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Hermann Herdtle (1848-1926)
Chest for the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry
Vienna, 1894
Execution: Kölbl and Threm, oil painting by Prof. Rudolf Rössler
Limewood, softwood
Executed for the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, at the expense of the Hoftiteltaxfonds endowwnment
Hermann Herdtle (1848-1926)
Truhe für das k. k. Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie
Wien, 1894
Ausführung: Kölbl und Threm, Ölgemälde von Prof. Rudolf Rössler
Lindenholz, Weichholz
H 854/1895, ausgeführt für das k. k. Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie, zu Kosten des Hoftiteltaxfonds
The history of the Austrian Museum of Applied Art/Contemporary Art
1863 / After many years of efforts by Rudolf Eitelberger decides emperor Franz Joseph I on 7 March on the initiative of his uncle archduke Rainer, following the model of the in 1852 founded South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) the establishment of the "k.u.k. Austrian Museum for Art and Industry" and appoints Rudolf von Eitelberger, the first professor of art history at the University of Vienna director. The museum should be serving as a specimen collection for artists, industrialists, and public and as a training and education center for designers and craftsmen.
1864/ on 12th of May, opened the museum - provisionally in premises of the ball house next to the Vienna Hofburg, the architect Heinrich von Ferstel for museum purposes had adapted. First exhibited objects are loans and donations from the imperial collections, monasteries, private property and from the k.u.k. Polytechnic in Vienna. Reproductions, masters and plaster casts are standing value-neutral next originals.
1865-1897 / The Museum of Art and Industry publishes the journal Communications of Imperial (k.u.k.) Austrian Museum for Art and Industry .
1866 / Due to the lack of space in the ballroom the erection of an own museum building is accelerated. A first project of Rudolf von Eitelberger and Heinrich von Ferstel provides the integration of the museum in the project of imperial museums in front of the Hofburg Imperial Forum. Only after the failure of this project, the site of the former Exerzierfelds (parade ground) of the defense barracks before Stubentor the museum here is assigned, next to the newly created city park at the still being under development Rind Road.
1867 / Theoretical and practical training are combined with the establishment of the School of Applied Arts. This will initially be housed in the old gun factory, Währinger street 11-13/Schwarzspanier street 17, Vienna 9.
1868 / With the construction of the building at Stubenring is started as soon as it is approved by emperor Franz Joseph I. the second draft of Heinrich Ferstel.
1871 / The opening of the building at Stubering takes place after three years of construction, 15 November. Designed according to plans by Heinrich von Ferstel in the Renaissance style, it is the first built museum building at the Ring. Objects from now on could be placed permanently and arranged according to main materials. / / The School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) moves into the house at Stubenring. / / Opening of Austrian arts and crafts exhibition.
1873 / Vienna World Exhibition. / / The Museum of Art and Industry and the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts are exhibiting together at Stubenring. / / Rudolf von Eitelberger organizes in the framework of the World Exhibition the worldwide first international art scientific congress in Vienna, thus emphasizing the orientation of the Museum on teaching and research. / / During the World Exhibition major purchases for the museum from funds of the Ministry are made, eg 60 pages of Indo-Persian Journal Mughal manuscript Hamzanama.
1877 / decision on the establishment of taxes for the award of Hoftiteln (court titels). With the collected amounts the local art industry can be promoted. / / The new building of the School of Arts and Crafts, adjoining the museum, Stubenring 3, also designed by Heinrich von Ferstel, is opened.
1878 / participation of the Museum of Art and Industry as well as of the School of Arts and Crafts at the Paris World Exhibition.
1884 / founding of the Vienna Arts and Crafts Association with seat in the museum. Many well-known companies and workshops (led by J. & L. Lobmeyr), personalities and professors of the School of Arts and Crafts join the Arts and Crafts Association. Undertaking of this association is to further develop all creative and executive powers the arts and craft since the 1860s has obtained. For this reason are organized various times changing, open to the public exhibitions at the Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry. The exhibits can also be purchased. These new, generously carried out exhibitions give the club the necessary national and international resonance.
1885 / After the death of Rudolf von Eitelberger, Jacob von Falke, his longtime deputy, is appointed manager. Falke plans all collection areas al well as publications to develop newly and systematically. With his popular publications he influences significantly the interior design style of the historicism in Vienna.
1888 / The Empress Maria Theresa exhibition revives the contemporary discussion with the high Baroque in the history of art and in applied arts in particular.
1895 / end of directorate of Jacob von Falke. Bruno Bucher, longtime curator of the Museum of metal, ceramic and glass, and since 1885 deputy director, is appointed director.
1896 / The Vienna Congress exhibition launches the confrontation with the Empire and Biedermeier style, the sources of inspiration of Viennese Modernism.
1897 / end of the directorate of Bruno Bucher. Arthur von Scala, director of the Imperial Oriental Museum in Vienna since its founding in 1875 (renamed Imperial Austrian Trade Museum 1887), takes over the management of the Museum of Art and Industry. / / Scala wins Otto Wagner, Felician of Myrbach, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Alfred Roller to work at the museum and School of Arts and Crafts. / / The style of the Secession is crucial for the Arts and Crafts School. Scala propagates the example of the Arts and Crafts Movement and makes appropriate acquisitions for the museum's collection.
1898 / Due to differences between Scala and the Arts and Crafts Association, which sees its influence on the Museum wane, archduke Rainer puts down his function as protector. / / New statutes are written.
1898-1921 / The Museum magazine Art and Crafts replaces the Mittheilungen (Communications) and soon gaines international reputation.
1900 / The administration of Museum and Arts and Crafts School is disconnected.
1904 / The Exhibition of Old Vienna porcelain, the to this day most comprehensive presentation on this topic, brings with the by the Museum in 1867 definitely taken over estate of the "k.u.k. Aerarial Porcelain Manufactory" (Vienna Porcelain Manufactory) important pieces of collectors from all parts of the Habsburg monarchy together.
1907 / The Museum of Art and Industry takes over the majority of the inventories of the Imperial Austrian Trade Museum, including the by Arthur von Scala founded Asia collection and the extensive East Asian collection of Heinrich von Siebold .
1908 / Integration of the Museum of Art and Industry in the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Public Works.
1909 / separation of Museum and Arts and Crafts School, the latter remains subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Education. / / After three years of construction, the according to plans of Ludwig Baumann extension building of the museum (now Weiskirchnerstraße 3, Wien 1) is opened. The museum thereby receives rooms for special and permanent exhibitions. / / Arthur von Scala retires, Eduard Leisching follows him as director. / / Revision of the statutes.
1909 / Archduke Carl exhibition. For the centenary of the Battle of Aspern. / / The Biedermeier style is discussed in exhibitions and art and arts and crafts.
1914 / Exhibition of works by the Austrian Art Industry from 1850 to 1914, a competitive exhibition that highlights, among other things, the role model of the museum for arts and crafts in the fifty years of its existence.
1919 / After the founding of the First Republic it comes to assignments of former imperial possession to the museum, for example, of oriental carpets that are shown in an exhibition in 1920. The Museum now has one of the finest collections of oriental carpets worldwide.
1920 / As part of the reform of museums of the First Republic, the collection areas are delimited. The Antiquities Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is given away to the Museum of Art History.
1922 / The exhibition of glasses of classicism, the Empire and Biedermeier time offers with precious objects from the museum and private collections an overview of the art of glassmaking from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. / / Biedermeier glass serves as a model for contemporary glass production and designs, such as of Josef Hoffmann.
1922 / affiliation of the museal inventory of the royal table and silver collection to the museum. Until the institutional separation the former imperial household and table decoration is co-managed by the Museum of Art and Industry and is inventoried for the first time by Richard Ernst.
1925 / After the end of the directorate of Eduard Leisching, Hermann Trenkwald is appointed director.
1926 / The exhibition Gothic in Austria gives a first comprehensive overview of the Austrian panel painting and of arts and crafts of the 12th to 16th Century.
1927 / August Schestag succeeds Hermann Trenkwald as director.
1930 / The Werkbund (artists' organization) Exhibition Vienna, a first comprehensive presentation of the Austrian Werkbund, takes place on the occasion of the meeting of the Deutscher (German) Werkbund in Austria, it is organized by Josef Hoffmann in collaboration with Oskar Strnad, Josef Frank, Ernst Lichtblau and Clemens Holzmeister.
1931 / August Schestag concludes his directorate.
1932 / Richard Ernst is new director.
1936 and 1940 / In exchange with the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History), the museum at Stubenring gives away part of the sculptures and takes over arts and crafts inventories of the collection Albert Figdor and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
1937 / The Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is newly set up by Richard Ernst according to periods. / / Oskar Kokoschka exhibition on the 50th birthday of the artist.
1938 / After the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany, the museum is renamed into "National Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna".
1939-1945 / The museums are taking over numerous confiscated private collections. The collection of the "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" in this way also is enlarged.
1945 / Partial destruction of the museum building by impact of war. / / War losses on collection objects, even in the places of rescue of objects.
1946 / The return of the outsourced objects of art begins. A portion of the during the Nazi time expropriated objects is returned in the following years.
1947 / The "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" is renamed into "Austrian Museum of Applied Arts".
1948 / The "Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Stephen" organizes the exhibition The St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Museum of Applied Arts. History, monuments, reconstruction.
1949 / The Museum is reopened after repair of the war damages.
1950 / As last exhibition under director Richard Ernst takes place Great art from Austria's monasteries (Middle Ages).
1951 / Ignaz Schlosser is appointed manager.
1952 / The exhibition Social home decor, designed by Franz Schuster, makes the development of social housing in Vienna again the topic of the Museum of Applied Arts.
1955 / The comprehensive archive of the Wiener Werkstätte (workshop) is acquired.
1955-1985 / The Museum publishes the periodical ancient and modern art .
1956 / Exhibition New Form from Denmark, modern design from Scandinavia becomes topic of the museum and model.
1957 / On the occasion of the exhibition Venini Murano glass, the first presentation of Venini glass in Austria, there are significant purchases and donations for the collection of glass.
1958 / End of the directorate of Ignaz Schlosser
1959 / Viktor Griesmaier is appointed as new director.
1960 / Exhibition Artistic creation and mass production of Gustavsberg, Sweden. Role model of Swedish design for the Austrian art and crafts.
1963 / For the first time in Europe, in the context of a comprehensive exhibition art treasures from Iran are shown.
1964 / The exhibition Vienna around 1900 (organised by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna) presents for the frist time after the Second World War, inter alia, arts and crafts of Art Nouveau. / / It is started with the systematic work off of the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. / / On the occasion of the founding anniversary offers the exhibition 100 years Austrian Museum of Applied Arts using examples of historicism insights into the collection.
1965 / The Geymüllerschlössel (small castle) is as a branch of the Museum angegliedert (annexed). Simultaneously with the building came the important collection of Franz Sobek - old Viennese clocks, made between 1760 and the second half of the 19th Century - and furniture from the years 1800 to 1840 in the possession of the MAK.
1966 / In the exhibition Selection 66 selected items of modern Austrian interior designers (male and female ones) are brought together.
1967 / The Exhibition The Wiener Werkstätte. Modern Arts and Crafts from 1903 to 1932 is founding the boom that continues until today of Austria's most important design project in the 20th Century.
1968 / To Viktor Griesmaier follows Wilhelm Mrazek as director.
1969 / The exhibition Sitting 69 shows at the international modernism oriented positions of Austrian designers, inter alia by Hans Hollein.
1974 / For the first time outside of China Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China are shown in a traveling exhibition in the so-called Western world.
1979 / Gerhart Egger is appointed director.
1980 / The exhibition New Living. Viennese interior design 1918-1938 provides the first comprehensive presentation of the spatial art in Vienna during the interwar period.
1981 / Herbert Fux follows Gerhart Egger as director.
1984 / Ludwig Neustift is appointed interim director. / / Exhibition Achille Castiglioni: designer. First exhibition of the Italian designer in Austria
1986 / Peter Noever is appointed director and starts with the building up of the collection contemporary art.
1987 / Josef Hoffmann. Ornament between hope and crime is the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect and designer.
1989-1993 / General renovation of the old buildings and construction of a two-storey underground storeroom and a connecting tract. A generous deposit for the collection and additional exhibit spaces arise.
1989 / Exhibition Carlo Scarpa. The other city, the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect outside Italy.
1990 / exhibition Hidden impressions. Japonisme in Vienna 1870-1930, first exhibition on the theme of the Japanese influence on the Viennese Modernism.
1991 / exhibition Donald Judd Architecture, first major presentation of the artist in Austria.
1992 / Magdalena Jetelová domestication of a pyramid (installation in the MAK portico).
1993 / The permanent collection is newly put up, interventions of internationally recognized artists (Barbara Bloom, Eichinger oder Knechtl, Günther Förg, GANGART, Franz Graf, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Peter Noever, Manfred Wakolbinger and Heimo Zobernig) update the prospects, in the sense of "Tradition and Experiment". The halls on Stubenring accommodate furthermore the study collection and the temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists reserved gallery. The building in the Weiskirchner street is dedicated to changing exhibitions. / / The opening exhibition Vito Acconci. The City Inside Us shows a room installation by New York artist.
1994 / The Gefechtsturm (defence tower) Arenbergpark becomes branch of the MAK. / / Start of the cooperation MAK/MUAR - Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow. / / Ilya Kabakov: The Red Wagon (installation on MAK terrace plateau).
1995 / The MAK founds the branch of MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, in the Schindler House and at the Mackey Apartments, MAK Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program starts in October 1995. / / Exhibition Sergei Bugaev Africa: Krimania.
1996 / For the exhibition Philip Johnson: Turning Point designs the American doyen of architectural designing the sculpture "Viennese Trio", which is located since 1998 at the Franz-Josefs-Kai/Schottenring.
1998 / The for the exhibition James Turrell. The other Horizon designed Skyspace today stands in the garden of MAK Expositur Geymüllerschlössel. / / Overcoming the utility. Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstätte, the first comprehensive biography of the work of the designer of Wiener Werkstätte after the Second World War.
1999 / Due to the Restitution Act and the Provenance Research from now on numerous during the Nazi time confiscated objects are returned.
2000 / Outsourcing of Federal Museums, transformation of the museum into a "scientific institution under public law". / / The exhibition Art and Industry. The beginnings of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna is dealing with the founding history of the house and the collection.
2001 / In the course of the exhibition Franz West: No Mercy, for which the sculptor and installation artist developed his hitherto most extensive work, the "Four lemurs heads" are placed at the bridge Stubenbrücke, located next to the MAK. / / Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments.
2001-2002 / The CAT Project - Contemporary Art Tower after New York, Los Angeles, Moscow and Berlin is presented in Vienna.
2002 / Exhibition Nodes. symmetrical-asymmetrical. The historical Oriental Carpets of the MAK presents the extensive rug collection.
2003 / Exhibition Zaha Hadid. Architecture. / / For the anniversary of the artist workshop, takes place the exhibition The Price of Beauty. 100 years Wiener Werkstätte. / / Richard Artschwager: The Hydraulic Door Check. Sculpture, painting, drawing.
2004 / James Turrell's MAKlite is since November 2004 permanently on the facade of the building installed. / / Exhibition Peter Eisenmann. Barefoot on White-Hot Walls, large-scaled architectural installation on the work of the influential American architect and theorist.
2005 / Atelier Van Lieshout: The Disciplinator / / The exhibition Ukiyo-e Reloaded presents for the first time the collection of Japanese woodblock prints of the MAK on a large scale.
2006 / Since the beginning of the year, the birthplace of Josef Hoffmann in Brtnice of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK Vienna as a joint branch is run and presents annually special exhibitions. / / The exhibition The Price of Beauty. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House brings the objects of the Wiener Werkstätte to Brussels. / / Exhibition Jenny Holzer: XX.
2007/2008 / Exhibition Coop Himmelb(l)au. Beyond the Blue, is the hitherto largest and most comprehensive museal presentation of the global team of architects.
2008 / The 1936 according to plans of Rudolph M. Schindler built Fitzpatrick-Leland House, a generous gift from Russ Leland to the MAK Center LA, becomes with the aid of a promotion that granted the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department the MAK Center, center of the MAK UFI project - MAK Urban Future Initiative. / / Julian Opie: Recent Works / / The exhibition Recollecting. Looting and Restitution examines the status of efforts to restitute expropriated objects from Jewish property from museums in Vienna.
2009 / The permanent exhibition Josef Hoffmann: Inspiration is in the Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice opened. / / Exhibition Anish Kapoor. Shooting into the Corner / / The museum sees itself as a promoter of Cultural Interchange and discusses in the exhibition Global:lab Art as a message. Asia and Europe 1500-1700 the intercultural as well as the intercontinental cultural exchange based on objects from the MAK and from international collections.
2011 / After Peter Noever's resignation, Martina Kandeler-Fritsch takes over temporarily the management. / /
Since 1 September Christoph Thun-Hohenstein is director of the MAK and declares "change through applied art" as the new theme of the museum.
2012 / With future-oriented examples of mobility, health, education, communication, work and leisure, shows the exhibition MADE4YOU. Designing for Change, the new commitment to positive change in our society through applied art. // Exhibition series MAK DESIGN SALON opens the MAK branch Geymüllerschlössel for contemporary design positions.
2012/2013 / opening of the newly designed MAK Collection Vienna 1900. Design / Decorative Arts from 1890 to 1938 in two stages as a prelude to the gradual transformation of the permanent collection under director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein
2013 / SIGNS, CAUGHT IN WONDER. Looking for Istanbul today shows a unique, current snapshot of contemporary art production in the context of Istanbul. // The potential of East Asian countries as catalysts for a socially and ecologically oriented, visionary architecture explores the architecture exhibition EASTERN PROMISES. Contemporary Architecture and production of space in East Asia. // With a focus on the field of furniture design NOMADIC FURNITURE 3.0. examines new living without bounds? the between subculture and mainstream to locate "do-it-yourself" (DIY) movement for the first time in a historical context.
2014 / Anniversary year 150 years MAK // opening of the permanent exhibition of the MAK Asia. China - Japan - Korea // Opening of the MAK permanent exhibition rugs // As central anniversary project opens the dynamic MAK DESIGN LABORATORY (redesign of the MAK Study Collection) exactly on the 150th anniversary of the museum on May 12, 2014 // Other major projects for the anniversary: ROLE MODELS. MAK 150 years: from arts and crafts to design // // HOLLEIN WAYS OF MODERN AGE. Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and the consequences.
A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.
The description on the back of the painting reads:
Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas
"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".
Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Galland's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.
Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.
Homage to Hergé and Nat.
(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks, and the sky to that on the cover of the Black Island.)
A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:
1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury
2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)
3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer,with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck
4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy
5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s
ift.tt/2fURyzP #George Junius Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was, at age 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century[504 X 387] #history #retro #vintage #dh #HistoryPorn ift.tt/2ggkHYZ via Histolines
History
Greystead, Greystead Institute and Greystead Old Church
Built in 1814-17, Greystead stands on land once owned by the Jacobite rebel, James, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, who was executed following his involvement in the 1715 rebellion against King George I. On his death his vast estates were confiscated and passed into the care of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. It was the Greenwich Commissioners who employed Henry Hake Seward (c.1778-1848), a pupil of leading architect Sir John Soane, to design all three buildings at Greystead, together with sister North Tyne churches, rectories and outbuildings at Thorneyburn, Wark and Humshaugh. Seward's group of Northumbrian churches are neo-Gothic in style, their simplicity offset by the exceptional masonry. However contemporary controversy was fired by the large sums spent on the buildings.
Greystead and its sister parishes were used by the Greenwich Commissioners to provide comfortable livings for chaplains retiring from the Royal Navy – and our Rectory has spacious wine cellars! However the first Rector of Greystead, whose memorial tablet remains in the Old Church, had served in the Napoleonic wars, and his isolation at Greystead in a parish far from the sea seems to have led tragically to breakdown.
In around 1880, St Luke’s received a fashionable ‘make-over’ with new pews and Victorian glass. Probably around 1910, a magnificent, Victorian-style stained glass East Window was installed in memory of Margaret Spencer of The Grove, Ryton, near Newcastle, who had died in Madeira in 1865 at the tragically early age of twenty-two. Designed by the famous London stained glass firm Powell of Whitefriars, the window was restored in 2013 and now glows in all its wonderful original colours.
Although the Greenwich Commissioners planned large-scale churches, expecting a growing population, they miscalculated, and Greystead and the other churches were never well-attended. The last rector here left in 1930, when Greystead Rectory passed into private hands and Anne’s family purchased it in 1950. The church itself, after years of only occasional use, was deconsecrated and in 1998 we purchased it from the Church Commissioners.
A fine - and rare example - of a Georgian Northumbrian church, the Old Church is listed Grade II. In 2013 it was fully restored and converted to 4-bedroom holiday use after lengthy debates about its future with stakeholders including the Church Commissioners, Rector and Parish Church Council, Diocese of Newcastle, planners and listed building officers, and the local community. The conversion, by architects Kevin Doonan of Hexham, is in an inspirational ‘upside-down’ style, with three bedrooms, some en suite, below a huge new Mezzanine providing open plan living and dining. A fourth, en suite, bedroom in the former Vestry was left largely unaltered but repainted in sympathetic Georgian colours. The centrepiece of the conversion is the spectacular Sitting Room formed from the original East End altar area under the Stained Glass Window. Both the East End and West Doorway remain at their original full-height to enable visitors to appreciate these wonderful Georgian spaces to the full.
The restoration was carried out by specialist Northumbrian firm Historic Property Restoration Ltd, with stained glass experts Iona Art Glass cleaning and restoring the windows.
Opening the Tower
The Old Church tower has just opened in October 2023, following a full year-long restoration, and gives access to the viewing platform at the top of the tower, via a specially commissioned black metal spiral staircase. At the same time the 1818 wooden louvred windows, which were suffering from dry rot, have been replaced ‘like for like’, while four new glass lancet windows have allowed light into the tower for the first time ever! Similarly, the original and by now rotten pitch pine flooring has also been replaced ‘like for like’ with reclaimed pitch pine boards. The tower was then redecorated, and is now being furnished.
Greystead Coach House
Also built from 1814-17, the Coach House was occupied for around 100 years by the coachman and his family, who lived in the space now occupied by the Dining Room and beamed Twin Bedroom. The Sitting Room is converted from the former Stables, with the character Double Bedroom once a Hayloft.
The Coach itself was stored at the centre of the building, the length of the traces requiring a two-storey space. This today provides a perfect space for the Hall, Stairs and Landing. The Coach arch survives as a feature on the exterior, with the original wooden doors replaced by glazing to allow light into the interior. The low stone platform in the drive was for mounting horses. Originally the drive in front of the coach arch sloped to a central point, to allow horses to be rubbed down.
In 1930 the Coach House was extended to include an additional bedroom, and what is today the Kitchen below. The Utility Room beyond is part of the original building however and was in Georgian times a pigsty!
Greystead Institute
Greystead Institute was built on land at the bottom of Greystead’s nineteenth century Walled Garden in 1895, after the Rector’s neighbour, Peter Lockie Clark of The Hott - the farm seen across the fields from the Institute windows – gifted it to the Church of England for use as a Sunday school for local children. The surviving document or ‘indenture’ recording Clark’s gift makes it clear that the aim was to provide religious instruction in the Anglican faith within the Parish, and the Institute’s use for general education was specifically forbidden: the land, and future building, were for use by the Rector as a “Sunday School or Schools for the education of children and adults or children only of the labouring manufacturing and other poorer classes in the parish of Greystead”. Teachers, who had to be members of the Church of England, were appointed by the Rector or officiating minister. Peter Lockie Clark was an ‘Engineer Engine Maker’ from Sunderland, so his life up the North Tyne valley is still something of a mystery!
As well as a Sunday School, the Institute could also originally be used for church services, for meetings of the clergy or societies with “religious philanthropic charitable or benevolent” purposes, or indeed for any meetings which had “in view the spiritual intellectual moral or social wants of the neighbouring population”. These stipulations confirm the Institute’s specifically religious and charitable purposes at the time it was built.
The parcel of land which Lockie gifted for building the Institute is recorded as being a “piece or parcel of land containing Four hundred and thirty eight and eight ninths square yards or thereabouts situate at Greystead in the parish of Greystead” Major donations towards building the Institute were made by local landowners, including Lockie Clark himself, who contributed £145. We know that the building contractor was paid £349.7 and the Architect £22.16. The total cost was £400.8.5.
Only in the twentieth century did the Institute’s role in the local community become more general, involving activities such as dances, whist drives, and – at least in one case - a wedding reception, although a minstrels’ gallery, together with a piano which was purchased for £32 for the new building, suggests that musical activity was intended from the start. A very damaged scene painting was found during the 2018 restoration, suggesting that some theatrical performances were held here in the twentieth century. At least early in the twentieth century, sports were played in the farmer’s fields outside, so the building was very much a focal point for who lived near Greystead. The Moorcock Inn, only a few doors away, also offered a convivial centre point for the parish of Greystead.
By the 1970s, however, Greystead had long ceased to be a parish, and was now part of neighbouring Thorneyburn parish. As a result, the church Institute had fallen out of use, and in 1975 the Church of England sold the building. It was bought by two members of the local community who lived nearby, so they used it only for storage, and the building became dilapidated. Our family had always hoped to add the Institute to our other holiday cottages at Greystead, so when it was offered to us in 2016 by the executor of the two sisters who had owned it for forty years we were thrilled to be able to purchase and restore it. By this time the Institute had become a complete time warp, filled with old newspapers, tins for biscuits and cocoa, and other 1970s memorabilia. In early 2018, after our architects Kevin Doonan of Hexham had drawn up plans, and planning permission had been granted, our builders arrived, and the Institute opened as a holiday cottage in May 2019. In March 2022, the Institute came under new ownership and continues to operate as a holiday let.
The conversion aimed to restore and convert this Victorian Church Hall into a deluxe holiday cottage on the same site as Greystead Old Church and Greystead Coach House. We were able to keep many of the original key features including the Victorian fireplace, beams, original-style windows (recreated in their original form) and Victorian pine floor, and above all to retain the large, open-plan spaces of the original. The central oak spiral staircase, specially commissioned for the room, leads up to a new mezzanine level which echoes the original Minstrels’ Gallery, although inevitably larger in size in order to accommodate an upstairs bedroom and en suite. The slate-tiled Hall and Conservatory/dining room are housed in a stone-built extension which occupies the ‘footprint’ left by a lean-to, corrugated iron shed.
History of the Greystead gardens, churchyard and grounds
The Coach House looks out onto the huge Georgian Walled Garden, which retains its south-facing wall for fruit trees and two of its (original?) apple trees. Originally it functioned as kitchen garden and orchard combined and the Coachman may have doubled as the Rector’s gardener. Today, much of the Walled Garden is lawned to provide recreational space and all-weather tennis court for visitors. On the bank above stands one of two magnificent beech trees almost certainly planted in 1817. The other is in the churchyard.
On the hills beyond, the picturesque group of pines was probably planted around 1814-7 on the church ‘glebe’ lands (now belonging to the nearby farm) to form a striking vista from Greystead – as indeed it still does! Similar pines and beeches survive at Thorneyburn and the other North Tyne churches, suggesting that the Greenwich Commissioners planned the landscapes as well as the buildings themselves, while a number of rare trees suggests an interest in creating an Arboretum.
Greystead Churchyard is a picturesque space with old tombstones, overhanging trees and wonderful hill views. Unlike the church, most of it, apart from the access area for our visitors, still belongs to the Church of England. It remains open to visitors to both our cottages and their dogs, as well as to the general public.
Greystead is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England west of Bellingham. The population as of the 2011 census was less than 100. It shares a parish council with the adjacent civil parish of Tarset.
Governance
Greystead is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham.
Northumberland is a ceremonial county in North East England, bordering Scotland. It is bordered by the Scottish Borders to the north, the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The town of Blyth is the largest settlement.
The county has an area of 5,013 km2 (1,936 sq mi) and a population of 320,274, making it the least-densely populated county in England. The south-east contains the largest towns: Blyth (37,339), Cramlington (27,683), Ashington (27,670), and Morpeth (14,304), which is the administrative centre. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Berwick-upon-Tweed (12,043) in the far north and Hexham (13,097) in the west. For local government purposes the county is a unitary authority area. The county historically included the parts of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne.
The west of Northumberland contains part of the Cheviot Hills and North Pennines, while to the east the land becomes flatter before reaching the coast. The Cheviot (815 m (2,674 ft)), after which the range of hills is named, is the county's highest point. The county contains the source of the River North Tyne and much of the South Tyne; near Hexham they combine to form the Tyne, which exits into Tyne and Wear shortly downstream. The other major rivers in Northumberland are, from south to north, the Blyth, Coquet, Aln, Wansbeck and Tweed, the last of which forms part of the Scottish border. The county contains Northumberland National Park and two national landscapes: the Northumberland Coast and part of the North Pennines.
Much of the county's history has been defined by its position on a border. In the Roman era most of the county lay north of Hadrian's Wall, and the region was contested between England and Scotland into the Early Modern era, leading to the construction of many castles, peel towers and bastle houses, and the early modern fortifications at Berwick-upon-Tweed. Northumberland is also associated with Celtic Christianity, particularly the tidal island of Lindisfarne. During the Industrial Revolution the area had significant coal mining, shipbuilding, and armaments industries.
Northumberland, England's northernmost county, is a land where Roman occupiers once guarded a walled frontier, Anglian invaders fought with Celtic natives, and Norman lords built castles to suppress rebellion and defend a contested border with Scotland. The present-day county is a vestige of an independent kingdom that once stretched from Edinburgh to the Humber, hence its name, meaning literally 'north of the Humber'.[1] Reflecting its tumultuous past, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England, and the greatest number of recognised battle sites. Once an economically important region that supplied much of the coal that powered the industrial revolution, Northumberland is now a primarily rural county with a small and gradually shrinking population.
Prehistory
As attested by many instances of rock art, the Northumberland region has a rich prehistory. Archeologists have studied a Mesolithic structure at Howick, which dates to 7500 BC and was identified as Britain's oldest house until it lost this title in 2010 when the discovery of the even older Star Carr house in North Yorkshire was announced, which dates to 8770 BC. They have also found tools, ornaments, building structures and cairns dating to the bronze and iron ages, when the area was occupied by Brythonic Celtic peoples who had migrated from continental Europe, most likely the Votadini whose territory stretched from Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth to Northumberland. It is not clear where the boundary between the Votadini and the other large tribe, the Brigantes, was, although it probably frequently shifted as a result of wars and as smaller tribes and communities changed allegiances. Unlike neighbouring tribes, Votadini farms were surrounded by large walls, banks and ditches and the people made offerings of fine metal objects, but never wore massive armlets. There are also at least three very large hillforts in their territory (Yeavering Bell, Eildon Hill and Traprain Law, the latter two now in Scotland), each was located on the top of a prominent hill or mountain. The hillforts may have been used for over a thousand years by this time as places of refuge and as places for meetings for political and religious ceremonies. Duddo Five Stones in North Northumberland and the Goatstones near Hadrian's Wall are stone circles dating from the Bronze Age.
Roman occupation
When Gnaeus Julius Agricola was appointed Roman governor of Britain in 78 AD, most of northern Britain was still controlled by native British tribes. During his governorship Agricola extended Roman control north of Eboracum (York) and into what is now Scotland. Roman settlements, garrisons and roads were established throughout the Northumberland region.
The northern frontier of the Roman occupation fluctuated between Pons Aelius (now Newcastle) and the Forth. Hadrian's Wall was completed by about 130 AD, to define and defend the northern boundary of Roman Britain. By 142, the Romans had completed the Antonine Wall, a more northerly defensive border lying between the Forth and Clyde. However, by 164 they abandoned the Antonine Wall to consolidate defences at Hadrian's Wall.
Two important Roman roads in the region were the Stanegate and Dere Street, the latter extending through the Cheviot Hills to locations well north of the Tweed. Located at the intersection of these two roads, Coria (Corbridge), a Roman supply-base, was the most northerly large town in the Roman Empire. The Roman forts of Vercovicium (Housesteads) on Hadrian's Wall, and Vindolanda (Chesterholm) built to guard the Stanegate, had extensive civil settlements surrounding them.
The Celtic peoples living in the region between the Tyne and the Forth were known to the Romans as the Votadini. When not under direct Roman rule, they functioned as a friendly client kingdom, a somewhat porous buffer against the more warlike Picts to the north.
The gradual Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century led to a poorly documented age of conflict and chaos as different peoples contested territories in northern Britain.
Archaeology
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vidolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that based on their difference from gladiator gloves warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum.
Anglian Kingdoms of Deira, Bernicia and Northumbria
Conquests by Anglian invaders led to the establishment of the kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia. The first Anglian settlement was effected in 547 by Ida, who, accompanied by his six sons, pushed through the narrow strip of territory between the Cheviots and the sea, and set up a fortress at Bamburgh, which became the royal seat of the Bernician kings. About the end of the 6th century Bernicia was first united with the rival kingdom of Deira under the rule of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, and the district between the Humber and the Forth became known as the kingdom of Northumbria.
After Æthelfrith was killed in battle around 616, Edwin of Deira became king of Northumbria. Æthelfrith's son Oswald fled northwest to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata where he was converted to Christianity by the monks of Iona. Meanwhile, Paulinus, the first bishop of York, converted King Edwin to Roman Christianity and began an extensive program of conversion and baptism. By his time the kingdom must have reached the west coast, as Edwin is said to have conquered the islands of Anglesey and Man. Under Edwin the Northumbrian kingdom became the chief power in Britain. However, when Cadwallon ap Cadfan defeated Edwin at Hatfield Chase in 633, Northumbria was divided into the former kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira and Christianity suffered a temporary decline.
In 634, Oswald defeated Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Heavenfield, resulting in the re-unification of Northumbria. Oswald re-established Christianity in the kingdom and assigned a bishopric at Hexham, where Wilfrid erected a famous early English church. Reunification was followed by a period of Northumbrian expansion into Pictish territory and growing dominance over the Celtic kingdoms of Dál Riata and Strathclyde to the west. Northumbrian encroachments were abruptly curtailed in 685, when Ecgfrith suffered complete defeat by a Pictish force at the Battle of Nechtansmere.
Monastic culture
When Saint Aidan came at the request of Oswald to preach to the Northumbrians he chose the island of Lindisfarne as the site of his church and monastery, and made it the head of the diocese which he founded in 635. For some years the see continued in peace, numbering among its bishops Saint Cuthbert, but in 793 Vikings landed on the island and burnt the settlement, killing many of the monks. The survivors, however, rebuilt the church and continued to live there until 883, when, through fear of a second invasion of the Danes, they fled inland, taking with them the body of Cuthbert and other holy relics.
Against this background, the monasteries of Northumbria developed some remarkably influential cultural products. Cædmon, a monk at Whitby Abbey, authored one of the earliest surviving examples of Old English poetry some time before 680. The Lindisfarne Gospels, an early example of insular art, is attributed to Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne from 698 to 721. Stenton (1971, p. 191) describes the book as follows.
In mere script it is no more than an admirable example of a noble style, and the figure drawing of its illustrations, though probably based on classical models, has more than a touch of naïveté. Its unique importance is due to the beauty and astonishing intricacy of its decoration. The nature of its ornament connects it very closely with a group of Irish manuscripts of which the Book of Kells is the most famous.
Bede's writing, at the Northumbrian monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, gained him a reputation as the most learned scholar of his age. His work is notable for both its breadth (encompassing history, theology, science and literature) and quality, exemplified by the rigorous use of citation. Bede's most famous work is Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is regarded as a highly influential early model of historical scholarship.
Earldom of Northumbria
Main article: Earl of Northumbria
The kingdom of Northumbria ceased to exist in 927, when it was incorporated into England as an earldom by Athelstan, the first king of a united England[citation needed].. In 937, Athelstan's victory over a combined Norse-Celtic force in the battle of Brunanburh secured England's control of its northern territory.
The Scottish king Indulf captured Edinburgh in 954, which thenceforth remained in possession of the Scots. His successors made repeated attempts to extend their territory southwards. Malcolm II was finally successful, when, in 1018, he annihilated the Northumbrian army at Carham on the Tweed, and Eadulf the earl of Northumbria ceded all his territory to the north of that river as the price of peace. Henceforth Lothian, consisting of the former region of Northumbria between the Forth and the Tweed, remained in possession of the Scottish kings.
The term Northumberland was first recorded in its contracted modern sense in 1065 in an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relating to a rebellion against Tostig Godwinson.
Norman Conquest
The vigorous resistance of Northumbria to William the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying, mostly south of the River Tees. As recounted by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
A.D. 1068. This year King William gave Earl Robert the earldom over Northumberland; but the landsmen attacked him in the town of Durham, and slew him, and nine hundred men with him. Soon afterwards Edgar Etheling came with all the Northumbrians to York; and the townsmen made a treaty with him: but King William came from the South unawares on them with a large army, and put them to flight, and slew on the spot those who could not escape; which were many hundred men; and plundered the town. St. Peter's minster he made a profanation, and all other places also he despoiled and trampled upon; and the ethelling went back again to Scotland.
The Normans rebuilt the Anglian monasteries of Lindisfarne, Hexham and Tynemouth, and founded Norman abbeys at Newminster (1139), Alnwick (1147), Brinkburn (1180), Hulne, and Blanchland. Castles were built at Newcastle (1080), Alnwick (1096), Bamburgh (1131), Harbottle (1157), Prudhoe (1172), Warkworth (1205), Chillingham, Ford (1287), Dunstanburgh (1313), Morpeth, Langley (1350), Wark on Tweed and Norham (1121), the latter an enclave of the palatine bishops of Durham.
Northumberland county is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but the account of the issues of the county, as rendered by Odard the sheriff, is entered in the Great Roll of the Exchequer for 1131.
In 1237, Scotland renounced claims to Northumberland county in the Treaty of York.
During the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), the county of Northumberland was the district between the Tees and the Tweed, and had within it several scattered liberties subject to other powers: Durham, Sadberge, Bedlingtonshire, and Norhamshire belonging to the bishop of Durham; Hexhamshire to the archbishop of York; Tynedale to the king of Scotland; Emildon to the earl of Lancaster; and Redesdale to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus. These franchises were exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the shire. Over time, some were incorporated within the county: Tynedale in 1495; Hexhamshire in 1572; and Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.
Council of the North
The county court for Northumberland was held at different times at Newcastle, Alnwick and Morpeth, until by statute of 1549 it was ordered that the court should thenceforth be held in the town and castle of Alnwick. Under the same statute the sheriffs of Northumberland, who had been in the habit of appropriating the issues of the county to their private use, were required thereafter to deliver in their accounts to the Exchequer in the same manner as the sheriffs of other counties.
Border wars, reivers and rebels
From the Norman Conquest until the union of England and Scotland under James I and VI, Northumberland was the scene of perpetual inroads and devastations by the Scots. Norham, Alnwick and Wark were captured by David I of Scotland in the wars of Stephen's reign. In 1174, during his invasion of Northumbria, William I of Scotland, also known as William the Lion, was captured by a party of about four hundred mounted knights, led by Ranulf de Glanvill.[citation needed] This incident became known as the Battle of Alnwick. In 1295, Robert de Ros and the earls of Athol and Menteith ravaged Redesdale, Coquetdale and Tynedale. In 1314 the county was ravaged by king Robert Bruce. And so dire was the Scottish threat in 1382, that by special enactment the earl of Northumberland was ordered to remain on his estates to protect the border. In 1388, Henry Percy was taken prisoner and 1500 of his men slain at the battle of Otterburn, immortalised in the ballad of Chevy Chase.
Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh were garrisoned for the Lancastrian cause in 1462, but after the Yorkist victories of Hexham and Hedgley Moor in 1464, Alnwick and Dunstanburgh surrendered, and Bamburgh was taken by storm.
In September 1513, King James IV of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Flodden on Branxton Moor.
Roman Catholic support in Northumberland for Mary, Queen of Scots, led to the Rising of the North in 1569.
Harbottle
Border Reivers
Peel tower
Union and Civil War
After uniting the English and Scottish thrones, James VI and I sharply curbed the lawlessness of the border reivers and brought relative peace to the region. There were Church of Scotland congregations in Northumberland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
During the Civil War of the 17th century, Newcastle was garrisoned for the king by the earl of Newcastle, but in 1644 it was captured by the Scots under the earl of Leven, and in 1646 Charles I was led there a captive under the charge of David Leslie.
Many of the chief Northumberland families were ruined in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.
Industrialisation
The mineral resources of the area appear to have been exploited to some extent from remote times. It is certain that coal was used by the Romans in Northumberland, and some coal ornaments found at Angerton have been attributed to the 7th century. In a 13th-century grant to Newminster Abbey a road for the conveyance of sea coal from the shore about Blyth is mentioned, and the Blyth coal field was worked throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The coal trade on the Tyne did not exist to any extent before the 13th century, but from that period it developed rapidly, and Newcastle acquired the monopoly of the river shipping and coal trade. Lead was exported from Newcastle in the 12th century, probably from Hexhamshire, the lead mines of which were very prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In a charter from Richard I to Hugh de Puiset creating him earl of Northumberland, mines of silver and iron are mentioned. A salt pan is mentioned at Warkworth in the 12th century; in the 13th century the salt industry flourished at the mouth of the river Blyth, and in the 15th century formed the principal occupation of the inhabitants of North and South Shields. In the reign of Elizabeth I, glass factories were set up at Newcastle by foreign refugees, and the industry spread rapidly along the Tyne. Tanning, both of leather and of nets, was largely practised in the 13th century, and the salmon fisheries in the Tyne were famous in the reign of Henry I.
John Smeaton designed the Coldstream Bridge and a bridge at Hexham.
Stephenson's Rocket
Invention of the steam turbine by Charles Algernon Parsons
Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
TECHNOLOGY
Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of room temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries in reaction to air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. The chemical processes are as follows:
calcination of limestone in a lime kiln: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
slaking of quicklime: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2
setting of the lime plaster: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later,[when?]new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, and a bag of soot (spolvero) banged on them on produce black dots along the lines. If the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata ("day's work"), and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, by a sort of seam that separates one from the next.
Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time - giving seven to nine hours working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day. If mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area - or to change them later, a secco.
A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark 'outlining' of his central figures within his frescoes.
In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were originally, nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes, these divisions may be seen from the ground. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has since fallen off.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master (or Master of the Isaac fresco, and thus a name used to refer to the unknown master of a particular painting) in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist.
OTHER TYPES OF WALL PAINTING
A secco or fresco-secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco meaning "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. It is important to distinguish between a secco work done on top of buon fresco, which according to most authorities was in fact standard from the Middle Ages onwards, and work done entirely a secco on a blank wall. Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than any a secco work added on top of them, because a secco work lasts better with a roughened plaster surface, whilst true fresco should have a smooth one. The additional a secco work would be done to make changes, and sometimes to add small details, but also because not all colours can be achieved in true fresco, because only some pigments work chemically in the very alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, works well in wet fresco.
It has also become increasingly clear, thanks to modern analytical techniques, that even in the early Italian Renaissance painters quite frequently employed a secco techniques so as to allow the use of a broader range of pigments. In most early examples this work has now entirely vanished, but a whole fresco done a secco on a surface roughened to give a key for the paint may survive very well, although damp is more threatening to it than to buon fresco.
A third type called a mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly dry intonaco - firm enough not to take a thumb-print, says the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo - so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced buon fresco, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.
The three key advantages of work done entirely a secco were that it was quicker, mistakes could be corrected, and the colours varied less from when applied to when fully dry - in wet fresco there was a considerable change.
For wholly a secco work, the intonaco is laid with a rougher finish, allowed to dry completely and then usually given a key by rubbing with sand. The painter then proceeds much as he would on a canvas or wood panel. The two types of fresco painting are buon fresco and fresco secco. Buon fresco is painting into wet plaster, which makes a painting last a long time. Fresco secco is painting onto dry plaster, which does not last as long.
HISTORY
ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The earliest known examples of frescoes done in the Buon Fresco method date at around 1500 BC and are to be found on the island of Crete in Greece. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation.
Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Frescoes were also painted in ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at Paestum, which was a Greek colony of the Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered on June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient
Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a symposium while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century B.C.) in the ruins of Pompeii, and others at Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.
Late Roman Empire (Christian) 1st-2nd-century frescoes were found in catacombs beneath Rome and Byzantine Icons were also found in Cyprus, Crete, Ephesus, Cappadocia and Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster.
Also a historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the Churches of Goreme Turkey.
INDIA
Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the Ajanta Caves were painted between c. 200 BC and 600 and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences
as Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave, Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques including tempera technique.
The later Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
The frescoes in Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings. Rang Mahal of Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of Draupti Cheer Haran, and Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called Chamba Rang Mahal.
SRI LANKA
The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of King Kashyapa I (ruled 477-495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the Ajanta Caves in India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. They are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today.
The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is “fresco lustro.” It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years.
Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references however refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
MIDDLE AGES
The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the liturgy. Romanesque churches in Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational -for the illiterate faithfuls- role, as can be seen in the MNAC in Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too, church wall paintings or kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden which was Danish at the time.
One of the rare examples of Islamic fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century Magotez.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Northern Romania (historical region of Moldavia) boasts about a dozen painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at Voroneţ (vo ro nets) (1487), Arbore (are' bo ray) (1503), Humor (hoo mor) (1530), and Moldoviţa (mol do vee' tsa) (1532). Suceviţa (sue che vee' tsa), dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent.
Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Henri Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the École de fresques at l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and decorated the Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris), Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the Musée Carnavalet.
The Foujita chapel in Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the School of Paris painter Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French Government.
MEXICAN MURALISM
José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Together with works by Orozco, Siqueiros, and others, Fernando Leal and Rivera's large wall works in fresco established the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.
CONSERVATION OF FRESCOES
The climate and environment of Venice has proved to be a problem for frescoes and other works of art in the city for centuries. The city is built on a lagoon in northern Italy. The humidity and the rise of water over the centuries have created a phenomenon known as rising damp. As the lagoon water rises and seeps into the foundation of a building, the water is absorbed and rises up through the walls often causing damage to frescoes. Venetians have become quite adept in the conservation methods of frescoes. The mold aspergillus versicolor can grow after flooding, to consume nutrients from frescoes.
The following is the process that was used when rescuing frescoes in La Fenice, a Venetian opera house, but the same process can be used for similarly damaged frescoes. First, a protection and support bandage of cotton gauze and polyvinyl alcohol is applied. Difficult sections are removed with soft brushes and localized vacuuming. The other areas that are easier to remove (because they had been damaged by less water) are removed with a paper pulp compress saturated with bicarbonate of ammonia solutions and removed with deionized water. These sections are strengthened and reattached then cleansed with base exchange resin compresses and the wall and pictorial layer were strengthened with barium hydrate. The cracks and detachments are stopped with lime putty and injected with an epoxy resin loaded with micronized silica.
WIKIPEDIA
This is part of a well-executed anti-drone campaign in DUMBO. As of a few weeks ago, the street signs are still hanging and the stencils still up as well. The following is an email I got from the do'er on January of last year. It'll explain the backstory.
Subject: Operation Drone Freedom - Anonymity Extremely Important
Hi Everyone,
I am writing to you for a couple of reasons, first and foremost I am working on a project that I think you will appreciate and wanted to share with you.
As you may or may not know the United States has begun using unmanned arial drone technology over US skies, the same drones they use to bomb innocent civilians in pakistan and US citizens deemed terrorists such as Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen.
A notice to airmen was released advising pilots to look out for drones in the New York area from Dec. 1-Feb. 7
A common question is, what are they doing? Because of our co-opted media establishment, no information regarding domestic drone activity is released. We can only assume this is a further debasement of our constitutional liberties through unwarranted survaleance of the general public.
What I have done in response is to create the authoritarian message through street signs being posted throughout the city, Also created is the grass roots "street art" response through quotes of the founding fathers on subjects of liberty, justice and freedom. (Photos are included)
Now for my second reason for contacting you... Your generous assistance. My request is simple and I will forever be indebted to those that choose to participate.
In order for real public awareness to spread throughout the city and the country I am asking you to use the photos I have supplied to spread the word on this drone activity. Weather that be via email, Facebook, blog or PR contacts you may have, all avenues are acceptable and appreciated, in fact the more the merrier!
The attached photos are simple iPhone photos of the 6 current locations (many more are currently in the works), I have also included maps of the locations so if you would like to take your own photos you may. It is very important to me that my anonymity be maintained due to the legal ramifications of the actions taken. I have sent this to you because I trust you and feel that you too may consider this government activity suspect. If you choose to participate I ask that you pose as an observer of these signs inquiring on the legality of their message, Example; "NYPD using Drones in New York! That cant be legal! Please spread the word!"
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart and hope that together we can bring this conversation to the forefront.
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Here's a recent times article about drones and the inherent privacy issues: www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/technology/rise-of-drones-in-u...;
Police have today executed a number of warrants as part of an investigation into a disturbance in Oldham.
This morning (Wednesday 27 November 2019) officers visited 14 properties across Oldham and Crumpsall as well as a property in West Yorkshire.
Warrants were executed at Oldham and Crumpsall
13 men aged between 15 and 40 years of age were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.
The action comes as part of Operation Woodville – a long-running investigation into serious public disorder occurring on Saturday 18 May 2019 in the Limeside area of Oldham.
As part of ongoing enquiries, police have released the images of (26) people that they want to speak to.
Chief Superintendent Neil Evans of GMP’s Territorial Commander with responsibility for Oldham said: “As the scale of this morning’s operation demonstrates, we continue to treat May’s disturbance with the upmost seriousness.
“We have been in liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service since the early stages of the investigation and a team of detectives has been working to identify those whose criminal behaviour resulted in the ugly scenes witnessed.
“Investigators have been working alongside key local partners as part of our extensive enquiries. Specialist detectives from our Major Investigations Team as well as local officers have been involved in hours of work assessing evidence and information received from the public.
“While we have made a number of arrests, our enquiries remain very much ongoing.
“In conjunction with this morning’s positive action, we have released a number of images of people who we want to speak to concerning their actions on 18 May 2019.
“As we have previously said, we understand and respect the right to peaceful protest and counter-protest. However we will not tolerate it when this crosses into criminal behaviour.
“Accordingly, we can and will respond when that line is crossed.
“It remains a line of enquiry that a number of those who were involved with the disorder had travelled to Oldham from outside Greater Manchester.
“As such, we are continuing to liaise with our partners in neighbouring forces.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those who have already been in touch with officers.
“We must continue to work together as a community and support the justice process so that criminal behaviour is appropriately and proportionately challenged.”
Information can be left with police on 0161 856 6551 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Out of frustration as to the way Disney designed and executed the Designer Doll for Princess Aurora, I took it upon myself to reimagine her design with my own two hands. Although the original gown design was pretty, I was not fond of them giving Aurora an updo -- for me, Aurora has the prettiest hairstyle of all of the Disney princesses, with her flowing golden sytlized curls. Then the doll was revealed, and they not only gave her a bad version of the updo (her bangs are very strange and the updo looks nothing like the design), but they changed the upper part of the skirt by turning it into a lace belt with gems and pearls... sloppy choice. I still am one of the lucky ones who was able to get a Designer Aurora doll from the Disney Store website on that fateful and crazy release day, but even though she is a pretty doll, she was not what I wanted for Designer Aurora.
I have designed a few non-Disney OOAK (one-of-a-kind) dolls for my own doll collection, but actually commissioned through an amazing doll artist friend of mine. For my OOAK Designer Aurora, I finally took the plunge and made her gown by myself, picking up the most rudimentary of sewing and garment construction as I was going along. It was something I always wanted to do, but never built enough nerve to actually start. Prior to taking this on, I had never used a sewing machine or made a garment. Since this is my first solo project, it took a long time for me to draft the patterns, make a muslin prototype, piece together the parts of the final version in satin and chiffon, sew it together, and decorate it with the trims and gems.
Hard work and determination paid off, and here is the result! I am much happier with my version of Designer Aurora standing on my dresser with my other top favorites from the Designer Princess collection: Designer Snow White, Designer Rapunzel, and Designer Cinderella.
My "official" Disney Store version of Designer Aurora is still proudly displayed in her case with the other 6 dolls from the collection on my book case in the living room. She is still part of the legend of the 2011 Designer Princess Dolls.
Amongst the names on the posts we found one who was executed on 27th March 1917 - exactly 100 years to the day of our visit.
Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
TECHNOLOGY
Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of room temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries in reaction to air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. The chemical processes are as follows:
calcination of limestone in a lime kiln: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
slaking of quicklime: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2
setting of the lime plaster: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later,[when?]new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, and a bag of soot (spolvero) banged on them on produce black dots along the lines. If the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata ("day's work"), and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, by a sort of seam that separates one from the next.
Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time - giving seven to nine hours working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day. If mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area - or to change them later, a secco.
A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark 'outlining' of his central figures within his frescoes.
In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were originally, nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes, these divisions may be seen from the ground. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has since fallen off.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master (or Master of the Isaac fresco, and thus a name used to refer to the unknown master of a particular painting) in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist.
OTHER TYPES OF WALL PAINTING
A secco or fresco-secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco meaning "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. It is important to distinguish between a secco work done on top of buon fresco, which according to most authorities was in fact standard from the Middle Ages onwards, and work done entirely a secco on a blank wall. Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than any a secco work added on top of them, because a secco work lasts better with a roughened plaster surface, whilst true fresco should have a smooth one. The additional a secco work would be done to make changes, and sometimes to add small details, but also because not all colours can be achieved in true fresco, because only some pigments work chemically in the very alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, works well in wet fresco.
It has also become increasingly clear, thanks to modern analytical techniques, that even in the early Italian Renaissance painters quite frequently employed a secco techniques so as to allow the use of a broader range of pigments. In most early examples this work has now entirely vanished, but a whole fresco done a secco on a surface roughened to give a key for the paint may survive very well, although damp is more threatening to it than to buon fresco.
A third type called a mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly dry intonaco - firm enough not to take a thumb-print, says the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo - so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced buon fresco, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.
The three key advantages of work done entirely a secco were that it was quicker, mistakes could be corrected, and the colours varied less from when applied to when fully dry - in wet fresco there was a considerable change.
For wholly a secco work, the intonaco is laid with a rougher finish, allowed to dry completely and then usually given a key by rubbing with sand. The painter then proceeds much as he would on a canvas or wood panel. The two types of fresco painting are buon fresco and fresco secco. Buon fresco is painting into wet plaster, which makes a painting last a long time. Fresco secco is painting onto dry plaster, which does not last as long.
HISTORY
ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The earliest known examples of frescoes done in the Buon Fresco method date at around 1500 BC and are to be found on the island of Crete in Greece. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation.
Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Frescoes were also painted in ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at Paestum, which was a Greek colony of the Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered on June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient
Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a symposium while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century B.C.) in the ruins of Pompeii, and others at Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.
Late Roman Empire (Christian) 1st-2nd-century frescoes were found in catacombs beneath Rome and Byzantine Icons were also found in Cyprus, Crete, Ephesus, Cappadocia and Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster.
Also a historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the Churches of Goreme Turkey.
INDIA
Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the Ajanta Caves were painted between c. 200 BC and 600 and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences
as Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave, Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques including tempera technique.
The later Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
The frescoes in Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings. Rang Mahal of Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of Draupti Cheer Haran, and Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called Chamba Rang Mahal.
SRI LANKA
The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of King Kashyapa I (ruled 477-495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the Ajanta Caves in India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. They are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today.
The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is “fresco lustro.” It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years.
Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references however refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
MIDDLE AGES
The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the liturgy. Romanesque churches in Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational -for the illiterate faithfuls- role, as can be seen in the MNAC in Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too, church wall paintings or kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden which was Danish at the time.
One of the rare examples of Islamic fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century Magotez.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Northern Romania (historical region of Moldavia) boasts about a dozen painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at Voroneţ (vo ro nets) (1487), Arbore (are' bo ray) (1503), Humor (hoo mor) (1530), and Moldoviţa (mol do vee' tsa) (1532). Suceviţa (sue che vee' tsa), dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent.
Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Henri Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the École de fresques at l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and decorated the Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris), Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the Musée Carnavalet.
The Foujita chapel in Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the School of Paris painter Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French Government.
MEXICAN MURALISM
José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Together with works by Orozco, Siqueiros, and others, Fernando Leal and Rivera's large wall works in fresco established the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.
CONSERVATION OF FRESCOES
The climate and environment of Venice has proved to be a problem for frescoes and other works of art in the city for centuries. The city is built on a lagoon in northern Italy. The humidity and the rise of water over the centuries have created a phenomenon known as rising damp. As the lagoon water rises and seeps into the foundation of a building, the water is absorbed and rises up through the walls often causing damage to frescoes. Venetians have become quite adept in the conservation methods of frescoes. The mold aspergillus versicolor can grow after flooding, to consume nutrients from frescoes.
The following is the process that was used when rescuing frescoes in La Fenice, a Venetian opera house, but the same process can be used for similarly damaged frescoes. First, a protection and support bandage of cotton gauze and polyvinyl alcohol is applied. Difficult sections are removed with soft brushes and localized vacuuming. The other areas that are easier to remove (because they had been damaged by less water) are removed with a paper pulp compress saturated with bicarbonate of ammonia solutions and removed with deionized water. These sections are strengthened and reattached then cleansed with base exchange resin compresses and the wall and pictorial layer were strengthened with barium hydrate. The cracks and detachments are stopped with lime putty and injected with an epoxy resin loaded with micronized silica.
WIKIPEDIA
One of the three apse windows that constitute the first major stained glass commission of John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens, executed 1954-6 and portraying nine aspects of Christ's divinity.
The also constitute the first major flowering of a new, contemporary approach to stained glass design, radically different from anything produced in this country before, and therefore a milestone in the evolution of modern stained glass in Britain.
Central (east) window representing Christ as the Vine, the Bread & the Water of Life.
This was my second visit to Oundle School Chapel, an impressive building designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1922-3 and standing completely detached in splendid isolation in the grounds of Oundle School. The chapel was built in a late Perpendicular Gothic style with a nave flanked by low aisles and a tall clerestorey that floods the interior with light..The east end is formed by a polygonal apse surrounded with a low ambulatory (forming a hidden corridor within).
The interior is vast and spacious as a grand school chapel should be, but fine though the architecture is it is the explosions of coloured light that punctuate the aisles and the deep, brooding tones of the glass in the apse that draw the eye here. Oundle's chapel is a treasure house of modern stained glass, from the three altar windows by John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens (their first ever commission dating from 1954-6, often considered the first windows in a modern style in Britain) to the extensive scheme of aisle windows recently commissioned from Mark Angus and installed in 2002-5.
Piper & Reyntiens' apse windows are quite unique, and more figurative than so much of their more familiar later work. The images represent nine aspects of Christ, each personifying a different aspect of his divinity. The colouring is rich and dense and the stylisation bold, many of the faces being more reminiscent of some powerful tribal mask than anything seen in a British church before. It took great vision and courage to commission these windows (Piper & Reyntiens had little experience at this stage and no previous collaboration to their names) and is perhaps symptomatic of postwar optimism and a more forward thinking approach than is often seen in today's commissions in glass. John Betjeman was so impressed on first seeing these works that he stated that the chapel would become a place of pilgrimage to art lovers, and so it should be to anyone with an interest in modern glass.
The aisle windows by Mark Angus are no less richly coloured, and some (at the west end) are equally figurative but most use a more abstract symbolic language. Much of the drawing has a rather charming, almost childlike naivety and the designs are in many cases kept refreshingly simple, allowing the various bold colours to dominate these smaller apertures.
Oundle School Chapel is a must for anyone with an interest in contemporary stained glass and the School is to be commended for its vision in making such a statement in its choice of artists. The chapel may be open to visitors much of the time but it might be advisable to check if making a special journey to see it.
Officers investigating the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford have executed a series of warrants in Little Hulton and Eccles.
In the early hours of this morning, Friday 16 October 2015, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Salford Division searched nine properties throughout the division in the hunt for firearms linked to the recent shootings in the area.
The warrants were executed as part of a Project Gulf operation designed to tackle organised crime. Gulf is part of Programme Challenger, the Greater Manchester approach to tackling organised criminality across the region.
Seven men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, ranging from possession with intent to supply to handling stolen goods.
A significant amount of Class A and Class B drugs were seized as part of the operation, though no firearms were found.
Detective Inspector Alan Clitherow said: “This series of warrants are just one element of the continuing and relentless operation being orchestrated to tackle organised crime gangs in Salford.
“They came about as a result of the on-going investigation into the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford, including the horrific attack of young Christian Hickey and his mother Jayne.
“We wanted to show our communities that we are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for those responsible for the abhorrent attack on an innocent child and his mother, and that we will not stand for the spate of shootings taking place on our streets in recent weeks.
“But there is still more to do and, as with any fight against organised crime groups embedded in our city, we need residents to come to us with information so we can put a stop to this criminality.
“There has been much said about people breaking this wall of silence in Salford, and once again I urge people to search their consciences and please come forward.
“You could provide the information that may help prevent any further innocent lives being touched by this senseless violence, and prevent further children being injured by thugs that many people within Salford seem so intent on protecting.
“I want to stress that if you come forward with what you know, we can offer you complete anonymity and I assure you that you will have our full support. Or if you don’t feel you can talk to police but you have information, you can speak to Crimestoppers anonymously.”
A dedicated information hotline has been set up on 0161 856 9775, or people can also pass information on by calling 101, or the independent charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Lucille Froehling, 32, accused of aiding her nephew Herbert Haupt in a Nazi-organized effort to conduct sabotage in the United States during World War II, is shown in a mugshot after her arrest in July 1942.
A Washington Star photo editor placed an X on the left image.
Froehling came to the United States her husband Walter after World War I. Walter became a naturalized citizen in 1931 and Lucille took the citizenship oath in 1935.
Walter was an active member of the German American Bund – a pro Nazi organization active in the 1930s and apparently often verbalized pro-Nazi sentiments.
The Froehling house was the first stop that saboteur Herbert Haupt made upon arriving in Chicago. Haupt had been given the Froehling’s name as a reliable contact by the German High Command.
The Froehlings agreed that their house could be used as a safe house for meetings and Haupt left nearly $10,000 cash that they hid in their home.
The Froehlings were among six relatives and friends of Nazi saboteur Herbert Haupt--who was executed with five others in August 1942--that faced charges of aiding Haupt in his effort to carry out sabotage of U.S. factories, transportation infrastructure and other facilities.
The six were among 14 people in the United States indicted in 1942 for aiding the eight convicted Nazi saboteurs--six of whom were executed, one received a life sentence and one received 30 years imprisonment following a Washington, D.C. military trial.
A three week civilian trial in Chicago of those six charged with aiding the saboteurs ended November 14, 1942. Found guilty of treason and aiding and sheltering Herbert Hans Haupt were Hans and Erna Haupt, Herbert Haupt’s parents; Walter and Lucille Froehling, Herbert Haupt’s uncle and aunt; and Otto and Kate Wergin, family friends of the Haupts and Froehlings.
On November 24th, Federal Judge William J. Campbell sentenced the three men to death and gave the women twenty-five year prison sentences and fined $10,000 each.
“The sentence must serve notice upon the enemy that the cunningly devised scheme for the use of American citizens of German birth as pawns in the game of sabotage and espionage in this country is doomed to failure.”
“How different this trial was from the treatment given in Germany to persons accused of similar offense against the German Reich.
“In pronouncing this sentence upon these six men and women this court is constrained to give full consideration to the fact that our nation, and every man, woman and child in it, are engaged in a global death struggle against forces of tyranny and evil unprecedented in the history of mankind. Our enemies seek to destroy us both by force of arms on our far flung battlefronts and through disaffection and treacherous sabotage within our borders.”
“The home front in our titanic struggle against the enemy is equally important and certainly more vulnerable than our battle lines. This is a war of people against people, as well as cannon and cannon. To endanger this home front, therefore, is as treasonable act as the act of spiking our guns in the face of the foe.”
On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, citing serious errors in the proceedings. The ruling saved the three men from the electric chair.
Among the trial errors cited was the admissibility of “confessions” that had been obtained by the FBI without advising the defendants of their right to counsel and made before pre-trial arraignment and the judge’s denial of motions to sever the defendants trials from each other.
Otto Wergin and Walter Froehling pled guilty July 22, 1944 to misprision of treason (deliberate concealment of knowledge of treason) and were sentenced to five years each in prison.
Hans M. Haupt was tried a second time, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $10,000
Charges were dropped against the wives of the defendants, although Erna Haupt was interred for the duration of the war, had her citizenship revoked and was deported to the American sector in Germany after the war ended.
Lucille Froehling was granted a divorce from her husband and custody of the children in 1946 on the grounds that Walter Froehling had been convicted of a felony. He was serving his prison sentence at the time.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmPiRmT4
The photographer is unknown. The image is believed to be a U.S. government photograph. It is housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.
A truly brilliantly executed casting which Majorette have been making for a few years now which ensures a variety of different releases to collect. Nicely detailed fully licensed MAN TGS cab and fully functioning rear. Part of a S.O.S. three vehicle set found recently in a French Carrefour. Mint and boxed.
The saga of 640 Fifth Avenue began in 1878, when Henry William Vanderbilt, son and principal heir of the Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, engaged architect John B. Snook and decorator C.B. Atwood of the prestigious Herter Brothers firm to design and execute plans for twin mansions on the avenue. The finished building occupied the entire block between 51st and 52nd streets on the west side of Fifth Avenue. The northern half was occupied by residences for two of William's daughters; the southern half was reserved for Vanderbilt and his wife Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt.
This residence was designed at the end of the Victorian movement in America. It rich neo-Grec brownstone facade was alive with decorative detailing, such as balconied window projections and intricately carved entablatures above the windows on the second story. An elaborately carved floral frieze ran in tandem with the third floor, and similar decorative detailing ran across the first story level at the top of the windows. A perforated parapet balustrade topped all of this exuberant detailing.
The mansion's interiors were even more elaborately conceived. Overpowering in their intensity, the major interior spaces were filled with stone and mosaic walls and floors, and the most important rooms were decorated with murals by Jules' Joseph Lefebvre. Draperies and upholstery were of textures velvets and silks in rich jewel tones. The furniture, constructed of exotic woods, was often inlaid with ebony and mother-of-pearl. A marble and bronze clad central hall ran up to stained-glass ceiling by John La Farge. The collection in the art gallery predominantly comprised important works by French academic painters, such as Bouguereau, Tissot and Meissonier. M.S. Euen, the author of Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, privately printed by Vanderbilt, opined that everything inside 640 "sparkles and flashes with gold and color...with mother-of-pearl, with marble, with jewel effects in glass...and every surface is covered, one might say weighted, with ornament."
After Vanderbilt's death in 1885, the house continued to be inhabited by his widow. At her death 11 years later, his youngest son, George Washington Vanderbilt, inherited the mansion. By the end of the century, the house seemed dowdy. Most of the younger Vanderbilts' peers had long ago subscribed to the new classical design vernacular espoused by prominent architectural firms such as Carrere and Hastings and McKim, Mead and White. George soon made a series of changes to his father's house. He began by eliminating a few of the decorative excesses on the exterior, at the same time replacing the balustrade that surrounded it with something more classical that held baroque lanterns at each corner. Soon after this expensive work was completed, the City of New York decided to widen Fifth Avenue, forcing Vanderbilt to remove this new balustrade completely. That , coupled with the heavy debt incurred with the building of his enormous Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina, compelled him in 1905 to stop renovations. Soon thereafter he leased the house to Henry Clay Frick.
George Vanderbilt died in Washington D.C., in 1914. Because he left no direct male heir, per his father's will, 640 was passed on to his eldest nephew. Cornelius Vanderbilt III was the eldest son of George's oldest brother, Cornelius II. Neily, as family and friends always called him, was an unexpectant recipient because his father had disinherited him for marrying Grace Wilson, a society belle of the era.
After Cornelius II's death, Neily's younger brother, who inherited the lion's share of his father's estate,gave Neily an additional $6 million ($122 million USD 2007), thereby bringing his inheritance up to the level of his sisters and younger brother, Reginald. That money, combined with his wife's personal fortune, enabled this branch of the Vanderbilt family to live quite well in a Fifth Avenue house 677, two blocks north of his grandfather's mansion. But with Grace's burgeoning social career, defined by her position as the leading Mrs. Vanderbilt, it was fortunate that they inherited the mush larger house at 640.
As George Vanderbilt had sided with the senior Vanderbilts in their dislike of Grace, the younger Mrs. Vanderbilt had not stepped foot in the house since long before her 1896 marriage. On her first tour of the property after her husband's inheritance, Grace reputedly dubbed it "the Black Hole of Calcutta" and immediately called in one of society's favorite architects, Horace Trumbauer, to transform the house, cellar to attic.
The exterior changes included removal of all the first and second story double-hung windows and their accompanying surrounds and replacing them with balustraded French doors set in classical frames. The elaborate, heavily carved frieze work of the first and third floors was removed, and the house was extended and enlarged in the back. Probably the most obvious change was the addition of a single story entrance pavilion that was attached to the northern end of the Fifth Avenue facade. The brownstone veneer remained but was reinterpreted in an 18th century vernacular.
Inside, the heavy Herter Brothers interiors were completely gutted and replaced with the elegant and bright French 18th-century rooms so loved by "Her Grace". A marble lined foyer led into a soaring French Caen stone-lined great hall from which emanated most of the principal rooms for entertaining in the house. These included a Regence-inspired oak paneled library in which Grace served tea in the afternoons under a late 17th-century tapestry representing Alexander the Great's visit to Diogenes in Corinth. There was also an art gallery that continued to display William Henry Vanderbilt's collection of Millets, Meissoniers, and Corots. Nearby, the family dining room had beige-and-gold 18th century paneling that had come from Europe via their 677 Fifth Avenue home. For larger dinners, the Vanderbilts used 640's main dining room, whose Louis XV paneling had niches that held wine-cooling fountains and buffets of red Siena marble. A dining table that could extend to seat 60 stood in the center of an enormous modern Savonnerie carpet. For larger groups, Grace had this table removed and used numerous smaller tables instead.
The music room had finely detailed Louis XVI boiserie and a parquet de Versailles floor that was considered too beautiful to cover. The adjoining ballroom, with its paneling anchored by gilded Corinthian pilasters, was the largest room in the house. At a Vanderbilt ball, as many as 1,000 people might be invited to dance on its highly polished parquet floor.
The upper floors comprised family and guest bedrooms, along with Grace's famous pink boudoir and her husband's paneled walnut study with an adjacent soundproof engineering laboratory. In the basement were the kitchen, servant's dining room, laundry, and wine cellar, and bedrooms for most of the male staff members. The female servants were housed four flights away under the roof. The Vanderbilts generally employed a household staff of about 30, who were at their busiest during the non-stop entertaining that enveloped the household during the all-important winter season.
For really important affairs a red carpet was rolled out from the front door, over the sidewalk to the street. Supervising the front-of-the-house staff was the family butler, Gerald, who was so distinguished in appearance that arriving first-time guests, unfamiliar with their host, often confused the two. Alongside Gerald were six footmen, grandly arrayed in "Vanderbilt maroon" livery, consisting of jackets with gold-braided trim over matching knee britches and white stockings with black patent-leather pumps. To complete the 18th -century illusion, these footmen were required to either powder their own hair or don wigs. Maids in black dresses with frilly starched organdy capes and aprons carried hats, coats, and umbrellas to large dressing closets, which were designed to accommodate up to 700 coats. On a silver tray in the entrance hall, each male guest would find a little white envelope bearing his name. Inside he would find the name of the lady he would be escorting into dinner, or midnight supper if it were a ball.
Grace Vanderbilt's high Edwardian scale of entertaining never slackened, even during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Aside from her lavish balls, musicales, and dinner parties, as many as 100 people might drop by for tea during the season, and 1,000 would come pay their respects on Christmas Day. She was given a daily roster of who was staying in each guest room, and her often overtaxed staff would sometimes confuse incoming and outgoing guests' luggage. Her husband thought 640 resembled the family's business headquarters, Grand Central Terminal.
Vanderbilt began to find this nonstop entertaining draining. His parents had perhaps been right all along; he and Grace were unsuited for each other. Soon he began retreating to his yachts, where he would often find solace at the bottom of a bottle. At the beginning of World War II, Vanderbilt donated his oceangoing yacht, the Winchester, to the Canadian government to use as a submarine chaser. He then leased a much smaller boat that he kept more less permanently moored in Miami, where he died in 1942.
Vanderbilt's fortune was hard hit by the depression. In 1940, to raise capital, he sold 640 to the Astor Estate Office, with the proviso that his wife would be able to remain there until one year after his death, paying the Astor Estate Office a nominal rent. The house, whose neighborhood was already being commercialized at the time of the Trumbauer renovation, was then totally engulfed by towering skyscrapers. Even so, Grace was reluctant to leave the scene of so many social triumphs. Because of the war, the new owners of the property held off taking possession until 1945. In the fall of that year, refusing to leave the avenue that she had dominated for so long, Grace purchased the William Starr Miller mansion at 86th and Fifth Avenue. The following year, 640, the last great Vanderbilt mansions on the avenue, became victim to the wrecker's ball, replaced by a diminutive commercial structure that was little more than a taxpayer.
Officers execute daybreak raids as part of a firearms investigation in Cheetham Hill.
This morning, Thursday 21 May, officers from the North Manchester division carried out raids at two addresses in Cheetham Hill as part of an ongoing investigation into a firearms discharge, which took place last week on Monday 11 May 2020.
In the early hours of that morning, at around 1.15am, police were called to reports of between two and four gunshot sounds on Galsworthy Avenue.
No injuries were reported but some damage was caused to a vehicle on the street.
During today's raids officers seized a quantity of cash as part of the direct action. One man was arrested.
Speaking after the raids, Superintendent Rebecca Boyce, of GMPs North Manchester district, said: “First and foremost I sincerely hope that this morning’s activity shows to the people of Cheetham Hill just how seriously we continue to take incidents of this nature. We will explore every line of enquiry available to us and leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of justice.
“Guns and violence have no place on our streets; and anyone who is harbouring weapons of this nature or taking part in this kind of criminal activity should know that we do not take these incidents lightly. Anyone who brandishes a weapon within our communities and ultimately puts the lives of others at risk can expect to be investigated by us.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to protecting people and making the streets of Cheetham Hill a safer place, we have been working closely with partners, including Manchester City Council –both Adult and Children’s Services and housing providers. This prevention work is absolutely vital if we are to support those most vulnerable in our society and put a stop to this type of offending. A huge priority for us is discouraging people from taking this path and turning to this kind of criminality and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our partners who have continued to support us in this.
“We have been always very clear that we cannot do this alone and would like to continue to appeal to the public to help us. Often, answers lie within communities and this type of criminal activity can only be halted completely with the support of those with information. If people would prefer to speak anonymously, they can do so by contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers.”
Anyone with any information should contact police on 0161 856 3924 quoting incident number 124 of 11/05/2020. Details can also be anonymously passed to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
Flames blast from a D-30, 122 mm howitzer barrel after firing a round, as is typical with the Soviet-made weapon system. Afghan soldiers with the 4th Combat Support Kandak, 1st Brigade, 215th Corps, coordinated and executed their second live-fire artillery training exercise.
2nd Marine Division
Photo by Sgt. Earnest J. Barnes
Date Taken: 12.29.2011
Location: CAMP DWYER, AF
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/hdiga5
I've had another great year, 2012 has been fun. I've had some great ideas and executed some of them. 2013 is a new year that'll bring some changes and some more fun! Thanks for being there guys, you make the hobby fun.
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1. Dragon, 2. "Houston, We Have A Problem.", 3. Alexis And Althior's Room, 4. The Cave, 5. Geonosian Zombie, 6. Jets Training Camp, 7. Alien Guard, 8. Kragan, 9. Supreme Lord of the Bathroom!, 10. Batcave Review, 11. Maroon Stripe, 12. Chima Eagle Viper, 13. Gladiator!, 14. "Sweet Dreams", 15. Carrot, 16. Penguin, 17. Kragan, 18. Gladiator!, 19. Alien Viper, 20. 9491 Geonosian Cannon Review, 21. Elrond Review, 22. Citadel Attack, 23. LEGO Store Community Window, 24. Working On Mark IV..., 25. Duel On Musatfar, 26. Space Chicks, 27. Midi-Scale Venator V.2, 28. Captain America, 29. Bank Poison, 30. RC S250, 31. Landing On Otera, 32. KY R-550, 33. Four Seconds 'Till Impact, 34. Shapeways, 35. Riddles For The Ring, 36. Mini Space Fleet
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (July 26, 2018) - Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers and two Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-15 fighters execute a routine bilateral training mission in the vicinity of Japan. This mission was flown in support of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's Continuous Bomber Presence (CBP) operations, which are a key component to improving combined and joint service interoperability. Bilateral training missions such as this allow the two countries to improve upon combined capabilities, tactical skills, and relationships. (Courtesy photo) 180726-F-ZZ999-102
** Interested in following U.S. Indo-Pacific Command? Engage and connect with us at www.facebook.com/indopacom | twitter.com/PacificCommand |
www.instagram.com/indopacom | www.flickr.com/photos/us-pacific-command; | www.youtube.com/user/USPacificCommand | www.pacom.mil/ **
Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.
Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.
The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.
Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.
15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.
Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.
“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.
“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.
“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”
Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.
“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.
“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was printed by L. Menard in 1926.
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna on the 2nd. November 1755. She was the last queen of France before the French Revolution.
Marie was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I.
Marie became Dauphine of France in May 1770 at the age of 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On the 10th. May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI, and she became queen.
Marie Antoinette's position at court improved when, after eight years of marriage, she started having children. She became increasingly unpopular among the people, however, with the French libelles accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, harbouring sympathies for France's perceived enemies - particularly her native Austria - and her children of being illegitimate.
The false accusations of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged her reputation further. During the Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker.
Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government had placed the royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789.
The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition had disastrous effects on French popular opinion. On the 10th. August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family to take refuge at the Assembly, and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on the 13th. August.
The Death of Louis XVI
On the 21st. September 1792, the French monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on the 21st. January 1793.
The Death of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette's trial began on the 14th. October 1793, and two days later she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed, also by guillotine, on the Place de la Révolution on the 16th. October 1793.
The Palace of Fontainebleau
The Palace of Fontainebleau, or Château de Fontainebleau, is located 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the centre of Paris.
The castle and subsequent palace served as a residence for French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III.
Francis I and Napoleon were the monarchs who had the most influence on the Palace as it stands today.
It became a national museum in 1927, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance.
The Medieval Palace
The earliest record of a fortified castle at Fontainebleau dates to 1137. It became a favorite residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France because of the abundant game and many springs in the surrounding forest.
Fontainebleau took its name from one of the springs, la Fontaine de Bliaud, located now in the English Garden, next to the wing of Louis XV.
Fontainebleau was used by King Louis VII, for whom Thomas Becket consecrated the chapel in 1169; also by Philip II; by Louis IX (later canonised as Saint Louis), who built a hospital and a convent, the Couvent des Trinitaires, next to the castle; and by Philip IV, who was born and died in the castle.
The Renaissance Château of Francis I (1528–1547)
In the 15th. century some modifications and embellishments were made to the castle by Isabeau of Bavaria, the wife of King Charles VI, but the medieval structure remained essentially intact until the reign of Francis I (1494–1547).
He commissioned the architect Gilles Le Breton to build a palace in the new Renaissance style, recently imported from Italy. Le Breton preserved the old medieval donjon, where the King's apartments were located, but incorporated it into the new Renaissance-style Cour Ovale, built on the foundations of the old castle.
It included the monumental Porte Dorée, as its southern entrance. as well as a monumental Renaissance stairway, the Portique de Serlio, to give access the royal apartments on the north side.
Beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the Galerie François I, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitaires. He brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio from Italy, and the Florentine painter Rosso Fiorentino, to decorate the new gallery.
Between 1533 and 1539 Fiorentino filled the gallery with murals glorifying the King, framed in stucco ornament in high relief, and panelling sculpted by the furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi.
Another Italian painter, Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna, joined later in the decoration of the palace. Together their style of decoration became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. This was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Fontainebleau introduced the Renaissance to France.
In about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the château. Using land on the east side of the château purchased from the order of the Trinitaires, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard.
The château was surrounded by a new park in the style of the Italian Renaissance garden, with pavilions and the first grotto in France.
The Château of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1547–1570)
Following the death of Francis I, King Henry II decided to continue and expand the château. The King and his wife chose the architects Philibert de l'Orme and Jean Bullant to do the work.
They extended the east wing of the lower court and decorated it with the first famous horseshoe-shaped staircase which was built between 1547 and 1559. The staircase was subsequently re-built for Louis XIII by Jean Androuet du Cerceau in about 1632-1634.
In the Oval Court, they transformed the loggia planned by Francois into a Salle des Fêtes or grand ballroom with a coffered ceiling. Facing the courtyard of the fountain and the fish pond, they designed a new building, the Pavillon des Poeles (destroyed), to contain the new apartments of the King.
The decoration of the new ballroom and the gallery of Ulysses with murals by Francesco Primaticcio and sculptured stucco continued.
At Henri's orders the Nymphe de Fontainebleau by Benvenuto Cellini was installed at the gateway entrance of Château d'Anet, the domain of Henri's primary mistress Diane de Poitiers (the original bronze lunette is now in the Musée du Louvre, with a replica in place).
Following the death of Henry II in a jousting accident, his widow, Catherine de' Medici, continued the construction and decoration of the château. She named Primaticcio as the new superintendent of royal public works.
He designed the section known today as the wing of the Belle Cheminée, noted for its elaborate chimneys and its two opposing stairways. In 1565, as a security measure due to the Wars of Religion, she also had moat dug around the château to protect it against attack.
Château of Henry IV (1570–1610)
King Henry IV made more additions to the château than any King since Francis I. He extended the oval court toward the west by building two pavilions, called Tiber and Luxembourg.
Between 1601 and 1606, he remade all the façades around the courtyard, including that of the chapel of Saint-Saturnin, to give the architecture greater harmony. On the east side, he built a new monumental domed gateway, the Porte du Baptistère.
Between 1606 and 1609, he built a new courtyard, the Cour des Offices or Quartier Henry IV, to provide a place for the kitchens as well as residences for court officials.
Two new galleries, the Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, were built to enclose the old garden of Diane. He also added a large Jeu de Paume, or indoor tennis court, the largest such court in the world.
A Second School of Fontainebleau painters and decorators went to work on the interiors. The architect Martin Fréminet created the ornate chapel of the Trinity, while the painters Ambroise Dubois and Toussaint Dubreuil created a series of heroic paintings for the salons. A new wing, named after its central building, La Belle Cheminée, was built next to the large carp pond.
Henry IV also devoted great attention to the park and gardens around the Château. The garden of the Queen or garden of Diane, created by Catherine de' Medici, with the fountain of Diane in the centre, was located on the north side of the palace.
Henry IV's gardener, Claude Mollet, who trained at Château d'Anet, created a large parterre of flower beds, decorated with ancient statues and separated by paths into large squares.
The fountain of Diana and the grotto were made by Tommaso Francini, who may also have designed the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden for Marie de Medici.
On the south side, Henry created a park, planted with pines, elms and fruit trees, and laid out a grand canal 1200 meters long, sixty years before Louis XIV built his own grand canal at Versailles.
The Château from Louis XIII through Louis XVI
King Louis XIII was born and baptized in the Château, and continued the works begun by his father. He completed the decoration of the chapel of the Trinity, and assigned the court architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau to re-construct the horseshoe stairway on the courtyard that had become known as the Cour de Cheval Blanc.
After his death, his widow, Anne of Austria, re-decorated the apartments within the Wing of the Queen Mothers (Aile des Reines Mères) next to the Court of the Fountain, designed by Primatrice.
King Louis XIV spent more days at Fontainebleau than any other monarch. He liked to hunt there every year at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
He made few changes to the exterior of the Château, but did build a new apartment for his companion Madame de Maintenon. He furnished it with major works of André-Charles Boulle. He also demolished the old apartments of the baths under the Gallery of Francis I to create new apartments for the royal princes.
The architect Jules Hardouin-Mansard built a new wing alongside the Galerie des Cerfs and the Galerie de Diane in order to provide more living space for the Court.
Louis XIV made major changes to the park and gardens; he commissioned André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau to redesign the large parterre into a French formal garden. He destroyed the hanging garden which Henry IV had built next to the large carp lake, and instead built a pavilion, designed by Le Vau, on a small island in the centre of the lake.
Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau at the Château on the 22nd. October 1685, revoking the policy of tolerance towards Protestants begun by Henry IV.
Louis welcomed many foreign guests at the Château, including the former Queen Christina of Sweden, who had just abdicated her crown. While a guest in the Château on the 10th. November 1657, Christina suspected her Master of the Horse and reputed lover, the Marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, of betraying her secrets to her enemies.
Her servants chased him through the halls of the Château and stabbed him to death. Louis XIV came to see her at the Château, did not mention the murder, and allowed her to continue her travels.
On the 18th. and 20th. May 1717, following the death of Louis XIV, the Russian Czar Peter the Great was a guest at Fontainebleau. A hunt for stags was organized for him, along with a banquet.
Although officially the visit was a great success, later memoires revealed that Peter disliked the French style of hunting, and that he found the Château too small, compared to the other royal French residences.
The routine of Fontainebleau also did not suit his tastes; he preferred beer to wine (and brought his own supply with him) and he liked to get up early, unlike the French Court.
The renovation projects of Louis XV were more ambitious than those of Louis XIV. To create more lodging for his enormous number of courtiers, in 1737–38 the King built a new courtyard, called the Cour de la Conciergerie or the Cour des Princes, to the east of the Galerie des Cerfs.
On the Cour du Cheval Blanc, the wing of the Gallery of Ulysses was torn down and gradually replaced by a new brick and stone building, built in stages in 1738–1741 and 1773–74, extending west toward the Pavilion and grotto of the pines.
Between 1750 and 1754, the King commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build a new wing along the Cour de la Fontaine and the carp lake.
The old Pavilion des Poeles was demolished and replaced by the Gros Pavilion, built of cream-colored stone. Lavish new apartments were created inside this building for the King and Queen. The new meeting room for the Royal Council was decorated by the leading painters of the day, including François Boucher, Carle Vanloo, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Alexis Peyrotte. A magnificent small theatre was created on the first floor of the wing of the Belle Cheminée.
King Louis XVI also made additions to the Château in order to create more space for his courtiers. A new building was constructed alongside the Gallery of Francis I; it created a large new apartment on the first floor, and a number of small apartments on the ground floor, but also blocked the windows on the north side of the Gallery of Francis I.
The apartments of Queen Marie-Antoinette were redone, a Turkish-style salon was created for her in 1777, a room for games in 1786–1787, and a boudoir in the arabesque style. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette made their last visit to Fontainebleau in 1786, on the eve of the French Revolution.
The Château during the Revolution and the First Empire
During the French Revolution the Château did not suffer any significant damage, but all the furniture was sold at auction. The buildings were occupied by the Central School of the Department of Seine-et-Marne until 1803, when Napoleon I installed a military school there.
As he prepared to become Emperor, Napoleon wanted to preserve as much as possible of the palaces and protocol of the Old Regime. He chose Fontainebleau as the site of his historic 1804 meeting with Pope Pius VII, who had travelled from Rome to crown Napoleon Emperor.
Napoleon had a suite of rooms decorated for the Pope, and had the entire Château refurnished and decorated. The bedroom of the Kings was transformed into a throne room for Napoleon. Apartments were refurnished and decorated for the Emperor and Empress in the new Empire style.
The Cour du Cheval Blanc was re-named the Cour d'Honneur. One wing facing the courtyard, the Aile de Ferrare, was torn down and replaced with an ornamental iron fence and gate, making the façade of the Palace visible.
The gardens of Diane and the gardens of the Pines were replanted and turned into an English landscape garden.
Napoleon's visits to Fontainebleau were not frequent, because he was occupied so much of the time with military campaigns. Between 1812 and 1814, the Château served as a very elegant prison for Pope Pius VII. On the 5th. November 1810, the chapel of the Château was used for the baptism of Napoleon's nephew, the future Napoleon III, with Napoleon serving as his godfather, and the Empress Marie-Louise as his godmother.
Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau, before abdicating there on the 4th. April 1814. On the 20th. April, after failing in an attempt to commit suicide, he gave an emotional farewell to the soldiers of the Old Guard, assembled in the Court of Honor. Later, during the One Hundred Days, he stopped there on the 20th. March 1815.
In his memoires, written while in exile on Saint Helena, he recalled his time at Fontainebleau:
"The true residence of Kings, the house of
the centuries. Perhaps it was not a rigorously
architectural palace, but it was certainly a place
of residence well thought out and perfectly
suitable. It was certainly the most comfortable
and happily situated palace in Europe.”
The Château during the Restoration and the Reign of Louis-Philippe (1815–1848)
Following the restoration of the Monarchy, Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X each stayed at Fontainebleau, but neither made any major changes to the palace. Louis-Philippe was more active, both restoring some rooms and redecorating others in the style of his period.
The Hall of the Guards and Gallery of Plates were redecorated in a Neo-Renaissance style, while the Hall of Columns, under the ballroom, was remade in a neoclassical style. He added new stained glass windows, made by the royal manufactory of Sèvres.
The Château During the Second Empire
Emperor Napoleon III, who had been baptised at Fontainebleau, resumed the custom of long stays at the Château, particularly during the summer. Many of the historic rooms, such as the Galerie des Cerfs, were restored to something like their original appearance, while the private apartments were redecorated to suit the tastes of the Emperor and Empress.
Numerous guest apartments were squeezed into unused spaces within the buildings. The old theatre of the palace, built in the 18th. century, was destroyed by a fire in the wing of the Belle Cheminée 1856. Between 1854 and 1857 the architect Hector Lefuel built a new theatre in the style of Louis XVI.
On the ground floor of the Gros Pavilion, the Empress Eugénie built a small but well-stocked museum, containing gifts from the King of Siam in 1861, and works of art taken during the pillage of the Summer Palace in Beijing.
The museum also featured paintings by contemporary artists, including Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and the sculptor Charles Henri Joseph Cordier. Close by, in the Louis XV wing, the Emperor established his office, and the Empress made her Salon of Lacquer.
These were the last rooms created by the royal residents of Fontainebleau. In 1870, during the Franco-German War, the Empire fell, and the Château was closed.
The Château from the Third Republic to the Present Day
During the Franco-Prussian War, the palace was occupied by the Prussians on the 17th. September 1870, and briefly used as an army headquarters by Frederic Charles of Prussia from March 1871.
Following the war, two of the buildings became the home of the advanced school of artillery and engineering of the French Army, which had been forced to leave Alsace when the province was annexed by Germany.
The Château was occasionally used as a residence by the Presidents of the Third Republic, and to welcome state guests including King Alexander I of Serbia (1891), King George I of Greece (1892) Leopold II of Belgium (1895) and King Alphonse XIII of Spain (1913).
It also received a visit by the last survivor of its royal residents, the Empress Eugenie, on the 26th. June 1920.
The façades the major buildings received their first protection by classification as historic monuments on the 20th. August 1913.
In 1923, following the Great War, the Château became the home of the Écoles d'Art Américaines, schools of art and music, which still exist today. In 1927 it became a national museum. Between the wars the upper floors of the wing of the Belle Cheminée, burned in 1856, were rebuilt by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
During World War II, Fontainebleau was occupied by the Germans on the 16th. June 1940, and occupied until the 10th. November 1940, and again from the 15th. May to the end of October 1941.
Following the war, part of the Château became a headquarters of the Western Union and later NATO's Allied Forces Central Europe/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, until 1966.
The general restoration of the Château took place between 1964 and 1968 under President Charles De Gaulle and his Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture purchased the royal stables, and began their restoration.
Beginning in 2007, restoration began of the theatre of the Château, created by Napoleon III during the Second Empire. The project was funded by the government of Abu-Dhabi, and in exchange the theater was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan. It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014.
On the 1st. March 2015, the Chinese Museum of the Château was robbed by professional thieves. They broke in at about six in the morning, and, despite alarms and video cameras, in seven minutes stole about fifteen of the most valuable objects in the collection, including the replica of the crown of Siam given by the Siamese government to Napoleon III, a Tibetan mandala, and an enamel chimera from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795).
The Grand Apartments at Fontainebleau
The Gallery of Francis I
The Gallery of Francis I is one of the first and finest examples of Renaissance decoration in France. It was originally constructed in 1528 as a passageway between the apartments of the King with the oval courtyard and the great chapel of the convent Trinitaires, but in 1531 Francis I made it a part of his royal apartments, and between 1533 and 1539 it was decorated by artists and craftsmen from Italy, under the direction of the painter Rosso Fiorentino, in the new Renaissance style.
The lower walls of the passage were the work of the master Italian furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi; they are decorated with the coat of arms of France and the salamander, the emblem of the King. The upper walls are covered by frescoes framed in richly sculpted stucco. The frescoes used mythological scenes to illustrate the virtues of the King.
On the side of the gallery with windows, the frescoes represent Ignorance Driven Out; The Unity of the State; Cliobis and Biton; Danae; The Death of Adonis; The Loss of Perpetual Youth; and The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithes.
On the side of the gallery facing the windows, the frescoes represent: A Sacrifice; The Royal Elephant; The Burning of Catane; The Nymph of Fontainebleau (painted in 1860–61 by J. Alaux to cover a former entry to the gallery); The Sinking of Ajax; The Education of Achilles and The Frustration of Venus.
The Ballroom
The Ballroom was originally begun as an open passageway, or loggia, by Francis I. In about 1552 King Henry II closed it with high windows and an ornate coffered ceiling, and transformed it into a room for celebrations and balls.
The 'H', the initial of the King, is prominent in the decor, as well as figures of the crescent moon, the symbol of Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers.
At the western end is a monumental fireplace, decorated with bronze statues originally copied from classical statues in Rome. At the eastern end of the room is a gallery where musicians played during balls.
The decor was restored many times over the years. The floor, which mirrors the design of the ceiling, was built by Louis-Philippe in the first half of the 19th. century.
The frescoes on the walls and pillars were painted beginning in 1552 by Nicolo dell'Abate, following drawings by Primatice. On the garden side of the ballroom, they represent: The Harvest; Vulcan forging weapons for Love at the request of Venus; Phaeton begging the sun to let him drive his chariot; and Jupiter and Mercury at the home of Philemon and Baucis.
The frescoes on the side of the Oval Courtyard represent: The feast of Bacchus; Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus; The Three Graces dancing before the gods; and The wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus.
St. Saturnin's Chapel
Behind the ballroom, there is St. Saturnin's Chapel. The lower chapel was originally built in the 12th. century, but was destroyed and completely rebuilt under Francis I. The windows made in Sèvres were installed during Louis Philippe's period, and were designed by his daughter Marie, an artist herself.
The upper chapel was the royal chapel decorated by Philibert de l'Orme. The ceiling, made in the same style as the ballroom, ends with a dome.
Room of the Guards
A room for the guards was always located next to the royal bedchambers. The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570's, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri.
In the 19th. century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon, and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, along with a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms that were built the 15th. and early 16th. century.
The bust of Henry IV, attributed to Mathieu Jacquet, is from that period, as are the two figures on either side of the fireplace. The sculpted frame around the bust, by Pierre Bontemps, was originally in the bedchamber of Henry II.
The decorations added by Louis Philippe include a large vase decorated with Renaissance themes, made by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in 1832.
During the reign of Napoleon III, the hall was used as a dining room.
Stairway of the King
The stairway of the King was installed in 1748 and 1749, in the space occupied during the reign of Francis I by the bedroom of Anne de Pisseleu, the Duchess of Étampes, a favorite of the King.
It was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who used many decorative elements from the earlier room, which had originally been decorated by Primatice.
The upper portion of the walls is divided into panels, oval and rectangular, with scenes representing the love life of Alexander the Great. The paintings are framed by large statues of women by Primatice. The eastern wall of the room was destroyed during the reconstruction, and was replaced during the reign of Louis Philippe in the 19th. century with paintings by Abel de Pujol.
The Queen's Bedroom
All of the Queens and Empresses of France from Marie de Medici to the Empress Eugènie slept in the bedchamber of the Queen. The ornate ceiling over the bed was made in 1644 by the furniture-maker Guillaume Noyers for the Dowager Queen Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, and bears her initials.
The room was redecorated by Marie Leszczynska, the Queen of Louis XV in 1746–1747. The ceiling of the alcove, the decoration around the windows and the wood panelling were made by Jacques Vererckt and Antoine Magnonais in the rocaille style of the day. The decoration of the fireplace dates to the same period.
The doors have an arabesque design, and were made for Marie-Antoinette, as were the sculpted panels over the doors, installed in 1787. The bed was also made especially for Marie Antoinette, but did not arrive until 1797, after the Revolution and her execution. it was used instead by Napoleon's wives, the Empress Josephine and Marie-Louise of Austria.
The walls received their ornamental textile covering, with a design of flowers and birds, in 1805. It was restored in 1968–1986 using the original fabric as a model.
The furniture in the room all dates to the First Empire. The balustrade around the bed was originally made for the throne room of the Tuileries Palace in 1804. The armchairs with a sphinx pattern, the consoles and screen and the two chests of drawers were placed in the room in 1806.
The Boudoir of Marie-Antoinette
The boudoir next to the Queen's bedroom was created for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1786, and permitted the Queen to have a measure of privacy.
The room is the best surviving example of the decorative style just before the French Revolution, inspired by ancient Roman models, with delicately painted arabesques, cameos, vases, antique figures and garlands of flowers against a silver background, framed by gilded and sculpted woodwork.
The room was made for the Queen by the same team of artists and craftsmen who also made the game room; the design was by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751-1829); the wood panelling was sculpted by Laplace, and painted by Michel-Hubert Bourgeois and Louis-François Touzé.
Eight figures of the Muses were made in plaster by Roland; the ornate mantle of the fireplace was made by Jacques-François Dropsy, and decorated with glided bronze works by Claude-Jean Pitoin.
The mahogany parquet floor, decorated with the emblems of the Queen, was made by Bernard Molitor, and finished in 1787. The painted ceiling, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy, shows Aurora with a group of angels.
The furnishings were designed for the room by Jean-Henri Riesener, using the finest materials available; mother of pearl, gilded bronze, brass, satin and ebony. Some of the original furnishings remain, including the cylindrical desk and the table, which were made between 1784 and 1789.
The two armchairs are copies of the originals made by Georges Jacob which are now in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, while the footstool is the original.
The Throne Room of Napoleon (former bedroom of the King)
The Throne Room was the bedroom of the Kings of France from Henry IV to Louis XVI.
In 1808 Napoleon decided to install his throne in the former bedroom of the Kings of France in the location where the royal bed had been. Under the Old Regime, the King's bed was a symbol of royal authority in France and was saluted by courtiers who passed by it. Napoleon wanted to show the continuity of his Empire with the past monarchies of France.
The majority of the carved wood ceiling, the lower part of the wood panelling, and the doors date to the reign of Louis XIII. The ceiling directly over the throne was made at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.
Louis XV created the portion of the ceiling directly over the throne, a new chimney, sculpted wooden medallions near the fireplace, the designs over the doors, and the fine carved woodwork facing the throne (1752–54).
He also had the ceiling painted white and gilded and decorated with mosaics, to match the ceiling of the bedroom of the Queen.
Napoleon added the standards with his initial and the Imperial eagle. The decoration around the throne was originally designed in 1804 by Jacob-Desmalter for the Palace of Saint-Cloud, and the throne itself came from the Tuileries Palace.
The chimney was originally decorated with a portrait of Louis XIII painted by Philippe de Champaigne, which was burned in 1793 during the French Revolution. Napoleon replaced it with a portrait of himself, by Robert Lefèvre. In 1834, King Louis-Philippe took down Napoleon's picture and replaced with another of Louis XIII.
The Council Chamber
The Council Chamber, where the Kings and Emperors met their closest advisors, was close to the Throne Room. It was originally the office of Francis I, and was decorated with painted wooden panels showing following designs of Primatice, the virtues and the heroes of antiquity.
The room was enlarged under Louis XIV, and the decorator, Claude Audran, followed the same theme.
The room was entirely redecorated between 1751 and 1754 by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, with arcades and wooded panels showing the virtues, and allegories of the seasons and the elements, painted by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Carle van Loo.
The painter Alexis Peyrotte added another series of medallions to the upper walls depicting floral themes, the sciences and arts. The five paintings on the vaulted ceiling were the work of François Boucher, and show the seasons and the sun beginning its journey and chasing away the night.
A half-rotonda on the garden side of the room was added by Louis XV in 1773, with a painted ceiling by Lagrenée depicting Glory surrounded by his children.
The room was used as a council chamber by Napoleon I, and the furnishings are from that time. The armchairs at the table for the ministers are by Marcion (1806) and the folding chairs for advisors are by Jacob-Desmalter (1808).
Apartment of the Pope and of the Queen-Mothers
The apartment of the Pope, located on the first floor of the wing of the Queen Mothers and of the Gros Pavillon, takes its name from the 1804 visit of Pope Pius VII, who stayed there on his way to Paris to crown Napoleon I the Emperor of France.
He stayed there again, involuntarily, under the close supervision of Napoleon from 1812 to 1814. Prior to that, beginning in the 17th. century it was the residence of the Queen Mothers Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria.
It was also the home of the Grand Dauphin, the oldest son of Louis XIV. In the 18th. century it was used by the daughters of Louis XV, and then by the Count of Provence, the brother of Louis XVI.
During the First Empire it was used by Louis, the brother of Napoleon, and his wife Queen Hortense, the daughter of the Empress Josephine. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, it was used by his eldest son, the Duke of Orleans.
During the Second Empire, it was occupied by Stephanie de Bade, the adopted niece of Napoleon I. It was restored in 1859–1861, and used thereafter for guests of high rank. It was originally two apartments, which were divided or joined over the years depending upon its occupants.
The Grand Salon, the Antechamber to the Bedroom of the Queen-Mother (Mid-17th. century)
The Salon de Reception was the anteroom to the bedroom of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV. It features a gilded and sculpted ceiling divided into seven compartments, representing the sun and the known planets, along with smaller compartments for military trophies.
The room was created in 1558 by Ambroise Perret as the bedroom of Henry II in the pavilion des Poeles, a section of the Château that was later destroyed. Anne had it moved and decorated with her own emblems, including a pelican. The wood paneling in the room is probably from the same period.
The decor of the bedroom dates largely to the 1650's; it includes grotesque paintings in compartments on the ceiling, attributed to Charles Errard; richly carved wood paneling featuring oak leaves and putti; and paintings over the doors of Anne of Austria costumed as Minerva and Marie-Therese of Austria costumed as Abundance, both painted by Gilbert de Sève.
The bedroom was modified in the 18th. century by the addition of a new fireplace and sculptured borders of cascades of flowers around the mirrors added in 1784. During the Second Empire, painted panels imitating the style of the 17th. century were added above the mirrors and between the mirrors and the doors.
The Gallery of Diana
The Gallery of Diana, an eighty-metre (242 feet) long corridor now lined with bookcases, was created by Henry IV at the beginning of the 17th. century as a place for the Queen to promenade. The paintings on the vaulted ceiling, painted beginning in 1605 by Ambroise Dubois and his workshop, represented scenes from the myth of Diana, goddess of the Hunt.
At the beginning of the 19th. century, the gallery was in ruins. In 1810 Napoleon decided to turn it into a gallery devoted to the achievements of his Empire. A few of the paintings still in good condition were removed and put in the Gallery of Plates.
The architect Hurtault designed a new plan for the gallery, inspired by the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, featuring paintings on the ceiling illustrating the great events of Napoleon's reign.
By 1814 the corridor had been rebuilt and the decorative frames painted by Moench and Redouté, but the cycle of paintings on the Empire had not been started when Napoleon fell from power.
Once the monarchy was restored, King Louis XVIII had the gallery completed in a neoclassical style. A new series of the goddess Diana was done by Merry-Joseph Blondel and Abel de Pujol, using the painted frames prepared for Napoleon's cycle.
Paintings were also added along the corridor, illustrating the history of the French monarchy, painted in the Troubador style of the 1820's and 1830's, painted by a team of the leading academic painters.
Beginning in 1853, under Napoleon III, the corridor was turned into a library and most of the paintings were removed, with the exception of a large portrait of Henry IV on horseback by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse. The large globe near the entrance of the gallery, placed there in 1861, came from the office of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.
The Apartments of Napoleon
In 1804 Napoleon decided that he wanted his own private suite of apartments within the Palace, separate from the old state apartments. He took over a suite of six rooms which had been created in 1786 for Louis XVI, next to the Gallery of Francis I, and had them redecorated in the Empire style.
The Emperor's Bedroom
Beginning in 1808, Napoleon had his bedroom in the former dressing room of the King. From this room, using a door hidden behind the drapery to the right of the bed, Napoleon could go directly to his private library or to the offices on the ground floor.
Much of the original decor was unchanged from the time of Louis XVI; the fireplaces, the carved wooden panels sculpted by Pierre-Joseph LaPlace and the sculpture over the door by Sauvage remained as they were.
The walls were painted with Imperial emblems in gold on white by Frederic-Simon Moench. The bed, made especially for the Emperor, was the summit of the Empire style; it was crowned with an imperial eagle and decorated with allegorical sculptures representing Glory, Justice, and Abundance.
The Emperor had a special carpet made by Sallandrouze in the shape of the cross of the Legion of Honor; the branches of the cross alternate with symbols of military and civilian attributes.
The chairs near the fireplace were specially designed, with one side higher than the other, to contain the heat from the fire while allowing the occupants to see the decorations of the fireplace.
The painting on the ceiling of the room was added later, after the downfall of Napoleon, by Louis XVIII. Painted by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, it is an allegory representing The clemency of the King halting justice in its course.
The study was a small room designated as Napoleon's work room. In 1811 he added the camp bed, similar to the bed he used on his military campaigns, so he could rest briefly during a long night of work.
The salon of the Emperor was simply furnished and decorated. It was in this room, on the small table on display, that the Emperor signed his abdication in 1814.
The Theatre
Concerts, plays and other theatrical productions were a regular part of court life at Fontainebleau. Prior to the reign of Louis XV these took place in different rooms of the palace, but during his reign, a theatre was built in the Belle-Cheminée wing. It was rebuilt by the architect Gabriel, but was destroyed by a fire in 1856.
It had already been judged too small for the court of Napoleon III, and a new theatre was begun in 1854 at the far eastern end of the wing of Louis XIV. It was designed by architect Hector Lefuel in the style of Louis XVI, and was inspired by the opera theatre at the palace of Versailles and that of Marie-Antoinette at the Trianon Palace.
The new theatre, with four hundred seats arranged in a parterre, two balconies and boxes in a horseshoe shape, was finished in 1856. It has the original stage machinery, and many of the original sets, including many transferred from the old theatre before the fire of 1856.
The theatre was closed after the end of the Second Empire and was rarely used. A restoration began in 2007, funded with ten million Euros by the government of Abu-Dhabi. In exchange, the theatre was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan.
It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014. The theatre can be visited, but it no longer can be used for plays because some working parts of the theater, including the stage, were not included in the restoration.
The Chinese Museum
The Chinese Museum, on the ground floor of the Gros Pavillon close to the lake, was among the last rooms decorated within the Chateau while it was still an imperial residence.
In 1867, the Empress Eugenie had the rooms remade to display her personal collection of Asian art, which included gifts given to the Emperor by a delegation sent by the King of Siam in 1861, and other objects taken during the destruction and looting of the Old Summer Palace near Beijing by a joint British-French military expedition to China in 1860.
The objects displayed in the antechamber include two royal palanquins given by the King of Siam, one designed for a King and the other (with curtains) for a Queen. Inside the two salons of the museum, some of the walls are covered with lacquered wood panels in black and gold, taken from 17th. century Chinese screens, along with specially designed cases to display antique porcelain vases.
Other objects on display include a Tibetan stupa containing a Buddha taken from the Summer Palace in China; and a royal Siamese crown given to Napoleon III.
The salons are lavishly decorated with both Asian and European furnishings and art objects, including silk-covered furnishings and Second Empire sculptures by Charles Cordier and Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk. The room also served as a place for games and entertainment; an old bagatelle game and a mechanical piano from that period are on display.
In addition to the Chinese Museum, the Empress created a small office in 1868, the Salon of Lacquerware, which was also decorated with lacquered panels and Asian art objects, on the ground floor of the Louis XV wing. This was the last room decorated before the fall of the Empire, and the eventual transformation of the Château into a museum.
The Chapel of the Trinity
The Chapel of the Trinity was built at the end of the reign of Francis I to replace the old chapel of the convent of the Trinitaires. It was finished under Henry II, but was without decoration until 1608, when the painter Martin Freminet was commissioned to design frescoes for the ceiling and walls.
The sculptor Barthèlemy Tremblay created the vaults of the ceiling out of stucco and sculpture. The paintings of Freminet in the central vaults depict the redemption of Man, from the appearance of God to Noah at the launching of the Ark (Over the tribune) to the Annunciation.
They surrounded these with smaller paintings depicting the ancestors of the Virgin Mary, the Kings of Judah, the Patriarchs announcing the coming of Christ, and the Virtues.
Between 1613 and 1619 Freminet and Tremblay added paintings in stucco frames between the windows on the sides of the chapel, depicting the life of Christ. Freminet died in 1619, and work did not resume until 1628.
The Trinity chapel, like Sainte-Chapelle in Paris other royal chapels, had an upper section or tribune, where the King and his family sat, with a separate entrance; and a lower part, where the rest of the Court was placed.
Beginning in 1628, the side chapels were decorated with iron gates and carved wood panelling, and the Florentine sculptor Francesco Bordoni began work on the marble altar. The figure to the left depicts Charlemagne, with the features of Henry II, while the figure on the right depicts Louis IX, or Saint Louis, with the features of Louis XIII, his patron.
Bordoni also designed the multicolored marble pavement before the altar and on the walls of the nave. The painting of the Holy Trinity over the altar, by Jean Dubois the Elder, was added in 1642.
In the mid-17th. century the craftsman Anthony Girault made the sculpted wooden doors of the nave. while Jean Gobert made the doors of the tribune where the Royal family worshipped.
In 1741 the royal tribune was enlarged, while ornate balconies of wrought iron were added between the royal tribune and the simpler balconies used by the musicians and those who chanted the mass. In 1779, under Louis XVI, the frescoes of Freminet illustrating the life of Christ, which had deteriorated with time, were replaced by new paintings on the same theme. The paintings were done in the same style by about a dozen painters from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
Under Napoleon, the old tabernacle of the chapel, which had been removed during the Revolution, was replaced by a new one designed by the architect Maximilien Hurtault.
Beginning in 1824, the chapel underwent a program of major renovation and restoration that lasted for six years. The twelve paintings of the life of Christ were removed, as well as the gates to the side chapels.
During the Second Empire, the wood panelling of the side chapels was replaced. The restoration was not completed until the second half of the 20th. century, when the twelve paintings, which had been scattered to different museums, were brought together again and restored in their stucco frames. Between 1772 and 1774, a small organ made by François-Henri Cilquot was installed on the left side of the chapel, near the altar.
On the 5th. September 1725, the chapel was the setting for the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Napoleon III was baptized there on 4 November 1810, and Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orleans, the son of King Louis-Philippe, was married there to Helene de Mecklembourg Schwerin on the 30th. May 1837.
The Gardens and the Park at Fontainebleau
From the time of Francis I, the palace was surrounded by formal gardens, representing the major landscaping styles of their periods; the French Renaissance garden, inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens; the French formal garden, the favorite style of Louis XIV; and, in the 18th. and 19th. century, the French landscape garden, inspired by the English landscape garden.
The Garden of Diana
The Garden of Diana was created during the reign of Henry IV; it was the private garden of the King and Queen, and was visible from the windows of their rooms.
The fountain of Diana was originally in the centre of the garden, which at that time was enclosed by another wing, containing offices and later, under, Louis XIV, an orangery. That building, and another, the former chancellery, were demolished in the 19th. century, thereby doubling the size of the garden.
From the 17th. until the end of the 18th. century, the garden was in the Italian and then the French formal style, divided by straight paths into rectangular flower beds centred on the fountains, and decorated with statues, ornamental plants and citrus trees in pots.
It was transformed during the reign of Napoleon I into a landscape garden in the English style, with winding paths and trees grouped into picturesque landscapes, and it was enlarged during the reign of Louis-Philippe. it was opened to the public after the downfall of Napoleon III.
The fountain in the centre was made by Tommaso Francini, the master Italian fountain-maker, whose work included the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.
The bronze statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, with a young deer, was made by the Keller brothers in 1684 for another royal residence, at Marly. It is a copy of an antique Roman statue, Diana of Versailles, which was given by the Pope to King Henry IV, and which is now in the Louvre.
The original statue of the fountain, made by Barthelemy Prieur in 1602, can be seen in the Gallery of the Cerfs inside the palace. The sculptures of hunting dogs and deer around the fountain were made by Pierre Biard.
The Carp Lake, English Garden, Grotto and Spring
The lake next to the palace, with an area of four hectares, was made during the reign of Henry IV, and was used for boating parties by members of the Court, and as a source of fish for the table and for amusement.
Descriptions of the palace in the 17th. century tell of guests feeding the carp, some of which reached enormous size, and were said to be a hundred years old. The small octagonal house on an island in the center of the lake, Pavillon de l'Étang, was added during the reign of Louis XIV, then rebuilt under Napoleon I, and is decorated with his initial.
The English garden also dates back to the reign of Henry IV. In one part of the garden, known as the garden of pines, against the wing of Louis XV, is an older structure dating to Francis I; the first Renaissance-style grotto to be built in a French garden, a rustic stone structure decorated with four statues of Atlas.
Under Napoleon, his architect, Maximilien-Joseph Hurtault, turned this part of the garden into an English park, with winding paths and exotic trees, including catalpa, tulip trees, sophora, and cypress trees from Louisiana, and with a picturesque stream and boulders.
The garden also features two 17th. century bronze copies of ancient Roman originals, the Borghese gladiator and the Dying Gladiator. A path leads from the garden through a curtain of trees to the spring which gave its name to the palace, next to a statue of Apollo.
The Parterre and Canal
On the other side of the Château, on the site of the garden of Francis I, Henry IV created a large formal garden, or parterre Along the axis of the parterre, he also built a grand canal 1200 metres long, similar to one at the nearby château of Fleury-en-Biere.
Between 1660 and 1664 the chief gardener of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre, and Louis Le Vau rebuilt the parterre on a grander scale, filling it with geometric designs and paths bordered with boxwood hedges and filled with colourful flowerbeds.
They also added a basin, called Les Cascades, decorated with fountains, at the head of the canal. Le Nôtre planted shade trees along the length of the canal, and also laid out a wide path, lined with elm trees, parallel to the canal.
The fountains of Louis XIV were removed after his reign. More recently, the Cascades were decorated with works of sculpture from the 19th. century. A large ornamental fountain was installed in the central basin in 1817.
A bronze replica of an ancient Roman statue, "The Tiber", was placed in the round basin in 1988. It replaced an earlier statue from the 16th. century which earlier had decorated the basin.
Two statues of sphinxes by Mathieu Lespagnandel, from 1664, are placed near the balustrade of the grand canal.
The Bridge and Cascade.
Grade I listed.
List Entry Number: 1335352
Cascade I Bridge and cascade. Designed with a single arch by Robert Adam in 1761. Redesigned, with three arches in 1764. Executed 1770- 1771. Ashlar. The bridge has three round-arched spans with moulded hoodmoulds. Fluted roundels in the spandrels. Projecting piers with apsed niches and moulded sill band. The tops of the piers with swags. Fluted frieze and dentil cornice. Balustraded parapet the balusters divided into three units per span. Cast iron balusters. Steep road approaches with the end walls curving outwards and downwards. End piers. Rubblestone cascade to east.
Listing NGR: SK3126840716
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1335352
The Bridge by Robert Adam
Kedleston Hall is an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately four miles north-west of Derby, and is the seat of the Curzon family whose name originates in Notre-Dame-de-Courson in Normandy. Today it is a National Trust property.
The Curzon family have owned the estate at Kedleston since at least 1297 and have lived in a succession of manor houses near to or on the site of the present Kedleston Hall. The present house was commissioned by Sir Nathaniel Curzon (later 1st Baron Scarsdale) in 1759. The house was designed by the Palladian architects James Paine and Matthew Brettingham and was loosely based on an original plan by Andrea Palladio for the never-built Villa Mocenigo. At the time a relatively unknown architect, Robert Adam was designing some garden temples to enhance the landscape of the park; Curzon was so impressed with Adam's designs, that Adam was quickly put in charge of the construction of the new mansion.
World War II
In 1939, Kedleston Hall was offered by Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale for use by the War Department.[1] Kedleston Hall provided various facilities during the period 1939–45 including its use as a mustering point and army training camp. It also formed one of the Y-stations used to gather Signals Intelligence via radio transmissions which, if encrypted, were subsequently passed to Bletchley Park for decryption.
National Trust
In the 1970s the estate was too expensive for the Curzon family to maintain. When Richard Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale died, his cousin Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale offered the estate to the nation in lieu of death duties. A deal was agreed with the National Trust that it should take over Kedleston while still allowing the family to live rent-free in the 23-room Family Wing, which contained an adjoining garden and two rent-free flats for servants or other family members.
External design
The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only when there were important guests in the house. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation. Plans for two more pavilions (as the two smaller blocks are known) of identical size, and similar appearance were not executed. These further wings were intended to contain, in the south east a music room, and south west a conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the piano nobile of their southern facades. Here the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; a mezzanine was to have been disguised in the north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows, than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.
If the great north front, approximately 107 metres in length, is Palladian in character, dominated by the massive, six-columned Corinthian portico, then the south front (illustrated right) is pure Robert Adam. It is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome) containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and medallions in relief. The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance. Flanking the central section are two identical wings on three floors, each three windows wide, the windows of the first-floor piano nobile being the tallest. Adam's design for this facade contains huge "movement" and has a delicate almost fragile quality.
Gardens and grounds
The gardens and grounds, as they appear today, are largely the concept of Robert Adam. Adam was asked by Nathaniel Curzon in 1758 to "take in hand the deer park and pleasure grounds". The landscape gardener William Emes had begun work at Kedleston in 1756, and he continued in Curzon's employ until 1760; however, it was Adam who was the guiding influence. It was during this period that the former gardens designed by Charles Bridgeman were swept away in favour of a more natural-looking landscape. Bridgeman's canals and geometric ponds were metamorphosed into serpentine lakes.
Adam designed numerous temples and follies, many of which were never built. Those that were include the North lodge (which takes the form of a triumphal arch), the entrance lodges in the village, a bridge, cascade and the Fishing Room. The Fishing Room is one of the most noticeable of the park's buildings. In the neoclassical style it is sited on the edge of the upper lake and contains a plunge pool and boat house below. Some of Adam's unexecuted design for follies in the park rivalled in grandeur the house itself. A "View Tower" designed in 1760 – 84 feet high and 50 feet wide on five floors, surmounted by a saucer dome flanked by the smaller domes of flanking towers — would have been a small neoclassical palace itself. Adam planned to transform even mundane utilitarian buildings into architectural wonders. A design for a pheasant house (a platform to provide a vantage point for the game shooting) became a domed temple, the roofs of its classical porticos providing the necessary platforms; this plan too was never completed. Among the statuary in the grounds is a Medici lion sculpture carved by Joseph Wilton on a pedestal designed by Samuel Wyatt, from around 1760-1770.
In the 1770s, George Richardson designed the hexagonal summerhouse, and in 1800 the orangery. The Long Walk was laid out in 1760 and planted with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees. In 1763, it was reported that Lord Scarsdale had given his gardener a seed from rare and scarce Italian shrub, the "Rodo Dendrone".
The gardens and grounds today, over two hundred years later, remain mostly unaltered. Parts of the estate are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, primarily because of the "rich and diverse deadwood invertebrate fauna" inhabiting its ancient trees.
After executing a runaround to make a pick up at Ann Pere, and making their way across the CN in Durand, the GLC OSTN has a path of no resistance back to Owosso to tie up.
Planned this outfit for days and finally got around to putting it on and getting a pic of it.
Shirt: Old Navy
Dress: Loft
Tights: Apt 9 via Kohl’s
Shoes: Madden Girl via DSW
Belt: Dressbarn
A perfectly executed 3-Way-Joint, between 4-tapered legs & expertly crafted Stretchers that support the table top.
At 22 years of age, Severin Hansen's Model 36 desk
was picked up by Danish Modern Furniture maker, Dagmar.
66 years ago.
dagmar-london.com/blogs/news/a-life-less-ordinary-the-sto...
Where the tapered leg meets the vertical plane,
each leg and "spreader" are cut on an extreme angled mitre.
The joint, is flawless. No Filler. No Exposed glue line.
AND?
The drawer boxes, have a exactly matching angle on the ends where the drawer box- meets the leg.
Fuc£ing INCREDIBLE craftsmanship.
Constantius Gallus Caesar, 351 - 354
Medallion of 5 solidi, Antioch circa 351, 20.24 g. DN CONSTANTI - VS NOB CAES Bareheaded, draped and cuirassed bust l. Rev. GLORIA RO - MANORVM Constantinopolis, pearl-diademed and draped, seated l. on decorated throne, holding thyrsus in l. hand and Victory on globe in r.; her l. foot on globe. In exergue, SMANT. RIC p. 517, 71A (this coin). Wealth of the Ancient World 163 (this coin). Vagi 3326.
Unique. An outstanding medallion, bearing a portrait of great strength
and a finely executed and richly detailed reverse composition. Extremely fine
Ex Leu 28, 1981, 580; Sotheby's 19.6.1990, Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection, 161 and Sotheby's 8.7.1996, 185 sales.
Without hesitation we may attribute this medallion to an engraver of the greatest skill, for it is an artistic masterpiece of Late Antiquity. The obverse confers a noble, godlike, status on Gallus, whereas the reverse is of monumental composition, and is enriched with detail rarely if ever equalled. If doubts had existed in the East about Gallus' qualifications to rule in place of the emperor Constantius II, who was campaigning against the rebel Magnentius in Europe, a medallion such as this might have helped assuage any fears. It no doubt was produced for his accession in 351, and was distributed alongside medallions of equal value bearing the likeness of Constantius II. Portraits from the Constantinian period - especially from late in the period - represent a departure from all earlier portrait styles. Over the course of centuries the Imperial portrait evolved from the realistic to the idealized, and eventually to the stylised. One can readily observe the change from the military emperors and the tetrarchy to the Constantinian era: rigorous, practical, bearded portraits with shortly cropped hair and hard edges gave way to clean-shaven, long-haired portraits comprised mainly of soft contours indicating Oriental opulence and divine majesty. On this medallion we have a pristine example of late Constantinian portraiture in all of its sublime glory. His is a monumental, 'holy countenance' that elevates the new Caesar above the world he rules. It is more than an image of a man, it is a representation of his divine power and his unique station between the human and the divine. Statuesque imagery such as this recalls the famous passage of Ammianus Marcellinus (16,10) wherein he describes the formal entry of Constantius II into Rome: "He looked so stiffly ahead as if he had an iron band about his neck and he turned his face neither to the right nor to the left, he was not as a living person, but as an image." The reverse is a stunning example of how deeply the courts of the Roman east had been influenced by Greek and Oriental cultures. This inscription - "the glory of the Romans" - originally was introduced by Constantine the Great in reference to himself as the source of Rome's renewed glory. On this piece it seemingly refers to the seated figure Constantinopolis, indicating that the city itself was the glory of the Romans and their empire. The seated figure is simply extraordinary, and we may delight in its overall composition, which is ingeniously aligned high and to the right. Not only does this preserve open space at the left, and give prominence to the bold mintmark that trumpets its value as sacred money of Antioch, but more importantly it shakes the usual temptation of die engravers to achieve perfectly central symmetry. Adding to the impact of the composition is the rich detail and ornamentation, and the artful blending of the soft, flowing image of Constantinopolis against the rigid, jewelled frame of the throne and stylised ship's prow. These incongruous elements, which might have clashed under the hand of a less-gifted artist, here merge seamlessly. There can be little doubt that this powerful image is indebted to Phidias' famous gold and ivory statue of Zeus (Jupiter), which earlier had been the model for the facing seated Zeus on aurei of Licinius and his son (lot 269). T. F. Matthews (The Clash of Gods, A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art; Princeton, 1993) considers Phidias' statue not only to have been the source of Licinius' Zeus, but also the source of the enthroned cult images of Roma and Constantinopolis. Providing an element of immediacy to the engraver of this medallion, perhaps, was the fact that a famous copy of Phidias' statue of Zeus Olympios had been erected at Daphne, a sanctuary outside Antioch, more than 500 years before. Also, a large percentage of Licinius' Zeus aurei were struck at Antioch and, more recently still, sometime after 330 Phidias' great statue was moved from Olympia to Constantinople. (continues)
The figure of Constantinopolis - the personification of Constantine's new capital - became common to coins and medals after the city was dedicated on May 11, 330. She is shown on obverses as a helmeted bust, or on reverses as a seated or standing figure. Here she is enthroned with her foot on the prow of a warship, indicative of Constantine's naval defeat of Licinius late in 324. That is when Constantine determined to build his new capital on the site of the old Greek city of Byzantium. On this medallion the prow is adorned with a lion's head, whereas on the companion issue struck for Constantius II the prow terminates in an eagle's head. Constantinopolis holds two pagan objects: a Victory upon a globe and a thrysus. This comes as no surprise, for Constantine had made a career out of blending paganism and Christianity. The Victory is a Christianised version of Nike, whereas the thyrsus was still a thoroughly pagan object representing Bacchus (Dionysus). Here the thyrsus must allude to the familiar role Bacchus played as conqueror of the East. As such, it would reflect upon the importance of Constantinople to the empire, and perhaps even the perpetual dream of all emperors of the last century: conquering the Sasanians. The 'circulation' value of medallions (or whether they even circulated) has often been questioned. We have a perfect test case with this piece, which weighs almost precisely 4- solidi - a cumbersome figure by any reckoning. Attempts to valuate it in terms of other gold units, such as scruples, carats, fractions of a pound, and even 'festaurei', lead to dead ends. As such, we have a chance to examine the valuations of late gold medallions, especially in terms of their equivalency in silver and their gift value versus redemption value. Few contemporary sources shed light on monetary topics, but the Codex Theodosianus (13.2.1) equates five gold solidi with one pound of silver in terms of tax payments in 397 (a subsequent edict of 422, perhaps in response to a temporary condition, downgrades a pound of silver to four solidi: C.Th. 8.4.27). Ammianus Marcellinus (XX.4.18) tells us that upon his accession in 360 Julian II fixed his quinquennial augustaticum payments at five solidi and a pound of silver. Constantinus Porphyrogenetus (ceremoniis I, 91) reports these same figures for donatives of the years 473, 491 and 518. With the two sums - five solidi, and a pound of silver - being mentioned in this context, we should conclude that the two sums were valued as equals, and that the bonus was traditionally paid with appropriate quantities of the two metals. The combination of these pieces of evidence, spanning more than 150 years, suggests that, in the eyes of the late Roman government at least, five gold solidi generally held the same value as a pound of silver. Considering five solidi were 1/14- of a pound of gold, we arrive at a gold-to-silver ratio of 14:1. This is an ideal match for the generally held belief that during most of the 4th and 5th centuries the ratio of gold to silver was 14:1 or 15:1. Rarely do independent sources in this period offer confirmation this complete, especially when subjected to practical testing. In taking this to the next level, we would convert the intrinsic value of this 4- solidus medallion to 9/10 of a pound of silver. It is now worth asking: what reason would there be not to strike a medallion of this size, beauty and obvious importance at the full weight of five solidi, since that figure not only represented the benchmark of a full pound of silver, but also represented a fixed level of the accession bonus? The answer is simple: this medallion, which certainly was struck for Gallus' accession in 351, was valued at five solidi, and was the gold equivalent of a pound of silver. The ten percent differential between its 'donative value' and the intrinsic value of its gold was probably retained by the mint to cover costs, and perhaps even to generate a small profit. We must also remember that in the late Constantinian period the solidus (already a notch below the old aureus in the eyes of Rome's trading partners) had virtually lost its reputation to an epidemic of false and underweight solidi. Public confidence in Rome's once-venerable gold coinage was low, and the government's opinion was lower still (see the commentary for Valentinian I). Underweight coins and outright fakes were enough of a concern, but even the 'good' solidi of the age were only about 95 percent pure. Considering the five percent purity gap of solidi, the government's probable desire for profit (or at least to cover costs), and the likelihood that the five-solidus/pound of silver ratio was an obvious benchmark, it seems best to consider this a five-solidus medallion. If not, why would the mint not simply have increased its weight by ten percent to make perfect this otherwise beautifully conceived medallion?
In earlier times the situation might have been different, but in the late Constantinian Era it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that the government would have valued this piece at five solidi upon distribution, but only at its melt value of 4- solidi if it was later redeemed for tax payment.
NAC24, 310
Executing a High-G afterburner turn, this F/A-18 of the US Navy Hornet Tac Demo team generates some vapors at the Wings Over North Georgia Airshow.
Berlin, Invalids' Cemetery: Memorial plaque on the cemetery wall for the men and women executed for their involvement in the assassination attempt on Hitler of 20 July 1944 who were buried here
Der 1748 angelegte Friedhof war einst Teil des Invalidenhauses der preußischen Armee, das von Friedrich II. in den Jahren 1747/48 errichtet wurde und in dem Kriegsinvaliden ihren Lebensabend verbringen konnten. Zum Invalidenhaus gehörten eine evangelische und eine katholische Kirche, aus der 1860 eine eigene Pfarrei entstand. Die Pfarrei umfasste neben den katholischen Invaliden auch die in den nördlichen Bezirken wohnenden Einwohner Berlins.
Nach den Befreiungskriegen 1813/15 fanden hier vor allem hohe Militärs ihre letzte Ruhestätte, ab Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts auch Zivilpersonen. Die Ausdehnung der Zivilgemeinde hatte zur Folge, dass von den insgesamt 30.000 Beisetzungen etwa ein Drittel dem Invalidenhaus und zwei Drittel der Zivilgemeinde zugeordnet werden mussten.
Auf dem heutigen Feld C des Invalidenfriedhofs entstand ein Ehrenplatz für Persönlichkeiten, die in den Befreiungskriegen eine herausragende Rolle gespielt hatten. Das Feld A blieb das bevorzugte Feld des Invalidenhauses, Feld B hingegen blieb über lange Zeit für die Zivilgemeinde reserviert. Da aufgrund der steigenden Beisetzungen Platzmangel bestand, erfolgte nach 1870 eine Erweiterung des Friedhofs.
Wichtige Persönlichkeiten der Berliner Stadtgeschichte haben auf dem Invalidenfriedhof ihre letzte Ruhestätte gefunden; einige Grabstellen sind erhalten. 1951 wurde der Invalidenfriedhof geschlossen und alle Grabstellen aus der Zeit vor 1925 eingeebnet.
Am 13. August 1961 dem Tag des Mauerbaus befanden sich auf dem Friedhof 3.000 Grabstellen; aufgrund seiner direkten Mauerlage erklärte man große Bereiche zum Grenzgebiet, die Felder E, F und G gehörten zum sogenannten Todestreifen. In den folgenden Jahren wurde der Invalidenfriedhof verwüstet, zahlreiche Grabdenkmäler und Gedenksteine abtransportiert, sodass heute nur noch 200 Grabstätten erhalten sind.
Der Invalidenfriedhof ist als eine Gedenkstätte zu betrachten; der ehemalige Todesstreifen und alle anderen Spuren der Zerstörung sollen auch in Zukunft zum mahnenden Gedenken erhalten bleiben. In den vergangenen Jahren sind einige charakteristische Friedhofsalleen wieder aufgepflanzt und auch erste bedeutende Gräber vollständig restauriert worden, davon auch einige in den Bereichen, die im Todesstreifen lagen.
www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3561200-3558930-invalid...
The cemetery, which was established in 1748, was once part of the Prussian army's Invalid's House, which was built by Frederick II in 1747/48 and where war invalids could spend their twilight years. The Invalids' House included a Protestant and a Catholic church, from which a separate parish was created in 1860. In addition to the Catholic invalids, the parish also included the inhabitants of Berlin living in the northern districts.
After the Wars of Liberation in 1813/15, it was mainly high-ranking military personnel who found their final resting place here, followed by civilians from the end of the 19th century. The expansion of the civilian community meant that of the total of 30,000 burials, around one third had to be allocated to the Invalids' House and two thirds to the civilian community.
In what is now Field C of the Invalids' Cemetery, a place of honour was created for personalities who had played an outstanding role in the Wars of Liberation (Anti-Napoleonic Wars). Field A remained the favoured field of the Invalids' House, while Field B was reserved for the civilian community for a long time. As there was a lack of space due to the increasing number of burials, the cemetery was extended after 1870.
Important figures in Berlin's history have found their final resting place in the Invalids' Cemetery; some graves have been preserved. The Invalids' Cemetery was closed in 1951 and all graves from before 1925 were levelled.
On 13 August 1961, the day the Berlin Wall was built, there were 3,000 graves in the cemetery; due to its direct location on the Wall, large areas were declared a border area, with fields E, F and G belonging to the so-called death strip, a broad area between the outer Wall and the inner, "Hinterland" Wall, where all vegetation was extinguished and all graves where levelled. In the years that followed, the Invalids' Cemetery was vandalised and numerous grave monuments and memorial stones were removed, so that today only 200 graves remain.
The Invalids' Cemetery is to be regarded as a memorial site; the former death strip and all other traces of the destruction are to be preserved in the future as a reminder. In recent years, several characteristic cemetery avenues have been replanted and the first significant graves have been completely restored, including some in the areas that were located in the death strip.
www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/3561200-3558930-invalid...
Irving R. Bacon (1875-1962)
Pen and ink with graphite on paper
Executed during Bacon’s Munich period of study at the Royal Academy.
Irving Roscoe Bacon was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts on November 29, 1875.
Bacon studied with Wm Chase, F. Luis Mora, and at the Royal Academy in Munich. He spent most of his career in Michigan where he was personal artist for Henry Ford.
He died in El Cajon, CA on Nov. 21, 1962.
Exhibits:
Royal Academy, 1909 (medal)
National Academy of Design (New York City), 1910-12
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1911, 1912
Art Institute of Chicago, 1911, 1912
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Examples of Bacon's paintings can be seen here: www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-col...(Irving%20Reuben),%201875-1962&years=0-0&perPage=10&pageNum=1&sortBy=relevance
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FROM THE WEBSITE OF THE HENRY FORD:
Irving R. Bacon worked for Henry Ford as an artist. His work ranged from cartoons in the Ford Times to paintings of artifacts and events at the Edison Institute. His papers include photographs, drawings, and correspondence related to his career with Ford Motor Company and the Edison Institute.
Biographical / Historical Note
Born in 1875 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Irving Bacon received his early art training from Joseph Gies at the Art School of the Detroit Museum of Art.
Much of his early work concentrated on illustrations and cartoons, and often his artwork reflected the influence of his travels to the American West.
From 1894 to 1900 he worked as an illustrator at the Detroit Evening News and the Detroit Free Press. He first met Henry Ford through a mutual acquaintance in 1898, when he rode to Royal Oak and back to Detroit on Woodward Avenue in Henry's new automobile.
In 1902 he went to New York City to study at the Chase School of Art and to illustrate for Harper's Weekly and McClure's.
In 1906 he went to the Royal Academy in Munich and studied under Heinrich von Zugel, a noted animal painter. It was there where Bacon acquired his talent for painting landscapes and portraits.
After returning to Detroit in 1910, he once again met Henry Ford, who by this time was a millionaire. Henry became interested in art largely due to the interest and talent of his own son, Edsel.
He purchased a landscape scene from Bacon-a painting, which, according to Bacon, was "certainly not a masterpiece." It was after this meeting that Bacon gained permission from Henry to utilize his large estate for landscape paintings.
In 1913 he received a generous gift of money from his friend Harold Wills (a Ford executive), and once again returned to Munich for further study. His stay was cut short, however, due to the start of World War I.
Upon returning to Detroit, he realized the need for a steady salary in order to adequately support his wife and six children, so he met again with Henry Ford and soon became an employee of the Ford Motor Company, drawing cartoons for the Ford Times and later, illustrations for The Dearborn Independent.
Henry loved Bacon's cartoons, an area of work which Bacon wanted to discontinue. According to Bacon, "That class of work seemed to conflict with my high aims of art. Little did I realize at the time that I was beginning a thirty three year stretch of work for Henry Ford and his great organization that eventually would wean me away from the art world."
Working for Henry at the Ford Motor Company, and later the Edison Institute, Bacon's tasks included painting scenes and portraits that were of great interest to Henry Ford and his Museum and Village. These included portraits of Ford's family and friends, Noah Webster, Luther Burbank, Mark Twain, Dr. George Washington Carver, Stephen Foster, John Burroughs, and others.
He was also responsible for creating paintings of the artifacts located at the institute, and he also acted as stage designer for the Museum's theater.
His interest in photography and motion pictures led him to become the head of the Photographic Department for several years. Bacon retired from the Edison Institute in 1948, and moved to Miami with his second wife. He died in 1962 at the age of 86.
This collection is mainly composed of photographs, drawings, and some correspondence related to Bacon's career with the Ford Motor Company and the Edison Institute. The series within this collection are accordingly arranged to the different aspects involved with the work of Henry Bacon.
There are five series in the collection, the Golden Jubilee painting, Irving Bacon personal materials, Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum, Henry Ford related work, and Dearborn Independent.
Series I, Golden Jubilee painting: This series is comprised of pamphlets, notes, lists, correspondence, and photographs related Bacon’s painting entitled "Celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Invention of the Incandescent Electric Light" also known as the "The Dedication of the Edison Institute of Technology." The Golden Jubilee occurred on October 21, 1929. It is arranged by the sub-series Printed material (1929), Correspondence (1936-1937), and Photographs (dates unknown, but assumed to be between 1920-1938). The photographs, which are mainly portraits of the individuals who attended the events of October 21, 1929, were obtained by Bacon in the years 1936-1938, for the purpose of recreating the dinner scene, some seven to nine years previous. Over 400 individuals attended this dinner, ranging from Henry Ford's personal friends to contemporary world business and political leaders. The number of dinner guests eventually included in Bacon's painting numbered 266. The filing arrangement for the Photographs subseries was left in much the same way that Bacon had organized it, which was by seating arrangements. He categorized his filing system according to "Tables," "Arches," and "Individuals Standing" e.g., Table 1, Arch 1, etc.
Series II, Irving Bacon personal materials: In this series are various materials (1907-1957) which apparently were kept for the personal use and interest of Mr. Bacon. A large portion of this series, theater interests, contains materials on early theater and film actors/actresses. The majority of the materials within this series are photographs, unless otherwise noted.
Series III, Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum: This series is an assortment of photographs, mixed with notes and sketches related to subjects found at Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum. Bacon collected photographs of the various subjects in order to study them and eventually create a likeness within his own paintings.
Series IV, Henry Ford related work: This series is an example of yet another type of work that Bacon undertook as an employee of Henry Ford. It reflects the personal interests of Henry Ford. Included are miscellaneous printed materials, photographs, sketches, and maps (photographed). The folders have retained the original titles given by Bacon himself.
Series V, Dearborn Independent: Irving Bacon's artwork created for the Dearborn Independent is found within this series (approximately 1925-1935). These oversized materials consist mainly of sketches, prints, and color drawings.
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Collection Details
Object ID: 84.1.1657.0
Creator: Bacon, Irving R. (Irving Reuben), 1875-1962
Inclusive Dates: 1863-1957
Size: 4.4 cubic ft. and 4 oversize boxes 7.8 cubic ft. (17 boxes) [Collection Survey]
Language: English
From the website of The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-col...
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From the website of The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-col...
369 weeks lasted the Nazi regime in Vienna, during which more than 1,200 people, many for political reasons, were executed by the Guillotine.
369 Wochen dauerte das NS-Regime in Wien, während dessen mehr als 1.200 Menschen, viele aus politischen Motiven, durch die Guillotine exekutiert wurden.
Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters
The Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters (colloquially referred to as "landl" (Landesgericht)) is one of 20 regional courts in Austria and the largest court in Austria. It is located in the 8th District of Vienna, Josefstadt, at the Landesgerichtsstraße 11. It is a court of first respectively second instance. A prisoners house, the prison Josefstadt, popularly often known as the "Grey House" is connected.
Court Organization
In this complex there are:
the Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna,
the Vienna District Attorney (current senior prosecutor Maria-Luise Nittel)
the Jurists association-trainee lawer union (Konzipientenverband) and
the largest in Austria existing court house jail, the Vienna Josefstadt prison.
The Regional Criminal Court has jurisdiction in the first instance for crimes and offenses that are not pertain before the district court. Depending on the severity of the crime, there is a different procedure. Either decides
a single judge,
a senate of lay assessors
or the jury court.
In the second instance, the District Court proceeds appeals and complaints against judgments of district courts. A three-judge Court decides here whether the judgment is canceled or not and, if necessary, it establishes a new sentence.
The current President Friedrich Forsthuber is supported by two Vice Presidents - Henriette Braitenberg-Zennenberg and Eve Brachtel.
In September 2012, the following data have been published
Austria's largest court
270 office days per year
daily 1500 people
70 judges, 130 employees in the offices
5300 proceedings (2011) for the custodial judges and legal protection magistrates, representing about 40 % of the total Austrian juridical load of work
over 7400 procedures at the trial judges (30 % of the total Austrian juridical load of work)
Prosecution with 93 prosecutors and 250 employees
19,000 cases against 37,000 offenders (2011 )
Josefstadt prison with 1,200 inmates (overcrowded)
History
1839-1918
The original building of the Vienna Court House, the so-called civil Schranne (corn market), was from 1440 to 1839 located at the Hoher Markt 5. In 1773 the Schrannenplatz was enlarged under Emperor Joseph II and the City Court and the Regional Court of the Viennese Magistrate in this house united. From this time it bore the designation "criminal court".
Due to shortcomings of the prison rooms in the Old Court on Hoher Markt was already at the beginning of the 19th Century talk of building a new crime courthouse, but this had to be postponed because of bankruptcy in 1811.
In 1816 the construction of the criminal court building was approved. Although in the first place there were voices against a construction outside the city, as building ground was chosen the area of the civil Schießstätte (shooting place) and the former St. Stephanus-Freithofes in then Alservorstadt (suburb); today, in this part Josefstadt. The plans of architect Johann Fischer were approved in 1831, and in 1832 was began with the construction, which was completed in 1839. On 14 May 1839 was held the first meeting of the Council.
Provincial Court at the Landesgerichtsstraße between November 1901 and 1906
Johann Fischer fell back in his plans to Tuscan early Renaissance palaces as the Pitti Palace or Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence. The building was erected on a 21,872 m² plot with a length of 223 meters. It had two respectively three floors (upper floors), the courtyard was divided into three wings, in which the prisoner's house stood. In addition, a special department for the prison hospital (Inquisitenspital ) and a chapel were built.
The Criminal Court of Vienna was from 1839 to 1850 a city court which is why the Vice Mayor of Vienna was president of the criminal courts in civil and criminal matters at the same time. In 1850 followed the abolition of municipal courts. The state administration took over the Criminal Court on 1 Juli 1850. From now on, it had the title "K.K. Country's criminal court in Vienna".
1851, juries were introduced. Those met in the large meeting hall, then as now, was on the second floor of the office wing. The room presented a double height space (two floors). 1890/1891 followed a horizontal subdivision. Initially, the building stood all alone there. Only with the 1858 in the wake of the demolition of the city walls started urban expansion it was surrounded by other buildings.
From 1870 to 1878, the Court experienced numerous conversions. Particular attention was paid to the tract that connects directly to the Alserstraße. On previously building ground a three-storey arrest tract and the Jury Court tract were built. New supervened the "Neutrakt", which presented a real extension and was built three respectively four storied. From 1873 on, executions were not executed publicly anymore but only in the prison house. The first execution took place on 16 December 1876 in the "Galgenhof" (gallow courtyard), the accused were hanged there on the Würgegalgen (choke gallow).
By 1900 the prisoners house was extended. In courtyard II of the prison house kitchen, laundry and workshop buildings and a bathing facility for the prisoners were created. 1906/1907 the office building was enlarged. The two-storied wing tract got a third and three-storied central section a fourth floor fitted.
1918-1938
In the early years of the First Republic took place changes of the court organization. Due to the poor economy and the rapid inflation, the number of cases and the number of inmates rose sharply. Therefore, it was in Vienna on 1 October 1920 established a second Provincial Court, the Regional Court of Criminal Matters II Vienna, as well as an Expositur of the prisoner house at Garnisongasse.
One of the most important trials of the interwar period was the shadow village-process (Schattendorfprozess - nomen est omen!), in which on 14th July 1927, the three defendants were acquitted. In January 1927 front fighters had shot into a meeting of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, killing two people. The outrage over the acquittal was great. At a mass demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice on 15th July 1927, which mainly took place in peaceful manner, invaded radical elements in the Palace of Justice and set fire ( Fire of the Palace Justice), after which the overstrained police preyed upon peaceful protesters fleeing from the scene and caused many deaths.
The 1933/1934 started corporate state dictatorship had led sensational processes against their opponents: examples are the National Socialists processes 1934 and the Socialists process in 1936 against 28 "illegal" socialists and two Communists, in which among others the later leaders Bruno Kreisky and Franz Jonas sat on the dock.
Also in 1934 in the wake of the February Fights and the July Coup a series of processes were carried out by summary courts and military courts. Several ended with death sentences that were carried out by hanging in "Galgenhof" of the district court .
1938-1945
The first measures the Nazis at the Regional Criminal Court after the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 had carried out, consisted of the erection of a monument to ten Nazis, during the processes of the events in July 1934 executed, and of the creation of an execution space (then space 47 C, today consecration space where 650 names of resistance fighters are shown) with a guillotine supplied from Berlin (then called device F, F (stands for Fallbeil) like guillotine).
During the period of National Socialism were in Vienna Regional Court of 6 December 1938 to 4th April 1945 1.184 persons executed. Of those, 537 were political death sentences against civilians, 67 beheadings of soldiers, 49 war-related offenses, 31 criminal cases. Among those executed were 93 women in all age groups, including a 16-year-old girl and a 72-year-old woman who had both been executed for political reasons.
On 30 June 1942 were beheaded ten railwaymen from Styria and Carinthia, who were active in the resistance. On 31 July 1943, 31 people were beheaded in an hour, a day later, 30. The bodies were later handed over to the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Vienna and remaining body parts buried later without a stir at Vienna's Central Cemetery in shaft graves. To thein the Nazi era executed, which were called "Justifizierte" , belonged the nun Maria Restituta Kafka and the theology student Hannsgeorg Heintschel-Heinegg.
The court at that time was directly subordinated to the Ministry of Justice in Berlin.
1945-present
The A-tract (Inquisitentrakt), which was destroyed during a bombing raid in 1944 was built in the Second Republic again. This was also necessary because of the prohibition law of 8 May 1945 and the Criminal Law of 26 June 1945 courts and prisons had to fight with an overcrowding of unprecedented proportions.
On 24 March 1950, the last execution took place in the Grey House. Women murderer Johann Trnka had two women attacked in his home and brutally murdered, he had to bow before this punishment. On 1 July 1950 the death penalty was abolished in the ordinary procedure by Parliament. Overall, occured in the Regionl Court of Criminal Matters 1248 executions. In 1967, the execution site was converted into a memorial.
In the early 1980s, the building complex was revitalized and expanded. The building in the Florianigasse 8, which previously had been renovated, served during this time as an emergency shelter for some of the departments. In 1994, the last reconstruction, actually the annex of the courtroom tract, was completed. In 2003, the Vienna Juvenile Court was dissolved as an independent court, iIts agendas were integrated in the country's criminal court.
Prominent processes since 1945, for example, the Krauland process in which a ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei - Austrian People's Party) minister was accused of offenses against properties, the affair of the former SPÖ (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs - Austrian Socialist Party) Minister and Trade Unions president Franz Olah, whose unauthorized financial assistance resulted in a newspaper establishment led to conviction, the murder affairs Sassak and the of the Lainzer nurses (as a matter of fact, auxiliary nurses), the consumption (Konsum - consumer cooporatives) process, concerning the responsibility of the consumer Manager for the bankruptcy of the company, the Lucona proceedings against Udo Proksch, a politically and socially very well- networked man, who was involved in an attempted insurance fraud, several people losing their lives, the trial of the Nazi Holocaust denier David Irving for Wiederbetätigung (re-engagement in National Socialist activities) and the BAWAG affair in which it comes to breaches of duty by bank managers and vanished money.
Presidents of the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna since 1839 [edit ]
Josef Hollan (1839-1844)
Florian Philipp (1844-1849)
Eduard Ritter von Wittek (1850-1859)
Franz Ritter von Scharschmied (1859-1864)
Franz Ritter von Boschan (1864-1872)
Franz Josef Babitsch (1873-1874)
Joseph Ritter von Weitenhiller (1874-1881)
Franz Schwaiger (1881-1889)
Eduard Graf Lamezan -Salins (1889-1895)
Julius von Soos (1895-1903)
Paul von Vittorelli (1903-1909)
Johann Feigl (1909-1918)
Karl Heidt (1918-1919)
Ludwig Altmann (1920-1929)
Emil Tursky (1929-1936)
Philipp Charwath (1936-1938)
Otto Nahrhaft (1945-1950)
Rudolf Naumann (1951-1954)
Wilhelm Malaniu (1955-1963)
Johann Schuster (1963-1971)
Konrad Wymetal (1972-1976)
August Matouschek (1977-1989)
Günter Woratsch (1990-2004)
Ulrike Psenner (2004-2009)
Friedrich Forsthuber (since 2010)
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landesgericht_f%C3%BCr_Strafsachen_...
Earlier this morning, Thursday 15 February 2018, a number of warrants were executed by GMP officers across Crumpsall, Harpurhey, Salford and Rochdale.
Following this morning’s action, 12 men and 1 woman are in custody after they were arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.
We have also recovered a significant amount of Class A drugs, bringing the total amount of drugs recovered as part of Operation Danube to an estimated value of £60,000.
GMP’s Chief Inspector Paul Walker, said: “The past three weeks of action are the result of months of hard work investigating organised crime in the area.
“Today’s arrests show our absolute commitment to tackling the issue of drugs on our streets and protecting our communities.
“I’d like to thank the public, as without people sharing information about drugs in their area, we could not have carried out such an extensive operation.
“Please continue to let us know about any suspicious activity at the earliest possible opportunity- today’s action shows just how seriously we take these reports.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or through the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.
Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.
The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.
Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.
15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.
Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.
“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.
“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.
“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”
Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.
“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.
“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.
newcastlephotos.blogspot.com/2006/06/all-saints-cemetery....
All Saints Cemetery
This Cemetery stands on Jesmond Road, opposite Jesmond Old Cemetery and was the first cemetery in Newcastle to be instigated by the Burial Board. Consecrated in 1855 and opened in 1856 this was very much a rural part of Newcastle. The residential housing surrounding the cemetery on 3 sides were built later.
Noted Newcastle architect Benjamin Green designed the cemetery, its buildings and the fine Gothic archway over the entrance from Jesmond Road. The cemetery is surrounded by cast iron railings with fleur-de-lys heads.
The cemetery was extended to Osborne Avenue, from just under 10 acres by another 1.3 hectares in 1881.
In 1924 Carliol Square Gaol was demolished and the bodies of its executed criminals were transferred into unmarked graves in the cemetery.
In total around 90,000 burials have taken place here.
Thomas Harrison Hair (1810-1875) the artist best known for his Views of the Collieries of Northumberland and Durham, is buried here in an unmarked grave.
Two Small Chapels:
2 chapels. 1856 by Green. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar turrets and dressings; Welsh slate roofs. T-plan with additional porch on side away from centre of cemetery, and corner turret on innermost side at south end. Aligned north-south. Decorated style. Double doors, with elaborate hinges,on inner fronts have nook shafts and head-stopped dripmoulds; similar surround to plainer door in outward-facing porch; windows of 3 lights facing gateway, 2 lights on other fronts, have similar dripmoulds. Lancets to corner turrets with gabled belfry under octagonal spirelets. Buttresses. Steeply-pitched roofs with cross finials. LISTED GRADE 2.
1 of the Chapels is now the Russian Orthodox Church Of St. George.
Gate, walls, piers, gates and railings.
Cemetery gateway, walls, piers, gates and railings. Dated 1856; by Green. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; wrought iron gates; cast iron railings. Gothic style. High gable over 2-centred arch with 12 shafts each side and many mouldings; gabled ends have fantastic beasts climbing down kneelers; head-stopped dripmoulds, buttresses and finials.
High, pointed coping to flanking walls containing pedestrian doors in arches; end piers have gables with fleur-de-lis moulding. Chamfered coping to dwarf quadrant walls and similar walls along cemetery front, with 4 square piers at each side having pyramidal coping. High gates are Gothic-patterned; railings have fleur-de-lis heads.
Burials:
Samuel Smith.
Celtic Cross monument. Samuel Smith OBE JP (1872-1949) was the founder of Rington's Tea. He was born in Leeds and became an errand boy for a tea merchants on leaving school at 11. In 1908 he moved to Newcastle and set up a small shop in Heaton with William Titterington. They called the company Ringtons. The tea was imported from India and Sri Lanka then tasted, blended and packaged. It was delivered by the company's black, gold and green horse-drawn coaches. In 1926 the business moved to purpose-built premises in Algernon Road. Eventually there were 26 branches of Ringtons in the North. The firm moved into coachbuilding during the World Wars, which led to the creation of Smith's Electric Vehicles at Team Valley Trading Estate.
Alexander Gardner.
Cross monument. Alexander Gardner (1877-1921) was a footballer for Newcastle United. Before the First World War, Newcastle United were in the First Division, won three league titles and won one FA Cup final of three. Alexander was the captain and played at right half (midfielder). He made 268 appearances and scored 20 goals. He was born in Leith in 1899. The 1904/5 team won 23 out of 34 league games. In 1909 Alexander broke his leg, which ended his football career. He became landlord of the Dun Cow Inn in Claremont Road.
Michael Joseph Quigley.
Gravestone of Michael Joseph Quigley (1837-1924), American Civil War veteran. Michael was born in Bradford and emigrated to America with his wife shortly before the outbreak of civil war. He served under General Robert E. Lee in Virginia but was wounded in his left arm. He was later employed in Government Service. He returned to Britain in 1876. He lived in St. Lawrence Square off Walker Road. His income was subsidised by a pension from the American Government.
James Skinner.
Obelisk monument to James Skinner (1836-1920), shipbuilder. James was born in London. He moved to Newcastle aged 14 to begin an apprenticeship at Coutts shipyard at Low Walker. He went on to manage Andrew Leslie's shipyard at Hebburn then opened a yard at Bill Quay with William Wood, shipyard cashier. The firm Wood Skinner & Co. built 330 vessels over 42 years up to 1925. They also built the 30-bed Tyne Floating Hospital for Infectious Diseases at Jarrow Slake, designed by Newcastle Civil Engineer, George Laws. The hospital ship was launched on 2 August 1885. It sank in 1888. She was refloated and remained moored there for over 40 years.
Francis Batey.
Urn monument to Francis Batey (1841-1915), steam tug boat owner. Francis joined his father's tug boat business at the age of 11 and eventually gained his master's certificate. When the Albert Edward Dock opened in 1884, he was assistant pilot on the Rio Amazonas, the first ship to enter the dock. He went on to be chairman of several tug related companies on the River Tyne. One of his sons, John Thomas Batey, became Managing Director of Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn shipyard.
Antonio Marcantonio.
Impressive monument of a statue of a monk or friar holding an infant. Antonio Marcantonio (1886-1960), ice cream manufacturer, arrived in Newcastle in 1895 to join a small colony of Italians living in Byker. In the early 1900s he returned to Italy to marry Angela. He returned to Newcastle and began making ice cream in a room in his house using small pans of salt and ice to freeze it. Eventually he took over a small factory on Stepney Bank. 500 gallons of ice cream were made daily. He also owned five ice cream parlours, the first one was in the Grainger Arcade. The Mark Toney business still flourishes (factory at Benton Square).
George Henry Carr.
A 13 feet high monument to George Henry Carr (1867-1889), racing cyclist. There is a shield on each side depicting a bicycle, flowers, the badge of the Jubilee Rovers Bicycle Club and the badge of Clarence Bicycle Club. Carr was a prominent figure on the racing circuit. He died aged 22 of inflammation of the brain.
John James Lightfoot,
Monument of an angel to John James Lightfoot (1877-1897), apprentice joiner. John James was crushed to death aged 19 during restoration of the 200 year old Green Tree beerhouse in Robson's Entry, Sandgate.The building collapsed killing 4 people and injuring 12. The disaster was sketched by the Chronicle's artist and published on 6 March 1897 the day after the accident. The article describes the scene - 'in the house to the east there was a yawning space where the wall had tumbled in; behind the hole a staircase stood, but seemed, like the sword of Damocles, to have no more than a hair-strength to support it'.
Josephine Esther Salisse.
Family vault of M. and H.M. Salisse. A stone sarcophagus with a bronze female figure mourning over it. Josephine Esther Salisse (1905-1924) was from Thornton Heath in Surrey. She died suddenly at her aunt's home in Stratford Road, Heaton, aged 19.
John and Benjamin Green were a father and son who worked in partnership as architects in North East England during the early nineteenth century. John, the father was a civil engineer as well as an architect. Although they did carry out some commissions separately, they were given joint credit for many of their projects, and it is difficult to attribute much of their work to a single individual. In general, John Green worked on civil engineering projects, such as road and rail bridges, whereas Benjamin worked on projects that were more purely architectural. Their work was predominantly church and railway architecture, with a sprinkling of public buildings that includes their masterpiece, Newcastle's Theatre Royal.
Drawings by John and Benjamin Green are held by the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Biographies
John Green was born on 29 June 1787 at Newton Fell House, Nafferton, two miles north of Ovington, Northumberland. He was the son of Benjamin Green, a carpenter and maker of agricultural implements. After finishing school, he worked in his father's business. The firm moved to the market town of Corbridge and began general building work with young John concentrating on architectural work. About 1820, John set up business as an architect and civil engineer in nearby Newcastle upon Tyne.
John Green married Jane Stobart in 1805, and they had two sons, John (c.1807–68) and Benjamin (c1811-58), both of whom became architects. Little is known about the career of John, but Benjamin worked in partnership with his father on many projects.
In 1822 John Green designed a new building for the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. The building, which houses the society's substantial library, is still in use today. He also designed a number of farmhouses, being employed on the Beaufront estate near Hexham and also on the Duke of Northumberland’s estates.
John Green was principally a civil engineer, and built several road and rail bridges. In 1829–31 he built two wrought-iron suspension bridges crossing the Tyne (at Scotswood) and the Tees (at Whorlton). The bridge at Scotswood was demolished in 1967 but the one at Whorlton still survives. When the High Level Bridge at Newcastle was proposed ten years later, John Green submitted plans, but those of Robert Stephenson were accepted by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Green also built a number of bridges using an innovative system of laminated timber arches on masonry piers, the Weibeking system, based on the work of Bavarian engineer C.F. Weibeking. The two he built for the Newcastle and North Shields Railway, at the Ouseburn and at Willington Quay remain in use, though the timbers were replaced with wrought iron in a similar lattice pattern in 1869. In 1840 he was elected to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and in 1841 he was awarded the institution's Telford Medal for his work on laminated arch design.
John Green died in Newcastle on 30 September 1852.
Benjamin Green
Benjamin Green was a pupil of Augustus Charles Pugin, father of the more famous Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. In the mid-1830s he became a partner of his father and remained so until the latter's death in 1852. The two partners differed somewhat. John has been described as a 'plain, practical, shrewd man of business' with a 'plain, severe and economical' style, whereas Benjamin was 'an artistic, dashing sort of fellow', with a style that was 'ornamental, florid and costly'.
The Greens worked as railway architects and it is believed that all the main line stations between Newcastle and Berwick upon Tweed were designed by Benjamin. In 2020 Morpeth Station was restored to Green's original designs following a £2.3M investment. They also designed a number of Northumbrian churches, the best examples being at Earsdon and Cambo.
The Green's most important commissions in Newcastle were the Theatre Royal (1836–37) and the column for Grey's Monument (1837–38). Both of these structures were part of the re-development of Newcastle city centre in neo-classical style by Richard Grainger, and both exist today. Although both of the partners were credited with their design, it is believed that Benjamin was the person responsible.
Another well-known structure designed by the Greens is Penshaw Monument (1844). This is a folly standing on Penshaw Hill in County Durham. It was built as a half-sized replica of the renowned Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, and was dedicated to John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada. The monument, being built on a hill is visible for miles around and is a famous local landmark. It is now owned by the National Trust.
Benjamin Green survived his father by only six years, and died in a mental home at Dinsdale Park, County Durham on 14 November 1858.
Major works
Presbyterian Chapel, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1822 (demolished 2011)
Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1822–1825
St Peter's Church, Falstone, 1824–1825
Westgate Hill Cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1825–1829 (lodge demolished 1970, railings and gates removed, piers and basic layout remains)
Ingram Farm, Ingram, 1826
Whorlton Suspension Bridge, Wycliffe, County Durham, 1829–1831
Hawks Cottages, Gateshead, 1830 (demolished 1960)
Scotswood Chain Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1831, (demolished 1967)
Church of St Mary and St Thomas Aquinas, Stella, 1831–1832[1]
Bellingham Bridge, Bellingham, 1834
Holy Trinity Church, Stockton-On-Tees, 1834–1835[2]
Holy Trinity Church, Dalton (near Stamfordham), 1836
Vicarage of St Alban, Earsdon, 1836
Church of St Alban, Earsdon, 1836–1837
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Alnwick, 1836
Church of the Holy Saviour, Newburn, 1836–1837
Poor Law Guardians Hall, North Shields, 1837
Master Mariners Homes, Tynemouth, 1837–1840[3]
Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1837
Parish Hall of the Church of the Holy Saviour, Newburn, 1838
Column of Grey's Monument, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1838
Willington Viaduct, Wallsend, 1837–1839
Ouseburn Viaduct, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1837–1839
Church of the Holy Saviour, Tynemouth, 1839–1841
Ilderton Vicarage, Ilderton, 1841
The Red Cottage, Whitburn, 1842
Holy Trinity Church, Cambo, 1842
Holy Trinity Church, Horsley-on-Rede, 1844
The Earl of Durham's Monument, Sunderland, 1844
St Edwin's, Coniscliffe, Co. Durham, 1844 (restoration of mediaeval church)
40–44 Moseley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1845
Witham Testimonial Hall, Barnard Castle, 1846
Old Railway Station, Tynemouth Rd, Tynemouth 1846–1847
Acklington Station, Acklington, 1847
Chathill Station, Chathill, 1847
Belford Station, Belford, Northumberland, 1847
Morpeth Station, Morpeth, Northumberland, 1847
Warkworth Station, Warkworth, Northumberland, 1847
Holy Trinity Church, Seghill, 1849
Newcastle Joint Stock Bank, St Nicholas Square, Newcastle, c.1850
Norham station, Norham, 1851
St Paul's Church, Elswick, 1854
All Saints Cemetery, Jesmond, 1854
Sailor's Home, 11 New Quay, North Shields, 1856
United Free Methodist Church, North Shields, 1857
Corn Exchange, Groat Market, Newcastle (demolished 1974)
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.
Roman settlement
The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.
The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.
Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.
Anglo-Saxon development
The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.
Norman period
After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.
In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.
Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.
The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.
In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.
In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.
Religious houses
During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.
The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.
The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.
The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.
The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.
The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.
All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.
An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.
Tudor period
The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.
During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).
With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.
Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.
The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.
In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.
Stuart period
In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.
In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.
In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.
In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.
In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.
A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.
Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.
In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.
In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.
In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.
In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.
Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.
The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.
In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.
A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.
Victorian period
Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.
In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.
In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.
In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.
In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.
Industrialisation
In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.
Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:
George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.
George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.
William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.
The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:
Glassmaking
A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locomotive manufacture
In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.
Shipbuilding
In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.
Armaments
In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.
Steam turbines
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.
Pottery
In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.
Expansion of the city
Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.
Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.
Twentieth century
In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.
During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.
In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.
Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.
As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.
In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.
As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.
Recent developments
Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.
by bendoktor ift.tt/1HUNyuR Light My Way | It was VERY difficult for me to narrow down a Top 3 this year for @thephotosociety contest, but this one was a contender because of how well executed the shot was in terms of timing and composition. #pasadena #california #losangeles #LA #coloradostreetbridge #suicidebridge #bridge #architecture #lights #night #lighttrails #longexposure #lightstreaks #lazyshutters #cars #busses #conquer_la @conquer_la #conquer_ca @conquer_ca #weownthenight_la #artofvisuals #Nikon #NikonNoFilter #TPStamron
The Grade I Listed Pembroke Castle, the original family seat of the Earldom of Pembroke. It is a medieval Linear castle as it is a castle designed to confront its attackers with a series of barriers/impediments in a line. In Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
In 1093 Arnulf of Montgomery built the first castle at the site when he fortified the promontory beside the Pembroke River during the Norman invasion of Wales. A century later, the castle was given by Richard I to William Marshal, who became one of the most powerful men in 12th-century Britain. He rebuilt Pembroke in stone creating most of the structure that remains today.
It 1648 during the Second English Civil War it was the centre of the Siege of Pembroke. Colonel Horton marched his 3,000 troops west to Tenby and laid siege to Tenby Castle which was held by about 500 Royalists under command of Colonel Rice Powell. Oliver Cromwell later arrived with further troops, leaving Horton with enough men to deal with Powel, Cromwell marched the rest of the army to lay siege to Pembroke.
When Tenby Castle was stormed Powel was taken prisoner, but Pembroke Castle, under command of General Rowland Laugharne and John Poyer, was a strong medieval fortress which could not be taken as quickly. It stood on a rocky promontory surrounded on three sides by the sea.
Ships carrying siege artillery to Cromwell were forced back up the Bristol Channel to Gloucester by storms, so Cromwell tried a frontal assault. It failed because the ladders used to escalade the walls were too short. The defenders managed to surprise the besiegers in a sudden sortie, killing thirty of the besiegers and damaging the circumvallation.
Eventually, the siege ended when Cromwell's forces discovered the conduit pipe which delivered water to the castle and cut off the defenders' water supply. Poyer and Laugharne were forced to surrender on 11 July.
Cromwell then ordered the castle slighted so that it could never again be used as a military fortress. Laugharne, Poyer and Powell were taken to London, tried and sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on 25 April 1649, being the victim selected by lot.
Major restoration took place during the early 20th century, the castle it is open to the public and is the largest privately-owned castle in Wales.
Information Source:
The first Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window, "Regatta" is taken from the story "Serana: The Bush Fairy", from the book "Fairyland", published by A. and C. Black in London in 1926. The original illustration was executed in pen and ink, so it is brought to colourful life in the pink, brown, green and golden yellow stained glass panel. Juvenile faeries, both male and female, naughty pixies and frogs ride down a river in everything from canoes to improvised vessels made of nutshells, cups and lily pads with paper sails. One of two water police frogs in the bottom right of the panel hooks a naughty pixie as he sails by with his silver topped cane, making the whole scene quite a chaotic one. The faerie girls all wear contemporary 1920s sun dresses, and have either fashionable Marcelle Wave or bobbed hairstyles, which is contrary to the little boy faerie, who seems to have what we may consider to be more traditional faerie garb. The faerie girl at the top right of the melee even has a 1920s stub handled parasol to shade her! The canoe rowed by a frog with two girl faeries in it also has a connection to 1920s modernity, with a Chinese lantern hanging from the stern of the boat: a common site on punts at the time.
The second Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window features the excerpt from a poem; "When the children go away, leaving earth's gray lonely places, God I know has room for play, in his gracious starry spaces". The hand-painted panel features three Australian native koalas in natty moss green sporting tweeds and red checks playing a round of golf (most fashionable in the 1920s) with three cheeky pixies as their caddies. One of the green tweed koalas smokes a pipe. The red check koala appears not only to have nearly hit one of his companion koalas with his club, but has sent his ball flying right into the nose of a pixie spectator. A rabbit, two laughing kookaburras and a goanna watch the scene with amusement; the kookaburras especially! Peeping from over the ridge, a Metroland 1920s clubhouse with a red tile roof, white walls and dormer windows can just be seen. Executed with a muted palate of mossy greens, reddish browns, pink and golden yellow, the colours of the Australian bush in summertime are truly captured in this pane. All the characters come from the book "Fairyland", published by A. and C. Black in London in 1926.
The third Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window features the excerpt from a poem; "While underneath in phantom shells, the fairy sailors go, and shining o'er the silent dells, the fairy beacons glow". It, and the painted panel above come from "Fairy Islands" from "Elves and Fairies" published by Thomas Lothian in Melbourne in 1910. The book illustration, much more Art Nouveau in influence than any of the others, is rich with night time blues. Yet the stained glass panel featuring six faeries riding down a river in nautilus shells beneath a silvery full moon, has highlights of pink and golden yellow. The girl faeries all wear Edwardian empire line dancing dresses, such as Isadora Duncan and Anna Pavlova wore, with belts of trailing yellow flowers. Whilst the water looks tranquil enough, the faeries are obviously moving swiftly down the river as their hair and dresses blow in the breeze, and the pink heath sprigs they carry all bend to the wind. The silhouettes of narrow gum trees stand against a full moon glimpsed between two steep banks.
In 1923 with Fitzroy still very much a working class area of Melbourne with pockets of poverty, the parish of St. Mark the Evangelist decided to address the need of the poor in the inner Melbourne suburb. Architects Gawler and Drummond were commissioned to design a two storey red brick Social Settlement Building. It was opened in 1926 by the Vicar of St. Mark the Evangelist, the Reverend Robert G. Nichols (known affectionately amongst the parish as Brother Bill). Known today as the Community Centre, the St. Mark the Evangelist Social Settlements Building looks out onto George Street and also across the St. Mark the Evangelist's forecourt. When it opened, the Social Settlement Building's facilities included a gymnasium, club rooms and children's library.
Opened in 1926, the children's library, which was situated in the corner room of the Social Settlements Building, is believed to be the first known free dedicated children's library in Victoria. The library was given to the children of Fitzroy by Mrs. T. Hackett, in memory of her late husband. The library contained over 3,000 books, as well as children's magazines and even comics. The Social Settlements Building was only erected because Brother Bill organised the commitment of £1,000.00 each from various wealthy businessmen and philanthropists around Melbourne. Mrs Hackett's contribution was the library of £1,000.00 worth of books. Another internationally famous resident of the neighbourhood, Australian children's book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, then at the zenith of her career, was engaged by the relentless Brother Bill to create something for the library. Ida donated four stained glass windows each with a hand-painted panel executed by her, based upon illustrations from her books, most notably "Elves and Fairies" which was published to great acclaim in Australia and sold internationally in 1916 and "Fairyland" which had been published earlier that year. These four hand painted stained glass windows were equated to the value of £1,000.00, but are priceless today, as they are the only public works of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite ever commissioned that have been executed in this medium. Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was only ever commissioned to create one other public work; a series of four panels executed in watercolour with pencil underdrawing in 1910 for the Prince Henry Hospital's children's wards in Melbourne (now demolished). Of her panels, only two are believed still to be in existence, buried within the hospital archives. The four Ida Rentoul Outhwaite stained glass windows each depict faeries, pixies, Australian native animals and children, taken from her book illustrations. At the time of photographing, the windows - three overlooking George Street and one St. Mark the Evangelist's forecourt - were located in the community lounge, which served as a drop-in lounge and kitchen for Fitzroy's homeless and marginalised citizens. Today the space has been re-purposed as offices for the Anglicare staff who run the St. Mark's Community Centre, possibly as a way to protect the precious windows from coming to any harm. The only down-side to this is that they are not as easily accessed or viewed as when I photographed them, making my original visit to St. Mark the Evangalist in 2009 extremely fortuitous.
The Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Windows are one of Australia's greatest hidden treasures, which seems apt when you consider that the pixies and faeries they depict are also often in hiding when we read about them in children's books and the faerie tales of our childhood. The fact that they are hidden, because it is necessary to enter a little-known and undistinguished building in order to see them, ensures their protection and survival. The windows are unique, not only because they are the only stained glass windows designed and hand-painted by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, but because they are the earliest and only examples of stained glass art in Australia that deals with theme of childhood.
I am indebted to Peter Bourke who ran the St. Mark's Community Centre in 2009 for giving me the privilege of seeing these beautiful and rare windows created by one of my favourite children's book artists on a hot November afternoon, without me having made prior arrangements. I also appreciate him allowing me the opportunity to photograph them in great detail. I will always be grateful to him for such a wonderful and moving experience.
Ida Sherbourne Outhwaite (1888 - 1960) was an Australian children's book illustrator. She was born on the 9th of June 1888 in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton. She was the daughter of the of Presbyterian Reverend John Laurence Rentoul and his wife Annie Isobel. Her family was both literary and artistic, and as such, gifted Ida was encouraged from an early age to embrace her talent of drawing. Her elder sister, Annie Rattray Rentoul (1882 - 1978), was likewise encouraged to write, and both would later form a successful partnership. In 1903 six fairy stories written by Annie and illustrated by Ida were published in the ladies' journal "New Idea". The following year the Rentoul sisters collaborated on a book called "Mollie's Bunyip" which was received with instant success because it combined the idea of European faeries, witches and elves and the Australian bush. "Mollie's Staircase" followed in 1906. In 1908 the Rentoul sisters published their first substantial story book, "The Lady of the Blue Beads". On 9 December 1909 Ida married Arthur Grenbry Outhwaite (1875-1938), manager of the Perpetual Executors and Trustees Association of Australia Ltd. (Annie remained unmarried her entire life). After her marriage, Ida was known as Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, but did not publish anything substantial as she established her family and household until part way through the Great War. In 1916 she brought out her first coloured work; "Elves and Fairies", a de luxe edition produced entirely in Australia by Thomas Lothian. The success of the book, with its delicate watercolour plates, was due both to Ida's artistic talent and to the business acumen of her husband, who provided a £400.00 subsidy to ensure a high-quality production and consigned royalties to the Red Cross, thereby encouraging vice-regal patronage. "Elves and Fairies" is still her best known and loved work. Encouraged by her latest success, Ida travelled to Europe after hostilities ended and in 1920 exhibited in Paris and London. The critics compared her to other artists of the golden years of children's illustration such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, thus sealing her international success. She signed a contract with British book publishers A. & C. Black who published five books for her over the next decade, including "The Enchanted Forest" (1921), with text by her husband, and, probably the most popular of all the Rentoul sisters' collaborations, "The Little Green Road to Fairyland" (1922). "The Fairyland of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite" (1926), another sumptuous volume, with text by her husband and sister, was less successful. A. & C. Black also produced a number of postcard series using her illustrations from "Elves and Fairies" as well as her other books published by them. In 1930 the last of her books published by A. & C. Black was released, but already times were changing, and the interest in Ida's work was rapidly fading. Angus & Robertson brought out two more books in 1933 and 1935 but they received relatively little attention. Her last two exhibitions, which between 1916 and 1928 were almost annual events, were held in 1933. The Second World War changed the world, and Ida and Annie's work was relegated to a bygone era, shunned and forgotten. Ida suffered the loss of both of her sons during the war, and she spent her last years sharing a flat in Caulfield with her sister, where, survived by her two daughters, she died on 25 June 1960. She did not live to see the resurgence of interest in her work some twenty-five years later, when in 1985, her picture of "The Little Witch" from "Elves and Fairies" was published on an Australian stamp, opening the fairy world of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite to a whole new generation of children and adults alike.
This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.
To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
Astoria, Queens
The Astoria Play Center is one of a group of eleven immense new outdoor swimming pools which were opened in the summer of 1936 in a series of grand ceremonies presided over by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Park Commissioner Robert Moses. All were constructed largely with funding provided by the Works Progress Administration, one of the many New Deal agencies created during the 1930s to address the effects of America's Great Depression. Designed to accommodate a total of 49,000 users simultaneously at locations scattered across the entire city, and completed just two and a half years after the LaGuardia administration took office, the new pool complexes gained quick recognition as being among the most remarkable public recreational facilities ever constructed in this country.
Many architects, landscape architects, and engineers were hired to execute the pool program and the hundreds of other new construction and rehabilitation projects undertaken between 1934 and 1936 by a newly consolidated Park Department. They were guided by a senior team composed of staff members and consultants who had earlier worked for Moses at various governmental agencies, including the New York State Council of Parks and the Long Island State Park Commission. They included architect Aymar Embury II, landscape architects Gilmore D. Clarke and Allyn R. Jennings, and civil engineers W. Earle Andrews and William H. Latham. Surviving documents also indicate that Robert Moses, himself a long-time swimming enthusiast, gave detailed attention to the designs for the new pool complexes.
Opened on July 2, 1936, with a capacity of 6,200 swimmers, and designed mainly by consulting Park Department architect John Matthews Hatton, the Astoria Play Center commands a striking waterfront location in Astoria Park. The vast scale of the pool complex is complemented by that of its setting - the distant vistas westward framed by the monumental forms of the Hell Gate and Triborough Bridges. Embedded into what has now become a densely wooded slope which descends to the water's edge from 19th Street, the play center complex was designed to take full advantage of its surroundings. The entire roof of the bath house structure is used for multi-level viewing terraces. Extensive concrete bleacher sections are located on the western side of the bath house and around the diving pool. They offer far more outdoor seating than is available at the other play centers; perhaps the abundant seating is related to the fact that the final trials for the 1936 Summer Olympics were held here.
Like Hatton's later design for the 1939 bath house at Betsy Head, the Astoria Play Center structure makes extensive use of glass block; it forms the lower recessed sections of the locker room walls which are topped by the original metal louver windows. Massive piers laid up in decorative bonds demarcate the bays. Glass block also forms extensive sections of the lateral walls of the entryway: the original Art Moderne style ticket booth and signage are its other significant features. Among the Center's more unusual design elements are the whimsical saucerlike roofs atop the upper portions of the filter house structure on the western side of the swimming pool. The areas adjacent to the pool complex include extensive pathway systems, playing areas, and a striking comfort station designed in a style similar to that of the bath house.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
History of the Astoria Park Pool Site
The setting for the Astoria Park Pool and Play Center is the sloping, sixty-six acre Astoria Park, located on the east shore of the Hell Gate channel across from Ward's Island in western Queens. The complex has a panoramic view of the skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan framed between the towering Triborough Bridge to the south and the majestic Hell Gate Bridge to the north. Long Island City and Astoria became part of greater New York City in the consolidation of 1898. By 1907, the land now occupied by Astoria Park and its surroundings remained occupied by fading, former estates of prominent families and ship captains, who had moved away as industrial and residential developments loomed ever closer. The pace of urbanization picked up after the opening of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909, adding many more factories and houses.
Around the turn of the century, sentiment emerged to increase public access to the East River and Hell Gate waterfront. In 1913, the City of New York acquired fifty-six acres of land along the shorefront for what was to become Astoria Park. Originally, named for Mayor William J. Gaynor, who served from 1910 to 1913, the name of the park was soon changed to Astoria Park. According to Parks Department Records, Astoria Park - which was originally equipped with two playgrounds, six tennis courts, three baseball diamonds, a wading pool, bandstand, and comfort station - was the first large park in New York City to provide for organized, rather than passive, recreation.
The Hell Gate Bridge, designed by engineer Gustav Lindenthal and architect Henry Hornbostel, was constructed over the northern park of Astoria Park in 1917; its majestic towers forming the park's northern vista. Major improvements to Astoria Park were undertaken in the 1930s under the auspices of the popular mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia and his legendary Park Commissioner, Robert Moses. These changes included the addition of 4.5 acres of parkland under the Triborough Bridge, which was finished in 1936, the same year of the opening of the Astoria Park Pool and Play Center. Engineered by O.H. Ammann and designed by the architect Aymar Embury II, the Triborough Bridge, along with the pool complex, added a sleek modernity to the park. The improvements of the 1930s were made largely by using funds obtained from the Works Progress Administration, one of the many public works programs created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States Congress during the Great Depression.
Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Moses and the New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression that followed the stock market crash in 1929. Roosevelt promised to rebuild confidence in American capitalism and to improve the nation's standard of living by creating the New Deal economic program of unprecedented public spending on social programs and construction projects.
New York City had been especially hard hit by the economic downturn, and its citizens, hoping for change, elected Fiorello LaGuardia to the mayoralty of New York City in 1933 under a reform-minded "fusion" ticket. He chose New York State Park Commissioner, Robert Moses, a champion of reform politics, as New York City's new Park Commissioner. The new mayor's success in securing a lion's share of monies made available by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Moses' superb management skills and his ability to attract talented designers and engineers to his staff, resulted in profound physical changes in the environment of New York City. The construction and renovation of neighborhood recreation areas, such as pools and play grounds, were some of the most ambitious and successful programs undertaken by Moses with funds largely provided by the WPA.
Fiorello H. La Guardia was sworn in as the ninety-ninth mayor of the City of New York in January 1934, as an anti-Tammany Hall reform candidate. A maverick Republican and a five-term congressman from East Harlem, LaGuardia won the 1933 mayoral election on the "Fusion" ticket after losing the 1929 mayoral race on the Republican line. The Fusion Conference Committee at first considered running Robert Moses, another Republican, who was appointed Chairman of the New York State Council of Parks in 1924 by his political mentor, Governor Alfred E. Smith, a Tammany Hall Democrat from New York City. However, the committee decided against Moses because of his association with Smith, and chose LaGuardia instead. At the time, Moses was a popular public figure with a reputation as a progressive, and as the builder of great parks and parkways like Jones Beach and the Northern State Parkway on Long Island.
His endorsement of LaGuardia during the campaign was considered instrumental in securing a victory for LaGuardia. Within a week of the election, LaGuardia invited Moses to join his incoming administration as a reward.
In the 1920s, Moses was at the forefront of the national recreation movement began in the first decade of the twentieth century, led by such men as President Theodore Roosevelt and the lesser-known George D. Butler of the National Recreation Association. The movement gained momentum after President Calvin Coolidge convened the first National Conference on Outdoor Recreation in 1924.
During the1930s Depression, the need to provide for or to improve outdoor recreation, especially in urban areas, became most urgent, and fit into the FDR's New Deal economic programs. Moses accepted the position of Commissioner of Parks in the LaGuardia administration on the condition that the five existing independent Park Departments (one for each borough) would be consolidated into a single department with himself as the sole Commissioner, and that the Park Commissioner's authority also include control of the City's parkways. He also demanded to be appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Triborough Bridge Authority, which was then building the bridge of that name, and that a new agency, the Marine Parkway Authority, which would build a bridge to the Rockaways, be created with himself at the helm.
Already in charge of the Long Island State Park Commission, the New York State Council of Parks, the Jones Beach State Park Authority, and the Bethpage State Park Authority, Moses would then be in control of all existing and proposed parks and parkways in the New York metropolitan region, except for areas outside of New York State.
Moses began to assess the state of the City's parks and to plan for their future as soon as LaGuardia announced his intention to appoint Moses as Park Commissioner. According to one source: "Immediately after the election he wrote out, on a single piece of paper, a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects." Moses hired a consulting engineer and three assistant engineers to survey every park and parkway in the City. The survey was completed by the time he took office in mid-January 1934.
When Moses took over the Park Department, it was already employing 69,000 relief workers funded mainly by the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA). However, Moses found the men to be ill-equipped and inadequately supervised, and considered many of the construction projects to have been poorly designed. He immediately began to revamp the entire operation of the Park Department and established a Division of Design, located at the Arsenal in Central Park. The staff was to be headed up by experienced professionals drawn mainly from his State agencies. Some of his talented staff of young architects, landscape architects and engineers had worked on the designs for Long Island's highly acclaimed parks, including Jones Beach, which is considered one of Moses' greatest accomplishments.
His staff also included a number of well-known and accomplished designers, among them architects Aymar Embury II and John M. Hatton, and the landscape architect and civil engineer Gilmore D. Clarke. Other top members of Moses' staff were the landscape architect Allyn R. Jennings, and civil engineers W. Earle Andrews and William H. Latham.
The Department needed to produce plans and blueprints immediately so the growing force of relief workers could be assigned to worthwhile projects as quickly as possible. Within a week, Moses managed to persuade CWA officials to drop some of the regulations governing the hiring of staff and to relax its spending limits on project planning, allowing him to hire 600 architects, engineers and draftsmen at salaries above CWA wage guidelines. By the first of February, they were busily producing designs and blueprints.
The Park Department's Division of Design was organized in the following manner: a topographical unit of about 400 surveyors and draftsmen, a landscape architecture unit of about sixty people, an architecture unit made up of sixty architects and draftsmen, and an engineering unit of about fifty. Smaller units included an Arboricultural Department and an Inspection Department. All the work in the Division of Design was under the direct supervision of the Park Engineer, who was aided and advised by a Consulting Architect, a Consulting Landscape Architect, and a Consulting Engineer. All new projects began in the topographical unit, where a complete survey of the land was prepared. It then moved on to the landscaping unit, where the basic concept for the design was developed. Next, the three units: landscape, architecture, and engineering, collaborated to produce the final design and all the necessary construction documents.
The Park Engineer and his aides had to approve all of the plans. Moses himself sometimes stepped in to revise or overrule a design, especially on the larger, more visible projects.
Moses' superior management ability and political savvy allowed him to move projects along very quickly and to produce concrete results, gaining for him much public admiration. However, his personal demeanor was notoriously stubborn and arrogant, and he sometimes fired people on the spot for no apparent reason.
At times, he disregarded the legitimate authority of other governmental agencies. Once, when the Department of Plant and Structures refused to suspend a ferry service that used a terminal in the path of constructing the Triborough Bridge approach road, Moses had his men demolish the terminal while the boat was on the other side of the river. He feuded with President Franklin D. Roosevelt for years, even while Washington was pouring millions of dollars into Moses' own Park Department. His later battles with and subsequent triumphs over community groups opposed to the routing of the Gowanus and the Cross-Bronx Expressways through their neighborhoods are now legendary. Moses was also known to have been insensitive to people of color, and tried to restrict access to many of his recreational facilities, including the pools. He determined that the Colonial Park pool in Harlem would be the only one for minority use. Most of the other pools, including Astoria, were placed in white neighborhoods.
The Thomas Jefferson Park pool, located in East Harlem was (LaGuardia's old congressional district) was close to Spanish Harlem where the city's growing Puert Rican population was settling, and also not very far from African-American Harlem. To discourage minority use at the Jefferson Park facility, Moses kept the water heating system turned off, believing that the cold water would not bother Caucasian swimmers, "but would deter any 'colored' people who happened to enter it once from returning." To many he was a master builder; to others he was a spoiled bully; and he seemingly always had his way.
In the summer of 1934, however, Robert Moses was a hero. Hundreds of projects, covering virtually every neighborhood in the city, had been completed. Structures were repainted, tennis courts resurfaced, and lawns reseeded. Hundreds of new construction projects were either underway or being designed. Among the projects being drawn up at the time was the Astoria Park Pool.
The Designers Behind the Planning of the Astoria Park Pool
Aymar Embury II and Gilmore D. Clarke, respectively the Park Department's Consulting Architect and Consulting Landscape Architect, were employed by the City on a part-time basis to oversee designs for park projects under Robert Moses. The head of the Division of Design at the time was the Park Engineer, William H. Latham, who was responsible for the preparation of all plans and specifications within the department. Major design problems were discussed by Embury and Clarke before the preliminary sketches were made under Latham's direction. Completed sketches were subject to approval by the Park Engineer, the General Superintendent, and Commissioner Moses. The consultants would give regular criticism during the preparations of the plans.
Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) was born in New York City and studied engineering at Princeton University, where he received a Master of Science degree in 1901. He acquired his architectural training through apprenticeships with three New York firms: George B. Post, Howells and Stokes, and Palmer and Hornbostel. He also worked for Cass Gilbert. In 1905, Embury won both first and second prize in a contest held by the Garden City Company for a modest country house to be built in Garden City, Long Island. This gained for him a reputation as a talented designer, and led to many commissions for country houses in the New York metropolitan area. He subsequently published seven books and several pamphlets, mainly on early American architecture, establishing him as an authority on that subject. By the start of the Great Depression, he was well-known and had received a wide range of commissions all over the east coast of the United States, including college buildings and social clubs, in addition to residences.
He designed the Players and Nassau Clubs in Princeton, New Jersey, the Princeton Club in New York City, and the University Club in Washington, D.C.
Embury was said to have supervised the design of over six hundred public projects, including Orchard Beach, Bryant Park, the New York City Building at the 1939 World's Fair, the Donnell Branch of the New York Public Library, the Hofstra University Campus, the Central Park and Prospect Park Zoos, Jacob Riis Park, five of the eleven neighborhood pool and play centers, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Triborough Bridge, and many more. His relationship to the planning of the Astoria Pool and Play Center appears to have been limited to his role as the department's consulting architect.
Gilmore D. Clarke (1892-1982) was born in New York City and studied landscape architecture and civil engineering at Cornell University, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1913. He served as an engineer in the army during World War I, receiving many citations and decorations, and remained in the Army Reserve Corps until 1939. During the 1920s, he served on several local, state and federal commissions as landscape architect, including the Architectural Advisory Board for the United States Capital, the New York State Council of Parks (which was headed by Robert Moses), and the Westchester County Park Commission, among many others. For his work in Westchester County, which included the Rye Beach Playland, the Saw Mill River Parkway, and the Bronx River Parkway, Clarke was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor in Landscape Architecture from the Architectural League of New York in 1931.
By the time of the Great Depression, Clarke was already established as the most popular landscape architect in public works in America.
His career advanced during the 1930s. Besides being hired by Robert Moses as the Consulting Landscape Architect to the New York City Park Department, he also became a member of the National Commission on Fine Arts, the New York State Planning Council, and the Board of Design for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In addition to Astoria Park, his work for the Park Department included Bryant Park, Central Park Zoo, City Hall Park, Orchard Beach in the Bronx, and the Henry Hudson Parkway. He taught landscape architecture at Cornell University from 1935 to 1950, serving as dean from 1939 until his retirement in 1950 and wrote several articles for trade periodicals. In 1935, Clarke joined Michael Rapuano, an engineer and landscape architect, establishing the New York civil engineering and landscape architectural firm Clarke & Rapuano, Inc. Clarke was president of the firm from 1962 until his retirement in 1972.
Later in his career, Clarke worked as a consultant on the construction of the United Nations Headquarters in New York and became a Trustee for the American Museum of Natural History.
Architect John M. Hatton was born c.1886 in Iowa, and first appears in New York City directories in 1915. His professional training remains undetermined, but he practiced architecture in New York City into the late 1940s. In the early 1920s, he formed a partnership with architect Diego DeSuarez (DeSuarez & Hatton), which lasted only a few years. In addition to the Astoria Pool, his other works for the Department of Parks in the 1930s include the Betsy Head Pool in Brooklyn and Pelham Bay Park golf clubhouse. In the 1940s, he was considered an expert in store modernization (lighting, space layout, customer comfort, display, fixtures, and storefronts) and his designs for commercial spaces and storefronts were published in several architectural periodicals. Among his clients was the Stetson Hat Company. He also did work for the New York City Housing Authority in the 1940s.
The Design and Construction of the Astoria Park Pool
The Astoria Play Center is one of the group of eleven immense new outdoor swimming pools that opened in the summer of 1936 in a series of grand ceremonies presided over by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Park Commissioner Robert Moses. All were constructed mainly with funds provided by the WPA. Designed to accommodate a total of 49,000 users simultaneously at locations scattered across the entire city and completed just two-and-a-half years after LaGuardia took office, the new pool complexes completely dwarfed the city's two pre-existing outdoor public pools and gained quick recognition as being among the most remarkable public recreational facilities ever constructed in this country. The city's pool construction program was reported to have been the most expensive in terms of total cost.
Robert Moses, an avid swimmer who had a home near the ocean in Babylon, Long Island, was known to have taken a special interest in the design and construction of bathing and swimming facilities, such as Jones Beach, Orchard Beach and Riis Park, as well as the neighborhood swimming pools, including Astoria Pool. As a result of his special attention, along with that of Embury and Clarke, the design and execution of New York City's aquatic facilities in the 1930s were a cut above most other park projects at the time.
At the start, the Park Department adopted a list of shared guidelines for the entire pool project in order to enhance the efficiency of the design effort, to unify the operations of each complex, and to meet the various local and federal requirements of the relief programs. For example, each pool complex was to have separate swimming, diving and wading pools, and a large bath house, the locker room sections of which doubled as gymnasiums during non-swimming months. The bath houses, which would serve as the centerpieces of each complex, would be distinctive pavilions that would establish the design motif of each facility. Concrete bleachers at the perimeter of the pools would furnish spectator viewing areas to be augmented at some sites with rooftop promenades and galleries. There would be a minimum width for the decks to provide enough room for sunbathing and circulation. There had to be underwater lighting for night swimming.
At least one dimension of each swimming pool would have to be a multiple of fifty five yards to allow swimming competitions to be held at standard distances in either English or metric systems. Plus, the complexes had to share low-cost building materials, principally brick and cast concrete, as required by the federal government.
To satisfy federal stipulation on low-cost materials, it appears that the design team for the pools determined that the streamlined and curvilinear forms of the Art Moderne and Modern Classical styles would best meet the low-cost needs and still permit pleasing aesthetics. As a group, the pools were also distinguished by the innovative mechanical systems required to heat, filter, and circulate the vast amounts of water they used. Many of these innovations set new standards for swimming pool construction, such as scum gutters that allowed in enough sunlight to naturally kill off bacteria and a series of footbaths filled with foot cleaning solution through which bathers were forced to pass upon entering the pool areas from the locker rooms.
Sited in existing older parks or built on other city-owned land subsequently developed with as parks and playgrounds, the huge pool complexes were provided with landscape settings which included additional recreational areas, connecting pathway systems, and comfort stations. Despite the fact that the basic components were essentially the same and that the WPA required that only the cheapest materials be used, each of these swimming pool complexes is especially notable its distinctive and unique setting, appearance, and character.
Although each pool complex has been credited to a particular architect, the designs appear to actually have been collaborative efforts among the army of architects, draftsmen, engineers, and landscape architects employed by the Park Department in the 1930s. In the instance of the Astoria Play Center, the architect John M. Hatton is credited with the design. Plans on file at the Parks Department archives show that Hatton only drew the main façades and certain details of the bath house and bleachers, while Gregory Kiely drew the bath house's minor façades and some additional details. The filter house was done by C.E. Nelson, J.D. McGarr, and Joseph L. Hautman and details such as the clock, signage, lettering, light fixtures, railings, and phone booths by Harry Ahrens and F.J. Svarti.
Since the eleven pool facilities shared many common features and specifications that could be repeated at each site, and contained other elements that were similar from complex to complex, these junior designers, having different areas of expertise, apparently moved quickly from project to project. The department produced designs and construction documents simultaneously with great speed so that eleven pools and hundreds of other park projects, including some massive undertakings like Orchard Beach, were completed within a few years. The lead architect for each pool project, who in the case of the Astoria center was John M. Hatton, designed the bath house, which was unique to each site, establishing the motif that guided the design and detailing of the rest of the complex.
In October 1934, the Park Department announced the start of excavations and site work for several of the new pools, including Astoria, although the excavation plan for Astoria was not issued until December. The new Astoria Pool was to be located at the site of an existing, smaller wading pool, just to the north of the Triborough Bridge, which was then under construction. The earliest reference to the design of the bath house is in an internal Park Department document from July 1935, which describes a sketch that appears not to have survived. The memorandum also discusses footings for the main pool as having already been poured, as well as the concrete floor for the pipe tunnel and the northeast corner wall of the pool. The cast iron drain and sub-piping had also been laid. The diving pool, however, was still being excavated and no work had yet begun on the wading pool. Plans were still being prepared for the filter house and comfort station.
By August 1935, however, the fully developed plans for the façades of the bath house were released as were the landscape and bleacher plans. The filter house plans were completed that November. Revisions continued through 1936. During the period from December 1935 through October 1936, scores of construction and engineering blueprints were completed by the staff, and building continued at a steady pace until late in the year. Enough of the complex was completed for the Astoria Pool to open with much fanfare on July 2, 1936, on the first day of trials for the U.S. Olympic swim team.
The year 1936 was known as "the swimming pool year," since ten of the eleven giant neighborhood pools were opened that summer, one per week for ten weeks. Each opening day was a memorable event for its neighborhood. The day-long events featured parades, blessings of the waters, swimming races, diving competitions, appearances by Olympic stars, and performances by swimming clowns. Mayor LaGuardia attended every opening to perform the ribbon cutting. Festivities continued well after dusk with LaGuardia pulling the switch to turn on each pool's spectacular underwater lighting to the "oooohs" of the crowds. The opening ceremony at Astoria Pool was attended by 20,000 people.
The completed Astoria Pool complex was widely acclaimed and was featured in American Architect and Architecture (November 1936) and Architectural Forum (August 1937). The use of glass block construction and louvers received special praise. Astoria was the city's largest pool at 54,450 square feet, and the second largest WPA project in Queens after Jacob Riis Park. Harry Hopkins, the WPA administrator, called the Astoria Pool "the finest in the world." It remains the city's largest public pool, and one of the major achievements of the New Deal in New York City.
Subsequent History
Upon opening, the Astoria Park Pool hosted the swimming, water polo, and diving trials for the United States Olympic Team, preparing for the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics.
The events were widely covered in local newspapers, and the Astoria Pool was often referred to instead as the Olympic Tryout Pool in the articles.
There were very few alterations in the years immediately after the completion of the pool; mainly systems upgrades and minor repairs were made. However, the original stainless steel sculptures of female athletes that had been produced by the noted sculptor Emil Siebern (1889-1942), who was a pioneer in the medium of stainless steel, had been removed from the pedestals over the west side of the main entryway before 1943 due to deterioration. Also, the surrounding playgrounds were reconstructed in 1946 and new gutters were installed in the pool in 1948. Sometime between 1948 and 1963, a one-story, brick rooftop addition containing concession stands was constructed on the filter house.
In the early 1940s, a group of boys from the Astoria neighborhood got together to perform swimming stunts on Wednesday nights at the pool. Known as the Aquazines, they donned costumes and treated audiences to choreographed swimming acts with music, backdrops, props and, sometimes, trained dogs. The routines showcased their talents as swimmers and divers. One of the Aquazines, Whitney Hart, became a professional diver and was later inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame.
The Astoria Park Pool was again host to the swimming and diving trials for the United States Olympic Teams in 1964. In preparation for the events, the facility was rehabilitated in 1963, its first comprehensive overhaul since it was opened twenty-seven years earlier. The work included the installation of new light weight concrete decks on the upper and lower promenades, as well as replacement of some window sash, and new paint throughout. The original glass pylons over the main entryway were resurfaced with brick.
In 1979-82, the playground to the southwest of the pool was removed and replaced with ball courts and the south comfort station in that area was demolished. Much of Astoria Park itself was reconstructed between 1983 and 1987; the project included the rehabilitation of the comfort station in the north playground and reconstruction of the seawall. In 1991, the main swimming pool was reconstructed, including the replacement of the pool floor, drains, supply islands and gutters; this replacement project was repeated in 1998-99 at which time the pool received a major systems upgrade, including new lights, pumps, piping, electric lines, filter system, showers, and improved chlorination and security systems. Also, an accessibility ramp was installed in the main pool and the supply islands in that pool were removed for safety reasons and replaced with bottom supply inlets.
Between 1996 and 2001, the north playground was rebuilt, the comfort station restored, and the park itself was the subject of a large erosion control and re-landscaping project. At this time, some replacement of the curbing and paving on the east entry ramps to the bath house took place, but there were no changes to the configuration of the ramps and walks. Additional minor site work and erosion control projects took place around the pool complex in 2000 to 2004.
The Architecture and Site of the Astoria Park Pool and Play Center
The New Deal construction projects within New York City, such as the Astoria Park Pool, were a part of a national trend that included similar projects undertaken by various governmental agencies, ranging from the vast Tennessee Valley Authority to small cities and towns. Urban projects built with WPA funding often possessed similar qualities from region to region, partly because the difficult economic climate dictated the use of inexpensive building materials, but also because the programs provided employment opportunities for a generation of young architects and engineers, many of whom were committed to modernism. For example, the bathhouse and waterfront facilities at Aquatic Park in San Francisco are similar in plan and appearance to the public pool and beachfront projects being built at about the same time in New York City.
The California facility, with its streamlined, concrete façade and steel-framed windows, bears a striking resemblance to the façade added in 1936 with WPA funds to the bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in Queens.
The original and creative use made of these modest materials by Moses' talented design teams and the careful siting of each project makes every one of them a distinguished, individual design, as much related to their specific environment and needs as to one another.
The Astoria Play Center commands a striking waterfront location in Astoria Park. The vast scale of the pool complex is complemented by that of its setting - the distant vistas westward framed by the monumental forms of the Hell Gate and Triborough Bridges. Embedded into a wooded slope which descends to the water's edge from 19th Street, the play-center complex was designed to take full advantage of its surroundings. The entire roof of the bath house structure is used for multi-level viewing terraces. Extensive concrete bleacher sections are located on the western side of the bath house and around the diving pool. They offer far more outdoor seating than is available at the other play centers; perhaps the abundant seating is related to the fact that the United States team trials for the 1936 summer Olympic Games were held there.
Like Hatton's later design for the 1939 bath house at Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn, the Astoria Play Center structure makes extensive use of glass block wall construction; it forms the lower recessed sections of the locker room walls which are topped by the original metal louver windows. Massive piers laid up in decorative bonds demarcate the bays. Glass blocks also form the extensive sections of the lateral walls of the entry lobby: the original Art Moderne-style ticket booth and signage are its other significant features. Among the center's more unusual design elements are the whimsical saucer-like roofs atop the filter house on the western side of the complex. In a playground to the northwest of the center is a striking comfort station designed in a style similar to that of the bath house.
Description
Plan and Circulation. The pool is complex is approached via either one of two stepped ramps leading westward down from 19th Street to a wide plaza located in front of the east façade of the bath house. There are also two ancillary stairways that lead down to the plaza from the pathways which connect the sidewalk along 19th Street to the viewing platforms on the roof of the bath house. The viewing platforms are on two levels connected by steps and provide views of the pools and the west vista, which includes the Hell Gate Channel, the Triborough Bridge, the Hell Gate Bridge, and Wards Island. There are also steps from the lower viewing platforms to the park pathways that surround the pool complex and lead down to the ball courts, playground, lawn and Shore Boulevard. Upon entering the centrally located, open-air lobby from the entry plaza, patrons buy admissions from the freestanding ticket booth and are led to either the men's or women's locker rooms thorough doorways on the sides of the lobby.
From the locker rooms, access to the deck areas surrounding the pool is provided by doors on the west façade of the bath house. The three pools are surrounded by wide decks and sun bathing areas. There are additional viewing platforms and a non-original concession stand located atop the filter house on the west side of the complex. Extensive bleacher areas extend across nearly the entire eastern deck and curve around the southern side of the complex near the diving pool, ending at the filter house. There is a smaller bleacher area on the north side near the wading pool. There are also several service entrances leading in from the surrounding park and pathways on all sides of the complex.
The Bath House and Rooftop Viewing Platforms. The one-story bath house, which is partially built into the slope of the park, employs a U-shaped plan and is constructed of concrete, Flemish-bond brick (now mostly painted), and glass blocks. Its height varies to accommodate two levels of rooftop viewing platforms. It has a centrally-located open-air lobby, and a series of stairway which connect the viewing platforms to one another, and to the surrounding park pathways. The concrete foundation is stepped on the east side and incorporates steel gratings on the top step.
The east façade is fifteen bays with a centrally located main entryway, which opens into an outdoor lobby. At the center of the lobby is a multi-sided ticket booth designed in a nautical motif. The base of the ticket booth consists of terrazzo slabs angled outward toward the countertop, which is protected by a mesh cage. The roof of the booth, which aligns with the multi-side counter below, is supported by steel columns that are set back behind the counter. The roof features two step-backs, the lower one featuring a series of moldings, while the upper one has slotted openings serving to ventilate the booth. The booth is topped by short stack-like motif decorated with large cogs.
The floor of the lobby is paved with brick with a bluestone and granite border, while the ceiling consists of the exposed concrete underside of the rooftop viewing terrace and its supportive beams. The original clock is suspended from the westernmost beam. The three bays of each sidewall in the lobby are separated by compound piers clad in decorative brickwork. Each bay contains a set of wood doors, painted black, topped by a decorative steel lintel supporting a large expanse of glass blocks that have decorative aluminum grills at the bottom. The grills at the center bays have applied, deco-style aluminum lettering that denote the men's and women's locker rooms to either side of the lobby. There are also angled deco-style aluminum signs also identifying the men's and women's locker rooms on either side of the lobby. Wrought-iron fences and gates are located on the east and west sides.
The entryway is flanked on the west side by massive brick piers which step in toward the lobby and feature full-height expanses of glass blocks. Massive, molded concrete beams span the east and west openings. Parks Department signage has been added to the piers. The remaining bays consist of a series of recessed expanses of glass block walls topped by the original metal and glass louver windows (covered with non- historic mesh grills) and convex, fluted aluminum lintels. One bay is presently boarded up. Massive, projecting piers laid up in decorative brick bonds demarcate the bays. The entire façade is topped by bluestone coping.
The north side wing is partially built in the slope of the park, and has only one exposed façade, which faces south, but this façade is only partially exposed due to the slope of the hill. Abutting this façade is a concrete stairway with deco-style steel railings, which leads from the north pathway to the viewing terraces down to the main entrance plaza to the lobby. The side wing's façade has two bays and consists of brick walls and a wide horizontal band of glass blocks (now painted over). The bays are separated by a wide pier that is similar to the piers of the east façade of the bath house. Steel railings are attached to the brick. An original doorway in the pier has been sealed with wood covered with painted aluminum sheets. The south side wing is a mirror-image of the north wing, but its glass blocks have not been painted over. A narrow part of the south wing's brick south façade is exposed due to the slope of the site.
Its fenestration, now boarded up, is partially exposed above steel grates. There is also a service entry with a bulkhead at this location.
The bath house's seventeen-bay west façade is similar to the east façade, but is lower due to the slope of the site and because its roof accommodates the lower viewing terrace. In addition, the façade has two sets of paired wooden exit doors, painted black, from the men's and women's locker rooms. These doors are set in semicircular coves near the north and south ends of the façade. There are also non-historic security lamps, cameras, and annunciators attached to the bricks near the lobby.
The entire roof of the bath house, including the side wings, is paved for use as either viewing platforms or pathways leading to the platforms from the park's paths. The decks are paved with concrete with bluestone borders. All of these publicly-accessible areas are enclosed by deco-style steel railings, which incorporate flagpoles on the east side of the roof. The platforms are connected by concrete steps with historic steel railings. There are two oval, header-brick pylons (now painted) located on either side of the main entryway to the pool; they were originally made of glass blocks and were altered to their present appearance in 1963. On the west side are two lower, multi-sided concrete ventilators, aligned with the glass block expanses in the piers flanking the lobby. They originally also served as the bases for the original metal sculptures of nymphs holding balls that had been removed by 1943. The walls on the lower part of the upper viewing platform are made of brick.
The Pools and Deck Areas. The enclosed pool area to the west of the bath house forms an ellipse with its long axis set from north to south. Within this area are located the rectangular swimming pool flanked on either side by semicircular pools for diving on the south and wading on the north. Altogether, the three pools, which are separated by concrete decks, echo the elliptical shape of the enclosure. Concrete bleachers of varying heights line most of the inner sides of the brick perimeter walls of the pool area. These walls are topped by wrought-iron fences. The shallow wading pool has two non-original spray spouts near its center and eleven non-original spray spouts spaced at regular distances along its curved sides. The swimming pool is large expanse of water lined with a concrete gutter. It has a non-historic handicap ramp on the east side.
The diving pool, which is no longer in use and presently fenced off, includes at its south end, the pool's original, dramatically curved concrete, multi-level main diving platform. Each of the three platforms is cantilevered above the pool and protected by deco-style copper that match the copper railings that surround the perimeter of the diving pool. The main diving platform is flanked by two similar, but lower, cantilevered diving platforms. Two other low, concrete diving platforms that appear to be later in date are suspended over the pool from the deck on its north side. The deck surrounding the pool has non-historic lampposts, non-original drinking fountains near the bath house, and a flagpole, which is located between the swimming and wading pools. There are two other flagpoles south of the diving pool; they have floodlights attached to them.
The Flemish-bond brick perimeter wall (now painted), which is topped by concrete coping and wrought-iron fences, rises in height toward the south end of the site due to the topography. At the north end it is a freestanding wall lined on the inside with low bleachers. There are also service entries consisting of wrought-iron gates flanked by tall, decorative brick posts with cast- concrete coping. At its south and southwest portions, the perimeter wall is tall enough to incorporate service areas beneath the bleacher areas. There are service entrances covered with roll-down steel gates, and windows covered with steel grates and plates in the south part of the wall. Some windows are now sealed with brick. The bleachers also extend below the west façade of the bath house. They are interrupted at the locker room entryway by shallow concrete steps. Steel tube railings protect the bleachers at these locations.
There is another flight of concrete steps upon the bleachers in front of the bath house lobby; it has a steel tube hand rail. There are non-historic steel support columns on the southwest portion of bleachers. These are used in the summer to support shade covers.
The Filter House. The filter house is the rectangular-in-plan, Flemish bond-brick building (now painted) on the west side of the pool; it includes raised areas at either end containing viewing platforms covered with cast-concrete, saucer-shaped roofs with scalloped edges. Reached via cantilevered, concrete steps, the viewing platforms have concrete floors and are protected with deco-style steel railings. There is also a non- historic brick and concrete concession stand on the lower part of its roof, which is just a few steps above deck level due to changes in the elevation of the site. Thus, the filter house's west façade rises to a full story in height at the center and two full stories at the raised ends beneath the saucers. The east façade of the filter house has brick walls covered with non-original, painted murals. The west façade is seven bays and is articulated in a similar manner as the east and west façades of the bath house.
Originally, it had steel casements, but these have been filled in with brick and narrow strips of glass blocks. There are also empty niches lined with painted concrete on the areas of the façade that align with the saucer roofs (The original blueprints specified glass blocks at these locations, which have been removed). These taller sections have coursed brick façades. The north façade is fronted by service ramps and entryways and steel sash at the second story. The south façade of the filter house consists of coursed brick, a service entrance, and security lights and equipment.
The Surrounding Park including the Playground, Comfort Station, and Ball Court. The portions of Astoria Park that are part of the landmark site include a series of pathways paved with either blacktop or hexagonal blocks with either concrete or bluestone curbs. Some of these paths predate the pool complex, while others were installed at that time. Some of the paths are stepped, most notably both of the diagonal stepped paths leading from 19th Street down to the main entry plaza on the east side of the bath house. There are circular, concrete-paved areas at the top of both of these ramps that demarcate the locations of original fountains that have long since been removed. The one on the south side has brass letters and segments embedded in the concrete to form a compass. The plaza also has iron tube railings parallel to the main façade.
There are also park benches, bollards (both iron and concrete), wrought-iron fences and park lamps at various locations; these appear not to be original features of the park and to post date the construction of the play center. There is a lawn on the east side of the complex which features a granite memorial commemorating the First World War. The memorial was placed in Astoria Park in 1926, and was moved to its present location during construction of the play center. The memorial is flanked by flagpoles. An asphalt-paved ball court to the southwest of the pool complex has non-historic chain link fences surrounding it and non-historic concrete steps. A playground to the northwest to the site, enclosed by non- historic wrought-iron fences, has non-historic play equipment. A Flemish-bond brick comfort station (now painted), built at the same time and in the same style as the pool complex, is located on the south side of the playground.
The one-story building is square in plan and features projecting end piers with decorative brickwork, curved wall surfaces near the entrances, incised lettering indicated and girls/boys rooms, glass block wall surfaces, non-historic roof-top weathervane and decorative cast concrete embellishments. There is also non-historic Parks Department signage and security lighting applied to the walls. A brick, curving retaining wall extends westward from the filter house. It is topped by concrete coping and wrought-iron fencing that matches the rest of the complex.
- From the 2006 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
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Early morning raids saw four arrested as officers executed several drug warrants across Tameside.
Today (Wednesday 19 June 2019) warrants were executed across seven addresses as part of a crackdown on the supply of Class A and B drugs – codenamed Operation Leporine.
Following today’s action, two men – aged 21 and 27 – and two women – aged 21 and 52 - have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs.
Sergeant Stephanie O’Brien, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: “At present we have four people in custody and as part of this morning’s operation we have been able to seize a significant quantity of drugs.
“I would like to thank the team here in Tameside who, as part of Operation Leporine, have worked tirelessly in order to bring a sophisticated and audacious group of offenders to justice.
“The supply of illegal drugs blights communities and destroys people’s livelihoods; and I hope that today’s very direct and visible action demonstrates to the local community that we are doing all that we to make the streets of Tameside a safer place.
“It will remain a top priority for us to continue to tackle the influx of drugs in the area, however we cannot do this alone and I would appeal directly to the community and those most affected to please come forward with any information that could assist us in what continues to be an ongoing operation.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or alternatively reports can be made to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
Then, continued with executing puja wali, or the culminating agenda to the Almighty God along with His manifestations and particularly to Lord Varuna as the master of the sea, resource of holy springs
Taken @Lembeng beach, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
The photographers for the 1965-66 Coca-Cola hockey card set were Richard K. Brubaker and George A. H. Shorthouse, who worked for the Wayne Gretzky Sports Cards and Hockey Illustrated publications, respectively. Details - Richard K. Brubaker: He was the primary photographer for the set and was known for his candid shots and capturing the "golden era" of hockey. George A. H. Shorthouse: He was an additional photographer who contributed to the 1965-66 Coca-Cola set, providing another unique perspective on the players. (? AI answer)
The 1965-66 Coca-Cola hockey card series was a brilliantly executed promotional scheme that encouraged hockey fans to guzzle down the soft drinks and collect specially marked bottle caps with an NHL team’s nickname on the liner. Once a collector acquired 10 caps featuring one team’s nickname, they could mail them in for an 18-card perforated strip of player cards from that team (along with a 19th card that could be redeemed for a now highly sought after collector’s album).
The unnumbered cards themselves were fairly plain and printed on thin paper, offering a black-and-white image on the front with the player’s name along the bottom. On the back were player vitals, including their complete stats in the NHL. Not the most visually striking collectibles, but what they lacked in eye appeal was made up for with inclusivity.
It all added up to a 108-card series that was nearly as representative of the league as Topps’s 128-card series that season. There are a number of noteworthy cards in the set, including rookie year issues of Gerry Cheevers, Phil Esposito, Yvan Cournoyer, Ed Giacomin, Paul Henderson, Dennis Hull, Ken Hodge and more. It also features a single of Bernie Parent that pre-dates his 1968-69 Topps/OPC RC by three years and pictures the future Hall of Famer with his first NHL team, the Boston Bruins. LINK to checklist - www.beckett.com/news/1965-66-coca-cola-hockey-cards/
This set contains 108 unnumbered black and white cards featuring 18 players from each of the six NHL teams. The cards were issued in perforated team panels of 18 cards. The cards are priced below as perforated cards; the value of unperforated strips is approximately 20-30 percent more than the sum of the individual prices. The cards are approximately 2 3/4" by 3 1/2" and have bi-lingual (French and English) write-ups on the card backs. An album to hold the cards was available from the company on a mail-order basis. It retails in the $50-$75 range in Near Mint. The set numbering below is by teams and numerically within teams as follows: Boston Bruins (1-18), Chicago Blackhawks (19-36), Detroit Red Wings (37-54), Montreal Canadiens (55-72, New York Rangers (73-90), and Toronto Maple Leafs (91-108).
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1. Jim Neilson - James Anthony Neilson (November 28, 1941 – November 6, 2020) also known as "The Chief", to colleagues and friends, was an indigenous Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played over 1000 games in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, California Golden Seals, and Cleveland Barons. He ended his career playing 35 games with the Edmonton Oilers, which were in the World Hockey Association at the time. Neilson played for 16 seasons in the NHL, 12 of which were with Rangers. During his career in the NHL he played 1,023 games, scoring a total of 69 goals, logging 299 assists, and earning 368 points. He played from 1962–63 season to 1977–78 season in the NHL. After the Seals relocated to Cleveland in 1976, Neilson played two more seasons for the struggling Cleveland Barons which eventually folded into merging with the Minnesota North Stars. During his NHL career, he played in two all-star games (1967, 1971) and was a second-team all-star for the 1967-68 season. In his last season, Neilson played 35 games for the Edmonton Oilers in 1978–79 in the World Hockey Association. In the 2009 book 100 Ranger Greats, the authors ranked Neilson at #42 all-time of the 901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first 82 seasons.
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2. Phil Goyette - Joseph Georges Philippe Goyette (born October 31, 1933) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey center who played in the NHL for 16 seasons between 1956 and 1972. Goyette played 941 career NHL games, scoring 207 goals and 467 assists for 674 points. Goyette played his first 7 NHL seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. He spent another 7 seasons with the New York Rangers. Goyette's best offensive season was the 1969–70 season when, as a member of the St. Louis Blues, he scored 29 goals and 49 assists for 78 points (both career highs). Goyette played for the Blues for only one year, his 14th of 16 total seasons played, making it to the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. He had 3 goals and 11 assists in the team's 1970 playoff run. Goyette also spent two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. Goyette served as the first coach of the New York Islanders but was replaced midway through his first season by the team by Earl Ingarfield Sr. He never coached again, leaving his NHL coaching record at 6–38–4.
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3. Doug Robinson - Douglas Garnet Robinson (born August 27, 1940) is a Canadian former ice hockey player. He played 240 games in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings from 1964 to 1971. Robinson's son, Rob Robinson, also played in the NHL. Playing career - Robinson started his NHL career with Chicago and also played for New York and Los Angeles. He was traded along with Denis DeJordy, Dale Hoganson and Noel Price from the Kings to the Montreal Canadiens for Rogie Vachon on November 4, 1971. In 240 NHL regular season games, he scored 44 goals and had 67 assists for a career total of 111 points with 36 penalty minutes. In 11 NHL playoff games, he recorded 4 goals and 3 assists, for a total of 7 points.
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4. Earl Ingarfield Sr. - Earl Thompson Ingarfield Sr. (born October 25, 1934) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played in the National Hockey League for thirteen seasons from 1958–59 until 1970–71. Ingarfield played 746 career NHL games, scoring 179 goals and 226 assists for 405 points. His best offensive season was the 1961–62 season when he set career highs with 26 goals, 31 assists, and 57 points while a member of the New York Rangers. In 1967 he played with the new expansion with the Pittsburgh Penguins and was their captain in 1968–69. Ingarfield was traded to the Oakland Seals in the late 1968–69 season and retired with them in 1971. He served as the second coach for the New York Islanders during their inaugural 1972–73 season. Behind the bench for thirty games, he did not return to the franchise for the 1973-74 campaign. Ingarfield's son Earl Ingarfield Jr. also played in the NHL.
1935 Murder in Hanham Woods
Mrs Bessie Gladys Nott in her slum shack dwelling made of timber with mud walls in Hanham Woods, South Gloucestershire, 1931 - the depression of the 1930's seemed endless little or no work, poor housing, poor food, poor health, drudgery and hopelessness.
Petty crime is rife in the area. Many young Kingswood men end their lives on the gallows. It becomes a Kingswood custom to exhibit the corpses of the executed at the roadside to collect money for funeral expenses from passers-by.
Kingswood a 'centre of organised villainy'. Almost half the petty crime in the entire county of Gloucester committed by people who lived in or around the parish of Bitton. A judge remarks testily that he believes he has already hanged everybody from the place. Kingswood Association set up at the Flower Pot inn,Kingswood Hill to suppress the crime wave.
These erect squatters cottages all over Kingswood. Adding to Kingswood's reputation as a lawless area.
In 1935, a murder was committed amongst the poor of Hanham Woods, revealing living conditions that were reminiscent of squatters in the last century.
In the 1930’s, there were various families living in the woods. There were two brothers by the name of Franklin whose origins were unknown. Living on the opposite side of the track was the Nott family a husband, wife and one son. And at one period, Mrs Nott moved to the Franklin brothers’ home.
No one knows why. It was a closed shop — no one interfered down there. Eventually Mrs Nott moved back with her husband. There ensued a row, and one day Frank Nott came across to see Franklin, who came out of his shack with a gun and fired at Nott, and knocked his eye out. Franklin went back into the hut and killed Mrs Nott. He was arrested and taken to Horfield Prison.
Murder of Bessie Gladys Nott on a May Morning 1935
Later the primary witness reflected that it had been ' a perfect May morning. The early sun had filtered through the trees, spotlighting the dwellings that had been erected there on the slopes of Hencliffe Wood. The papers were to write about the place as if it were a shanty town. The Evening Post stated 'The scene of the drama is a curious backwoods collection of scattered cabins - they can hardly be called houses - in which live a numerous population, most of them eking out a hard existence on the land as smallholders and farm labourers'. The Notts' place was referred to as 'a tiny one-roomed cottage' and the Franklins' home as 'a similar cottage'. The truth was rather different.
The children who grew up there loved the woods and living arrangements were not as basic as the press would lead us to suppose. This was no squalid collection of primitive makeshift shacks but homes of which the residents were proud as witness the names they called these homes - The Nook, Woodbine Cottage, Rose Cottage. The children were clean and tidy and attended the local church school at Hanham. The residents were not 'eking out a living' but were pig farmers, kept large coops of fowls and, in the summer months, Mr and Mrs Dyer had a little shop by the river where they sold cigarettes, sweets, lemonade and cockles to passers-by either strolling along the river path or enjoying an afternoon boating.
Prior to the Enclosure Act of 1827 all of this was common land and many squatters lived here. This was before the Avon was made navigable upstream to Bath with the opening of Hanham Lock in 1727 at a time when Bickley Wood began to be quarried for stone. The Netham Dam was completed in 1805 and the Feeder Canal was opened which meant the river could be used for transportation both up and downstream and it was at this time that extensive quarrying began in both Hencliffe and Conham woods. After the Bitton Enclosure Act came into force the land was parcelled up into various portions and sold to anyone who could prove a right of use. Initially the main landowner was Samuel Whittuck of Hanham Hall although John Couch claimed some of the land.
After their death the bulk of Hencliffe Wood became the property of the wealthy Richard Haynes whose family seat was Wick Court. On his death in 1919 all his property, in Bristol and London, was placed in the hands of the Chancery Court and a Bristol firm of solicitors were given the task of disposing of the Bristol estates and Victor Osmond was appointed as the Vendor's Agent. It was then that Hencliffe Wood was sold off at a very low figure with deeds carelessly worded and boundaries indistinctly defined and, with the passing years many families did not bother to uphold their claims. In the 1970s Kingswood Council, as it was then known, acquired much of the land.
There were quite a few families living there by 1935. The Littles, the Salters, the Byes, the Robins and the Osmonds were all near neighbours of the Dyers. Mr Elmore had cultivated a piece of land down by the water's edge where he lived in solitude. The Francoms had begun by raising their family of twelve in a little cottage at the top by the Ploughing Field but moved to a larger place at the top of the wood and Harry Nott moved into the vacant property. When he had first married Gladys Slocombe they had lived up on the Batch but this place had better prospects.
Harry was a quiet man who took a pride in his home, fitting a boiler and oil lamps and building a neat little brick path to the front door. In the fullness of time he replaced the wooden gate with a smart metal one. The path and the gateposts still remain.
Gladys was an Easton girl, from Bean Street, rather pretty with dark hair. She married Harry in her teens and, when this story takes place, they had an 8-year-old son called Dennis.
On that perfect May morning in 1935 it was Mrs Robins who ran down the hillside to where Priscilla (also known as Dolly) Dyer lived. She seized upon Dolly urging her to go and see what was going on up at the Notts'. Dolly had heard shots ring out and raised voices moments before. She was reluctant to go for, as she explained, she had her young baby, Olive, to look after but was persuaded when Mrs Robins said she would stay with the little girl. Dolly's sister, who was staying with them at the time, reassured her and so, somewhat reluctantly, she walked up the path.
Mrs Robins found Arthur Franklin holding the gun. She spoke to him politely, wishing him a good morning, no doubt wondering how best to deal with the situation. 'I want to get that black beast,' he snarled. He was referring to Harry Nott. At that moment Mrs Dyer was unaware that the body of Gladys Nott was lying in some bushes nearby but in view of Franklin's state of mind she called out to a boy to fetch the police. More people were arriving on the scene by this time and Gladys's body was discovered. Meanwhile, Harry Nott was crawling across a neighbouring field to a small hut where a telephone had been installed. Ernest Gregory, from Forest Road, Kingswood, delivering coal to a nearby house, probably the Rawlings' place, saw him and went to his aid. Harry was bleeding profusely from his head and shoulder.
Franklin was sitting quietly in the clearing when Police Sergeant Auger from Hanham police station made the arrest. In the meantime the gun had disappeared. It was not found for 3 hours.
At the time the incident took place Dennis was at school. He attended Hanham Church of England School and that day all the pupils were very excited as they were celebrating the Silver Jubilee of King George VI and Queen Mary and they were all presented with a souvenir beaker. That was to be the only bright spot in the day for Dennis who was hurried round to the Robins' where he spent the night, unaware of the tragedy that had unfolded at his home after he left to walk to school.
The reporters were soon on the scene although the Evening World representative complained: 'The (Notts') bungalow is a considerable distance from the main road and is only discovered after some distance of walking along country lanes, clearing two stiles and then proceeding over a field.' Having located the elusive residence he noted that 'the small wooden structure commands a fine view across the woods and the river Avon'.
At 11.25 Inspector Symons arrived on the scene where, and he was later to say in court: 'I saw the body of a woman lying face downwards. I examined the body and found the head had been completely shattered. I formed the opinion that the wound had been received as a result of a gunshot fired at close range.' He then went to the hut where Police Sergeant Auger had Arthur Franklin under arrest. He said 'I have just seen the body of a woman and shall detain you with feloniously killing and slaying her by shooting her and there may be a further charge of killing a man but you will be informed of full particulars as early as possible'. At this stage the inspector took Gladys to be Franklin's wife.
It was noted that a small wooden shed near the spot where Mrs Nott's body lay had holes in the door and it was ascertained that this was where Harry Nott received his wounds. Another loaded shotgun was found in this shed. Meanwhile the St John's Ambulance crew was summoned and the injured man was taken to Cossham hospital in a critical condition. A police constable remained by his bedside all night.
The whole sorry saga had begun some 18 months earlier when Bessie Gladys Nott had begun a relationship with 40-year-old Arthur Franklin who lived 100 yards away with his brother, Frank, in a two-roomed stone cottage. They were Irish and described as being Very respectable men'. Arthur was a short, fair, fresh complexioned man. Gladys moved in with the two brothers and her 8-year-old son, Dennis, used to come to the cottage at the weekends to have a bath and have his clothes washed. This arrangement continued until 7 May 1935 when 26-year-old Gladys returned to live with her husband. Two days later she was dead.
It is interesting to speculate on the character of Gladys Nott It is said she was a quiet woman and neighbours remembered the time before her defection when in the evenings Harry would read the newspaper to her. She must have been very young when she met Harry as she was only 26 when she met her death. Harry was 4 years older. And, indeed, where did they meet? It is known that her maiden name was Slocombe and her father was a dock labourer. At the inquest her mother admitted she had not been in touch with her daughter for 3 years.
Harry's family came from Brislington and he had one sister living at home. Regardless of subsequent events no-one seemed in any way judgemental but believed that her head had been turned by Arthur Franklin lavishing gifts upon her. He certainly paid for her to have her hair permed and possibly hennaed as well as the Evening World describes her as auburn-haired while neighbours recalled her as having dark hair.
It seems Harry always hoped she would return, possibly tor Dennis's sake for, as a Mrs Coles, who lived in Abbot's View, Common Road is quoted as saying, 'Dennis was very much attached to both his parents although they lived apart'. Mr and Mrs Robins took Dennis in. They were very fond of him as he was friendly with the younger children in the family. The Robins had five children ranging in age from 7 to 18. Mr Robins is quoted as saying 'As long as I have a crust of bread Dennis can have half of it'. He reported that 'Dennis had gone to school this morning. He knows now his mother is dead. Schoolchildren told him about it. I am going to the school today to ask the teachers to see the children do not twit Dennis about the tragedy'.
Meanwhile, Harry Nott lay in Cossham hospital. Surgeons battled to save his left eye but to no avail. However, he managed to rally sufficiently to reassure his son and say 'Hello, Dennis. I am coming home soon'.
Arthur Franklin's initial court appearance at Staple Hill was brief. It was noted that Mr Harris, the clerk of the court, intimated to Franklin that he was eligible for legal aid but the prisoner gave a refusal. He was told he would be given another opportunity later but Franklin said 'You need not go to any trouble. I do not want legal aid,' before being remanded in custody.
His trial itself took place at Gloucester Assizes a few weeks later and was described by the press as 'one of the shortest murder trials in the history of the English Criminal Courts'. The presiding judge was Mr Justice Macnoughton.
Arthur Henry Franklin, referred to as 'a smallholder of Hanham Wood' was addressed by the judge: 'Before you make your plea to the charge against you I have to tell you that you are entitled by law to legal aid. I understand that you have refused legal aid up to now, but I want to tell you before you plead that you can have such aid. Do you desire to have it?' Franklin replied 'I do not wish for legal aid, my lord'. The charge was then read to Franklin who replied in a firm voice 'Guilty, Guilty'.
The judge then placed the traditional black cap upon his head and pronounced: 'You have pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. For that crime there is only one sentence the court can pass upon you and that is death.'
Franklin had shown not the slightest trace of emotion throughout his arrest, initial court appearances and subsequent trial and even now, as the warders led him from the dock he was quite unmoved.
The circumstances leading up to the awful events of 8 May were disclosed to the court as was Franklin's statement regarding his attack on Harry Nott. He had said he intended playing with Mr Nott like a cat with a mouse but he had no more cartridges and was unable to fire the gun. Witnesses at the scene said Franklin had announced he had shot Mrs Nott because she returned to her husband.
In the Western Daily Press on 26 June 1935 the public were informed that, whilst in the condemned cell at Gloucester Prison, Franklin had maintained a 'stoical demeanor'. His sole visitor was his brother, Frank, who came to see him on 24 June. The brothers were Roman Catholics and Arthur Franklin received the administrations of the Church from Father Matthew Roche of St Peter's church, Gloucester.
On the 26th, the day of the execution, special precautions were taken by the police to prevent the crowd getting near the prison gates. The hanging was fixed for 8.00am and at 7.25 Father Roche was admitted to the prison. Just before 8.00 am Mr Sidney Allen, the County Sheriff and the Under-sheriff, Mr Herbert H Scott arrived together with Mr Edward Graham the prison doctor.
Shortly after 8 o'clock the formal notices of execution were posted outside the gaol by a warder and the crowd surged forward to read the words. The executioner was Thomas W Pierrepoint, assisted by Robert Wilson. The jurors were compelled to view the body and one, Mr Robert Williams of Quedgley, objected. The prison governor assured Mr Williams that there was nothing to upset him. The coroner insisted it was one of those things that had to be done in important cases as this one was and so Mr Williams had to go with the rest of the jury to do his civil duty. A verdict was recorded that Franklin died in the due execution of the law and his death was instantaneous. The jury donated their fees to the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society.
So life in the little community began to settle back to some sort of normality. A few months after the events Frank Franklin went to the police and requested the return of his brother's shotgun. As he had in no way been involved in the incident and was of good character, it was judged, the police handed the weapon over. The part of the woods where the brothers had lived was in one of the long-abandoned stone quarries. Their small, dry-stone cottage stood near to the old working which, over the years, had filled with water to some considerable depth. About 3 feet out into the pool there is a large protruding rock which rises out of the water by a few feet. It was upon this rock that Frank Franklin shot himself using the same gun used in the earlier shootings.
Report from The Daily Mirror Aug 12 1937: After two years of brooding over his brother's execution for the murder of a woman is believed responsible for the death of a Hanham (Bristol) man—Frank Joseph Franklin, whose body has been recovered from a pond in a quarry near his home. Death was due, not to drowning, but to a gunshot Wound in the head. The gun has not yet been recovered, though police spent most of yesterday dragging the pond. A powerful magnet was used in the hope that it would connect with the barrel of the gun, Foul play is not suspected, the police theory being that Franklin was standing on the edge of the pond when the gun was fired, and that he and the gun fell into the water. The barking of Franklins dog attracted a neighbouring smallholder, who after a vain search, informed the police.
The quarry pool in which Franklin's body was found is near the hut in Hanham Woods where his brother Henry, in May. 1935, shot and killed Mrs. Bessie Gladys Nott and a few moments later shot and wounded her husband. Henry was hanged June 25 at Gloucester Prison for the murder of Mrs. Nott after a trial which lasted only six minutes. Since the murder Henry Franklin's hut, in Hanham Woods, had been occupied by his brother Frank, who lived the life of a recluse.
And what of the other survivors, Harry and Dennis? Dennis grew up into a strong, handsome young man. He was called up for National Service in 1945 and served 3 years in the army. After being demobbed he started work with some agricultural contractors, Dennis and Philip Crew Bros, Hencliffe Wood, Hanham Abbots. They assisted with the work on local farms. He began courting a pretty local girl called Betty and they were busy making the final arrangements for their wedding in the late summer of 1948. He was working with the Crew brothers one day, haymaking at a farm, thought to be at the top end of Wick, near to Tog Hill.
It was late in the day and work was almost done. Dennis volunteered to take the last bale of hay up the ladder. Whether or not his foot slipped or he simply overbalanced is not known but he fell from the top of the ladder and broke his neck. He was 21 years old.
Harry Nott continued to live in his shack in Hencliffe Wood until the late 1960s when Kingswood Council bought his land and rehoused him at Cadbuy Heath. He later remarried but outlived his second wife. He died at Cadbury Heath in November 1989, aged
Officers investigating the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford have executed a series of warrants in Little Hulton and Eccles.
In the early hours of this morning, Friday 16 October 2015, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Salford Division searched nine properties throughout the division in the hunt for firearms linked to the recent shootings in the area.
The warrants were executed as part of a Project Gulf operation designed to tackle organised crime. Gulf is part of Programme Challenger, the Greater Manchester approach to tackling organised criminality across the region.
Seven men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, ranging from possession with intent to supply to handling stolen goods.
A significant amount of Class A and Class B drugs were seized as part of the operation, though no firearms were found.
Detective Inspector Alan Clitherow said: “This series of warrants are just one element of the continuing and relentless operation being orchestrated to tackle organised crime gangs in Salford.
“They came about as a result of the on-going investigation into the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford, including the horrific attack of young Christian Hickey and his mother Jayne.
“We wanted to show our communities that we are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for those responsible for the abhorrent attack on an innocent child and his mother, and that we will not stand for the spate of shootings taking place on our streets in recent weeks.
“But there is still more to do and, as with any fight against organised crime groups embedded in our city, we need residents to come to us with information so we can put a stop to this criminality.
“There has been much said about people breaking this wall of silence in Salford, and once again I urge people to search their consciences and please come forward.
“You could provide the information that may help prevent any further innocent lives being touched by this senseless violence, and prevent further children being injured by thugs that many people within Salford seem so intent on protecting.
“I want to stress that if you come forward with what you know, we can offer you complete anonymity and I assure you that you will have our full support. Or if you don’t feel you can talk to police but you have information, you can speak to Crimestoppers anonymously.”
A dedicated information hotline has been set up on 0161 856 9775, or people can also pass information on by calling 101, or the independent charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.