was buried in Mereworth church, leaving her two sons, Francis and George, surviving. The eldest of whom Francis, in 1623, was created baron Burghersh, and earl of Westmoreland. He died in 1628, having had by Mary his wife, daughter and sole heir of Sir Anthony Mildmay, of Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, several sons and daughters, of the former, Mildmay was the eldest, who succeeded him in titles; Francis was afterwards knighted; and Henry was ancestor to the viscounts Fane.
Mildmay, the eldest son, earl of Westmoreland, dying in 1665, was buried at Apethorp. He left by his first wife Grace, daughter of Sir William Thorn hurst, one son Charles, who succeeded him in honors and estate, and by his second wife Mary, second daughter and coheir of Horace, lord Vere, of Tilbury, widow of Sir Roger Townsend, bart. of Rainham, in Norfolk, one son, Vere Fane.
Charles, earl of Westmoreland, was twice married, but dying without issue in 1691, was succeeded by his half-brother Sir Vere Fane, K.B. above-mentioned, who was M. P. for this county in 1678, and in 1692 joint lord-lieutenant with Henry, lord viscount Sidney. He died next year, leaving by Rachael his wife, only daughter and heir of John Bunce, esq. alderman of London, several sons and daughters, of the former, Vere, succeeded him in titles and estate, and died unmarried in 1699. Thomas, the second son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and died without issue; and John, the third son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and Mildmay, was the fourth son, both of whom will be further mentioned.
Of the daughters, Mary married Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of London, father of the late lord le Despencer; Catherine married William Paul, esq. of Berkshire, whose only daughter and heir, Catherine, married Sir William Stapleton, bart. father of Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. lately deceased, and Susan died unmarried.
But to return to George Fane, the second son of the lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, by her husband, Sir Thomas Fane. He was knighted at the coronation of king James I. in the 18th year of which reign he was chosen M. P. for this county, and on his mother's death in 1626, he succeeded to the manor of Mereworth, with the castle, advowson, and other estates in this parish; and on the death of Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston, his uncle, in 1606, succeeded by his will to his seat at Burston, and the rest of his estates.
Sir George Fane resided afterwards at Burston, where he died in 1640, being succeeded in this manor and estate by his eldest son, Thomas Fane, esq. of Burston, who was a colonel in the army. He died unmarried at Burston in 1692, and was buried near his father in Hunton church, leaving the manor and castle of Mereworth, with the advowson of this church, his seat at Burston, and all other his estates in this county, to Mildmay Fane, the youngest son of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, by Rachael, his wife, daughter of John Bunce, esq.
Mildmay Fane, esq. resided at Mereworth-castle, and in 1715 was chosen M. P. for this county. He died unmarried that year, and was succeeded in this manor and castle, as well as in his other estates, by Thomas, earl of Westmoreland, his eldest surviving brother, who was chief justice in eyre, south of Trent, and of the privy council to king George I. This earl intending to reside at Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, procured an act in the 5th year of that reign, to sell this manor, as well as all the rest of his Kentish estates, but changing his mind, no sale was made of any of them, and he afterwards resided at Mereworth castle, where he died s. p. in 1736, and was buried at Apethorp, so that his honours and estates descended to John, his younger and only surviving brother, who became the 7th earl of Westmoreland, and following a military life in his early youth, at length arrived at the rank of lieutenant general. On the death of his younger brother, Mildmay Fane, he was in 1715 chosen in his room M. P. for this county; and in 1733 was created a peer of Ireland, by the title of baron of Catherlough, and in 1737 he was appointed lordlieutenant of Northamptonshire. He retired to Mereworth castle soon after the death of earl Thomas, which seat he rebuilt, as well as the church of Mereworth, in an elegant manner, and continued adding to the improvements and grandeur of this place till the time of his death, insomuch, that it may now be justly esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of this county.
The earl was high steward, and afterwards chancellor of the university of Oxford, in which last high and honorable office he was installed there, on July 3, 1759, with the greatest solemnity, and with a magnificence and splendor unknown at any former installation. He married Mary, only daughter and heir of the lord Henry Cavendish, but dying in 1762, s. p. he by his will devised this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, to his nephew Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. son of Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of West Peckham, by his sister the lady Mary, eldest daughter of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, and to the heirs of his body, with remainder to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. his great nephew, viz. son of Sir William Stapleton, bart. by Catherine, daughter and heir of William Paul, of Bromwich, in Oxfordshire, by his sister Catherine, younger daughter of the said Vere, earl of Westmoreland.
On the death of John, earl of Westmoreland, without issue, his Irish peerage became extinct, but the barony of le Despencer being a barony in fee to heirs general, was confirmed to Sir Francis Dashwood, bart his sister's son; and the titles of baron Burghersh and earl of Westmoreland went to Thomas Fane, of Bristol, merchant, the next heir male descendant of Sir Francis Fane, second surviving son of Francis, first earl of Westmoreland. The earls of Westmoreland bore for their arms, Azure, three right hand gauntlets with their backs affrontee, or. And for their crest, Out of a ducal coronet or, a bull's head argent, pyed sable, armed or, and charged on the neck with a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper; being the antient crest of Nevill.
Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. was descended from Samuel Dashwood, esq. of Rowney, near Taunton, who by his first wife had John, ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Essex and Suffolk; Francis, of whom hereafter; Richard and William, of Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, who fined for alderman of London. By his second wife he had George, ancestor to the Dashwoods, of Oxford, baronets.
Francis Dashwood, the second son, was a Turkey merchant, and an alderman of London, who bore for his arms, Argent, on a fess double cotized gules, three griffins heads erased, or, granted to him in 1662, by Byshe, clarencieux. He died in 1683, leaving several children, the eldest of whom Samuel was knighted, and was lord-mayor of London in 1702, and was ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Well, in Lincolnshire; Francis the youngest was knighted and created a baronet in 1707, whose second wife was the lady Mary, eldest sister of John, earl of Westmoreland, who died in 1710, and lies buried in West Wycomb church, in Bucking hamshire, where an elegant monument is erected to her memory; by whom he had an only son, Francis, and a daughter, Rachael, married in 1738 to Sir Robert Austen, bart. of Bexley, in this county. Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. the son, was of West Wycomb, and on the decease of John, earl of Westmoreland, succeeded by his will to this manor and house of Mereworth, as well as the rest of his estates in this county, to whom the king on April 19, 1763, confirmed to him, in right of the lady Mary, his mother, the premier barony of Le Despencer, the same being a barony in fee descendible to the heirs general.
He married the daughter of Henry Gould, esq. of Iver, in Buckinghamshire, by whom he had no issue, and died in 1760, being a privy-counsellor and lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, upon which this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, went, by the will of John, earl of Westmoreland, as mentioned before, to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. of Grays, in Oxfordshire, (son of Sir Thomas Stapleton, the earl's great nephew who had deceased in 1781) who on the death of Rachael, sister of the late lord le Despencer, widow of Sir Robert Austen, bart. before mentioned, in 1788, s. p. succeeded to the title likewise of lord le Despencer, and he is the present proprietor of this elegant seat, now called Mereworth, or more commonly Merrud house, the manor and the advowson of this church.
He married Elizabeth, second daughter of S. Eliot, esq. of Antigua, by whom he has a son and daughter, He bears for his arms, Argent, a lion rampant gules, for Stapleton, quartered with the arms of Fane; and for his supporters, those of the earls of Westmoreland, the dexter a griffin, the sinister a bull, both collared and chained; crest, a Saracen's head.
YOKES-PLACE, formerly called Fotes-place, is a seat in this parish, the scite of which, in the reign of king Henry III. was in the possession of Fulco de Sharstede, who then held it as the third part of a knight's fee, of the earl of Gloucester, (fn. 9) and his descendant, Simon de Sharsted died possessed of it in the 25th year of king Edward I. After which it became the property of the family of Leyborne; and in the reign of king Edward III. it was come into the possession of William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, in right of his wife, Juliana de Leyborne, the heiress of that family, and he, in the 20th year of that reign paid aid for it. His wife survived him, and again possessed this estate in her own right, and died possessed of it in the 41st year of that reign, without issue.
On her death, this estate, among the rest of her possessions, escheated to the crown for want of heirs. Soon after which, it seems to have come into the possession of a family, who implanted their name on it, and were written in several old dateless deeds, Feotes, and by contraction were called Fotes. But this name was extinct here before the end of the reign of king Richard II. when it appears to have been in the possession of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, from whom it descended in like manner, as Mereworth manor, to Joane his daughter, coheir to Thomas, earl of Arundel, her brother, who married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and their son, Richard, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, leaving an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, she carried Jotes-place in marriage to Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who was summoned to parliament as lord Bergavenny, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, in right of Elizabeth his wife, of this estate, as well as of Mereworth manor. His son Sir George Nevill, lord Bergavenny, died possessed of it in the 7th year of king Henry VII. anno 1491, leaving several sons and daughters, of whom George, the eldest son, succeeded him as lord Abergavenny, in this estate, and in the manor of Mereworth; William was the second son; Edward was the third, whose descendants succeeded in process of time to the barony of Abergavenny, and Sir Thomas Nevill was the fourth son, to whom his father bequeathed Jotes-place, with the estate belonging to it. (fn. 10) He was of the privycouncil to king Henry VIII. and secretary of state, and dying in 1542, was buried in Mereworth church. His only daughter and heir, Margaret, married Sir Robert Southwell, master of the rolls, &c. who in her right became possessed of Jotes place, where he resided. (fn. 11) But in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. anno 1543, he alienated it, with other estates in this parish and West Peckham, to Sir Edward Walsingham, of Scadbury, in this county, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of the reign of king Charles I. when Sir Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, conveyed Yokes-place, as it came now to be called, with the other estates before-mentioned, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master, son of Mr. Nathaniel Master, merchant, of London, whose widow he had married, being the second son of James Master, esq. of East Langdon. Mr. James Master resided here, where he died in 1689, and was buried in Mereworth church. He left three sons and two daughters, James his heir; Streynsham, of Holton, in Oxfordshire, and Richard. The daughters were, Frances, who died without issue, and Martha, who married Lionel Daniel, esq. of Surry, by whom she had William, his heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married to George, late lord viscount Torrington.
James Master, esq. the eldest son, resided at Yokesplace, and was sheriff in 1725. He died in 1728 unmarried, and gave by his will this seat, with the rest of his estates, to his youngest brother, Richard Master, who likewise resided at Yokes, where he died unmarried in 1767, and by his will devised it, with all his other possessions, to his nephew, William Daniel, esq. of Surry, son of his sister Martha, enjoining him to take the arms and surname of Master; accordingly he bore for his arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Master; azure, a fess crenelle between three griffins heads erased or; second and third, Daniel, argent, a pale fuslly sable.
William Daniel Master, esq. resided at Yokesplace, where he kept his shrievalty in the year 1771, having almost rebuilt this seat, and laid out the adjoining grounds in a modern and elegant taste. He married Frances-Isabella, daughter of Thomas Dalyson, esq. of West Peckham. He died. s. p. in 1792, and left Mrs. Master still surviving him.
SWANTON-COURT is a manor in this parish, the mansion of which, situated about half a mile westward from Yokes, place, is now only a mean cottage. In the reign of king Henry III. Richard de Swanton held it, as half a knight's fee, of John de Belleacre, as he did of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 12) In the 10th year of king Edward III. it was become the property of Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of Wm. de Burgh, earl of Ulster, who by her husband Lionel, duke of Clarence, left an only daughter, Philippa, whose husband, Edward Mortimer, earl of March, had possession granted to him of this manor, among other lands of her inheritance.
Soon after which, this manor came into the possession of that branch of the family of Colepeper, seated at Oxenhoath, in the adjoining parish of West Peckham; in which it remained till Sir John Colepeper, one of the justices of the common pleas, gave it, with other lands in this neighbourhood, in the 10th year of king Henry IV. anno 1408, to the knights hospitallers of St. John, of Jerusalem, who founded a preceptory on that part of these lands, which lay in West Peckham.
This manor continued part of their possessions till the general dissolution of their order in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by an act then especially passed for that purpose; and all the lands and revenues of it were given by it to the king and his heirs for ever. The next year the king granted the manor of Swanton to Sir Robert Southwell, who in the 35th year of that reign, alienated it to Sir Edmund Walsingham, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign, when Sir Thomas Walsingham alienated it, with Yokes-place and other estates in this neighbourhood, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master; since which it has descended, in like manner as Yokes, to William Daniel Master, esq. who died possessed of it s. p. in 1792, and by his will de vised it to George Bing, lord viscount Torrington, the present possessor of it.
FOWKES is a manor in this parish, formerly esteemed as an appendage to the manor of Watringbury, under which a further account of it may be seen. It belonged to the abbey of St. Mary Grace, near the Tower, London, and after the dissolution in the reign of king Henry VIII. passed through several owners till the reign of king James I. when it was alienated to Oliver Style, esq. in whose descendants it has continued till this time, the present inheritance of it being vested in Sir Charles Style, bart. of Watringbury.
BARONS-PLACE is a capital messuage in Mereworth, which, with the estate belonging to it, was part of the possessions of Sir Nicholas Pelham, of Cattsfieldplace, in Sussex, who alienated it to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard; after which it descended in like manner as Shipborne and Fairlawne, to William, viscount Vane, who dying in 1789, s. p. devised it by his will to David Papillon, esq. of Acrise, the present owner of it.
THE FAMILY OF BREWER resided in this parish for many generations, before they removed in the reign of king Henry VI. to Smith's hall, in West Farleigh; their seat here, being called from them, Brewer'splace.
Charities.
THE BARONESS, wife of Francis, lord Despencer, gave by will certain land, the yearly produce of it to be applied towards the purchasing of twenty gowns for twenty poor families yearly, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 20l.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the sum of 10s. per annum for the use of the poor, vested in Sir William Twysden, bart. and now of that annual produce.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the like yearly sum for the same purpose, vested in Mr. Richard Sex.
A person unknown gave certain wood land for the same use, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 15s.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave certain land for the like use, vested in the churchwardens and overseers, and of the annual produce of 3l. 10s.
MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.
In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)
The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.
In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.
Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.
It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.
¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.
The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.
We visited Mereworth at some point last year. It was locked, and the notice suggested it might not reopen. Of course, things seemed very black at times in the last two years. So, I had low expectations that St Lawrence would be open. I didn't even take my cameras, instead walked to the door under the portico to see if it was open.
Not only was it open, there was a sign confirming it was open. And inside, a gentleman was sitting and reading in peace and quiet, a flask of coffee beside him.
I apologised for breaking the silence, and said I was going to get my camera. I also could not miss the fact, the steps to the gallery were leading to doors above that were open.
A rare treat.
Upon returning, the strong sunlight had returned from a cloud, and the glass in the east windows were not just bright with colour, but dazzling.
It is over a decade since we first saw the Italianate spire of St Lawrence, looking very out of place in the Weald. We stop that day, but it was locked, but I made sure we visited at the next Heritage weekend a few months later.
My shots were poor: overuse of the ultra-wide angle, so I have wanted to return for some time, but the two visits since I have found it locked.
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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth
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MEREWORTH.
EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.
THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.
Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.
Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.
In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.
Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)
The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.
The manors of Mereworth and Swanton, with others in this neighbourhood, were antiently bound to contribute towards the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge. (fn. 2)
THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.
In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.
This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.
In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.
Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)
William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.
Roger de Mereworth, in the 18th year of king Edward I. obtained the grant of a fair at his manor of Mereworth, to be held there on the feast day of St. Laurence, and likewise for free-warren in the same, and in Eldehaye, &c.
John de Mereworth held this manor in the beginning of the reign of king Edward II. and in the 15th and 16th years of the next reign of king Edward III. he was sheriff, and resided at Mereworth-castle. His son, of the same name, died in the 44th year of it, without issue, on which John de Malmains, of Malmains, in Pluckley, was found to be his heir; and he, in the 46th year of the same reign, alienated his interest in it to Nicholas, son of Sir John de Brembre, who bore for his arms, Argent, three annulets sable, on a canton of the second, a mullet of the first.
Nicholas de Brembre was a citizen and grocer of London, and was lord mayor in the 1st year of king Richard II. in the 5th year of which reign he was knighted for his good services against that rebel Wat Tyler, in the 6th parliament of it, he represented the city of London in it; but at length becoming obnoxious to the prevailing party of that time, he was attainted of high treason in the 10th year of that reign, and was afterwards beheaded, (fn. 4) and his body buried in the Grey Friars church, now Christ church, in London. His estate being thus forfeited to the crown, king Richard, in his 13th year, granted this manor to John Hermenstorpe, who shortly afterwards passed it away to Richard Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, lord treasurer and admiral of England, whose son, Thomas Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, dying without issue in the 4th year of king Henry V. anno 1415, his four sisters became his coheirs, and on the division of their inheritance, the manor of Mereworth became the property of Joane, lady Abergavenny, the second sister, who had married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and she died possessed of it in the 13th year of king Henry VI. (fn. 5) After which it appears to have been vested in Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of her son, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, who afterwards married Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who had possession granted of the lands of his wife's inheritance, and was afterwards, in the 29th year of Henry VI. summoned to parliament by the title of lord Bergavenny. He survived her, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, of the inheritance of Elizabeth his first wife before-mentioned, of the manor of Mereworth.
From him it descended to his great grandson, Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, who died in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, (fn. 6) when by inquisition he was found to die possessed, among other premises, of this manor with the advowson of the church of Mereworth, and the manor and farm of Oldhaie, alias Holehaie, in this parish, and that Mary, his daughter, was his sole heir, who had been married in the 17th year of that reign, to Sir Thomas Fane.
The family of Fane, (fn. 7) alias Vane, are of antient Welsh extraction, and for many generations wrote themselves solely Vane. They were first seated in this county in the reign of king Henry VI. when Henry Vane became possessed of Hilden, in Tunbridge, and resided there. He left three sons, the eldest of whom, John, was of Tunbridge; Thomas left a son Humphry; and Henry, the third son, was father of Sir Ralph Vane, who was attainted in the 4th year of king Edward VI.
John Vane, alias Fane, esq. of Tunbridge, the eldest son, had four sons; the eldest of whom Henry, was of Hadlow, but died s. p. Richard was ancestor of the Fanes, of Badsell, in Tudeley, the earls of Westmoreland, the viscounts Fane of Ireland, and the Fanes of Mereworth and Burston. Thomas, was of London, and John, the fourth son, was of Had low, and was ancestor of the two Sir Henry Vanes, whose descendant is the present earl of Darlington, as were the late viscounts Vane, and the Fanes, late of Winchelsea, in Sussex.
John Fane, esq. the father, dying in 1488, anno 4 king Henry VII. was buried in Tunbridge church. whose son Richard, heir to his elder brother Henry, married Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Stidolfe, esq. of Badsell, where he afterwards resided, as did his son George Fane, and grandson of the same name, the latter of whom was sheriff, anno 4 and 5 of Philip and Mary, and died in 1571, leaving two sons of the name of Thomas, the eldest of whom will be mentioned hereafter, and the youngest was seated at Burston, in Hunton, where a further account may be seen of him.
Thomas Fane, the eldest son and heir, having engaged in the rebellion raised by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in the first year of queen Mary, was attainted, and a warrant issued for his execution, but the queen having compassion on his youth, pardoned him, and he was soon afterwards restored to his liberty and estate. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, of Bedgbury, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, to lady Mary, sole daughter and heir of Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, by his wife Frances, daughter to Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland, and in her right possessed this manor of Mereworth, &c. as has been already mentioned.
Sir Thomas Fane, for he had been knighted the year before his last marriage, in the queen's presence, by the earl of Leicester, after this resided at times, both at Mereworth castle and at Badsell, of which latter place he wrote himself. He died in the 31st year of queen Elizabeth, and was buried at Tudely, whence his body was afterwards removed to Mereworth church. He left by the lady Mary, his wife, who survived him, Francis, his heir, and George, who succeeded to this manor and estate at Mereworth, after his mother's death, and who was made heir to his uncle, Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston.
Lady Mary Fane, on the death of her father, Henry, lord Abergavenny, had challenged the title of baroness of Bergavenny, against Edward Nevill, son of Sir Edward Nevill, a younger brother of George, lord Bergavenny, father of Henry, lord Bergavenny, before-mentioned, on which Sir Edward Nevill, the castle of Bergavenny had been settled both by testament and act of parliament.
This claim was not determined until after Sir Thomas Fane's death, in the first year of king James I. when after great argument used on both sides, the title of baron of Bergavenny, was both by judgment of the house of peers, and order of the lords commissioners for the office of earl marshal, decreed for the heir male, and to give some satisfaction to the heir female, the king, by his letters patent dated as before-mentioned, granted and restored to her and her heirs, the dignity of baroness le Despencer, (fn. 8) with the antient seat, place, and precedency of her ancestors.
The lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, survived her husband many years, and died at Mereworthcastle, in 1626, and was buried in Mereworth church, leaving her two sons, Francis and George, surviving. The eldest of whom Francis, in 1623, was created baron Burghersh, and earl of Westmoreland. He died in 1628, having had by Mary his wife, daughter and sole heir of Sir Anthony Mildmay, of Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, several sons and daughters, of the former, Mildmay was the eldest, who succeeded him in titles; Francis was afterwards knighted; and Henry was ancestor to the viscounts Fane.
Mildmay, the eldest son, earl of Westmoreland, dying in 1665, was buried at Apethorp. He left by his first wife Grace, daughter of Sir William Thorn hurst, one son Charles, who succeeded him in honors and estate, and by his second wife Mary, second daughter and coheir of Horace, lord Vere, of Tilbury, widow of Sir Roger Townsend, bart. of Rainham, in Norfolk, one son, Vere Fane.
Charles, earl of Westmoreland, was twice married, but dying without issue in 1691, was succeeded by his half-brother Sir Vere Fane, K.B. above-mentioned, who was M. P. for this county in 1678, and in 1692 joint lord-lieutenant with Henry, lord viscount Sidney. He died next year, leaving by Rachael his wife, only daughter and heir of John Bunce, esq. alderman of London, several sons and daughters, of the former, Vere, succeeded him in titles and estate, and died unmarried in 1699. Thomas, the second son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and died without issue; and John, the third son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and Mildmay, was the fourth son, both of whom will be further mentioned.
Of the daughters, Mary married Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of London, father of the late lord le Despencer; Catherine married William Paul, esq. of Berkshire, whose only daughter and heir, Catherine, married Sir William Stapleton, bart. father of Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. lately deceased, and Susan died unmarried.
But to return to George Fane, the second son of the lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, by her husband, Sir Thomas Fane. He was knighted at the coronation of king James I. in the 18th year of which reign he was chosen M. P. for this county, and on his mother's death in 1626, he succeeded to the manor of Mereworth, with the castle, advowson, and other estates in this parish; and on the death of Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston, his uncle, in 1606, succeeded by his will to his seat at Burston, and the rest of his estates.
Sir George Fane resided afterwards at Burston, where he died in 1640, being succeeded in this manor and estate by his eldest son, Thomas Fane, esq. of Burston, who was a colonel in the army. He died unmarried at Burston in 1692, and was buried near his father in Hunton church, leaving the manor and castle of Mereworth, with the advowson of this church, his seat at Burston, and all other his estates in this county, to Mildmay Fane, the youngest son of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, by Rachael, his wife, daughter of John Bunce, esq.
Mildmay Fane, esq. resided at Mereworth-castle, and in 1715 was chosen M. P. for this county. He died unmarried that year, and was succeeded in this manor and castle, as well as in his other estates, by Thomas, earl of Westmoreland, his eldest surviving brother, who was chief justice in eyre, south of Trent, and of the privy council to king George I. This earl intending to reside at Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, procured an act in the 5th year of that reign, to sell this manor, as well as all the rest of his Kentish estates, but changing his mind, no sale was made of any of them, and he afterwards resided at Mereworth castle, where he died s. p. in 1736, and was buried at Apethorp, so that his honours and estates descended to John, his younger and only surviving brother, who became the 7th earl of Westmoreland, and following a military life in his early youth, at length arrived at the rank of lieutenant general. On the death of his younger brother, Mildmay Fane, he was in 1715 chosen in his room M. P. for this county; and in 1733 was created a peer of Ireland, by the title of baron of Catherlough, and in 1737 he was appointed lordlieutenant of Northamptonshire. He retired to Mereworth castle soon after the death of earl Thomas, which seat he rebuilt, as well as the church of Mereworth, in an elegant manner, and continued adding to the improvements and grandeur of this place till the time of his death, insomuch, that it may now be justly esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of this county.
The earl was high steward, and afterwards chancellor of the university of Oxford, in which last high and honorable office he was installed there, on July 3, 1759, with the greatest solemnity, and with a magnificence and splendor unknown at any former installation. He married Mary, only daughter and heir of the lord Henry Cavendish, but dying in 1762, s. p. he by his will devised this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, to his nephew Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. son of Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of West Peckham, by his sister the lady Mary, eldest daughter of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, and to the heirs of his body, with remainder to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. his great nephew, viz. son of Sir William Stapleton, bart. by Catherine, daughter and heir of William Paul, of Bromwich, in Oxfordshire, by his sister Catherine, younger daughter of the said Vere, earl of Westmoreland.
On the death of John, earl of Westmoreland, without issue, his Irish peerage became extinct, but the barony of le Despencer being a barony in fee to heirs general, was confirmed to Sir Francis Dashwood, bart his sister's son; and the titles of baron Burghersh and earl of Westmoreland went to Thomas Fane, of Bristol, merchant, the next heir male descendant of Sir Francis Fane, second surviving son of Francis, first earl of Westmoreland. The earls of Westmoreland bore for their arms, Azure, three right hand gauntlets with their backs affrontee, or. And for their crest, Out of a ducal coronet or, a bull's head argent, pyed sable, armed or, and charged on the neck with a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper; being the antient crest of Nevill.
Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. was descended from Samuel Dashwood, esq. of Rowney, near Taunton, who by his first wife had John, ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Essex and Suffolk; Francis, of whom hereafter; Richard and William, of Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, who fined for alderman of London. By his second wife he had George, ancestor to the Dashwoods, of Oxford, baronets.
Francis Dashwood, the second son, was a Turkey merchant, and an alderman of London, who bore for his arms, Argent, on a fess double cotized gules, three griffins heads erased, or, granted to him in 1662, by Byshe, clarencieux. He died in 1683, leaving several children, the eldest of whom Samuel was knighted, and was lord-mayor of London in 1702, and was ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Well, in Lincolnshire; Francis the youngest was knighted and created a baronet in 1707, whose second wife was the lady Mary, eldest sister of John, earl of Westmoreland, who died in 1710, and lies buried in West Wycomb church, in Bucking hamshire, where an elegant monument is erected to her memory; by whom he had an only son, Francis, and a daughter, Rachael, married in 1738 to Sir Robert Austen, bart. of Bexley, in this county. Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. the son, was of West Wycomb, and on the decease of John, earl of Westmoreland, succeeded by his will to this manor and house of Mereworth, as well as the rest of his estates in this county, to whom the king on April 19, 1763, confirmed to him, in right of the lady Mary, his mother, the premier barony of Le Despencer, the same being a barony in fee descendible to the heirs general.
He married the daughter of Henry Gould, esq. of Iver, in Buckinghamshire, by whom he had no issue, and died in 1760, being a privy-counsellor and lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, upon which this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, went, by the will of John, earl of Westmoreland, as mentioned before, to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. of Grays, in Oxfordshire, (son of Sir Thomas Stapleton, the earl's great nephew who had deceased in 1781) who on the death of Rachael, sister of the late lord le Despencer, widow of Sir Robert Austen, bart. before mentioned, in 1788, s. p. succeeded to the title likewise of lord le Despencer, and he is the present proprietor of this elegant seat, now called Mereworth, or more commonly Merrud house, the manor and the advowson of this church.
He married Elizabeth, second daughter of S. Eliot, esq. of Antigua, by whom he has a son and daughter, He bears for his arms, Argent, a lion rampant gules, for Stapleton, quartered with the arms of Fane; and for his supporters, those of the earls of Westmoreland, the dexter a griffin, the sinister a bull, both collared and chained; crest, a Saracen's head.
YOKES-PLACE, formerly called Fotes-place, is a seat in this parish, the scite of which, in the reign of king Henry III. was in the possession of Fulco de Sharstede, who then held it as the third part of a knight's fee, of the earl of Gloucester, (fn. 9) and his descendant, Simon de Sharsted died possessed of it in the 25th year of king Edward I. After which it became the property of the family of Leyborne; and in the reign of king Edward III. it was come into the possession of William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, in right of his wife, Juliana de Leyborne, the heiress of that family, and he, in the 20th year of that reign paid aid for it. His wife survived him, and again possessed this estate in her own right, and died possessed of it in the 41st year of that reign, without issue.
On her death, this estate, among the rest of her possessions, escheated to the crown for want of heirs. Soon after which, it seems to have come into the possession of a family, who implanted their name on it, and were written in several old dateless deeds, Feotes, and by contraction were called Fotes. But this name was extinct here before the end of the reign of king Richard II. when it appears to have been in the possession of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, from whom it descended in like manner, as Mereworth manor, to Joane his daughter, coheir to Thomas, earl of Arundel, her brother, who married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and their son, Richard, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, leaving an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, she carried Jotes-place in marriage to Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who was summoned to parliament as lord Bergavenny, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, in right of Elizabeth his wife, of this estate, as well as of Mereworth manor. His son Sir George Nevill, lord Bergavenny, died possessed of it in the 7th year of king Henry VII. anno 1491, leaving several sons and daughters, of whom George, the eldest son, succeeded him as lord Abergavenny, in this estate, and in the manor of Mereworth; William was the second son; Edward was the third, whose descendants succeeded in process of time to the barony of Abergavenny, and Sir Thomas Nevill was the fourth son, to whom his father bequeathed Jotes-place, with the estate belonging to it. (fn. 10) He was of the privycouncil to king Henry VIII. and secretary of state, and dying in 1542, was buried in Mereworth church. His only daughter and heir, Margaret, married Sir Robert Southwell, master of the rolls, &c. who in her right became possessed of Jotes place, where he resided. (fn. 11) But in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. anno 1543, he alienated it, with other estates in this parish and West Peckham, to Sir Edward Walsingham, of Scadbury, in this county, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of the reign of king Charles I. when Sir Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, conveyed Yokes-place, as it came now to be called, with the other estates before-mentioned, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master, son of Mr. Nathaniel Master, merchant, of London, whose widow he had married, being the second son of James Master, esq. of East Langdon. Mr. James Master resided here, where he died in 1689, and was buried in Mereworth church. He left three sons and two daughters, James his heir; Streynsham, of Holton, in Oxfordshire, and Richard. The daughters were, Frances, who died without issue, and Martha, who married Lionel Daniel, esq. of Surry, by whom she had William, his heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married to George, late lord viscount Torrington.
James Master, esq. the eldest son, resided at Yokesplace, and was sheriff in 1725. He died in 1728 unmarried, and gave by his will this seat, with the rest of his estates, to his youngest brother, Richard Master, who likewise resided at Yokes, where he died unmarried in 1767, and by his will devised it, with all his other possessions, to his nephew, William Daniel, esq. of Surry, son of his sister Martha, enjoining him to take the arms and surname of Master; accordingly he bore for his arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Master; azure, a fess crenelle between three griffins heads erased or; second and third, Daniel, argent, a pale fuslly sable.
William Daniel Master, esq. resided at Yokesplace, where he kept his shrievalty in the year 1771, having almost rebuilt this seat, and laid out the adjoining grounds in a modern and elegant taste. He married Frances-Isabella, daughter of Thomas Dalyson, esq. of West Peckham. He died. s. p. in 1792, and left Mrs. Master still surviving him.
SWANTON-COURT is a manor in this parish, the mansion of which, situated about half a mile westward from Yokes, place, is now only a mean cottage. In the reign of king Henry III. Richard de Swanton held it, as half a knight's fee, of John de Belleacre, as he did of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 12) In the 10th year of king Edward III. it was become the property of Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of Wm. de Burgh, earl of Ulster, who by her husband Lionel, duke of Clarence, left an only daughter, Philippa, whose husband, Edward Mortimer, earl of March, had possession granted to him of this manor, among other lands of her inheritance.
Soon after which, this manor came into the possession of that branch of the family of Colepeper, seated at Oxenhoath, in the adjoining parish of West Peckham; in which it remained till Sir John Colepeper, one of the justices of the common pleas, gave it, with other lands in this neighbourhood, in the 10th year of king Henry IV. anno 1408, to the knights hospitallers of St. John, of Jerusalem, who founded a preceptory on that part of these lands, which lay in West Peckham.
This manor continued part of their possessions till the general dissolution of their order in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by an act then especially passed for that purpose; and all the lands and revenues of it were given by it to the king and his heirs for ever. The next year the king granted the manor of Swanton to Sir Robert Southwell, who in the 35th year of that reign, alienated it to Sir Edmund Walsingham, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign, when Sir Thomas Walsingham alienated it, with Yokes-place and other estates in this neighbourhood, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master; since which it has descended, in like manner as Yokes, to William Daniel Master, esq. who died possessed of it s. p. in 1792, and by his will de vised it to George Bing, lord viscount Torrington, the present possessor of it.
FOWKES is a manor in this parish, formerly esteemed as an appendage to the manor of Watringbury, under which a further account of it may be seen. It belonged to the abbey of St. Mary Grace, near the Tower, London, and after the dissolution in the reign of king Henry VIII. passed through several owners till the reign of king James I. when it was alienated to Oliver Style, esq. in whose descendants it has continued till this time, the present inheritance of it being vested in Sir Charles Style, bart. of Watringbury.
BARONS-PLACE is a capital messuage in Mereworth, which, with the estate belonging to it, was part of the possessions of Sir Nicholas Pelham, of Cattsfieldplace, in Sussex, who alienated it to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard; after which it descended in like manner as Shipborne and Fairlawne, to William, viscount Vane, who dying in 1789, s. p. devised it by his will to David Papillon, esq. of Acrise, the present owner of it.
THE FAMILY OF BREWER resided in this parish for many generations, before they removed in the reign of king Henry VI. to Smith's hall, in West Farleigh; their seat here, being called from them, Brewer'splace.
Charities.
THE BARONESS, wife of Francis, lord Despencer, gave by will certain land, the yearly produce of it to be applied towards the purchasing of twenty gowns for twenty poor families yearly, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 20l.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the sum of 10s. per annum for the use of the poor, vested in Sir William Twysden, bart. and now of that annual produce.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the like yearly sum for the same purpose, vested in Mr. Richard Sex.
A person unknown gave certain wood land for the same use, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 15s.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave certain land for the like use, vested in the churchwardens and overseers, and of the annual produce of 3l. 10s.
MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.
In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)
The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.
In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.
Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.
It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.
¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.
The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.
We visited Mereworth at some point last year. It was locked, and the notice suggested it might not reopen. Of course, things seemed very black at times in the last two years. So, I had low expectations that St Lawrence would be open. I didn't even take my cameras, instead walked to the door under the portico to see if it was open.
Not only was it open, there was a sign confirming it was open. And inside, a gentleman was sitting and reading in peace and quiet, a flask of coffee beside him.
I apologised for breaking the silence, and said I was going to get my camera. I also could not miss the fact, the steps to the gallery were leading to doors above that were open.
A rare treat.
Upon returning, the strong sunlight had returned from a cloud, and the glass in the east windows were not just bright with colour, but dazzling.
It is over a decade since we first saw the Italianate spire of St Lawrence, looking very out of place in the Weald. We stop that day, but it was locked, but I made sure we visited at the next Heritage weekend a few months later.
My shots were poor: overuse of the ultra-wide angle, so I have wanted to return for some time, but the two visits since I have found it locked.
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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth
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MEREWORTH.
EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.
THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.
Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.
Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.
In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.
Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)
The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.
The manors of Mereworth and Swanton, with others in this neighbourhood, were antiently bound to contribute towards the repair of the fifth pier of Rochester bridge. (fn. 2)
THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.
In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.
This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.
In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.
Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)
William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.
Roger de Mereworth, in the 18th year of king Edward I. obtained the grant of a fair at his manor of Mereworth, to be held there on the feast day of St. Laurence, and likewise for free-warren in the same, and in Eldehaye, &c.
John de Mereworth held this manor in the beginning of the reign of king Edward II. and in the 15th and 16th years of the next reign of king Edward III. he was sheriff, and resided at Mereworth-castle. His son, of the same name, died in the 44th year of it, without issue, on which John de Malmains, of Malmains, in Pluckley, was found to be his heir; and he, in the 46th year of the same reign, alienated his interest in it to Nicholas, son of Sir John de Brembre, who bore for his arms, Argent, three annulets sable, on a canton of the second, a mullet of the first.
Nicholas de Brembre was a citizen and grocer of London, and was lord mayor in the 1st year of king Richard II. in the 5th year of which reign he was knighted for his good services against that rebel Wat Tyler, in the 6th parliament of it, he represented the city of London in it; but at length becoming obnoxious to the prevailing party of that time, he was attainted of high treason in the 10th year of that reign, and was afterwards beheaded, (fn. 4) and his body buried in the Grey Friars church, now Christ church, in London. His estate being thus forfeited to the crown, king Richard, in his 13th year, granted this manor to John Hermenstorpe, who shortly afterwards passed it away to Richard Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, lord treasurer and admiral of England, whose son, Thomas Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, dying without issue in the 4th year of king Henry V. anno 1415, his four sisters became his coheirs, and on the division of their inheritance, the manor of Mereworth became the property of Joane, lady Abergavenny, the second sister, who had married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and she died possessed of it in the 13th year of king Henry VI. (fn. 5) After which it appears to have been vested in Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of her son, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, who afterwards married Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who had possession granted of the lands of his wife's inheritance, and was afterwards, in the 29th year of Henry VI. summoned to parliament by the title of lord Bergavenny. He survived her, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, of the inheritance of Elizabeth his first wife before-mentioned, of the manor of Mereworth.
From him it descended to his great grandson, Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, who died in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, (fn. 6) when by inquisition he was found to die possessed, among other premises, of this manor with the advowson of the church of Mereworth, and the manor and farm of Oldhaie, alias Holehaie, in this parish, and that Mary, his daughter, was his sole heir, who had been married in the 17th year of that reign, to Sir Thomas Fane.
The family of Fane, (fn. 7) alias Vane, are of antient Welsh extraction, and for many generations wrote themselves solely Vane. They were first seated in this county in the reign of king Henry VI. when Henry Vane became possessed of Hilden, in Tunbridge, and resided there. He left three sons, the eldest of whom, John, was of Tunbridge; Thomas left a son Humphry; and Henry, the third son, was father of Sir Ralph Vane, who was attainted in the 4th year of king Edward VI.
John Vane, alias Fane, esq. of Tunbridge, the eldest son, had four sons; the eldest of whom Henry, was of Hadlow, but died s. p. Richard was ancestor of the Fanes, of Badsell, in Tudeley, the earls of Westmoreland, the viscounts Fane of Ireland, and the Fanes of Mereworth and Burston. Thomas, was of London, and John, the fourth son, was of Had low, and was ancestor of the two Sir Henry Vanes, whose descendant is the present earl of Darlington, as were the late viscounts Vane, and the Fanes, late of Winchelsea, in Sussex.
John Fane, esq. the father, dying in 1488, anno 4 king Henry VII. was buried in Tunbridge church. whose son Richard, heir to his elder brother Henry, married Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Stidolfe, esq. of Badsell, where he afterwards resided, as did his son George Fane, and grandson of the same name, the latter of whom was sheriff, anno 4 and 5 of Philip and Mary, and died in 1571, leaving two sons of the name of Thomas, the eldest of whom will be mentioned hereafter, and the youngest was seated at Burston, in Hunton, where a further account may be seen of him.
Thomas Fane, the eldest son and heir, having engaged in the rebellion raised by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in the first year of queen Mary, was attainted, and a warrant issued for his execution, but the queen having compassion on his youth, pardoned him, and he was soon afterwards restored to his liberty and estate. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, of Bedgbury, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, to lady Mary, sole daughter and heir of Henry Nevill, lord Abergavenny, by his wife Frances, daughter to Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland, and in her right possessed this manor of Mereworth, &c. as has been already mentioned.
Sir Thomas Fane, for he had been knighted the year before his last marriage, in the queen's presence, by the earl of Leicester, after this resided at times, both at Mereworth castle and at Badsell, of which latter place he wrote himself. He died in the 31st year of queen Elizabeth, and was buried at Tudely, whence his body was afterwards removed to Mereworth church. He left by the lady Mary, his wife, who survived him, Francis, his heir, and George, who succeeded to this manor and estate at Mereworth, after his mother's death, and who was made heir to his uncle, Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston.
Lady Mary Fane, on the death of her father, Henry, lord Abergavenny, had challenged the title of baroness of Bergavenny, against Edward Nevill, son of Sir Edward Nevill, a younger brother of George, lord Bergavenny, father of Henry, lord Bergavenny, before-mentioned, on which Sir Edward Nevill, the castle of Bergavenny had been settled both by testament and act of parliament.
This claim was not determined until after Sir Thomas Fane's death, in the first year of king James I. when after great argument used on both sides, the title of baron of Bergavenny, was both by judgment of the house of peers, and order of the lords commissioners for the office of earl marshal, decreed for the heir male, and to give some satisfaction to the heir female, the king, by his letters patent dated as before-mentioned, granted and restored to her and her heirs, the dignity of baroness le Despencer, (fn. 8) with the antient seat, place, and precedency of her ancestors.
The lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, survived her husband many years, and died at Mereworthcastle, in 1626, and was buried in Mereworth church, leaving her two sons, Francis and George, surviving. The eldest of whom Francis, in 1623, was created baron Burghersh, and earl of Westmoreland. He died in 1628, having had by Mary his wife, daughter and sole heir of Sir Anthony Mildmay, of Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, several sons and daughters, of the former, Mildmay was the eldest, who succeeded him in titles; Francis was afterwards knighted; and Henry was ancestor to the viscounts Fane.
Mildmay, the eldest son, earl of Westmoreland, dying in 1665, was buried at Apethorp. He left by his first wife Grace, daughter of Sir William Thorn hurst, one son Charles, who succeeded him in honors and estate, and by his second wife Mary, second daughter and coheir of Horace, lord Vere, of Tilbury, widow of Sir Roger Townsend, bart. of Rainham, in Norfolk, one son, Vere Fane.
Charles, earl of Westmoreland, was twice married, but dying without issue in 1691, was succeeded by his half-brother Sir Vere Fane, K.B. above-mentioned, who was M. P. for this county in 1678, and in 1692 joint lord-lieutenant with Henry, lord viscount Sidney. He died next year, leaving by Rachael his wife, only daughter and heir of John Bunce, esq. alderman of London, several sons and daughters, of the former, Vere, succeeded him in titles and estate, and died unmarried in 1699. Thomas, the second son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and died without issue; and John, the third son, succeeded his brother as earl of Westmoreland, and Mildmay, was the fourth son, both of whom will be further mentioned.
Of the daughters, Mary married Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of London, father of the late lord le Despencer; Catherine married William Paul, esq. of Berkshire, whose only daughter and heir, Catherine, married Sir William Stapleton, bart. father of Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. lately deceased, and Susan died unmarried.
But to return to George Fane, the second son of the lady Mary, baroness le Despencer, by her husband, Sir Thomas Fane. He was knighted at the coronation of king James I. in the 18th year of which reign he was chosen M. P. for this county, and on his mother's death in 1626, he succeeded to the manor of Mereworth, with the castle, advowson, and other estates in this parish; and on the death of Sir Thomas Fane, of Burston, his uncle, in 1606, succeeded by his will to his seat at Burston, and the rest of his estates.
Sir George Fane resided afterwards at Burston, where he died in 1640, being succeeded in this manor and estate by his eldest son, Thomas Fane, esq. of Burston, who was a colonel in the army. He died unmarried at Burston in 1692, and was buried near his father in Hunton church, leaving the manor and castle of Mereworth, with the advowson of this church, his seat at Burston, and all other his estates in this county, to Mildmay Fane, the youngest son of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, by Rachael, his wife, daughter of John Bunce, esq.
Mildmay Fane, esq. resided at Mereworth-castle, and in 1715 was chosen M. P. for this county. He died unmarried that year, and was succeeded in this manor and castle, as well as in his other estates, by Thomas, earl of Westmoreland, his eldest surviving brother, who was chief justice in eyre, south of Trent, and of the privy council to king George I. This earl intending to reside at Apethorp, in Northamptonshire, procured an act in the 5th year of that reign, to sell this manor, as well as all the rest of his Kentish estates, but changing his mind, no sale was made of any of them, and he afterwards resided at Mereworth castle, where he died s. p. in 1736, and was buried at Apethorp, so that his honours and estates descended to John, his younger and only surviving brother, who became the 7th earl of Westmoreland, and following a military life in his early youth, at length arrived at the rank of lieutenant general. On the death of his younger brother, Mildmay Fane, he was in 1715 chosen in his room M. P. for this county; and in 1733 was created a peer of Ireland, by the title of baron of Catherlough, and in 1737 he was appointed lordlieutenant of Northamptonshire. He retired to Mereworth castle soon after the death of earl Thomas, which seat he rebuilt, as well as the church of Mereworth, in an elegant manner, and continued adding to the improvements and grandeur of this place till the time of his death, insomuch, that it may now be justly esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of this county.
The earl was high steward, and afterwards chancellor of the university of Oxford, in which last high and honorable office he was installed there, on July 3, 1759, with the greatest solemnity, and with a magnificence and splendor unknown at any former installation. He married Mary, only daughter and heir of the lord Henry Cavendish, but dying in 1762, s. p. he by his will devised this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, to his nephew Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. son of Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. of West Peckham, by his sister the lady Mary, eldest daughter of Vere, earl of Westmoreland, and to the heirs of his body, with remainder to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. his great nephew, viz. son of Sir William Stapleton, bart. by Catherine, daughter and heir of William Paul, of Bromwich, in Oxfordshire, by his sister Catherine, younger daughter of the said Vere, earl of Westmoreland.
On the death of John, earl of Westmoreland, without issue, his Irish peerage became extinct, but the barony of le Despencer being a barony in fee to heirs general, was confirmed to Sir Francis Dashwood, bart his sister's son; and the titles of baron Burghersh and earl of Westmoreland went to Thomas Fane, of Bristol, merchant, the next heir male descendant of Sir Francis Fane, second surviving son of Francis, first earl of Westmoreland. The earls of Westmoreland bore for their arms, Azure, three right hand gauntlets with their backs affrontee, or. And for their crest, Out of a ducal coronet or, a bull's head argent, pyed sable, armed or, and charged on the neck with a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper; being the antient crest of Nevill.
Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. was descended from Samuel Dashwood, esq. of Rowney, near Taunton, who by his first wife had John, ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Essex and Suffolk; Francis, of whom hereafter; Richard and William, of Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, who fined for alderman of London. By his second wife he had George, ancestor to the Dashwoods, of Oxford, baronets.
Francis Dashwood, the second son, was a Turkey merchant, and an alderman of London, who bore for his arms, Argent, on a fess double cotized gules, three griffins heads erased, or, granted to him in 1662, by Byshe, clarencieux. He died in 1683, leaving several children, the eldest of whom Samuel was knighted, and was lord-mayor of London in 1702, and was ancestor of the Dashwoods, of Well, in Lincolnshire; Francis the youngest was knighted and created a baronet in 1707, whose second wife was the lady Mary, eldest sister of John, earl of Westmoreland, who died in 1710, and lies buried in West Wycomb church, in Bucking hamshire, where an elegant monument is erected to her memory; by whom he had an only son, Francis, and a daughter, Rachael, married in 1738 to Sir Robert Austen, bart. of Bexley, in this county. Sir Francis Dashwood, bart. the son, was of West Wycomb, and on the decease of John, earl of Westmoreland, succeeded by his will to this manor and house of Mereworth, as well as the rest of his estates in this county, to whom the king on April 19, 1763, confirmed to him, in right of the lady Mary, his mother, the premier barony of Le Despencer, the same being a barony in fee descendible to the heirs general.
He married the daughter of Henry Gould, esq. of Iver, in Buckinghamshire, by whom he had no issue, and died in 1760, being a privy-counsellor and lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, upon which this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates in this county, went, by the will of John, earl of Westmoreland, as mentioned before, to Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart. of Grays, in Oxfordshire, (son of Sir Thomas Stapleton, the earl's great nephew who had deceased in 1781) who on the death of Rachael, sister of the late lord le Despencer, widow of Sir Robert Austen, bart. before mentioned, in 1788, s. p. succeeded to the title likewise of lord le Despencer, and he is the present proprietor of this elegant seat, now called Mereworth, or more commonly Merrud house, the manor and the advowson of this church.
He married Elizabeth, second daughter of S. Eliot, esq. of Antigua, by whom he has a son and daughter, He bears for his arms, Argent, a lion rampant gules, for Stapleton, quartered with the arms of Fane; and for his supporters, those of the earls of Westmoreland, the dexter a griffin, the sinister a bull, both collared and chained; crest, a Saracen's head.
YOKES-PLACE, formerly called Fotes-place, is a seat in this parish, the scite of which, in the reign of king Henry III. was in the possession of Fulco de Sharstede, who then held it as the third part of a knight's fee, of the earl of Gloucester, (fn. 9) and his descendant, Simon de Sharsted died possessed of it in the 25th year of king Edward I. After which it became the property of the family of Leyborne; and in the reign of king Edward III. it was come into the possession of William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, in right of his wife, Juliana de Leyborne, the heiress of that family, and he, in the 20th year of that reign paid aid for it. His wife survived him, and again possessed this estate in her own right, and died possessed of it in the 41st year of that reign, without issue.
On her death, this estate, among the rest of her possessions, escheated to the crown for want of heirs. Soon after which, it seems to have come into the possession of a family, who implanted their name on it, and were written in several old dateless deeds, Feotes, and by contraction were called Fotes. But this name was extinct here before the end of the reign of king Richard II. when it appears to have been in the possession of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, from whom it descended in like manner, as Mereworth manor, to Joane his daughter, coheir to Thomas, earl of Arundel, her brother, who married William Beauchamp, lord Abergavenny, and their son, Richard, earl of Worcester, and lord Abergavenny, leaving an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, she carried Jotes-place in marriage to Edward Nevill, fourth son of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, who was summoned to parliament as lord Bergavenny, and died in the 16th year of king Edward IV. being then possessed, as tenant by the curtesy of England, in right of Elizabeth his wife, of this estate, as well as of Mereworth manor. His son Sir George Nevill, lord Bergavenny, died possessed of it in the 7th year of king Henry VII. anno 1491, leaving several sons and daughters, of whom George, the eldest son, succeeded him as lord Abergavenny, in this estate, and in the manor of Mereworth; William was the second son; Edward was the third, whose descendants succeeded in process of time to the barony of Abergavenny, and Sir Thomas Nevill was the fourth son, to whom his father bequeathed Jotes-place, with the estate belonging to it. (fn. 10) He was of the privycouncil to king Henry VIII. and secretary of state, and dying in 1542, was buried in Mereworth church. His only daughter and heir, Margaret, married Sir Robert Southwell, master of the rolls, &c. who in her right became possessed of Jotes place, where he resided. (fn. 11) But in the 35th year of king Henry VIII. anno 1543, he alienated it, with other estates in this parish and West Peckham, to Sir Edward Walsingham, of Scadbury, in this county, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of the reign of king Charles I. when Sir Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, conveyed Yokes-place, as it came now to be called, with the other estates before-mentioned, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master, son of Mr. Nathaniel Master, merchant, of London, whose widow he had married, being the second son of James Master, esq. of East Langdon. Mr. James Master resided here, where he died in 1689, and was buried in Mereworth church. He left three sons and two daughters, James his heir; Streynsham, of Holton, in Oxfordshire, and Richard. The daughters were, Frances, who died without issue, and Martha, who married Lionel Daniel, esq. of Surry, by whom she had William, his heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married to George, late lord viscount Torrington.
James Master, esq. the eldest son, resided at Yokesplace, and was sheriff in 1725. He died in 1728 unmarried, and gave by his will this seat, with the rest of his estates, to his youngest brother, Richard Master, who likewise resided at Yokes, where he died unmarried in 1767, and by his will devised it, with all his other possessions, to his nephew, William Daniel, esq. of Surry, son of his sister Martha, enjoining him to take the arms and surname of Master; accordingly he bore for his arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Master; azure, a fess crenelle between three griffins heads erased or; second and third, Daniel, argent, a pale fuslly sable.
William Daniel Master, esq. resided at Yokesplace, where he kept his shrievalty in the year 1771, having almost rebuilt this seat, and laid out the adjoining grounds in a modern and elegant taste. He married Frances-Isabella, daughter of Thomas Dalyson, esq. of West Peckham. He died. s. p. in 1792, and left Mrs. Master still surviving him.
SWANTON-COURT is a manor in this parish, the mansion of which, situated about half a mile westward from Yokes, place, is now only a mean cottage. In the reign of king Henry III. Richard de Swanton held it, as half a knight's fee, of John de Belleacre, as he did of the earl of Gloucester. (fn. 12) In the 10th year of king Edward III. it was become the property of Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of Wm. de Burgh, earl of Ulster, who by her husband Lionel, duke of Clarence, left an only daughter, Philippa, whose husband, Edward Mortimer, earl of March, had possession granted to him of this manor, among other lands of her inheritance.
Soon after which, this manor came into the possession of that branch of the family of Colepeper, seated at Oxenhoath, in the adjoining parish of West Peckham; in which it remained till Sir John Colepeper, one of the justices of the common pleas, gave it, with other lands in this neighbourhood, in the 10th year of king Henry IV. anno 1408, to the knights hospitallers of St. John, of Jerusalem, who founded a preceptory on that part of these lands, which lay in West Peckham.
This manor continued part of their possessions till the general dissolution of their order in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by an act then especially passed for that purpose; and all the lands and revenues of it were given by it to the king and his heirs for ever. The next year the king granted the manor of Swanton to Sir Robert Southwell, who in the 35th year of that reign, alienated it to Sir Edmund Walsingham, in whose descendants it continued till the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign, when Sir Thomas Walsingham alienated it, with Yokes-place and other estates in this neighbourhood, to his son-in-law, Mr. James Master; since which it has descended, in like manner as Yokes, to William Daniel Master, esq. who died possessed of it s. p. in 1792, and by his will de vised it to George Bing, lord viscount Torrington, the present possessor of it.
FOWKES is a manor in this parish, formerly esteemed as an appendage to the manor of Watringbury, under which a further account of it may be seen. It belonged to the abbey of St. Mary Grace, near the Tower, London, and after the dissolution in the reign of king Henry VIII. passed through several owners till the reign of king James I. when it was alienated to Oliver Style, esq. in whose descendants it has continued till this time, the present inheritance of it being vested in Sir Charles Style, bart. of Watringbury.
BARONS-PLACE is a capital messuage in Mereworth, which, with the estate belonging to it, was part of the possessions of Sir Nicholas Pelham, of Cattsfieldplace, in Sussex, who alienated it to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard; after which it descended in like manner as Shipborne and Fairlawne, to William, viscount Vane, who dying in 1789, s. p. devised it by his will to David Papillon, esq. of Acrise, the present owner of it.
THE FAMILY OF BREWER resided in this parish for many generations, before they removed in the reign of king Henry VI. to Smith's hall, in West Farleigh; their seat here, being called from them, Brewer'splace.
Charities.
THE BARONESS, wife of Francis, lord Despencer, gave by will certain land, the yearly produce of it to be applied towards the purchasing of twenty gowns for twenty poor families yearly, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 20l.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the sum of 10s. per annum for the use of the poor, vested in Sir William Twysden, bart. and now of that annual produce.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave the like yearly sum for the same purpose, vested in Mr. Richard Sex.
A person unknown gave certain wood land for the same use, vested in the present lord le Despencer, and now of the annual produce of 15s.
A PERSON UNKNOWN gave certain land for the like use, vested in the churchwardens and overseers, and of the annual produce of 3l. 10s.
MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.
In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)
The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.
In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.
Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.
It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.
¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.
The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.
Chantilly 2016 - Concours d'élégance
Commentaire Artcurial lors de Retromobile février 2016
1995 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport
Carte grise française
Châssis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Moteur n° 0103
- Histoire et provenance exceptionnelles
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- Très faible kilométrage (1 373 km)
- Modèle exceptionnellement performant et rare
Le développement des supercars à transmission intégrale a donné l'idée à Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur de compétition automobile, actuel directeur de Venturi et membre de la famille Pastor, entrepreneurs monégasques fortunés, de battre le record de vitesse sur glace. Initialement prévue avec une Porsche Turbo, la tentative sera finalement effectuée à bord de cette Bugatti EB110 SS qu'il achète neuve à l'usine. Préparée en Italie (avec principalement une adaptation des rapports de boîte et la pose d'un lest de 270 kg) la voiture est acheminée en Finlande, à proximité de la ville d'Oulu, sur une piste de 7 km. Elle est équipée de simples pneus à lamelles de série, sans clous et, le 3 mars 1995, Gildo Pallanca Pastor atteint la vitesse de 315 km/h, la FIA homologuant finalement 296,34 km/h. Cette performance a bien résisté dans le temps puisque le record n'a été battu qu'en mars 2013, par une Audi RS6.
Lors d'une interview accordée le 2 mai 2013 à Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor précisait : "C'était le 3 mars 1995 à Oulu, en Finlande, sur une mer gelée. J'ai atteint une vitesse finale de 315 km/h avec des pneus sans clous. C'était un record assez insensé car je voyais les vagues au bout de la piste. Le plus grand challenge était d'ailleurs de ne pas me retrouver dans l'eau. J'ai eu droit à tout. Aux rennes qui traversaient la piste par exemple... Les Finlandais étaient en tout cas assez intrigués de voir un Monégasque aller plus vite qu'eux sur la glace..."
C'est la voiture de ce record que nous présentons aujourd'hui. Elle fait partie des quelque 31 exemplaires de Bugatti EB110 SS produites. Apparu en 1992, ce modèle était plus puissant et plus léger, disposant de 603 ch à 8 250 tr/mn. Il était capable d'atteindre une vitesse de pointe de 355 km/h et de passer de 0 à 100 km/h en 3,26 secondes. Voiture plus exclusive que les 106 exemplaires de McLaren F1, ses performances sont comparables, avec une plus grande facilité d'utilisation grâce à ses 4 roues motrices et son V12 3,5 litres suralimenté par quatre turbocompresseurs.
En parfait état de présentation, cette voiture du record sur glace a vraisemblablement reçu un voile de peinture par les ateliers Monaco Racing Team il y a quelques années. Quelques très légers éclats de peintures apparaissent au niveau des ouvertures de portes ou sur le bouclier avant mais cela est vraiment anecdotique. La carrosserie est ornée des quelques stickers Michelin et Elf qui soutenaient Gildo Pastor dans son record. Vierge de toute usure, l'habitacle présente des cuirs, moquettes et joints impeccables, et le compartiment moteur est très propre. Doté d'une carte grise française et d'un contrôle technique vierge de tout défaut l'auto est tout simplement exceptionnelle.
Plusieurs éléments seront livrés avec : une housse sur mesure, et les quatre jantes évoquant celles de la Bugatti Royale et avec lesquelles le record du monde a été établi ! Un second moteur neuf sur palette (B110-01-003) accompagnera également la voiture ainsi que le manuel d'entretien et de réglage usine !
Très attaché à cette voiture, Gildo Pallanca Pastor l'a conservée précieusement pendant plusieurs années à Monaco avant de la vendre l'année dernière à un autre collectionneur de la marque. Cette Bugatti EB110 SS, dont le compteur n'affiche que 1 373 km, fonctionne très bien et bénéficiera d'une révision effectuée avant la vente. Elle a été récemment exposée au 32e Festival Bugatti au parc des Jésuites de Molsheim, en septembre dernier, où elle s'est rendue par la route. Depuis, elle a régulièrement roulé entre les mains de son second propriétaire sur les routes d'Alsace.
Pièce d'exception, elle témoigne du début de l'époque des hypercars et de la course à la puissance et à la vitesse qu'ils ont engendré. A ses performances et son faible kilométrage, elle ajoute la rareté et la performance historique que constitue son record.
French title
Chassis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Engine n° 0103
- Exceptional history and provenance
- Delivered with a second brand new engine
- Ice speed record car in 1995
- Very low mileage (1 373 km)
- Exceptionally rare and powerful car
The development of four-wheel drive supercars gave Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur racing driver, CEO of Venturi and member of the wealthy entrepreneurial Monegasque Pastor family, the idea of breaking the ice speed record.
The initial plan was to use a Porsche Turbo, but the attempt was finally made in this Bugatti EB110 SS, bought new from the factory. Prepared in Italy (which principally involved adapting the gearing and adding ballast of 270 kg), the car was taken to a 7 km track in Finland, near the city of Oulu. On 3 March 1995, fitted with regular production tyres, without spikes, Gildo Pallanca Pastor achieved a speed of 315 km/h, ultimately homologated by the FIA at 296,34 km/h. This record stood for some time and was only beaten in March 2013 by an Audi RS6.
During an interview on 2 May 2013 with the Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor said : " It was 3 March 1995 Oulu, in Finland, on the frozen sea. I reached a top speed of 315 km/h on tyres without spikes. It was a pretty crazy record as I could see waves at the end of the track. The greatest challenge was to avoid ending up in the water. I had it all. Reindeer crossing the track for example...In any case, the Finns were intrigued to see a Monagesque go faster than them on the ice... "
It is this record-breaking car that we are presenting today. It is one of some 31 examples of the Bugatti EB110 SS built. First appearing in 1992, this model was lighter and more powerful, producing some 603 bhp at 8 250 rpm. It was capable of a top speed of 355 km/h and travelled from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.26 seconds. A more exclusive car than the McLaren F1, with a comparable performance, it was easy to use with four-wheel drive and a V12 3.5-litre engine with four turbochargers.
Presented in perfect condition, this ice record-breaking car is likely to have had a layer of paint added in the Monaco Racing Team workshop a few years ago. There are a few incidental marks to the paintwork on the door openings and front bumper. The coachwork sports Michelin and Elf stickers, both sponsors of Gildo Pastor for his record attempt. The interior presents no wear at all and the leather, carpets and seals are immaculate. The engine compartment is also extremely clean. With a French title and new technical inspection (MOT), this car is simply outstanding. Items to be delivered with the car include : a made to measure cover, the four wheels, echoing those of the Bugatti Royale, that were used to break the world record ! A second engine on a palette (B110-01-003) will accompany the car along with the service book and factory record !
Very attached to this car, Gildo Pallanca Pastor kept it carefully for many years in Monaco, before selling it last year to another marque enthusiast. This Bugatti EB110 SS, with the odometer recording just 1 373 km, is in good running order and will be serviced before the sale. Last September the car was driven to, and exhibited at, the 32rd Bugatti Festival at the Jesuits' park in Molsheim. Since then it has been used regularly by its second owner on the roads in Alsace.
An exceptional lot, this car is a testament to the early period of hypercars and the race for power and speed that ensued. With such a performance and so few miles on the clock, this rare machine also boasts a history as a record-breaking car.
Estimation 800 000 - 1 200 000 €
Vendu 904,800 €
Chantilly 2016 - Concours d'élégance
Commentaire Artcurial lors de Retromobile février 2016
1995 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport
Carte grise française
Châssis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Moteur n° 0103
- Histoire et provenance exceptionnelles
- Livrée avec un deuxième moteur neuf
- Voiture du record de vitesse sur glace en 1995
- Très faible kilométrage (1 373 km)
- Modèle exceptionnellement performant et rare
Le développement des supercars à transmission intégrale a donné l'idée à Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur de compétition automobile, actuel directeur de Venturi et membre de la famille Pastor, entrepreneurs monégasques fortunés, de battre le record de vitesse sur glace. Initialement prévue avec une Porsche Turbo, la tentative sera finalement effectuée à bord de cette Bugatti EB110 SS qu'il achète neuve à l'usine. Préparée en Italie (avec principalement une adaptation des rapports de boîte et la pose d'un lest de 270 kg) la voiture est acheminée en Finlande, à proximité de la ville d'Oulu, sur une piste de 7 km. Elle est équipée de simples pneus à lamelles de série, sans clous et, le 3 mars 1995, Gildo Pallanca Pastor atteint la vitesse de 315 km/h, la FIA homologuant finalement 296,34 km/h. Cette performance a bien résisté dans le temps puisque le record n'a été battu qu'en mars 2013, par une Audi RS6.
Lors d'une interview accordée le 2 mai 2013 à Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor précisait : "C'était le 3 mars 1995 à Oulu, en Finlande, sur une mer gelée. J'ai atteint une vitesse finale de 315 km/h avec des pneus sans clous. C'était un record assez insensé car je voyais les vagues au bout de la piste. Le plus grand challenge était d'ailleurs de ne pas me retrouver dans l'eau. J'ai eu droit à tout. Aux rennes qui traversaient la piste par exemple... Les Finlandais étaient en tout cas assez intrigués de voir un Monégasque aller plus vite qu'eux sur la glace..."
C'est la voiture de ce record que nous présentons aujourd'hui. Elle fait partie des quelque 31 exemplaires de Bugatti EB110 SS produites. Apparu en 1992, ce modèle était plus puissant et plus léger, disposant de 603 ch à 8 250 tr/mn. Il était capable d'atteindre une vitesse de pointe de 355 km/h et de passer de 0 à 100 km/h en 3,26 secondes. Voiture plus exclusive que les 106 exemplaires de McLaren F1, ses performances sont comparables, avec une plus grande facilité d'utilisation grâce à ses 4 roues motrices et son V12 3,5 litres suralimenté par quatre turbocompresseurs.
En parfait état de présentation, cette voiture du record sur glace a vraisemblablement reçu un voile de peinture par les ateliers Monaco Racing Team il y a quelques années. Quelques très légers éclats de peintures apparaissent au niveau des ouvertures de portes ou sur le bouclier avant mais cela est vraiment anecdotique. La carrosserie est ornée des quelques stickers Michelin et Elf qui soutenaient Gildo Pastor dans son record. Vierge de toute usure, l'habitacle présente des cuirs, moquettes et joints impeccables, et le compartiment moteur est très propre. Doté d'une carte grise française et d'un contrôle technique vierge de tout défaut l'auto est tout simplement exceptionnelle.
Plusieurs éléments seront livrés avec : une housse sur mesure, et les quatre jantes évoquant celles de la Bugatti Royale et avec lesquelles le record du monde a été établi ! Un second moteur neuf sur palette (B110-01-003) accompagnera également la voiture ainsi que le manuel d'entretien et de réglage usine !
Très attaché à cette voiture, Gildo Pallanca Pastor l'a conservée précieusement pendant plusieurs années à Monaco avant de la vendre l'année dernière à un autre collectionneur de la marque. Cette Bugatti EB110 SS, dont le compteur n'affiche que 1 373 km, fonctionne très bien et bénéficiera d'une révision effectuée avant la vente. Elle a été récemment exposée au 32e Festival Bugatti au parc des Jésuites de Molsheim, en septembre dernier, où elle s'est rendue par la route. Depuis, elle a régulièrement roulé entre les mains de son second propriétaire sur les routes d'Alsace.
Pièce d'exception, elle témoigne du début de l'époque des hypercars et de la course à la puissance et à la vitesse qu'ils ont engendré. A ses performances et son faible kilométrage, elle ajoute la rareté et la performance historique que constitue son record.
French title
Chassis n° ZA9BB02E0RCD39017
Engine n° 0103
- Exceptional history and provenance
- Delivered with a second brand new engine
- Ice speed record car in 1995
- Very low mileage (1 373 km)
- Exceptionally rare and powerful car
The development of four-wheel drive supercars gave Gildo Pallanca Pastor, amateur racing driver, CEO of Venturi and member of the wealthy entrepreneurial Monegasque Pastor family, the idea of breaking the ice speed record.
The initial plan was to use a Porsche Turbo, but the attempt was finally made in this Bugatti EB110 SS, bought new from the factory. Prepared in Italy (which principally involved adapting the gearing and adding ballast of 270 kg), the car was taken to a 7 km track in Finland, near the city of Oulu. On 3 March 1995, fitted with regular production tyres, without spikes, Gildo Pallanca Pastor achieved a speed of 315 km/h, ultimately homologated by the FIA at 296,34 km/h. This record stood for some time and was only beaten in March 2013 by an Audi RS6.
During an interview on 2 May 2013 with the Monaco Hebdo, Gildo Pallanca Pastor said : " It was 3 March 1995 Oulu, in Finland, on the frozen sea. I reached a top speed of 315 km/h on tyres without spikes. It was a pretty crazy record as I could see waves at the end of the track. The greatest challenge was to avoid ending up in the water. I had it all. Reindeer crossing the track for example...In any case, the Finns were intrigued to see a Monagesque go faster than them on the ice... "
It is this record-breaking car that we are presenting today. It is one of some 31 examples of the Bugatti EB110 SS built. First appearing in 1992, this model was lighter and more powerful, producing some 603 bhp at 8 250 rpm. It was capable of a top speed of 355 km/h and travelled from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.26 seconds. A more exclusive car than the McLaren F1, with a comparable performance, it was easy to use with four-wheel drive and a V12 3.5-litre engine with four turbochargers.
Presented in perfect condition, this ice record-breaking car is likely to have had a layer of paint added in the Monaco Racing Team workshop a few years ago. There are a few incidental marks to the paintwork on the door openings and front bumper. The coachwork sports Michelin and Elf stickers, both sponsors of Gildo Pastor for his record attempt. The interior presents no wear at all and the leather, carpets and seals are immaculate. The engine compartment is also extremely clean. With a French title and new technical inspection (MOT), this car is simply outstanding. Items to be delivered with the car include : a made to measure cover, the four wheels, echoing those of the Bugatti Royale, that were used to break the world record ! A second engine on a palette (B110-01-003) will accompany the car along with the service book and factory record !
Very attached to this car, Gildo Pallanca Pastor kept it carefully for many years in Monaco, before selling it last year to another marque enthusiast. This Bugatti EB110 SS, with the odometer recording just 1 373 km, is in good running order and will be serviced before the sale. Last September the car was driven to, and exhibited at, the 32rd Bugatti Festival at the Jesuits' park in Molsheim. Since then it has been used regularly by its second owner on the roads in Alsace.
An exceptional lot, this car is a testament to the early period of hypercars and the race for power and speed that ensued. With such a performance and so few miles on the clock, this rare machine also boasts a history as a record-breaking car.
Estimation 800 000 - 1 200 000 €
Vendu 904,800 €
Another piece of terrain for my science fiction outpost. By my estimations it will take five hits of damage before being brought under the height limit for Cover.
PA_1456 [30 points]
A purple space invader in the 3ème arrondissement of Paris along the main boulevards of the city.
Onscreen FlashInvaders message: PURPLE VIBES
All my photos of PA_1456:
PA_1456 (Close-up, September 2021)
PA_1456 (Wide shot, September 2021)
Date of invasion: 04/02/2021 (estimation)
[ Visited this purple PA_1456 7 months and about 24 days after invasion ]
This Tyrannosaurus Rex used red toothpaste
The head of existing T. Rex skeletons is almost my height. Lucky for us it went extinct in one of the mass extinction cataclysms suffered by our planet Earth.
The teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex displayed marked heterodonty (differences in shape).[13][23] The premaxillary teeth at the front of the upper jaw were closely packed, D-shaped in cross-section, had reinforcing ridges on the rear surface, were incisiform (their tips were chisel-like blades) and curved backwards. The D-shaped cross-section, reinforcing ridges and backwards curve reduced the risk that the teeth would snap when Tyrannosaurus bit and pulled. The remaining teeth were robust, like "lethal bananas" rather than daggers; more widely spaced and also had reinforcing ridges.[24] Those in the upper jaw were larger than those in all but the rear of the lower jaw. The largest found so far is estimated to have been 30 centimetres (12 in) long including the root when the animal was alive, making it the largest tooth of any carnivorous dinosaur yet found.[3]
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time; the largest complete specimen, FMNH PR2081 ("Sue"), measured 12.8 metres (42 ft) long, and was 4.0 metres (13.1 ft) tall at the hips.[3] Mass estimates have varied widely over the years, from more than 7.2 metric tons (7.9 short tons),[2] to less than 4.5 metric tons (5.0 short tons),[5][6] with most modern estimates ranging between 5.4 and 6.8 metric tons (6.0 and 7.5 short tons).[4][7][8][9] Packard et al. (2009) tested dinosaur mass estimation procedures on elephants and concluded that dinosaur estimations are flawed and produce over-estimations; thus, the weight of Tyrannosaurus could be much less than usually estimated.[10]
Although Tyrannosaurus rex was larger than the well known Jurassic theropod Allosaurus, it was slightly smaller than some other Cretaceous carnivores, such as Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus.[11][12]
The neck of Tyrannosaurus rex formed a natural S-shaped curve like that of other theropods, but was short and muscular to support the massive head. The forelimbs had only two clawed fingers,[13] along with an additional small metacarpal representing the remnant of a third digit.[14] In contrast the hind limbs were among the longest in proportion to body size of any theropod. The tail was heavy and long, sometimes containing over forty vertebrae, in order to balance the massive head and torso. To compensate for the immense bulk of the animal, many bones throughout the skeleton were hollow, reducing its weight without significant loss of strength.[13]
The largest known Tyrannosaurus rex skulls measure up to 5 feet (1.5 m) in length.[15] Large fenestrae (openings) in the skull reduced weight and provided areas for muscle attachment, as in all carnivorous theropods. But in other respects Tyrannosaurus’ skull was significantly different from those of large non-tyrannosauroid theropods. It was extremely wide at the rear but had a narrow snout, allowing unusually good binocular vision.[16][17] The skull bones were massive and the nasals and some other bones were fused, preventing movement between them; but many were pneumatized (contained a "honeycomb" of tiny air spaces) which may have made the bones more flexible as well as lighter. These and other skull-strengthening features are part of the tyrannosaurid trend towards an increasingly powerful bite, which easily surpassed that of all non-tyrannosaurids.[18][19][20] The tip of the upper jaw was U-shaped (most non-tyrannosauroid carnivores had V-shaped upper jaws), which increased the amount of tissue and bone a tyrannosaur could rip out with one bite, although it also increased the stresses on the front teeth.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus
T.Rex was not the largest Therapod:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Largesttheropods.png
IMG_0368
Harpegnathos venator
Empilements de 80 photos en mode manuel 65mm - f/6,3 - 1/10è s - ISO 400 - rapport 1,5:1
Boitier Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + Objectif Canon MP-E 65 mm f/2,8 1:1 ~ 5:1 + flash Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite + lumière arrière LED diffusée + rail macro motorisé et contrôleur Cognisys Stackshot 3X.
Logiciel de stacking : ZereneStacker (DMap estimation radius 9/smoothing radius 1).
Post traitement : ZereneStacker, Lightroom, Photoshop.
PA_1457 [20 points]
A classic sized blue-pink space invader above a bookstore with books for the youth and children in the 11ème arrondissement of Paris.
When I flashed this space invader it was the 11,320,806th 'flash' in FlashInvaders and FlashInvaders had 186,806 players at this moment (2021-09-28 18h29 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) )
Onscreen FlashInvaders message: SWEET!
All my photos of PA_1457:
PA_1457 (Close-up, September 2021)
PA_1457 (Wide shot 1, September 2021)
PA_1457 (Wide shot 2, September 2021)
Date of invasion: 04/02/2021 (estimation)
[ Visited this "sweet" PA_1457 almost 8 months after invasion ]
Retromobile 2016 (Paris)
Lot 127
1952 Ford Comète
No reserve
Carte grise française
Châssis n° : 766
Caisse n° : 767
Moteur n°: 700109
- Carrosserie Facel
- Voiture rare, surtout dans cet état
- Très belle restauration
- Sans réserve
Lancée en 1951 par Ford France (SAF), la Comète est un coupé luxueux dont le dessin élégant est confié aux " Stabilimenti Farina " et la fabrication de la carrosserie à Facel Métallon. On notera qu'il s'agit là d'une des premières réalisations de Jean Daninos, avant qu'il ne lance sa propre marque, Facel Vega. La ligne est douce et fluide. Prestige oblige, elle est équipée d'un moteur V8 de 2,158 L. Cette mécanique développe la puissance de 74 ch jusqu'à 1953, ce qui lui permet d'atteindre une vitesse de pointe de 140 km/h. La production tous modèles confondus, s'élèvera à 3 064 exemplaires.
La voiture présentée a été achetée en décembre 1980. Elle était alors immatriculée dans la région de Lyon depuis mars 1974. Elle sort aujourd'hui d'une restauration complète. D'importants travaux ont été menés, la carrosserie a été entièrement refaite, repeinte dans une belle livrée noire qui s'associe à merveille à l'intérieur en cuir marron, lui aussi entièrement refait, avec des moquettes assorties. Le tableau de bord, au splendide dessin, est également en très bel état.
La mécanique de 13 CV (dont le numéro de bloc est différent de celui d'origine) a été elle aussi l'objet d'une réfection et le compteur affiche 10 673 km. L'auto est absolument complète, il ne manque que l'autoradio qui équipait le tableau de bord. Il s'agit là d'une très belle voiture, qui a bénéficié d'une belle restauration, incarnant le style du luxe à la française dans les années 1950.
Merci de noter qu'un vérification de la mécanique devra être effectuée avant de rouler sur de longues distances avec le véhicule.
French title
Chassis #: 766
Caisse No: 767
Engine No.: 700109
- Body by Facel
- A rare car, especially in this condition
- Very beautiful restoration
- No reserve
Launched in 1951 by Ford France (SAF), the Comet was a luxury coupe which elegant design was entrusted to "Stabilimenti Farina" and the manufacture of the body to Facel Metallon. It is worth noting that this is one of the first projects by Jean Daninos before he launched his own brand, Facel Vega. The line is smooth and fluid. With luxury a requirement, the car was powered by a V8 engine of 2158cc. This engine developed 74bhp up to 1953, allowing it to reach a top speed of 140 km/h. The production totaled 3,064 units.
The car on offer was purchased in December 1980 when it was registered in the Lyon region, since March 1974. It has recently come out of a complete restoration. Significant work has been done, the body has been completely redone, painted in a beautiful black shade that combines perfectly with the interior in brown leather, also completely redone, with matching carpets. The dashboard has a splendid design and is also in very good condition.
The 13 CV engine (which number is different from the original one's) was also the subject of a restoration and counter displayed 10,673 km. The car is absolutely complete, missing only the radio fitted on the dashboard. This is a beautiful car, which has benefitted from a beautiful restoration, and embodies the luxury of French style from the 1950s.
Please note that the mecanichals will need to be checked before driving the car on long distances.
Estimation 60 000 - 80 000 €
Vendu 49,945 € - See more at: www.artcurial.com/fr/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2877++...
Go to the Book with image in the Internet Archive
Title: United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 4, Nos. 1-4, 1910
Creator: U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Publisher:
Sponsor:
Contributor:
Date: 1910
Language: eng
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Table of Contents</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Number 1</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preface v</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Special articles 1</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Chronic nonsuppurative osteoplastic periostitis of traumatic origin, by
George Pickrell and L. M. Schmidt 1</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Shooting glasses for riflemen, by E. S. Bogert, jr 11</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggestions on taking finger prints, by John D. Hall 17</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Meat poisoning in the navy, by L. W. Curtis 23</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Runner's cramp, a peculiar occupation neurosis, by L. M. Schmidt 25</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Venereal prophylaxis, by W. J. Zalesky 28</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Medical conditions in the Fiji Islands, by K. A. Bachman 30</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggested devices<span> </span>39</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Construction of an improvised incubator, by F. G. Abeken and R.
Cuthbertson 39</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A gall-bladder dressing, by H. L. Call 40</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes<span> </span>43</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of a typhoid carrier, by C. S. Butler 43</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of two cases of the variola form of syphilis, by F. M. Furlong
44</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Notes on cases treated by vaccines, by M. H. Simons 46</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Heat exhaustion on the U. S. S. California, by E. G. Parker 48</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of gunshot injury of the kneejoint, by Raymond Spear 49</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">An operation for ectropion, by Raymond Spear 50</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of a case of amoebiasis. by A. E. Peck 51</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of a case of acute perforative gangrenous appendicitis, by J. B.
Dennis and A. C. Stanley 54</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Case of Vincent's angina, by L. C. Whiteside 56</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Two cases of opthalmia gonorrhea, by R. R. Richardson 57</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Current comment 59</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Venereal prophylaxis 59</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Health records for the naval personnel 59</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Hygiene exhibitions 61</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A few notes on malingering, by F. M. Furlong 62</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Perfected routine of dosage, etc., in the treatment of tuberculosis by
the administration of mercury, by B. L. Wright 66</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Progress in medical sciences 69</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Laboratory —A new method for the clinical estimation of total nitrogen
in urine, feces or other organic materials; a clinical modification of the
Folin-Schaffer method for the estimation of uric acid in the urine 69</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reviews: A simple method of estimating the amount of sugar in diabetic
urine; a modification of the Esbach method for estimation of albumin in the
urine: a new albuminometer; a new, simple method</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">of sugar estimation in the urine by the glucosometer; on the
application of the deviation of complement test in the detection of albuminous
substances in the urine; the clinical determination of amido acids in the
urine, O. J. Mink and E. W. Brown 74</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Chemistry and pharmacy —Uber das Aconitin der japaniechen
Aconitknollen; the influence of certain drugs upon the toxicity of acetanilide and
antipyrine; the effect of work on the creatine content of muscle; the
pharmacological assay of the heart tonics; the estimation and quantitative
significance of hydrochloric acid in the gastric contents; the action of
digestive ferments upon each other, P. J. Waldner and C. Schaffer<span> </span>76</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Pathology and bacteriology —Antityphoid vaccines with attenuated live cultures;
outbreak of food poisoning after a Christmas dinner; on the use of certain new
chemical tests in the diagnosis of general paralysis and tabes; the occurrence
of acetonuria following ether anesthesia; the treatment of gonocoecus
infections by vaccines; concerning the mechanism of the aero-reaction of syphilis;
investigation of blood for tubercle bacilli; on subcutaneous and ophthalmal
tuberculin reaction in lepers;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">the diagnosis of syphilis by some laboratory methods; cancer in man and
animals; relation of the spiroclneta <span> </span>pallida to general paralysis; influenzal
meningitis; htemolysis in the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms; the Wasserman
reaction in leprosy, 0. J. Mink and F. M. Shook <span> </span>79</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Medical zoology — The development of the miracidium of paragonimus under
various physical conditions; studies on protozoan parasites in sea fishes; two
interesting bilharzial conditions; hookworms and the death rate; filariasis of
the spermatic cord; the reaction of the white blood cells to the presence of
tenia in the intestine of man, R. C. Holcomb and P. E. Garrison 85</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Tropical medicine — The relapsing fever of Panama; studies upon
leprosy; antiplague measures in California; histoplasmosis; blackwater fever, C.
S. Butler 90</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Hygiene and sanitation —The processes for the disinfection of dwellings
with formaldehyde and potassium permanganate, the amounts of gaseous
formaldehyde given out in each and their practical significance; comparative
investigations on the practical values of certain methods of disinfection with
formaldehyde w ithout the employment of any apparatuses; fly-borne enteric
fever—the source of infection; tuberculosis in Japan; the destruction of
mosquitoes by the French in West Africa by the "trous-pieges; " the
cruiser Alger in the Far East, H.G. Beyer and F. L. Pleadwell 95</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Surgery —The use of silver wire in opening the kidney; fractures of the
radial shaft, rotation deformity (occurrence and diagnosis), and aluminum
plates; an ovarian abscess containing a lumbricoid worm; <span> </span>surgery of the stomach, C. F. Stokes and K.
Spear 106</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">General medicine— The obliteration of the craving for narcotics, the arylarsenate
treatment of syphilis—its probable future effects in the services; a new
treatment of locomotor ataxia; " traitement a vide" of enteric fever;
on the relation between alcoholism and tuberculosis; the treatment of amoebic
dysentery, T. W. Kichards 110</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports and letters 117</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report on the American Public Health Association, by F. L. Pleadwell..
117</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report on the Sixteenth International Congress of Medicine, Budapest, August-September,
1909, by J. C. Wise 128</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report on the camp of instruction, Antietam, Md., 1909, by M. S.
Elliott. 130</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Number 2</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preface v</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Special articles 135</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The commissary department in naval hospitals, by P. A. Lovering 135</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The presence of the lepra bacillus in the circulating blood, by G. B.
Crow. 143</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preliminary report of the finding of hookworm in American Samoa, by P.
S. Rossiter 145</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The prevention of venereal diseases in the navy, by Raymond Spear 146</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The rational treatment of arteriosclerosis, by C. H. T. Lowndes 150</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Treatment of syphilis at Hot Springs, Ark., by W. S. Hoen 154</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggested devices 159</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A portable sanitary scuttle-butt, by E. G. Parker 159</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggestions for diet kitchen equipment, by Stephen Wierzbieki 161</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Notes on colonic anesthesia, by W. S. Pugh, jr 163</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes 167</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes from the United States Naval Hospital, Mare Island,
Cal., by U. R. Webb 167</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Surgical cases from the U. S. S. Tacoma, by W. S. Pugh, jr 171</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Osteomyelitis following fracture, by B. F. Jenness 180</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of appendicostomy, by Raymond Spear 182</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of three cases from the U. S. S. Relief, by A. W. Dunbar 184</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of Landry's paralysis, by H. L. Kelley and J. A. Randall 185</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Heat exhaustion on the U. S. S. Colorado, by J. T. Kennedy 187</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Two cases of mild heat exhaustion on the U. S. S. Charleston, by Oliver
Diehl 189</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Bolo wound involving the brain, by C. F. Ely 190</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of goundou with coexisting leontiasis, by I. S. K. Reeves 191</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Severe rupial eruption appearing as one of the first symptoms and the only
eruption in a case of secondary syphilis, by R. R. Richardson 192</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Operations for suppurative ear disease, by R. W. McDowell 193</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Notes of two surgical cases, by H. C. Curl 194</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Note on cases of fever at Pichilinque Bay, Mexico, by J. L. Neilson 194</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of neurosis hysteroides, by E. C. White 195</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Varix of both superficial epigastric veins, by R. R. Richardson 196</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Current comment , 197</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports of surgical operations 197</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The early diagnosis of syphilis and its importance from a service stand
point, by O. J. Mink 197</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A few timely comments on clothing, by H. G. Beyer 200</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The importance of eliminating the cocaine habitue from the personnel of
the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps, by W. D. Owens 204</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Injuries from football at the Naval Academy, by C. E. Riggs 205</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Muscular spasms in men exposed to high temperatures, by M. E. Higgins.
207</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Notes on sanitation at Port Royal, S. C, by R. E. Riggs 208</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports on venereal prophylaxis, by W. S. Pugh, jr., W. A. Angwin, N.
T. McLean, J. M. Edgar, J. S. Taylor, and F. G. Abeken 211</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Are dead typhoid cultures of value for use on board ship in Widal'a
reaction, by C. S. Butler 222</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Progress in medical sciences 225</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Laboratory — The Noguchi test for syphilis; a concentration method for
tubercle bacilli; a simple method of preparing sugar broth media; a simple
method of preparing Bang's solution. Reviews: The diagnosis of syphilis by some
laboratory methods, by O. J. Mink and E. W. Brown. 225 </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Chemistry and pharmacy — Der jetzige stand der physiologischen
digitalisprfifung, ihr wert fiir die praxis und fur die forschung; the
administration of drugs with regard to absorption and elimination; relative
physiological activity of some commercial solutions of epinephrin; influence of
hydrogen peroxide on hydrochloric acid secretion; the value of alimentary
levulosuria in the diagnosis of hepatic cirrhosis; oxaluria and treatment of
calcium oxalate deposit from the urine; E. R. Noves and P. J. Waldner<span> </span>230</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Pathology and bacteriology — Bacillus of acne; some observations on the
study of intestinal bacteria; the presence of tubercle bacilli in the
circulating blood in clinical and experimental tuberculosis; the viability of
the tubercle bacillus; the pathology of pellagra; pellagra; the Wasserman
reaction in pellagra; Zur theorie der Wassermanischer reaktion; the
pathological relationships of gastric ulcer and gastric carcinoma; O. J. Mink
and F. M. Shook 235</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Medical zoology — A study of the development of Sehittosomum japonicum;
relation between the Schistosoma japonicum and the endemic "Kabure,"
report of the study on the invading route of the Schistoimma japonicum into the
human body; acute trichiniasis without initial eosinophilia; reports of the
twenty-first expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine at
Jamaica; malaria; a ease of amoebic enteritis with uncinaria, trichocephalus
and trichomonads, showing results of treatment after four years; the
development of trypanosoma gambiense in glossina palpalis; Paragonomiasis or
parasitic hemoptysis, report of an imported case in California; Kala-Azar in
Madras, especially with regard to its connection with the dog and with the bug
(Conorrhinua); medical survey of the town of Taytay; P. E. Garrison 242</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Tropical medicine —Typhus fever; intoxication by fish in China; note on
plague infection in a wood rat; the significance of sleeping sickness for our
colonies; weitere untersuchungen iiber das Pappataci fieber; C. S. Butler 248</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Hygiene and sanitation— Untersuchungen fiber den vorgangder
selbstreinigung, ausgefuhrt am wasser des Giesner Volksbades; fiber den prozess
der selbstreinignng der naturlichen wasser nach ihrer kfinstlichen infizierung
durch bakterien; la ventilation pendant le combat; report of Bureau of Health
for the Philippine Islands, third quarter, 1909; a contribution to our knowledge
of the spread of typhoid through bacillus carriers; what may be done to improve
the hygiene of the city dweller; oral prophylaxis; fievre typhoide et eau
distilh'e a bord du " Bouvet;" a general German fencing tournament,
held on the 3d and 4th December at Dresden; report of the International Opium
Commission, Shanghai, China; H. G. Beyer and F. L. Pleadwell 253</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Surgery— Resection of the colon for cancer and tuberculosis; serum
treatment of purulent processes; thoracic surgery; the technique of amputations
with especial reference to osteplastic methods; the routine examination of the
oesophagus; the treatment of acute otitic meningitis; a method of splinting
skin grafts; vaccine treatment of pyorrhea alveolaris; R. Spear and H. W. Smith
261</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">General medicine — Normal auscultatory differences between the sides of
the chest; two signs of diagnostic value, one in chololithiasis, the other in
incipient pulmonary tuberculosis; the diaphragm test for binocular vision; T.
W. Richards 273</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports and letters 279</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports on the care of wounded, Bluefields, Nicaragua, by W. S. Pugh,
jr., L. H. Wheeler, and D. G. Sutton 279</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report on physical training at the United States Naval Academy, by W.
N. McDonell 287</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Number 3</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preface vi</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Special articles 291</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The illumination of study rooms, being a report submitted to the
superintendent of the Naval Academy, on the present system of lighting the
midshipmen's quarters in Bancroft Hall, with recommendations for its
improvement, by A. L. Parsons and II. W. Smith 291</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The surgical aspects of filariasis, by C. F. Stokes 318</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Venereal prophylaxis on the Asiatic Station, by Oliver Diehl 325</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Dried blood serum, a substitute for fresh blood serum in the rapid
preparation of Loeffler's medium, by E. W. Brown 337</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">U.S. Naval Medical School laboratories 339</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The need for a pathological collection at the United States Naval
Medical School, by C. S. Butler 339</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Helminthological technique, by P. E. Garrison 345</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Demonstration of treponema pallidum, by F. M. Shook 355</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preliminary report on a proposed method for the volumetric estimation
of mercury, by J. R. Herbig 356</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggested devices 357</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">An "unlearnable " vision test card for use in the naval
service, by E. J. Grow 357</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A suggested bunk tray, by G. F. Freeman 362</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes 365</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of two cases of cerebro-spinal fever, by J. B. Kaufman 365</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Acute ear diseases following swimming, by L. M. Schmidt 368</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Direct transfusion of blood in a case of shock and hemorrhage, by R. B.
Williams 372</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of liver abscess demonstrating the value of a differential count
in diagnosis, by E. R. Stitt 376</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Five cases of cholera at naval station, Cavite, P. I., by H. L. Kelley
377</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">The Hagner operation, report of five cases, by L. W. Johnson 378</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes from Naval Hospital, Norfolk, Va., by E. O. J. Eytinge
380</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Fracture of epiphysis of os calcis by muscular contraction, by Raymond
Spear 383</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of fracture of the base of the skull, by Raymond Spear 383</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of heavy hymenolepis nana infection, with a note as to
treatment, by E. R. Stitt and D. G. Allen 384</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of 12 cases of beriberi, by J. A. Randall 385</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Carron oil in the treatment of otitis media suppurativa (acuta), by R.
E. Riggs 386</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Pericarditis associated with impetigo herpetiformis (?) followed by
grave systematic disturbance and interesting pathological lesions, by H. L.
Kelley 387</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Blastomycotic lesions in a case of syphilis, by E. R. Stitt and S. L.
Higgins. 388</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Current comment 391</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Results of venereal prophylaxis not likely to be apparent in general
statistics of 1909 391</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Typhoid vaccination 391</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">International military medical statistics 393</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Varicocele and the public- services 394</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Importance of ophthalmoscopy at recruiting stations, by J. A. Murphy
395</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Progress in medical sciences 399</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Chemistry and pharmacy — Rapid chemical filtration compared to slow sand
filtration; the question of the so-called physiological albuminuria; a
contribution to Hang's method for estimation of sugar; the estimation of
ammonia and acidity in the urine and their clinical application; thymol an a
source of error in Heller's test for urinary protein; physiological effects of
high temperature and humidity; direct identification of acetone in urine; the
pancreas reaction of Cammidge; rapid detection of boric acid in butter and
milk. E. W. Brown and P. J. Waldner 399</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Pathology and bacteriology — Changes in the pancreas in diabetes; the
Cammidge reaction; acute pancreatitis and urinary findings; the specific treatment
of carcinoma; concentration method for tubercle bacilli; ueber die nach Ziehl
nicht darstellbare form des tuberkelbazillus; nachweis bedeutung der
tuberkelbazillen in stroemendem pthisikerblut; ueber die granulare form des
tuberculosevirus im lungenauswurf ; the cultivation of the leprosy bacillus;
ueber den nachweis von indol in den bakterischeu kulturen mit der Ehrlichschen
methode; the relation of the pseudo-diphtheria and the diphtheria bacillus; the
influence of age and temperature upon the potency of anti-diphtheritic serum and
antitoxin globulin solution; the value of opsonic determinations in the
discovery of typhoid carriers; the distribution of bacteria in bottled milk and
certain controlling factors; are acid-fast bacteria other</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">than the tubercle bacillus commonly met in clinical laboratory work; acid-fast
organisms in waters; the treatment of infection of the urinary tract with
bicterial vaccines; the B. fecalia alkaligines pathogenic for</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">man; treatment of typhoid carriers; a preliminary inquiry into the prevalence
of paratyphoid fever in London, with remarks on blood culture in 48 cases of
enteric fever, O. J. Mink and F. M. Shook 403</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Medical zoology —Guinea worm in domesticated animals, with a note of its
discovery in a leopard; the effect of mosquito larvae upon drinking water; the
existence of living creatures in the stomach as a cause of chronic dyspepsia; a
study of the anatomy of Watsonius (n. g.), watsoni of man and of 19 allied
species of mammalian trematode worms of the superfamily paramphistomoidea, P.
E. Garrison 415</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Tropical medicine- Yaws as a cause of chronic ulceration; on the nature
and origin of Calabar swellings; two cases of balantidium infection with autopsy,
C. S. Butler 418</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Hygiene and sanitation — Die handedesinfektion bei typhus-
bazillentragern; vorkommen und bedeutung der streptokokken in der milch; the
control of scarlet fever; a note on squirrel fleas as plague carriers; the communications
of diarrhea from the sick, to the healthy; summer diarrhea and enteric fever;
rapport d'inspection generale de l'escadre du nord; H. G. Beyer and F. L.
Pleadwell 421</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Surgery — Terminal arterial anesthesia; varicocele, an analysis of 403
cases; the method of respiration by intratracheal insufflation, its scientific principle
and its practical availability in medicine and surgery; avoidance of apparatus
complicating operation in thoracic surgery; experimental intrathoracic surgery
by the Meltzer and Auer method of intratracheal insufflation; the value of
continuous intratracheal insufflation of air (Meltzer) in thoracic surgery; the
treatment of diffuse progressive free peritonitis; ueber carbenzyn; carbenzym
bei tuberkulosen affektionen; ueber die dosierung der stauungshyperamie; the
after-results of the operative treatment of hemorrhoids; some experiments on
the relative susceptibility of different teeth to dental caries, R. Spear and
H. W. Smith. 438</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">General medicine — Review of current progress in medicine; the adequacy
of the present-day treatment of syphilitic diseases of the nervous system; Syphilis
and parasyphilis of the nervous system; la reazione di Wassermann nelle
malattie cutanee; treatment of syphilis by intramuscular injection of metallic
mercury; on the treatment of tetanus by the intraspinal injection of a solution
of magnesium sulphate, with cases; hospital infection of tuberculosis; current
conceptions of hysteria; an acute infectious disease of unknown origin; A. W.
Dunbar and T. W. Richards 447</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Reports and letters<span> </span>457</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report on U. S. Pharmacopceial Convention, 1910, by P. J. Waldner<span> </span>457</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Number 4</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Preface v</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Special articles 459</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Insanity in the navy, by Heber Butts 469</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Notes on the presence and prevalence of Xecator americanus in Samoa, by
P. S. Rossiter 476</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Problems of sanitation in landing and expeditionary service in tropical
and subtropical regions, translation by P. J. Waldner 479</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">United States Naval Medical School laboratories 499</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Helminthological technique, by P. E. Garrison 499</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Suggested devices 513</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">An improvised incubator for ships, by L. W. McGuire 513</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">An efficient rat-killing device for use on board ship, by F. M. Munson
514</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Clinical notes 515</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of atypic typhoid, with sudden death, by E. R. Stitt 515</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of excision of the clavicle, by Raymond Spear 518</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Appendicular abscess; rupture into peritoneal cavity; operation and
recovery, by A. D. McLean 517</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Case of suppurative appendicitis, by C. W. Smith 519</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Meningitis of primary origin (pneumococcus), by E. R. Stitt 529</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case of metastatic pneumonia complicating tonsillitis, by W. A.
Angwin. 521</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Report of a case of acute yellow atrophy of liver, by E. R. Stitt and
D. A. Gregory 522</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">A case clinically resembling rhinopharyngitis mutilans, by E. R. Stitt
524</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">External urethrotomy without a guide, by E. G. Parker 524</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Note on the possible existence of both Agchylostoma duodenale and
Necator americarms at Guam, by E. R. Stitt 525</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Current comment 527</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">New order for appointment of medical officers in the navy 527</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">New naval health record 527</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Diphtheria prophylaxis 529</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Peculiar advantages of local anaesthesia in ordinary hernia operations
in the naval service, by H. C. Curl 539</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Progress in medical sciences 533</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Chemistry and pharmacy — An experimental and clinical study of the
functional activity of the kidneys by means of phenolsulphonephthalein; the
biological standardization of drugs; the detection of methyl alcohol,
especially in the presence of ethyl alcohol; a simple method for the rapid and
accurate determination of the alcoholic content of fluids; a method for
determining the alkalinity of the blood; contributions to clinical methods for
urinary analysis; a method for the estimation of nitrogen in the urine; a method
for the direct test for acetone in the urine; a study of Nylander's reaction;
the so-called Cammidge test; the occurrence of and a clinical test for soluble
protein in the feces; a test of pancreatic function, E. W. Brown and O. G. Ruge
533</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Pathology and bacteriology — Anaphylaxis and its relation to clinical
medicine; on the preparation of a simple culture medium; the cultivation of the
tubercle bacilli directly from the sputum by means of antiformin; the hospital
laboratory with special reference to diagnosis in surgical cases; the
cerebro-spinal fluid, O. J. Mink and F. M. Shook 545</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Medical zoology — Helminthic infection and its relation to
eosinophilia: the ant as a destroyer of flies; amebic dysentery in New York;
the Gastrodiscus hominis in the Philippines; note on the presence of Bilharzia
haematobia in Egyptian mummies of the twentieth dynasty (1250-1000 B. C). P- E-
Garrison 551</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Tropical medicine— Transmission of pest without rate and without fleas;
the etiology of beriberi; beriberi-Forschungen in den Niederlandisch
ostindischen Kolonien, besonders in Bezug aul" Prophylaxis und Heilung;
the work of the board for the study of tropical diseases in the Philippines, C.
S. Butler 552</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Hygiene and sanitation — Explosions-gase und ihre Wirkung auf den Menchen;
Eine von Bazillentragern hervorgerufene Typhus-epidemie in der X V. Division
von Japan; the sputum of typhoid fever patients as a possible source of
infection; Ueber die Beurteilung des Colibakterienbefundes in Trinkwasser nebst
Bemerkungen iiber den Xachweis und das Vorkommen der Colibazillen; quantitative
investigations on the absorption of benzol from the air by animal and man:
studies on the absorption of chlorinated hydrocarbons from the air by animals
and man; on the absorption of hydrochloric acid vapors by animals during
prolonged experiments; hygiene in the French navy, H. G. Beyer and F. L.
Pleadwell</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">558</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Surgery— On the experimental surgery of the thoracic aorta and the
heart; clinical experiences with intratracheal insufflation (Meltzer) with remarks
upon value of the method for thoracic surgery; the surgical management of
urethral stricture and its complications; Hunterian lecture on the surgery of
the lymphatic system: a tourniquet for the control of hemorrhage from the scalp
during osteoplastic resection of the skull; a further contribution on the
sterilization of the skin of operative areas; note on the neuropathology
cytology of anemia, infections, Grave's disease, and surgical shock; the
treatment of post-operative adhesions; an improved method of preparing catgut
ligatures; observations on the condition of the mouth in 1,000 consecutive
cases of chronic disease, R. Spear and E. Thompson 567</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">General medicine — The clinical aspects of arteriosclerosis;
trichinosis, a clinical study of fifty-two sporadic cases; some further
investigations and observations upon the pathology of rheumatic fever; etiology
of chronic arthritis; Grave's disease, A. VV. Dunbar and T. W. Richards.. 578</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;">Prospectus of United States Naval Medical School, Washington, D. C 585</p>
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The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus Panthera. It is most recognisable for its black stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ungulates, such as deer and wild boar. It is territorial and generally a solitary but social predator, requiring large contiguous areas of habitat to support its requirements for prey and rearing of its offspring. Tiger cubs stay with their mother for about two years and then become independent, leaving their mother's home range to establish their own.
The tiger was first scientifically described in 1758. It once ranged widely from the Eastern Anatolia Region in the west to the Amur River basin in the east, and in the south from the foothills of the Himalayas to Bali in the Sunda Islands. Since the early 20th century, tiger populations have lost at least 93% of their historic range and have been extirpated from Western and Central Asia, the islands of Java and Bali, and in large areas of Southeast and South Asia and China. What remains of the range where tigers still roam free is fragmented, stretching in spots from Siberian temperate forests to subtropical and tropical forests on the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and a single Indonesian island, Sumatra.
The tiger is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. India hosts the largest tiger population. Major reasons for population decline are habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching. Tigers are also victims of human–wildlife conflict, due to encroachment in countries with a high human population density.
The tiger is among the most recognisable and popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. It featured prominently in the ancient mythology and folklore of cultures throughout its historic range and continues to be depicted in modern films and literature, appearing on many flags, coats of arms and as mascots for sporting teams. The tiger is the national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and South Korea.
Etymology
The Middle English tigre and Old English tigras derive from Old French tigre, from Latin tigris. This was a borrowing of Classical Greek τίγρις 'tigris', a foreign borrowing of unknown origin meaning 'tiger' and the river Tigris. The generic name Panthera is derived from the Latin word panthera and the Ancient Greek word πάνθηρ pánthēr.
Taxonomy
In 1758, Carl Linnaeus described the tiger in his work Systema Naturae and gave it the scientific name Felis tigris. In 1929, the British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the species under the genus Panthera using the scientific name Panthera tigris.
Subspecies
Following Linnaeus's first descriptions of the species, several tiger zoological specimens were described and proposed as subspecies. The validity of several tiger subspecies was questioned in 1999. Most putative subspecies described in the 19th and 20th centuries were distinguished on the basis of fur length and colouration, striping patterns and body size, hence characteristics that vary widely within populations. Morphologically, tigers from different regions vary little, and gene flow between populations in those regions is considered to have been possible during the Pleistocene. Therefore, it was proposed to recognize only two tiger subspecies as valid, namely P. t. tigris in mainland Asia, and P. t. sondaica in the Greater Sunda Islands. Mainland tigers are described as being larger in size with generally lighter fur and fewer stripes, while island tigers are smaller due to insular dwarfism, with darker coats and more numerous stripes. The stripes of island tigers may break up into spotted patterns.
This two-subspecies proposal was reaffirmed in 2015 by a comprehensive analysis of morphological, ecological and molecular traits of all putative tiger subspecies using a combined approach. The authors proposed recognition of only two subspecies, namely P. t. tigris comprising the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese, South Chinese, Siberian and Caspian tiger populations of continental Asia, and P. t. sondaica comprising the Javan, Bali and Sumatran tiger populations of the Sunda Islands. The continental nominate subspecies P. t. tigris constitutes two clades: a northern clade composed of the Siberian and Caspian tiger populations, and a southern clade composed of all other mainland populations. The authors noted that this two-subspecies reclassification will impact tiger conservation management. It would make captive breeding programs and future re-wilding of zoo-born tigers easier, as one tiger population could then be used to reinforce another. However, there is the risk that the loss of subspecies uniqueness could lead to less protection efforts for specific populations.
In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy in accordance with the two-subspecies proposal of the comprehensive 2015 study, and recognized the tiger populations in continental Asia as P. t. tigris, and those in the Sunda Islands as P. t. sondaica. This two-subspecies view is still disputed by researchers, since the currently recognized six living subspecies can be distinguished genetically. Results of a 2018 whole-genome sequencing of 32 samples support six monophyletic tiger clades corresponding with the six living subspecies and indicate they descended from a common ancestor around 110,000 years ago.[14] Studies in 2021 and 2023 also affirmed the genetic distinctiveness and separation of these tigers.
The tiger's closest living relatives were previously thought to be the Panthera species lion, leopard and jaguar. Results of genetic analysis indicate that about 2.88 million years ago, the tiger and the snow leopard lineages diverged from the other Panthera species, and that both may be more closely related to each other than to the lion, leopard and jaguar.
The fossil species Panthera palaeosinensis of early Pleistocene northern China was described as a possible tiger ancestor when it was discovered in 1924, but modern cladistics place it as basal to modern Panthera.Panthera zdanskyi, which lived around the same time and place, was suggested to be a sister taxon of the modern tiger when it was examined in 2014. However, as of 2023, at least two recent studies considered P. zdanskyi likely to be a synonym of P. palaeosinensis, noting that its proposed differences from that species fell within the range of individual variation. The earliest appearance of the modern tiger species in the fossil record are jaw fragments from Lantion in China that are dated to the early Pleistocene. Middle to late Pleistocene tiger fossils were found throughout China, Sumatra and Java. Prehistoric subspecies include Panthera tigris trinilensis and P. t. soloensis of Java and Sumatra, and P. t. acutidens of China; late Pleistocene and early Holocene fossils of tigers were also found in Borneo and Palawan, Philippines.
Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that all living tigers had a common ancestor 108,000 to 72,000 years ago.[27] A 2022 paleogenomic study of a Pleistocene tiger basal to living tigers concluded that modern tiger populations spread across Asia no earlier than 94,000 years ago. There is evidence of interbreeding between the lineage of modern mainland tigers and these ancient tigers. The potential tiger range during the late Pleistocene and Holocene was predicted applying ecological niche modelling based on more than 500 tiger locality records combined with bioclimatic data. The resulting model shows a contiguous tiger range at the Last Glacial Maximum, indicating gene flow between tiger populations in mainland Asia. The tiger populations on the Sunda Islands and mainland Asia were possibly separated during interglacial periods.
The tiger's full genome sequence was published in 2013. It was found to have repeat compositions much as other cat genomes and "an appreciably conserved synteny".
Hybrids
Captive tigers were bred with lions to create hybrids called liger and tigon. The former born to a female tiger and male lion and the latter the result of a male tiger and female lion. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species. Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, ligers grow far larger than either parent species. By contrast, the male tiger does not pass on a growth-promoting gene and the lioness passes on a growth inhibiting gene, hence tigons are around the same size as either species. Breeding hybrids is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conservation.
Characteristics
The tiger has a typical felid morphology. It has a muscular body with strong forelimbs, a large head and a tail that is about half the length of the rest of its body. There are five digits on the front feet and four on the back, all of which have retractable claws which are compact and curved. The ears are rounded, while the eyes have a round pupil. The tiger's skull is large and robust, with a constricted front region, proportionally small, elliptical orbits, long nasal bones, and a lengthened cranium with a large sagittal crest. It is similar to a lion's skull; with the structure of the lower jaw and length of the nasals being the most reliable indicators for species identification. The tiger has fairly robust teeth and its somewhat curved canines are the longest in the cat family at 6.4–7.6 cm (2.5–3.0 in). It has an average bite force at the canine tips of 1234.3 Newton.
Size
The tiger is considered to be the largest living felid species. However, there is some debate over averages compared to the lion. Since tiger populations vary greatly in size, the "average" size for a tiger may be less than a lion, while the biggest tigers are bigger than their lion counterparts. The Siberian and Bengal tigers, along with the extinct Caspian are considered to be the largest of the species while the island tigers are the smallest. The Sumatran tiger is the smallest living tiger while the extinct Bali tiger was even smaller. It has been hypothesised that body size of different tiger populations may be correlated with climate and be explained by thermoregulation and Bergmann's rule. Male tigers are larger than females.
Tiger fur tends to be short, except in the northern-living Siberian tiger. It has a mane-like heavy growth of fur around the neck and jaws and long whiskers, especially in males. Its colouration is generally orange, but can vary from light yellow to dark red. White fur covers the ventral surface, along with parts of the face. It also has a prominent white spot on the back of their ears which are surrounded by black. The tiger is marked with distinctive black or dark brown stripes; the patterns of which are unique in each individual, The stripes are mostly vertical, but those on the limbs and forehead are horizonal. They are more concentrated towards the posterior and those on the trunk may or may not reach under the belly. The tips of stripes are generally sharp and some have gaps within them. Tail stripes are thick bands and a black tip marks the end.
Stripes are likely advantageous for camouflage in vegetation with vertical patterns of light and shade, such as trees and long grass. This is supported by a 1987 Fourier analysis study which concluded that the spatial frequencies of tiger stripes line up with their environment. The tiger is one of only a few striped cat species; it is not known why spotted patterns and rosettes are the more common camouflage pattern among felids. The orange colour may also aid in concealment as the tiger's prey are dichromats, and thus may perceive the cat as green and blended in with the vegetation. The white dots on the ear may play a role in communication.
Three colour variants – white, golden and nearly stripeless snow white are now virtually non-existent in the wild due to the reduction of wild tiger populations, but continue in captive populations. The white tiger has a white background colour with sepia-brown stripes. The golden tiger is pale golden with reddish-brown stripes. The snow white tiger is a morph with extremely faint stripes and a pale reddish-brown ringed tail. White and golden morphs are the result of an autosomal recessive trait with a white locus and a wideband locus respectively. The snow white variation is caused by polygenes with both the white and wideband loci. The breeding of white tigers is controversial, as they have no use for conservation. Only 0.001% of wild tigers have the genes for this colour morph, and the overrepresentation of white tigers in captivity is the result of inbreeding. Hence their continued breeding will risk both inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variability in captive tigers.
Pseudo-melanistic tigers with thick, merged stripes have been recorded in Simlipal National Park and three Indian zoos; population genetic analysis of Indian tiger samples revealed that this phenotype is caused by a mutation of a transmembrane aminopeptidase gene. Around 37% of the Simlipal tiger population has this feature, which has been linked to genetic isolation.
The tiger historically ranged from eastern Pakistan to Indochina, and from southeastern Siberia to Sumatra, Java and Bali. The Caspian tiger lived from eastern Turkey and the South Caucasus to northern Afghanistan and western China. The Tibetan Plateau and the Alborz acted as barriers to the species distribution. As of 2022, it inhabits less than 7% of its historical distribution, and has a scattered range that includes the Indian subcontinent, the Indochinese Peninsula, Sumatra, the Russian Far East and northeastern China.
The tiger mainly lives in forest habitats and is highly adaptable. Records in Central Asia indicate that it occurred foremost in Tugay riverine forests and inhabited hilly and lowland forests in the Caucasus. In the Amur-Ussuri region, it inhabits Korean pine and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, where riparian forests provide food and water, and serve as dispersal corridors for both tiger and ungulates. On the Indian subcontinent, it inhabits mainly tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist evergreen forests, tropical dry forests, alluvial plains and the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans. In the Eastern Himalayas, tigers were documented in temperate forest up to an elevation of 4,200 m (13,800 ft) in Bhutan and of 3,630 m (11,910 ft) in the Mishmi Hills. In Thailand, it lives in deciduous and evergreen forests. In Sumatra, tigers range from lowland peat swamp forests to rugged montane forests.
Camera trap data show that tigers in Chitwan National Park avoided locations frequented by people and were more active at night than by day. In Sundarbans National Park, six radio-collared tigers were most active in the early morning with a peak around dawn and moved an average distance of 4.6 km (2.9 mi) per day. A three-year long camera trap survey in Shuklaphanta National Park revealed that tigers were most active from dusk until midnight. In northeastern China, tigers were crepuscular and active at night with activity peaking at dawn and at dusk; they exhibited a high temporal overlap with ungulate species.
As with other felid species, tigers groom themselves, maintaining their coats by licking them and spreading oil from their sebaceous glands. It will take to water, particularly on hot days. It is a powerful swimmer and easily transverses across rivers as wide as 8 km (5.0 mi). Adults only occasionally climbs trees, but have been recorded climbing 10 m (33 ft) up a smooth pipal tree. In general, tigers are less capable tree climbers than many other cats due to their size, but cubs under 16 months old may routinely do so.
Adult tigers lead largely solitary lives. They establish and maintain home ranges, the size of which mainly depends on prey abundance, geographic area and sex of the individual. Males and females defend their home ranges from those of the same sex, and the home range of a male encompasses that of multiple females. Two females in the Sundarbans had home ranges of 10.6 and 14.1 km2 (4.1 and 5.4 sq mi). In Panna Tiger Reserve, the home ranges of five reintroduced females varied from 53–67 km2 (20–26 sq mi) in winter to 55–60 km2 (21–23 sq mi) in summer and to 46–94 km2 (18–36 sq mi) during monsoon; three males had 84–147 km2 (32–57 sq mi) large home ranges in winter, 82–98 km2 (32–38 sq mi) in summer and 81–118 km2 (31–46 sq mi) during monsoon seasons. In Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, seven resident females had home ranges of 44.1–122.3 km2 (17.0–47.2 sq mi) and four resident males of 174.8–417.5 km2 (67.5–161.2 sq mi). Four male problem tigers in Sumatra were translocated to national parks and needed 6–17 weeks to establish new home ranges of 37.5–188.1 km2 (14.5–72.6 sq mi). Ten solitary females in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve had home ranges of 413.5 ± 77.6 km2 (159.7 ± 30.0 sq mi); when they had cubs of up to 4 months of age, their home ranges declined to 177.3 ± 53.5 km2 (68.5 ± 20.7 sq mi) and steadily grew to 403.3 ± 105.1 km2 (155.7 ± 40.6 sq mi) until the cubs were 13–18 months old.
The tiger is a long-ranging species, and individuals disperse over distances of up to 650 km (400 mi) to reach tiger populations in other areas. Young tigresses establish their first territories close to their mother's. Males, however, migrate further than their female counterparts and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. Four radio-collared females in Chitwan dispersed between 0 and 43.2 km (0.0 and 26.8 mi), and 10 males between 9.5 and 65.7 km (5.9 and 40.8 mi). A young male may have to live as a transient in another male's territory until he is older and strong enough to challenge the resident male. Young males thus have an annual mortality rate of up to 35%. By contrast, young female tigers die at a rate of only around 5%. Tigers mark their territories by spraying urine on vegetation and rocks, clawing or scent rubbing trees, and marking trails with feces, anal gland secretions and ground scrapings.Scent markings also allow an individual to pick up information on another's identity. A tigress in oestrus will signal her availability by scent marking more frequently and increasing her vocalisations. Unclaimed territories, particularly those that belonged to a decreased individual, can be taken over in days or weeks.
Male tigers are generally less tolerant of other males within their territories than females are of other females. Territory disputes are usually solved by intimidation rather than outright violence. Once dominance has been established, a male may tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close quarters. The most serious disputes tend to occur between two males competing for a female in oestrus. Though tigers mostly live alone, relationships between individuals can be complex. Tigers are particularly social at kills, and a male tiger will share a carcass with the females and cubs within this territory and unlike male lions, will allow them to feed on the kill before he is finished with it. Though the female and male act amicably, females are more tense towards each other at a kill.
Communication
During friendly encounters and bonding, tigers rub against each others' bodies. Facial expressions include the "defense threat", which involves a wrinkled face, bared teeth, pulled-back ears, and widened pupils. Both males and females show a flehmen response, a characteristic grimace, when sniffing urine markings. Males also use the flehman to detect the markings made by tigresses in oestrus. Tigers also use their tails to signal their mood. To show cordiality, the tail sticks up and sways slowly, while an apprehensive tiger lowers its tail or wags it side-to-side. When calm, the tail hangs low.
Tigers are normally silent but can produce numerous vocalisations. They roar to signal their presence to other individuals over long distances. This vocalisation is forced through an open mouth as it closes and can be heard 3 km (1.9 mi) away. A tiger may roar three or four times in a row, and others may respond in kind. Tigers also roar during mating, and a mother will roar to call her cubs to her. When tense, tigers will moan, a sound similar to a roar but softer and made when the mouth is at least partially closed. Moaning can be heard 400 m (1,300 ft) away.
Aggressive encounters involve growling, snarling and hissing. An explosive "coughing roar" or "coughing snarl" is emitted through an open mouth and exposed teeth. Chuffing—soft, low-frequency snorting similar to purring in smaller cats—is heard in more friendly situations. Mother tigers communicate with their cubs by grunting, while cubs call back with miaows. A "woof" sound is produced when the animal is startled. It has also been recording emitting a deer-like "pok" sound for unknown reasons, but most often at kills.
Hunting and diet
The tiger is a carnivore and an apex predator feeding mainly on ungulates, with a particular preference for sambar deer, Manchurian wapiti, barasingha and wild boar. Tigers kill large prey like gaur, but opportunistically kill much smaller prey like monkeys, peafowl and other ground-based birds, porcupines and fish. Tiger attacks on adult Asian elephants and Indian rhinoceros have also been reported. More often, tigers take the more vulnerable small calves. When in close proximity to humans, tigers sometimes prey on domestic livestock and dogs. Tigers occasionally consume vegetation, fruit and minerals for dietary fibre.
Tigers learn to hunt from their mothers, which is important but not necessary for their success. They usually hunt alone, but families hunt together when cubs are old enough. A tiger travels up to 19.3 km (12.0 mi) per day in search of prey, using vision and hearing to find a target. It also waits at a watering hole for prey to come by, particularly during hot summer days. It is an ambush predator and when approaching potential prey, the tiger crouches, with head lowered, and hides in foliage. The tiger switches between creeping forward and staying still. Tigers have been recorded dozing off while in still mode, and can stay in the same spot for as long as a day waiting for prey and launches an attack, when the prey is close enough. It can sprint 56 km/h (35 mph) and leap 10 m (33 ft).
Tiger Reserve
The tiger attacks from behind or at the sides and tries to knock the target off balance. It latches onto prey with its forelimbs, twisting and turning during the struggle. The tiger generally applies a bite to the throat until its target dies of strangulation. Holding onto the throat puts the cat out of reach of the horns, antlers, tusks and hooves. Tigers are adaptable killers and may use other methods, including ripping the throat or breaking the neck. Large prey may be disabled by a bite to the back of the hock, severing the tendon. Swipes from the large paws are capable of stunning or breaking to skull of a water buffalo. They kill small prey with a bite to the back of the neck or skull. Estimates of the success rate for hunting tigers ranges from a low 5% to a high of 50%.
The tiger typically drags its kill for 183–549 m (600–1,801 ft) to a hidden, usually vegetated spot before eating. The tiger has the strength to drag the carcass of a fully grown buffalo for some distance, a feat three men struggle with. It rests for a while before eating and can consume as much as 50 kg (110 lb) of meat in one session, but feeds on a carcass for several days, leaving very little for scavengers.
Enemies and competitors
Tigers may kill and even prey on other predators they coexist with. In much of their range, tigers share habitat with leopards and dholes. They typically dominate both of them, though large packs of dholes can drive away a tiger, or even kill it. Tigers appear to inhabit the deep parts of a forest while these smaller predators are pushed closer to the fringes. The three predators coexist by hunting different prey. In one study, tigers were found to have killed prey that weighed an average of 91.5 kg (202 lb), in contrast to 37.6 kg (83 lb) for the leopard and 43.4 kg (96 lb) for the dhole. Leopards can live successfully in tiger habitat when there is abundant food and vegetation cover, and there is no evidence of competitive exclusion common to the African savanna, where the leopard lives beside the lion. Nevertheless, leopards avoid areas were tigers roam and are less common where tigers are numerous.
Tigers tend to be wary of sloth bears, with their sharp claws, quickness and ability to stand on two legs. Tiger do sometimes prey on sloth bears by ambushing them when they are feeding at termite mounds. Siberian tigers may attack, kill and prey on Ussuri brown and Ussuri black bears. In turn, some studies show that brown bears frequently track down tigers to usurp their kills, with occasional fatal outcomes for the tiger.
Reproduction and life cycle
The tiger mates all year round, but most cubs are born between March and June, with another peak in September. A tigress is in oestrus for three to six days, inbetween three to nine week intervals. A resident male mates with all the females within his territory, who signal their receptiveness by roaring and marking. Younger, transient males are also attracted, leading to a fight in which the more dominant male drives the usurper off. During courtship, the male is cautious with the female as he waits for her to show signs she is ready to mate. She signals to him by positioning herself in lordosis with their tail to the side. Copulation is generally 20 to 25 seconds long, with the male biting the female by the scruff of her neck. After it is finished, the male quickly pulls away as the female may turn and slap him. Tiger pairs may stay together for up to four days and mate multiple times. Gestation ranges from 93 to 114 days, with an average of 103 to 105 days.
A tigress gives birth in a secluded location, be it in dense vegetation, in a cave or under a rocky shelter. Litters consist of as many seven cubs, but two or three are more typical. Newborn cubs weigh 785–1,610 g (27.7–56.8 oz), and are blind and altricial. The mother licks and cleans her cubs, suckles them and viscously defends them from any potential threat. She will only leave them alone to hunt, and even then does not travel far. When a mother suspects an area is no longer safe, she moves her cubs to a new spot, transporting them one by one by grabbing them by the scruff of the neck with her mouth. The mortality rate for tiger cubs can reach 50% during these early months, causes of death include predators like dholes, leopards and pythons. Young are able to see in a week, can leave the denning site in two months and around the same time they start eating meat.
After around two months, the cubs are able to follow their mother. They still hide in vegetation when she goes hunting, and she will guide them to the kill. Cubs bond though play fighting and practice stalking. A hierarchy develops in the litter, with the biggest cub, often a male, being the most dominant and the first to eat its fill at a kill. Around the age of six months, cubs are fully weaned and have more freedom to explore their environment. Between eight and ten months, they accompany their mother on hunts. A cub can make a kill as early as 11 months, and reach independence around 18 to 24 months of age, males becoming independent earlier than females. Radio-collared tigers in Chitwan started dispersing from their natal areas earliest at the age of 19 months. Young females are sexual mature at three to four years, whereas males are at four to five years. Tigers may live up to 26 years.
Tiger fathers play no role in raising the young, but he may encounter and interact with them. Resident males appear to visit the female-cub families within his territory. They have when observed swimming with females and their cubs and even sharing kills with them. One male was recorded looking after cubs whose mother had died. By defending his territory, the male is also protecting the females and cubs from harassment by other males. When a new male takes over a territory, cubs under a year old are at risk of being killed, as the male would want to sire his own young with the females. Older female cubs are tolerated but males may be treated as potential competitors.
Threats
Major threats to the tiger include habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching for fur and body parts, which have simultaneously greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. In India, only 11% of the historical tiger habitat remains due to habitat fragmentation. Demand for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine has also been cited as a major threat to tiger populations.
In China, tigers became the target of large-scale 'anti-pest' campaigns in the early 1950s, where suitable habitats were fragmented following deforestation and resettlement of people to rural areas, who hunted tigers and prey species. Though tiger hunting was prohibited in 1977, the population continued to decline and is considered extinct in southern China since 2001.
In Bangladesh, tiger body parts like skins, bones, teeth and hair are consumed locally by wealthy Bangladeshis and are illegally trafficked to 15 countries including India, China, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and the United Kingdom via land borders, airports and seaports.
Conservation
Internationally, the tiger is protected under CITES Appendix I, banning trade of live tigers and their body parts.[1] In India, it has been protected since 1972 under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. In 1973, Project Tiger was founded to gain public support for tiger conservation, and 53 tiger reserves covering an area of 75,796 km2 (29,265 sq mi) have been established in the country until 2022. In Nepal, it has been protected since 1973 under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973. In Bhutan, it has been protected since 1969; the first Tiger Action Plan implemented during 2006–2015 revolved around habitat conservation, human–wildlife conflict management, education and awareness; the second Action Plan aimed at increasing the country’s tiger population by 20% until 2023 compared to 2015. In Bangladesh, it has been protected since 1973 under the Wildlife (Preservation) Act and the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012. In 2009, the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan was initiated to stabilize the country's tiger population, maintain habitat and a sufficient prey base, improve law enforcement and cooperation between governmental agencies responsible for tiger conservation. Myanmar’s national tiger conservation strategy developed in 2003 comprises management tasks such as restoration of degraded habitats, increasing the extent of protected areas and wildlife corridors, protecting tiger prey species, thwarting of tiger killing and illegal trade of its body parts, and promoting public awareness through wildlife education programs.
Global wild tiger population
CountryYearEstimate
India India20233682–3925
Russia Russia2020480–540
Indonesia Indonesia2016400–600
Bangladesh Bangladesh2014300–500
Nepal Nepal2022355
Thailand Thailand2023189
Bhutan Bhutan2023131
Malaysia Malaysia2022<150
China China201855
Myanmar Myanmar201822
Total5,764–6,467
In the 1990s, a new approach to tiger conservation was developed: Tiger Conservation Units (TCUs), which are blocks of habitat that have the potential to host tiger populations in 15 habitat types within five bioregions. Altogether 143 TCUs were identified and prioritized based on size and integrity of habitat, poaching pressure and population status. They range in size from 33 to 155,829 km2 (13 to 60,166 sq mi).
In 2016, an estimate of a global wild tiger population of approximately 3,890 individuals was presented during the Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. The WWF subsequently declared that the world's count of wild tigers had risen for the first time in a century.
Some estimates suggest that there are fewer than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals. India is home to the world's largest population of wild tigers. A 2014 census estimated a population of 2,226, a 30% increase since 2011. On International Tiger Day 2019, the 'Tiger Estimation Report 2018' was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report estimates a population of 2967 tigers in India with 25% increase since 2014. Modi said "India is one of the safest habitats for tigers as it has achieved the target of doubling the tiger population from 1411 in 2011 to 2967 in 2019". As of 2022, India accounts for 75 percent of global tiger population. The Tiger Census of 2023 reports tiger population in India at 3167.
In the 1940s, the Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals remaining in the wild in Russia. As a result, anti-poaching controls were put in place by the Soviet Union and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were instituted, leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the 1990s, when the economy of Russia collapsed. The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require, up to 450 km (280 mi) needed by a single female and more for a single male. Current conservation efforts are led by local governments and NGO's in concert with international organisations, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to convince hunters to tolerate the big cats. Tigers have less impact on ungulate populations than do wolves, and are effective in controlling the latter's numbers. In 2005, there were thought to be about 360 animals in Russia, though these exhibited little genetic diversity. However, in a decade later, the Siberian tiger census was estimated from 480 to 540 individuals.
Having earlier rejected the Western-led environmentalist movement, China changed its stance in the 1980s and became a party to the CITES treaty. By 1993 it had banned the trade in tiger parts, and this diminished the use of tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine. The Tibetan people's trade in tiger skins has also been a threat to tigers. The pelts were used in clothing, tiger-skin chuba being worn as fashion. In 2006 the 14th Dalai Lama was persuaded to take up the issue. Since then there has been a change of attitude, with some Tibetans publicly burning their chubas.
In 1994, the Indonesian Sumatran Tiger Conservation Strategy addressed the potential crisis that tigers faced in Sumatra. The Sumatran Tiger Project (STP) was initiated in June 1995 in and around the Way Kambas National Park to ensure the long-term viability of wild Sumatran tigers and to accumulate data on tiger life-history characteristics vital for the management of wild populations. By August 1999, the teams of the STP had evaluated 52 sites of potential tiger habitat in Lampung Province, of which only 15 these were intact enough to contain tigers. In the framework of the STP a community-based conservation program was initiated to document the tiger-human dimension in the park to enable conservation authorities to resolve tiger-human conflicts based on a comprehensive database rather than anecdotes and opinions.
The Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera Corporation formed the collaboration Tigers Forever, with field sites including the world's largest tiger reserve, the 21,756 km2 (8,400 sq mi) Hukaung Valley in Myanmar. Other reserves were in the Western Ghats in India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Russian Far East covering in total about 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi).
Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. Tiger population have been estimated using plaster casts of their pugmarks, although this method was criticized as being inaccurate. More recent techniques include the use of camera traps and studies of DNA from tiger scat, while radio-collaring has been used to track tigers in the wild. Tiger spray has been found to be just as good, or better, as a source of DNA than scat.
Relationship with humans
A tiger hunt is painted on the Bhimbetka rock shelters in India and dated to 5,000–6,000 years ago. Thousands of years later, Emperor Samudragupta was depicted slaying tigers on coins. Tiger hunting became an established sport under the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. The cats were chased on horseback and killed with spears. Emperor Akbar participated in such activities and one of his hunts is the subject of a painting from the Akbarnama. Following Akbar, Emperor Jahangir will introduce musket to tiger hunts and eventually, elephant would be ridden. The British East India Company would pay for bounties on tigers as early as 1757 and tiger hunting would continue under British Raj. Tiger killings were particularly high in the 19th and early 20th centuries; as an estimated 80,000 cats were killed between 1875 and 1925. King George V on his visit to Colonial India in 1911 killed 39 tigers in a matter of 10 days.
Historically, tigers have been hunted at a large scale so their famous striped skins could be collected. The trade in tiger skins peaked in the 1960s, just before international conservation efforts took effect. By 1977, a tiger skin in an English market was considered to be worth US$4,250.
Body part use
Tiger parts are commonly used as amulets in South and Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, the fossils in Palawan were found besides stone tools. This, besides the evidence for cuts on the bones, and the use of fire, suggests that early humans had accumulated the bones. and the condition of the tiger subfossils, dated to approximately 12,000 to 9,000 years ago, differed from other fossils in the assemblage, dated to the Upper Paleolithic. The tiger subfossils showed longitudinal fracture of the cortical bone due to weathering, which suggests that they had post-mortem been exposed to light and air. Tiger canines were found in Ambangan sites dating to the 10th to 12th centuries in Butuan, Mindanao.
Many people in China and other parts of Asia have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs. There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offences in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993.
However, the trading of tiger parts in Asia has become a major black market industry and governmental and conservation attempts to stop it have been ineffective to date. Almost all black marketers engaged in the trade are based in China and have either been shipped and sold within their own country or into Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. The Chinese subspecies was almost completely decimated by killing for commerce due to both the parts and skin trades in the 1950s through the 1970s. Contributing to the illegal trade, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specialising in breeding them for profit. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today. However, many tigers for traditional medicine black market are wild ones shot or snared by poachers and may be caught anywhere in the tiger's remaining range (from Siberia to India to the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra). In the Asian black market, a tiger penis can be worth the equivalent of around $300 U.S. dollars. In the years of 1990 through 1992, 27 million products with tiger derivatives were found. In July 2014 at an international convention on endangered species in Geneva, Switzerland, a Chinese representative admitted for the first time his government was aware trading in tiger skins was occurring in China.
Attacks
Tigers are said to have directly killed more people than any other wild mammal. In most areas, the big cats typically avoid humans, but attacks are a risk wherever people coexist with them. Dangerous encounters are more likely to occur in edge habitats, between wild and agricultural areas.[196] Most attacks on humans are defensive, including protection of young. However, tiger do sometimes see people as potential prey. Tigers hunt people the same way they hunt other prey, by ambush and with a killing bite to the neck. A tiger inflicted wound also carries the risk of infection. Man-eating tigers tend to be old and disabled. Those they have been driven from their home ranges and territories are also at risk of turning to man-eating.
The Champawat Tiger was responsible for an estimated 434 human deaths in Nepal and India before she was shot by famed hunter Jim Corbett. Corbett recorded that the tigress suffered from broken teeth and thus unable to kill normal prey. Modern authors speculate that feeding on meagre human flesh forced the cat to kill more and more. Tiger attacks were particularly high in Singapore during the mid-19th century, when plantations expanded into the animal's habitat. The number of deaths ranged from 200 to 300 annually in the 1840s.
Tiger predation on humans is highest in the Sundarbans. An estimated 129 people were killed between 1969 and 1971. In the 10 years prior to that period, about 100 attacks per year in the Sundarbans. Victims of tigers attacks are local villagers who enter the tiger's domain to collect resources like wood and honey. Fishermen have been particularly common targets. Methods to counter tiger attacks have included face-masks (worn backwards), protective clothes, sticks and carefully stationed electric dummies. These tools have been credited with reducing tiger attacks to only 22 per year in the 1980s. Because of rapid habitat loss attributed to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in the Sundarbans in the 21 century.
In captivity
Tigers have been kept in captivity since ancient times. In ancient Rome, tigers were displayed in amphitheaters; they were slaughtered in hunts and used for public executions of criminals. Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan is reported to have kept tigers in the 13th century. Starting in the Middle Ages, tigers were being kept in European menageries. In 1830, two tigers and a lion were accidentally put in the same exhibit at the Tower of London. This lead to a fight between them and, after they were separated, the lion died of its wounds. Tigers and other exotic animals were mainly used for the entertainment of elites but from the 19th century onward, they were exhibited more to the public. Tigers were particularly big attractions, and their captive population soared.
Tigers have played prominent roles in circuses and other live performances. Ringling Bros included many tiger trainers in the 20th century including Mabel Stark, who became a big draw and had a long career. She was well known for being able to control the big cats despite being a small woman; using "manly" tools like whips and guns. Another trainer was Clyde Beatty, who used chairs, whips and guns to provoke tigers and other beasts into acting fierce and allowed him to appear courageous. He would perform with as many as 40 tigers and lions in one act. From the 1960s onward trainers like Gunther Gebel-Williams would use gentler methods to control their animals. Tiger trainer Sara Houckle was dubbed "the Tiger Whisperer", as she trained the cats to obey her by whispering to them. Siegfried & Roy became famous for performing with white tigers in Las Vegas. The act ended in 2003 when a tiger named Mantacore attacked Roy during a performance. The use of tigers and other animals in shows would eventually decline in many countries due to pressure from animal rights groups and greater desires from the public to see them in more natural settings. Several countries would restrict or ban such acts.
Tigers have become popular in the exotic pet trade, particularly in the United States. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimated that in the US, 5,000 tigers were kept in captivity in 2020, with only 6% of them being in zoos and other facilities approved by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The WWF argues that private collectors are ill-equipped to provide proper care for tigers, which compromises their welfare. They can also threaten public safety by allowing people to interact with them. The keeping of tigers and other big cats by private individuals was banned in the US in 2022 under the Big Cat Public Safety Act. Those who owned big cats at the time of the signing were expected to register with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service before 18 June 2023. The WWF also estimated in 2020 that 7,000–8,000 tigers were held in "tiger farm" facilities in China and Southeast Asia. These tigers are bred to be used for traditional medicine and appear to pose a threat to wild populations by rising demand for tiger parts.
Cultural significance
Tiger-shaped bronze from Zhou-era China, (c. 900 bc)
The tiger is among the most famous of charismatic megafauna. It has been labelled as "a rare combination of courage, ferocity and brilliant colour". In a 2004 online poll conducted by cable television channel Animal Planet, involving more than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries, the tiger was voted the world's favourite animal with 21% of the vote, narrowly beating the dog. Likewise, a 2018 study found the tiger to be the most popular wild animal based on surveys, and appearances on websites of major zoos and posters of some animated movies.
While the lion represented royalty and power in Western culture, the tiger filled such a role in Asia. In ancient China, the tiger was seen as the "king of the forest" and symbolised the power of the emperor. In Chinese astrology, the tiger is the third out of 12 symbols in the zodiac and controls the period of the day between 3 am and 5 am. The Year of the Tiger is thought to bring "dramatic and extreme events". The White Tiger is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations, representing the west along with the yin and the season of autumn. It is the counterpart to the Azure Dragon, which conversely symbolises the east, yang and springtime. The tiger is one of the animals displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley civilisation. The big cat was depicted on seals and coins during the Chola Dynasty of southern India, as it was the official emblem.
Tigers have had religious significance, even being worshiped. In Buddhism, the tiger, monkey and deer are Three Senseless Creatures, the tiger symbolising anger. In Bhutan, the tiger is venerated as one of the four powerful animals called the "four dignities", and a tigress is believed to have carried Padmasambhava from Singye Dzong to the Paro Taktsang monastery in the late 8th century. In Korean mythology, tigers are messengers of the Mountain Gods. In Hinduism, the tiger is the vehicle for the goddess of feminine power and peace, Durga, whom the gods created to fight demons. Similarly, in the Greco-Roman world, the tiger was depicted being ridden by the god Dionysus. The Warli of western India worship the tiger-like god Waghoba. The Warli believe that shrines and sacrifices to the deity will lead to better coexistence with the local big cats, both tigers and leopards, and that Waghoba will protect them when they enter the forests. In both Chinese and Korean culture, tigers are seen as a protectors against evil spirits, and their image was used to decorate homes and tombs.
In the folklore of Malaysia and Indonesia, "tiger shamans" heal the sick by evoking the big cat. People turning into tigers and the inverse has also been widespread, in particular weretigers are people who could change into tigers and back again. The Mnong people of Indochina believed that tigers could transform into humans. Among some indigenous peoples of Siberia, it was believed that men could have sex with women after transforming into tigers.
The tiger's cultural reputation is generally that of a fierce and powerful animal. William Blake's 1794 poem "The Tyger" portrays the animal as the duality of beauty and ferocity. It is the sister poem to "The Lamb" in Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and he ponders why God would create such different creatures. The tiger is featured in the medieval Chinese novel Water Margin, where the cat battles and is slain by the bandit Wu Song, while the tiger Shere Khan in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 The Jungle Book is the mortal enemy of the human protagonist Mowgli. The image of the friendly tame tiger has also existed in culture, notably Tigger, the Winnie-the-Pooh character and Tony the Tiger, the Kellogg's cereal mascot.
This majestic view taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells an untold story of life and death in the Eagle nebula, an industrious star-making factory located 7,000 light-years away in the Serpens constellation. The image shows the region's entire network of turbulent clouds and newborn stars in infrared light.
The color green denotes cooler towers and fields of dust, including the three famous space pillars, dubbed the "Pillars of Creation," which were photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995.
But it is the color red that speaks of the drama taking place in this region. Red represents hotter dust thought to have been warmed by the explosion of a massive star about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Since light from the Eagle nebula takes 7,000 years to reach us, this "supernova" explosion would have appeared as an oddly bright star in our skies about 1,000 to 2,000 years ago.
According to astronomers' estimations, the explosion's blast wave would have spread outward and toppled the three pillars about 6,000 years ago (which means we wouldn't witness the destruction for another 1,000 years or so). The blast wave would have crumbled the mighty towers, exposing newborn stars that were buried inside, and triggering the birth of new ones.
The pillars of the Eagle nebula were originally sculpted by radiation and wind from about 20 or so massive stars hidden from view in the upper left portion of the image. The radiation and wind blew dust away, carving out a hollow cavity (center) and leaving only the densest nuggets of dust and gas (tops of pillars) flanked by columns of lighter dust that lie in shadow (base of pillars). This sculpting process led to the creation of a second generation of stars inside the pillars.
If a star did blow up in this region, it is probably located among the other massive stars in the upper left portion of the image. Its blast wave might have already caused a third generation of stars to spring from the wreckage of the busted pillars.
This image is a composite of infrared light detected by Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue is 4.5-micron light; green is 8-micron light; and red is 24-micron light.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/N. Flagey (IAS/SSC) & A. Noriega-Crespo (SSC/Caltech)
Advice to us from Harry Callahan. With the advent of digital photography the average person is able to take far more photographs than hitherto.
Callahan went out almost every morning and walked the city where he lived, taking numerous pictures. He then spent almost every afternoon making proof prints of that day's best negatives. Yet, for all his photographic activity, Callahan, at his own estimation, produced no more than half a dozen final images a year. Wikipedia
Construction, Week 55
I got this shot of the new store as seen from the current parking lot the same day as the previous photo. This look of the store under construction – with metal frameworks for the pharmacy drive-thru and vestibule gables that will eventually feature the store’s exterior signage – lasted the shortest amount of time as compared to the other looks (those being, by my estimation, structure formation, pre-gables, post-gables, and stuccoing). The only look remaining to be seen so far is “finished product,” and it's coming soon!
(c) 2016 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)