The Rainforest Coast of British Columbia encompasses the largest remaining intact temperate rainforest in the world. While it is often the beauty of BC’s coastal rainforests which enthrall visitors from throughout the world, it is the productiveness of these forests that intrigue scientists. BC's coastal rainforests feature the highest biomass (the total amount or mass of organisms in a given area) per hectare of any ecosystem on earth. Trees here can often live more than 1,000 years, reaching hundreds of feet into the air, with diameters exceeding 9.4m.

The temperate rainforest is very rare, originally covering less than 0.2% of the earth's land surface. Now, over one half of that limited original temperate rainforest has been logged and altered; of that which remains worldwide, over one quarter is found on BC’s coast.

(From Wild Spaces.

I’ve been experimenting with my new Insta360 ONE camera. Verdict so far: image quality decent for a point-and-shoot, lacks a bracketing function, and the Bluetooth link with my iPad is very short-range (so much so that getting out of the picture can be problematical.) On the plus side, it only takes a minute or two to take a 360° panorama rather than 5-8 minutes with a nodal head.

This High Dynamic Range 360° panorama was tone-mapped from three bracketed 360° photographs with Photomatix, straightened with PTGUI Pro, processed in Color Efex, and touched up in Affinity Photo and Aperture.

Original size: 7000 × 3500 (24.5 MP; 153.94 MB).

Location: Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

The Rainforest Coast of British Columbia encompasses the largest remaining intact temperate rainforest in the world. While it is often the beauty of BC’s coastal rainforests which enthrall visitors from throughout the world, it is the productiveness of these forests that intrigue scientists. BC's coastal rainforests feature the highest biomass (the total amount or mass of organisms in a given area) per hectare of any ecosystem on earth. Trees here can often live more than 1,000 years, reaching hundreds of feet into the air, with diameters exceeding 9.4m.

The temperate rainforest is very rare, originally covering less than 0.2% of the earth's land surface. Now, over one half of that limited original temperate rainforest has been logged and altered; of that which remains worldwide, over one quarter is found on BC’s coast.

(From Wild Spaces.

I’ve been experimenting with my new Insta360 ONE camera. Verdict so far: image quality decent for a point-and-shoot, lacks a bracketing function, and the Bluetooth link with my iPad is very short-range (so much so that getting out of the picture can be problematical.) On the plus side, it only takes a minute or two to take a 360° panorama rather than 5-8 minutes with a nodal head.

This High Dynamic Range 360° panorama was tone-mapped from three bracketed 360° photographs with Photomatix, straightened with PTGUI Pro, processed in Color Efex, and touched up in Affinity Photo and Aperture.

Original size: 7000 × 3500 (24.5 MP; 151.14 MB).

Location: Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 44.273+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on Tuesday 13th December 2022

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1441367234 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**

This photograph became my 5,755th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

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LEGEND OF THE SPIRIT BEAR

In both Gitga’at and Kitasoo-Xai Xais First Nation folklore, the Spirit Bear is highly revered in a legend handed down from each successive generation:

‘Out of the iceage came the world, created by Raven and full of life and colour. After Raven had finished creating the green world he wanted something that would remind him of past days when things were all white, during the ice age. Raven spoke to black bear and promised him he would roam forever safe and live forever peacefully if he allowed one in every ten of his population be white.

The Kermode bear (ursus americanus kermodei) is also known as the spirit bear, a sacred and rare subspecies of the American black bear found in Central and North coast regions of British Columbia. The majority of Kermosde bears are black, with a small percentage of perhaps 100-500 being fully white in colour. These are not albinos, as they retain pigmented skin and eyes, instead a single non synonymous nucleotide substitutuin in the MC1R gene causes melanin to be produced. The gene is recessive, thus Kermode bears with two copies of it appear white.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Three hundred and seventy six metres, at 12:55pm on Monday 12th September 2019 off the Trans Canada highway 97 between Kamloops and Monte Creek on the North bank of the Thompson River in British Columbia, Canada.

Nikon D850. Focal length 135mm Shutter speed 1/250s Aperture f/16.0 iso500 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Hand held with Nikon Image stabilization VR enabled on Normal mode. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

Nikkor AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E. Hoya UHC 67mm UV(C) filter.Cokin GND4 resin filter . Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.

LATITUDE: N 50d 39m 4.80s

LONGITUDE: W 120d 5m 3.20s

ALTITUDE: 376.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.7MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 34.60MB

PROCESSING POWER:

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.3.1 11/07/2019). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

Joes 9th Birthday - we took him with his sister and three mates to see 2012 at Cineworld in Canary Wharf - it was better than Mark Kermodes review suggests - www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqVCjRojuP8&feature=channel but Kermodes reviews are always entertaining if you agree or not. Then we went to Wagammas for dinner - www.wagamama.com/ . I had the Yaki Soba .This photo taken in Cabot Square on the way from the cinema to the Restaurant.

Kermode "Spirit" Bear, Hartley Bay, BC

Scattered throughout Victoria, Vancouver Island and Vancouver, British Columbia, these artistic "Spirit Bears" scuptures were to be auctioned off in

September 2006 to benefit the British Columbia Lions Society for Children with Disabilities Easter Seals and Bear Mountain Fund.

The legend of the "Kermode" Spirit Bear -

Found only in British Columbia's northern forests, the rare "Spirit Bear" or "Kermode Bear" is widely recognized for its unique white coloring.

The beautiful and rare "Spirit Bear".

A round up of some visits from nearly a decade ago when I just posted general shots, to my surprise I took shots of details too, and didn't post them at the time.

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Monday 10th September 2012

I can now reveal that being on Holiday is officially better than being at work. It is a Monday morning, and we have bottled another batch of beer, and i have mopped the floor as we did manage to mess it up, slightly. The house now smells like a brewery, which would not be a bad thing only it was just eight in the morning, and it is a tad early for beer, even for me. In an exciting move, we are heading to Tesco in a while to get ingredients for out Christmas cakes.

Yes, cakes. One is never enough. A couple of years ago, we tried one in November and had to bake another one to replace it. We don't marzipan or ice them, and just leave them with their cakey goodness and Christmas spiciness.

Friday seemed to go on forever until it got to five to four and it was time to head home. The technicians had come ashore early and gone home, so I had the office to myself, therefore my hearty laughing at the Kermode and Mayo film review went unheard except by me.

So, off to Tesco for a week's shopping, and ended up getting enough stuff to last the weekend. And once that was done and paid for, loaded up the car and back home and now the holiday could really begin.

And Friday night was spent watching football. Yes, now the Olympics and Paralympics are coming to an end, it means we must return, ashamed like a unfaithful lover to the old dependable. And England began their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away game against Moldova. I did have to ask Jools to Google Moldova to find where it was, as I really didn't have a clue.

Anyway, it is behind the fridge just to the lest of Romania, apparently.

And England strung together at least 5 passes, played well, and scored 5 goals; and yet managed to look unconvincing switching off several times, just before half time and in the second half and could have easily conceded goals. Just to remind you, by some quirk, England are currently ranked the third best team IN THE WORLD, which I suppose goes to show just how much you should trust information coming out of FIFA towers.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to Mongeham for some foraging action, so we can make jam and jellies. We knew of a footpath behind a garage that is just lined with plum and greengage trees. We picked a couple of pounds and then headed on up the A20 and M20 to head to The Weald for a tour of 'interesting' churches.

Each year English Heritage organises a long weekend where many buildings are open for people like us to visit and photograph. Last spring we visited St Lawrence at Mereworth; and while is it a wonderfully beautiful church, the doors were locked and we wanted to see inside.

First of all we headed inside the M25 to a tiny, but beautiful village on the edge of the Weald where stockbrokers and hedge fund managers have their homes with fine views onto the Garden of england. All along the main road huge gates with security cameras guarded the mock-Tudor mansions hidden behind mature trees.

We turned off down a narrow lane and headed towards to small village of Trottiscliffe; which is not pronounced the way it is spelt so to make the unwary visitor appear stupid. It is pronounced 'Trozli', if Wiki is to be believed.

At the end of a long dead end road leading to a row of cottages and an old stable block is the church. I don't think i have ever seen a church in a more perfect location, it is one of those places that you have to be going as you'll never just pass it.

There was a churchwarden waiting at the door and happy to answer questions and tell us the history of the church. Dominating the tiny church is, what I now know to be from Westminister Abbey is the biggest pulpit I have seen outside a er, cathedral.

We take our leave and head to Mereworth.

We were the only visitors at the church, we parked the car on the verge outside, took in the glorious design of the church before going in. First thing you do see is a pair of spiral staircases; one to the gallery and the other to the bell tower. And straight ahead is a simple wooden door leading to the main body of the church.

I won't try to describe the church, please use the link on the pictures to go to my Flickrstream. The design is glorious, and looking pristine as it has just been restored to its former glory. Or original glory.

Once again there was a churchwarden to greet us, offer us refreshments and answer any questions.

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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth

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MEREWORTH.

EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.

THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.

Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.

Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.

In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.

Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)

¶The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.

THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.

In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.

This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.

¶In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.

Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)

William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.

MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.

The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.

In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)

The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.

In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.

Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.

It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.

¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.

The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp70-90

One Tree Hill and Uleybury.

The district of Uley bury was named by Moses Garlick, an English settler who arrived in SA in 1837. He named the area after a place in the Cotswold Hills where he came from in Gloucestershire. Garlick was a devout Baptist and in 1851 he built the Uley Baptist Chapel at a personal cost of £400. Following frequent vandal attacks the church was demolished in 1981. The City of Munno Para erected a plaque here with some confused wording. The plaque inaccurately says Uleybury Baptist was the first Baptist church in SA. One need only read the headstone of Moses Garlick’s grave to realise the falsity of this. Garlick was involved in the founding of the first Baptist congregation in Kermode Street North Adelaide in 1838. The plaque says the Uley Chapel was established in 1864 when elsewhere it is dated as starting in 1851. The first Baptist churches (as opposed to a congregation meeting) built in SA were the Tynte Street Baptist Church and the Finders Street Baptist church erected in 1843. Uleybury opened in 1851. Most Baptists churches were independent congregations but the Baptist Union was formed in 1864 so perhaps Uleybury was the first church of the Baptist Union? Not all Baptist congregations ever joined the Baptist Union. Moses Garlick died in 1859 and has an outstanding sandstone headstone in the cemetery. Other common names in this pioneer cemetery are: Barritt, Bowman, Ifould and McKenzie. Stone from the church was used to build the current stone wall along the road frontage of the cemetery.

A few years after the founding of the Uley Chapel Moses Garlick got to work to have a school built in Uleybury. Reverend John Buttfield donated the land and the solidly constructed Uleybury School opened in 1856.It cost £400 to erect. It began as a Methodist church school until 1874 when it was taken over by the government just ahead of the passing of the Free, Secular and Compulsory Education Act of 1875. In the 1940s its name was changed to One Tree Hill School. It was closed in 1971 when a new One Tree Hill School was opened in a different location. Reverend Buttfield arrived in SA in 1848 and began work as a Baptist clergyman at Gumeracha becoming the first paid Baptist minister in the colony. Buttfield had a brother who had a store at nearby Smithfield and his other brother, Francis Buttfield, was the post master at One Tree Hill in the 1850s. Whilst at Uleybury Rev. John Buttfield became a land owner himself and ended up being a wealthy man. Reverend Buttfield was the first headmaster of the school, as well as the local clergyman, and in the government inspector’s report of the early 1850s it was written that: “Owing to the care he displays, and the consequent progress of his pupils, Mr Buttfield is deservedly esteemed as a teacher in the neighbourhood". Buttfield travelled widely across the Adelaide Plains and Gawler Hills to perform Baptist marriages. His wife died in 1862, aged 36 years, after bearing him eleven children. Since the early 1980s Uleybury School has operated as a school museum.

One Tree Hill was first settled in the 1840s and a township began around 1851 with the building of a hotel the One Tree Hill Inn. The town’s first Council meetings were held here from 1853. The town name came from a single massive gum tree which unfortunately burnt down in 1890. The first Methodist Church was built in One Tree Hill in 1867 after William Gartrell sold some land to the church. A modern church porch was added in the 1980s. Another school named the Precolumb School was also built in One Tree Hill in 1855. It operated until 1938.

James Adamson established a water driven flour mill at One Tree Hill in 1853 as the district was a major wheat growing area. Eventually the flour (or wheat) was carted down the hill to Smithfield or Salisbury railway station. Felled timber was also carted down to the railway stations. The ruins of this mill and water wheel are on the register of the National Estate but they are not visible from public roads. The mill operated until 1870 but Adamson soon sold out to the Kelly family, one of the pioneering families of One Tree Hill. William Kelly was a district founder and became a wealthy farmer. He was a local councillor and built a fine two story Georgian sandstone house on his property called Yelki. His son Edward Kelly, who had been educated at Prince Alfred College, inherited the property in 1891 and created a family business which operated as Yelki Pty Ltd from 1897. His father had established several thousand acres at Yelki in 1857. Edward employed architects to build a second main house on the property in 1909 and it included a septic toilet! It is located on the road to Elizabeth. The Kelly family sold Yelki in 1984.

British Columbia’s Gitga’at First Nation believe that the raven, creator of the rainforest, turned every 10th black bear white as a reminder of the last ice age. Geneticists understand that the white coat is the result of a double recessive gene in black bears. No one knows why the spirit bear (known locally as Moksgm’ol) only exists in a small part of Canada’s Great Bear Rain Forest. It’s just one of nature’s miracles.

Estimates of how many spirit bears exist vary. Some scientists believe there may be as many as 400. Some believe there may be as few as 200. This makes them more rare than a giant panda – and harder to find. My journey to find a spirit bear involved two plane flights, a ferry ride, a float plane ride, two zodiac trips, multiple nights on a boat, and a long hike through a rain forest. I’d willingly travel twice as far to get another glimpse of these majestic animals. Photographing this bear was, by far, the most profound thing I’ve done with my camera.

Photo Credit: J. Cyril Kermode

The Rob Roy Hotel consists of two separate buildings - one of whitewashed brick which dates from before 1853 and the other which was built in 1881 to the design of English and Soward, constructed from local sandstone, with a balcony and cast iron balustrade. The architectural drawing is of this building.

The Rob Roy was first licensed in 1840 and has been trading continuously to the present day which makes it significant as one of Adelaide's oldest trading pubs. It is also quite unusual for the older whitewashed brick building to have survived, particularly given the 1881 redevelopment when it was customary to totally redevelop a site. Only a handful of buildings from the first two decades of the colony exist. Comparable examples of early Adelaide pubs include the Queen's Head in Kermode Street, Prince Albert Hotel in Wright Street and the former Beresford Arms in Gilles Street.

From the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage website (www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDe...):

History:

The railway from Wentworth Falls to Mount Victoria was opened in 1868, passing through what was to become Katoomba. The Great Western Railway was intended to initially reach Bathurst but, beyond that town, its terminus was not stated.

The station opened in 1874 as 'The Crushers'. A sandstone quarry suitable for producing ballast for the construction and maintenance of the line was developed just to the north of the line, and from 1874 The Crushers was a stopping-place for trains with quarrymen, equipment and wagons for transporting ballast. A platform was provided in 1877 close to the level-crossing keeper's cottage (demolished in 1902).

In 1881 a new timber platform and station were built, to the west of the level-crossing. The goods yard between the stations and Bathurst Road (then the Great Western Highway) was developed in 1883-4. This expansion was necessary because of Katoomba's growth in the 1880s and 1890s as a tourist and local commercial centre. The goods yard contains a valuable collection of traditional railway structures, including the 5 ton jib crane (no. T171), the goods shed 54’ x 12’ dating in part from 1881 and an unusual curved timber loading platform. There is also an office for the yard gatekeeper and for a signalman, all dating from the early 1900s.

In 1891, the 1881 station building was moved to the improved goods yard to the south. The Katoomba Times reported on 10 October 1891 that 'the old Katoomba station building is to be the goods shed, and was put into position last Wednesday (7 October 1891)', with the 1884 crane adjacent to the east. Around 1921 the goods yard was altered, the siding was realigned and the goods shed (the former station of 1881) was moved 18 metres to the east, where it still resides. The 1884 five-tonne crane was moved along with the shed to its present position.

The present island platform and building at Katoomba date from 1891 and was constructed for £6,922 (including the subway) by Quiggan and Kermode, builders. They are unusual for two reasons. Firstly, the timber building is curved and, secondly, the building design was only used in the Sydney metropolitan rail system. It is the only such building constructed outside the Central to Parramatta line. It is one of 4 such structures remaining extant from a number of stations containing Type 10 buildings including Newtown, MacDonaldtown, Ashfield, Lewisham (all demolished - possibly other examples) and Summer Hill, Homebush and Croydon (extant). Extensions to the building in the same style were carried out in 1913 for £216. Its dominant feature is the extension of the roof bearers to form awnings on both sides and the position of small ornate brackets under the awning beams, marking a transition from the use of posted verandas to cantilevered awnings. The platform was reached by the use of a pedestrian subway constructed in 1891, which were rare outside Sydney.

The other main platform building is the elevated, timber signal box, which was commissioned in 1903. The signal box contains a cam and tappet 40 lever interlocking machine that was installed in 1945. It is typical of the construction time and is similar to boxes at Mount Victoria, Newnes Junction, Lithgow Yard and Exeter.

The line was duplicated in 1902. A two-room timber building was built on the western end of the platform in 1909 for an inspector and an electrician and this building was extended in 1945 for use as a staff meal room. An 'out-of' shed completed the platform structures.

At the entrance to the Station are the ‘Progress Buildings’ which are shown on a plan as part of a new ‘Booking and Parcels Office Building’ dated 20/12/1938. The buildings are a single storey group of three shops facing south to Bathurst Road with an additional shopfront facing east to the exit from the railway station subway. The eastern most shop, 283-285 Bathurst Road, retains its original brass shopfront, albeit with some modification, and tiled piers between, the shop entries are recessed from the street with splayed shopfront reveals. The tiled and marble threshold records the name "MARX" an early Katoomba businessman who used the premises. The Progress Buildings are still owned by RailCorp and leased for private business.

The railway residence at 8 Abbotsford Rd was sold in 1964.

Why significant?

Katoomba Railway Station and Yard is of state significance as a unique railway site in NSW developed around a former ballast quarry and is significant for demonstrating Katoomba’s growth in the 1880s and 1890s as the first tourist and local commercial centre in the Blue Mountains, before the duplication of the Western line in 1902.

The 1891 station building is significant as one of few surviving timber railway station buildings known as ' Standard Eddy', designed under Commissioner Eddy, and demonstrating the introduction of island platform buildings in NSW. Katoomba station building is the only known example of this station type outside the inner city area and is unique to the other examples for its curved form along the platform. The adjacent signal box with its garden beds and planting is also an important and integral element within the station group and is a rare example of a timber on-platform signal box.

The site of the goods yard is of particular significance as it was part of the original Katoomba station precinct dating from 1878, which was used for locomotive turning and minor servicing and stabling of trains. While fulfilling a minor railway use at present for per way maintenance, it contains two relatively rare items, which are the former 1881 timber station building as its goods shed and the 1891 crane.

The station group comprises a homogenous collection of timber structures adding significance to the townscape and streetscape with direct relationships to both. Situated at the focal point of Katoomba, the station is connected visually and physically to the town's commercial heart by the pedestrian subway and landscaped surrounds. The adjacent Progress Buildings from part of the station group and contribute to the early 20th Century character of the commercial precinct of Katoomba with their largely intact shopfronts.

Facade of Cameo Cinema 2008

The Cameo is an Edinburgh cinema which started life as the King's Cinema on 8 January 1914 and is one of the oldest cinemas in Scotland still in use. Since becoming the Cameo in 1949, it has had a tradition of showing art house films. From 1949 onward it has been an important venue for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It is at Tollcross, and since 1992 has been a three-screen cinema. The Cameo was an independent cinema until 2012, when it was bought by the Picturehouse chain, owned by Cineworld.

History

Behind a modern shopfront, much of the cinema's original architectural character remains. The entrance lobby has a terrazzo floor and one of the original pair of ticket kiosks. An inner foyer leads to the main cinema built within the 'back green' or 'back court' (courtyard) of a tenement block. Cinemas were once built like this elsewhere in Scotland, the biggest being the Rosevale in Partick, but the Cameo is the only one still operating.

The original screen was mirrored, the first mirrored screen in Scotland, and there were 673 seats in an auditorium showing silent films with orchestral accompaniment, supplied at one time by Madam Egger's Ladies' Costume Orchestra. In 1930 the cinema was fitted for sound and could start showing talkies. The space has been left largely unchanged structurally, but the audience now have better sightlines and more comfort with fewer than half the original number of seats. There is an abundance of ornamental plasterwork: columns, cornices, decorative mouldings on walls and ceilings.

The cinema, and the full tenement it is part of, was awarded Category B listed status by Historic Scotland in 2006.

Jim Poole

In 1949 the cinema was renamed the Cameo by the new owner, Jim Poole (1911–1998), a member of the Poole family who were known for their touring Myriorama shows and who ran cinemas in Scotland and England. He had been in charge of two of the family's cinemas in Aberdeen before the Second World War, and after a posting as army entertainments officer in the Middle East, wanted to open a venue in Edinburgh where he could show foreign films.

The Cameo included art house and 'continental' films in its repertoire and started its association with the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1949, when it presented a 'Continental Film Festival', including a screen version of Sartre's Les jeux sont faits, alongside the documentaries being shown by the Edinburgh Film Guild. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) and Annie Hall (1977) were among Poole's successes in attracting good audiences for films not being shown by the big chains.

Poole had begun by rescuing a decaying building with a leaky roof. Later he was able to take over an adjacent shop which, in December 1963, became the first licensed (to sell alcoholic drinks) cinema bar in the city, despite neighbours' objections. When Poole retired in 1982 the Cameo stayed shut until 1986.

After 1986

Once the Edinburgh Filmhouse had opened in 1979 a few hundred yards away, the Cameo was no longer the only public cinema in Edinburgh showing alternative and foreign-language films. After a new owner took possession in 1986 more neighbouring shops were acquired to create space for second and third screens which opened in the early 1990s. A 2005 renovation plan proposing to change the original auditorium into a bar-restaurant was withdrawn after a well-supported 'Save the Cameo' campaign influenced council decision-making. In September 2006 Historic Scotland upgraded the conservation status of the cinema to a B listing, thus protecting the interior from future alteration. The Cinema Theatre Association had campaigned for this after the owners, Picturehouse, put the Cameo up for sale. They have now taken it off the market, drawn up new refurbishment plans, and invited contributions from sponsors.

The first film shown at the Cameo, in March 1949, was La symphonie pastorale, a rare surviving print of which was shown again at the cinema in March 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the building re-opening as the Cameo.

The Cinema was named as one of the 10 best Independent Cinemas in the Guardian in January 2010.

Famous visitors

Lillian Gish, Orson Welles, Melina Mercouri and Cary Grant all visited the cinema in one Festival season or another. Sean Connery, who was born nearby, opened the bar in 1963. More recently Quentin Tarantino was there when Pulp Fiction opened in 1994 and Irvine Welsh was at the Cameo for the World première of Trainspotting in February 1996.

Other famous visitors throughout the years include Danny Boyle, Richard E. Grant, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Carlyle, Michèle Morgan, Peter Mullan, Christine Lahti, Mark Kermode, Claire Denis, Rutger Hauer, Liam Gallagher, Patsy Kensit, Ewan McGregor, Tim Roth, Guy Ritchie, Ken Loach, Bruce Campbell, Billy Bragg, Park Chan-wook, Ray Winstone, Robyn Hitchcock, Neil Jordan, Roy Keane, Charlize Theron, Duncan Jones, Michael Redgrave, Jim Dale, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Cusack, Tommy Wiseau and Danny Dyer.

In popular culture

The cinema appears in Sylvain Chomet's film The Illusionist. While hiding from the young couple, the main character, Tatischeff, accidentally enters the cinema, where Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle is playing. This is an in-joke as Tatischeff is largely based on Tati, the film itself having been adapted from a script of his.[6] Other films with scenes filmed inside the Cameo include Helena Bonham Carter's Woman Talking Dirty and Richard Jobson's A Woman in Winter. [Wikipedia]

A round up of some visits from nearly a decade ago when I just posted general shots, to my surprise I took shots of details too, and didn't post them at the time.

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Monday 10th September 2012

I can now reveal that being on Holiday is officially better than being at work. It is a Monday morning, and we have bottled another batch of beer, and i have mopped the floor as we did manage to mess it up, slightly. The house now smells like a brewery, which would not be a bad thing only it was just eight in the morning, and it is a tad early for beer, even for me. In an exciting move, we are heading to Tesco in a while to get ingredients for out Christmas cakes.

Yes, cakes. One is never enough. A couple of years ago, we tried one in November and had to bake another one to replace it. We don't marzipan or ice them, and just leave them with their cakey goodness and Christmas spiciness.

Friday seemed to go on forever until it got to five to four and it was time to head home. The technicians had come ashore early and gone home, so I had the office to myself, therefore my hearty laughing at the Kermode and Mayo film review went unheard except by me.

So, off to Tesco for a week's shopping, and ended up getting enough stuff to last the weekend. And once that was done and paid for, loaded up the car and back home and now the holiday could really begin.

And Friday night was spent watching football. Yes, now the Olympics and Paralympics are coming to an end, it means we must return, ashamed like a unfaithful lover to the old dependable. And England began their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away game against Moldova. I did have to ask Jools to Google Moldova to find where it was, as I really didn't have a clue.

Anyway, it is behind the fridge just to the lest of Romania, apparently.

And England strung together at least 5 passes, played well, and scored 5 goals; and yet managed to look unconvincing switching off several times, just before half time and in the second half and could have easily conceded goals. Just to remind you, by some quirk, England are currently ranked the third best team IN THE WORLD, which I suppose goes to show just how much you should trust information coming out of FIFA towers.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to Mongeham for some foraging action, so we can make jam and jellies. We knew of a footpath behind a garage that is just lined with plum and greengage trees. We picked a couple of pounds and then headed on up the A20 and M20 to head to The Weald for a tour of 'interesting' churches.

Each year English Heritage organises a long weekend where many buildings are open for people like us to visit and photograph. Last spring we visited St Lawrence at Mereworth; and while is it a wonderfully beautiful church, the doors were locked and we wanted to see inside.

First of all we headed inside the M25 to a tiny, but beautiful village on the edge of the Weald where stockbrokers and hedge fund managers have their homes with fine views onto the Garden of england. All along the main road huge gates with security cameras guarded the mock-Tudor mansions hidden behind mature trees.

We turned off down a narrow lane and headed towards to small village of Trottiscliffe; which is not pronounced the way it is spelt so to make the unwary visitor appear stupid. It is pronounced 'Trozli', if Wiki is to be believed.

At the end of a long dead end road leading to a row of cottages and an old stable block is the church. I don't think i have ever seen a church in a more perfect location, it is one of those places that you have to be going as you'll never just pass it.

There was a churchwarden waiting at the door and happy to answer questions and tell us the history of the church. Dominating the tiny church is, what I now know to be from Westminister Abbey is the biggest pulpit I have seen outside a er, cathedral.

We take our leave and head to Mereworth.

We were the only visitors at the church, we parked the car on the verge outside, took in the glorious design of the church before going in. First thing you do see is a pair of spiral staircases; one to the gallery and the other to the bell tower. And straight ahead is a simple wooden door leading to the main body of the church.

I won't try to describe the church, please use the link on the pictures to go to my Flickrstream. The design is glorious, and looking pristine as it has just been restored to its former glory. Or original glory.

Once again there was a churchwarden to greet us, offer us refreshments and answer any questions.

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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth

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MEREWORTH.

EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.

THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.

Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.

Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.

In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.

Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)

¶The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.

THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.

In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.

This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.

¶In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.

Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)

William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.

MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.

The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.

In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)

The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.

In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.

Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.

It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.

¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.

The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp70-90

"Cub Creek". Negloss Creek, Princess Royal Island, BC, NW Canada

A round up of some visits from nearly a decade ago when I just posted general shots, to my surprise I took shots of details too, and didn't post them at the time.

-------------------------------------------

Monday 10th September 2012

I can now reveal that being on Holiday is officially better than being at work. It is a Monday morning, and we have bottled another batch of beer, and i have mopped the floor as we did manage to mess it up, slightly. The house now smells like a brewery, which would not be a bad thing only it was just eight in the morning, and it is a tad early for beer, even for me. In an exciting move, we are heading to Tesco in a while to get ingredients for out Christmas cakes.

Yes, cakes. One is never enough. A couple of years ago, we tried one in November and had to bake another one to replace it. We don't marzipan or ice them, and just leave them with their cakey goodness and Christmas spiciness.

Friday seemed to go on forever until it got to five to four and it was time to head home. The technicians had come ashore early and gone home, so I had the office to myself, therefore my hearty laughing at the Kermode and Mayo film review went unheard except by me.

So, off to Tesco for a week's shopping, and ended up getting enough stuff to last the weekend. And once that was done and paid for, loaded up the car and back home and now the holiday could really begin.

And Friday night was spent watching football. Yes, now the Olympics and Paralympics are coming to an end, it means we must return, ashamed like a unfaithful lover to the old dependable. And England began their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away game against Moldova. I did have to ask Jools to Google Moldova to find where it was, as I really didn't have a clue.

Anyway, it is behind the fridge just to the lest of Romania, apparently.

And England strung together at least 5 passes, played well, and scored 5 goals; and yet managed to look unconvincing switching off several times, just before half time and in the second half and could have easily conceded goals. Just to remind you, by some quirk, England are currently ranked the third best team IN THE WORLD, which I suppose goes to show just how much you should trust information coming out of FIFA towers.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to Mongeham for some foraging action, so we can make jam and jellies. We knew of a footpath behind a garage that is just lined with plum and greengage trees. We picked a couple of pounds and then headed on up the A20 and M20 to head to The Weald for a tour of 'interesting' churches.

Each year English Heritage organises a long weekend where many buildings are open for people like us to visit and photograph. Last spring we visited St Lawrence at Mereworth; and while is it a wonderfully beautiful church, the doors were locked and we wanted to see inside.

First of all we headed inside the M25 to a tiny, but beautiful village on the edge of the Weald where stockbrokers and hedge fund managers have their homes with fine views onto the Garden of england. All along the main road huge gates with security cameras guarded the mock-Tudor mansions hidden behind mature trees.

We turned off down a narrow lane and headed towards to small village of Trottiscliffe; which is not pronounced the way it is spelt so to make the unwary visitor appear stupid. It is pronounced 'Trozli', if Wiki is to be believed.

At the end of a long dead end road leading to a row of cottages and an old stable block is the church. I don't think i have ever seen a church in a more perfect location, it is one of those places that you have to be going as you'll never just pass it.

There was a churchwarden waiting at the door and happy to answer questions and tell us the history of the church. Dominating the tiny church is, what I now know to be from Westminister Abbey is the biggest pulpit I have seen outside a er, cathedral.

We take our leave and head to Mereworth.

We were the only visitors at the church, we parked the car on the verge outside, took in the glorious design of the church before going in. First thing you do see is a pair of spiral staircases; one to the gallery and the other to the bell tower. And straight ahead is a simple wooden door leading to the main body of the church.

I won't try to describe the church, please use the link on the pictures to go to my Flickrstream. The design is glorious, and looking pristine as it has just been restored to its former glory. Or original glory.

Once again there was a churchwarden to greet us, offer us refreshments and answer any questions.

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One of the few eighteenth-century churches in Kent, built in 1746 by the 7th Earl of Westmoreland. Surprisingly for so late a date the name of the architect is not known although it is in the style of Colen Campbell who designed the nearby castle, but as he died in 1722 it is probably by someone in his office. The main feature of the church is a tall stone steeple with four urns at the top of the tower, whilst the body of the church is a plain rectangular box consisting of an aisled nave and chancel. Inside is an excellent display of eighteenth-century interior decoration - especially fine being the curved ceiling which is painted with trompe l'oeil panels. At the west end is the galleried pew belonging to the owners of Mereworth Castle - it has organ pipes painted on its rear wall. The south-west chapel contains memorials brought here from the old church which stood near the castle, including one to a fifteenth-century Lord Bergavenny, and Sir Thomas Fane (d. 1589). The latter monument has a superb top-knot! The church contains much heraldic stained glass of sixteenth-century date, best seen with binoculars early in the morning. Of Victorian date is the excellent Raising of Lazarus window, installed in 1889 by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In the churchyard is the grave of Charles Lucas, the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving on the Hecla during the Crimean War.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mereworth

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MEREWORTH.

EASTWARD from West, or Little Peckham, lies Mereworth, usually called Merrud. In Domesday it is written Marourde, and in the Textus Roffensis, MÆRUURTHA, and MERANWYRTHE.

THE PARISH of Mereworth is within the district of the Weald, being situated southward of the quarry hills. It is exceedingly pleasant, as well from its naturalsituation, as from the buildings, avenues, and other ornamental improvements made throughout it by the late earl of Westmoreland, nor do those made at Yokes by the late Mr. Master contribute a little to the continued beauty of this scene. The turnpike road crosses this parish through the vale from Maidstone, towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, on each side of which is a fine avenue of oaks, with a low neatly cut quick hedge along the whole of it, which leaves an uninterrupted view over the house, park, and grounds of lord le Despencer, the church with its fine built spire, and the seat of Yokes, and beyond it an extensive country, along the valley to Tunbridge, making altogether a most beautiful and luxuriant prospect.

Mereworth house is situated in the park, which rises finely wooded behind it, at a small distance from the high road, having a fine sheet of water in the front of it, being formed from a part of a stream which rises at a small distance above Yokes, and dividing itself into two branches, one of them runs in front of Mereworth house as above mentioned, and from thence through Watringbury, towards the Medway at Bow-bridge; the other branch runs more southward to East Peckham, and thence into the Medway at a small distance above Twiford bridge.

Mereworth-house was built after a plan of Palladio, designed for a noble Vicentine gentleman, Paolo Almerico, an ecclesiastic and referendary to two popes, who built it in his own country about a quarter of a mile distance from the city of Venice, in a situation pleasant and delightful, and nearly like this; being watered in front with a river, and in the back encompassed with the most pleasant risings, which form a kind of theatre, and abound with large and stately groves of oak and other trees; from the top of these risings there are most beautiful views, some of which are limited, and others extend so as to be terminated only by the horizon. Mereworth house is built in a moat, and has four fronts, having each a portico, but the two side ones are filled up; under the floor of the hall and best apartments, are rooms and conveniences for the servants. The hall, which is in the middle, forms a cupola, and receives its light from above, and is formed with a double case, between which the smoke is conveyed through the chimnies to the center of it at top. The wings are at a small distance from the house, and are elegantly designed. In the front of the house is an avenue, cut through the woods, three miles in length towards Wrotham-heath, and finished with incredible expence and labour by lord Westmoreland, for a communication with the London road there: throughout the whole, art and nature are so happily blended together, as to render it a most delightful situation.

In the western part of this parish, on the high road is the village, where at Mereworth cross it turns short off to the southward towards Hadlow and Tunbridge, at a small distance further westward is the church and parsonage, the former is a conspicuous ornament to all the neighbouring country throughout the valley; hence the ground rises to Yokes, which is most pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, commanding a most delightful and extensive prospect over the Weald, and into Surry and Sussex.

Towards the north this parish rises up to the ridge of hills, called the Quarry-hills, (and there are now in them, though few in number, several of the Martin Cats, the same as those at Hudson's Bay) over which is the extensive tract of wood-land, called the Herst woods, in which so late as queen Elizabeth's reign, there were many wild swine, with which the whole Weald formerly abounded, by reason of the plenty of pannage from the acorns throughout it. (fn. 1)

¶The soil of this parish is very fertile, being the quarry stone thinly covered with a loam, throughout the northern part of it; but in the southern or lower parts, as well as in East Peckham adjoining, it is a fertile clay, being mostly pasture and exceeding rich grazing land, and the largest oxen perhaps at any place in this part of England are bred and fatted on them, the weight of some of them having been, as I have been informed, near three hundred stone.

THIS PLACE, at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hamo Vicecomes, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that book.

In Littlefield hundred. Hamo holds Marourde. Norman held it of king Edward, and then, and now, it was and is taxed at two sulings. The arable land is ninecarucates. In demesne there are two, and twenty-eight villeins, with fifteen borderers, having ten carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of ten shillings, and two fisheries of two shillings. There are twenty acres of meadow, and as much wood as is sufficient for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards ten pounds, now nineteen pounds.

This Hamo Vicecomes before-mentioned was Hamo de Crevequer, who was appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of Kent, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, which office he held till his death in the reign of king Henry I.

¶In the reign of king Henry II. Mereworth was in the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, and held it as two knights fees, of the earls of Clare, as of their honour of Clare.

Roger, son of Eustace de Mereworth, possessed it in the above reign, and then brought a quare impedit against the prior of. Leeds, for the advowson of the church of Mereworth. (fn. 3)

William de Mereworth is recorded among those Kentish knights, who assisted king Richard at the siege of Acon, in Palestine, upon which account it is probable the cross-croslets were added to the paternal arms of this family.

MEREWORTH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.

The church was dedicated to St. Laurence. It was an antient building, and formerly stood where the west wing of Mereworth-house, made use of for the stables, now stands. It was pulled down by John, late earl of Westmoreland, when he rebuilt that house, and in lieu of it he erected, about half a mile westward from the old one, in the center of the village, the present church, a most elegant building, with a beautiful spire steeple, and a handsome portico in the front of it, with pillars of the Corinthian order. The whole of it is composed of different sorts of stone; and the east window is handsomely glazed with painted glass, collected by him for this purpose.

In the reign of king Henry II. the advowson of this church was the property of Roger de Mereworth, between whom and the prior and convent of Ledes, in this county, there had been much dispute, concerning the patronage of it: at length both parties submitted their interest to Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, who decreed, that the advowson of it should remain to Roger de Mereworth; and he further granted, with his consent, and that of Martin then parson of it, to the prior and convent, the sum of forty shillings, in the name of a perpetual benefice, and not in the name of a pension, in perpetual alms, to be received yearly for ever, from the parson of it. (fn. 13)

The prior and the convent of Ledes afterwards, anno 12 Henry VII. released to Hugh Walker, rector of this church, their right and claim to this pension, and all their right and claim in the rectory, by reason of it, or by any other means whatsoever.

In the reign of king Henry VI. the rector and parishioners of this church petitioned the bishop of Ro chester, to change the day of the feast of the dedication of it, which being solemnized yearly on the 4th day of June, and the moveable seasts of Pentecost, viz. of the sacred Trinity, or Corpus Christi, very often happening on it; the divine service used on the feasts of dedications could not in some years be celebrated, but was of necessity deferred to another day, that these solemnities of religion and of the fair might not happen together. Upon which the bishop, in 1439, transferred the feast to the Monday next after the exaltation of the Holy Cross, enjoining all and singular the rectors, and their curates, as well as the parishioners from time to time to observe it accordingly as such. And to encourage the parishioners and others to resort to it on that day, he granted to such as did, forty days remission of their sins.

Soon after the above-mentioned dispute between Roger de Mereworth and the prior and convent of Ledes, the church of Mereworth appears to have been given to the priory of Black Canons, at Tunbridge. (fn. 14) And it remained with the above-mentioned priory till its dissolution in the 16th year of king Henry VIII. a bull having been obtained from the pope, with the king's leave, for that purpose. After which the king, in his 17th year, granted that priory, with others then suppressed for the like purpose, together with all their manors, lands, and possessions, to cardinal Wolsey, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal college, in Oxford. But four years afterwards, the cardinal being cast in a præmunire; all the estates of that college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown. (fn. 15) After which, the king granted the patronage of the church of Mereworth, to Sir George Nevill, lord Abergavenny, whose descendant Henry, lord Abergavenny, died possessed of it in the 29th year of queen Elizabeth, leaving an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Sir Thomas Fane, who in her right possessed it. Since which it has continued in the same owners, that the manor of Mereworth has, and is as such now in the patronage of the right hon. Thomas, lord le Despencer.

It is valued in the king's books at 14l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 8s. 3d.

¶It appears by a valuation of this church, and a terrier of the lands belonging to it, subscribed by the rector, churchwardens, and inhabitants, in 1634, that there belonged to it, a parsonage-house, with a barn, &c. a field called Parsonage field, a close, and a garden, two orchards, four fields called Summerfourds, Ashfield, the Coney-yearth, and Millfield, and the herbage of the church-yard, containing in the whole about thirty acres, that the house and some of the land where James Gostlinge then dwelt, paid to the rector for lord's rent twelve-pence per annum; that the houses and land where Thomas Stone and Henry Filtness then dwelt, paid two-pence per annum; that there was paid to the rector the tithe of all corn, and all other grain, as woud, would, &c. and all hay, tithe of all coppice woods and hops, and all other predial tithes usually paid, as wool, and lambs, and all predials, &c. in the memory of man; that all tithes of a parcel of land called Old-hay, some four or five miles from the church, but yet within the parish, containing three hundred acres, more or less; and the tithe of a meadow plot lying towards the lower side of Hadlow, yet in Mereworth, containing by estimation twelve acres, more or less, commonly called the Wish, belonged to this church.

The parsonage-house lately stood at a small distance north-eastward from Mereworth-house; but obstructing the view from the front of it, the late lord le Despencer obtained a faculty to pull the whole of it down, and to build a new one of equal dimensions, and add to it a glebe of equal quantity to that of the scite and appurtenances of the old parsonage, in exchange. Accordingly the old parsonage was pulled down in 1779, and a new one erected on a piece of land allotted for the purpose about a quarter of a mile westward from the church, for the residence of the rector of Mereworth and his successors.

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55/365

Thought I would give you a little Shrewsbury History today for my 365 - This is a shot showing the wonderful stained glass window of St. Mary the Virgin and the stone plaque which sits outside the west door. It reads: Let this small Monument record the name Of CADMAN, and to future times proclaim How by’n attempt to fly from this high spire Across the Sabrine stream he did acquire His fatal end. ‘Twas not for want of skill Or courage to perform the task he fell: No, no, a faulty Cord being drawn too tight Hurried his Soul on high to take her flight Which bid the Body here beneath good Night. Febry 2nd 1739 aged 28

From The Writer's Hub; "This careful, clumsy verse presents visitors to St Mary’s with a fantastical tale of tragic heroism on a mythical scale. The trite comparison made between Cadman’s attempt to fly physically and his spiritual flight to heaven is an unconvincing attempt to round off the tale neatly. He had intended (according to a handbill circulated in the town some days earlier) ‘to fly off St Mary’s spire, over the Severn … firing two pistols and performing tricks upon the wire which will be very diverting to the spectators’. His short flight and fall illustrate what Kermode (1967, p. 25) refers to as the perpetual ‘state of crisis’ of our lives. We hurtle from birth to death, attempting to make meaning by imposing linear narratives on events and circumstances which otherwise seem unredeemed and even wasteful."

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Mark Kermode, the UK's leading film critic, discussing the flaws of 3D cinema using a 20ft fishing rod and characters from Avatar.

This fine church was designed by Adelaide architect Daniel Garlick. Built 1878. Now a Uniting Church.

Biography of Daniel Garlick.

Daniel Garlick was born at Uley in England in 1818 and arrived in SA with his parents in 1837. His father Moses Garlick established a timber and building business in North Adelaide in 1841 and a few years later took up farming land at Smithfield where he had the Uleybury Baptist church erected in 1851 at his own cost. His son Daniel designed the church. The timber yard in North Adelaide at 43 Kermode Street later became the home of Daniel Garlick who lived there for most of his life. It is now the car park opposite the Children’s Hospital. When his father acquired the Smithfield farm Daniel Garlick opened architectural offices in Gawler in the early 1850s and practised there for some years before moving back to the city. For most of this life he practised from the Register Chambers (linked to the Register newspaper) in Grenfell Street. Garlick was a friend of one of the proprietors of the Register, Thomas Magarey so consequently Garlick designed Magarey’s home at 84 Mills Terrace North Adelaide. (Magarey was a fascinating character - a flour miller, politician, pastoralist, businessman and newspaper proprietor. He was a philosopher hence the newspaper interests. He founded the Church of Christ in Australia and it was his great nephew who received the first Magarey football medal in 1897.)

Garlick was also a land agent. He practised right up to his death at the age of 84 years in 1902. He died after falling in the street outside of his home as he tried to help an injured child in the street. He married first in 1862 and again in 1877 after his first wife died. His practice had several partners over the years including one of his sons who joined the business in 1882. Arthur Garlick mainly ran the Broken Hill office of Garlick and Sons. That son (and later just his name) was used in the Jackman and Garlick practice which operated as such until 1936. Garlick was raised as a Baptist, did a lot of architectural work for the three Methodist churches as well as other churches but converted to Anglicanism and attended Christ Church North Adelaide.

Why Daniel Garlick?

Daniel Garlick was a major architect responsible for much of the building of the city of Adelaide. He worked for almost 50 years as a professional architect yet he is not well known. Some sources ascribe buildings that he designed to other architects. He was unpopular in his day with the leading architect of the state who was Edmund Wright. They disagreed about additions to the Adelaide Town Hall in 1869 and the conflict between the two continued after that. Despite this Garlick attended Wright’s funeral, as any respectable 19th century gentleman would have when Wright died in 1888. Garlick began an architectural practice around 1851 in Gawler. Although he had commissions all over SA (and QLD and NT) much of his work was commercially based in Rundle, Grenfell, Currie, Hindley and King William streets. Consequently many of his finest buildings have been demolished. From a casual investigation of the tenders and contracts section of the Register newspaper, which was far from complete, Garlick erected or did major alterations to around 200 city CBD buildings. Perhaps only a third of them remain. Garlick is also important as he was a founding member of the SA Institute of Architects in 1886 but he had also tried to establish the SA Society of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors back in 1858. That organisation dissolved itself in 1861. Garlick was always a concerned community man and operator and he served a term as a city Councillor. He is also significant because he designed such a variety of structures. Commercially he designed shops, offices or chambers, banks, hotels, warehouses, factories and breweries. He undertook and designed deep drainage works for the City of Adelaide, as well as bridges and culverts. Domestically he designed grand mansions with their gatehouses, terraces rows, villa houses, and even cottages and almshouses. On a community level he designed many churches, private schools, institutes and halls. He built in different styles but he was certainly a master of the Victorian Free Classical style which meant his buildings had classical symmetry and features such as pillars, pilasters, roof pediments and balustrades, much decoration and embellishment around windows and doors. He sometimes added glamorous towers and cupolas to grand structures. He did Gothic and Romanesque style churches and Italianate style mansions for the wealthy. He also laid out the suburb of Hawthorn and it street plans with Edward Thornber in 1880. In 1882 Daniel Garlick was also one of three men selected by the SA Parliament to examine the marble discovery at Kapunda to see if it was suitable for use in building the new SA Parliament House which was started in 1883. He used leading city builders for many of his most important city structures such as Charles Farr. Other architects of his day were: McMinn, Hamilton, Edmund Wright, Roland Reece, John Haslam, Thomas Parker, F Dancker, Cumming and Davies, etc.

Iconic Garlick Buildings in the City and Suburbs.

Perhaps the most recognised and familiar Garlick buildings around the city and inner areas are: the Southern Wing of the Adelaide Town Hall; the Newmarket Hotel; Prince Alfred College; the former Congregational Church and tower in Jetty Road Glenelg; the former Wesleyan Methodist churches on Norwood Parade with tower; the Tower Hotel Magill; the Wesleyan Church Hall at Kent Town on Fullarton Road; Knightsbridge Baptist Church Glynburn Road Burnside; Undelcarra Mansion Burnside; parts of St. Peters’ Boys College etc. He had many commission at Glenelg, Port Adelaide and Broken Hill. He is known to have designed residences at Glenelg; Brighton; Semaphore; Mitcham; Norwood; Menindie; Crafers; Hindmarsh; St. Peters; College Park; Bowden; Roslyn Park; Burnside; Tusmore; Myrtle Bank; Stepney; Walkerville; Prospect; Goodwood; Rose Park; and Mile End to name a few. His hotels included: The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel; Reservoir Inn Thornton Park; Rising Sun Hotel Bridge Street Kensington; Gold Diggers Arms Hotel Norwood; the Kingsford Hotel Gawler and at least half a dozen or so city hotels such as the Southern Cross Hotel etc.

His churches and church halls include: All Saints Anglican Hall Hindmarsh; two Wesleyan churches Norwood Parade; lecture Hall for St. Peters Boys College; Glanville Bible Christian Church; Hindmarsh Christian Church Hall; Islington Wesleyan ; Knightsbridge Baptist; Wesleyan Enfield; Wesleyan Church Hall Fullarton Road Kent Town; West Mitcham Methodist; Wesleyan Magill; Morphett Vale Presbyterian 1847 etc.

State Heritage ID: 10852

Mama Kermode black bear teaching baby bear how to catch fish.

Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada.

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Huey, Dewey and Louie

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In 1954 the ultra lightweight TT was held on The Clypse Course which principally ran through the parish and village of Onchan. The same year sidecar racing was reintroduced into the TT and this also ran around the 10.79 mile course. The grandstand on Glencrutchery Road was used with the bikes turning right along Ballanard Road, up Johnny Watterson to Cronk-ny-Mona, onto the Hillberry Straight and up to Creg-na-Baa. From there it was out the Creg-na-Baa Back Road, down past Conrhenny to the top of the Whitebridge, through Onchan Village turning up the side of the Manx Arms, past the Nursery Hotel to Signpost Corner, down to Governors Bridge and back to the grandstand. In 1955 the lightweight (250cc) race was added to those on the Clypse Course. Races on this circuit continued up to and including 1959. Lead riders from the time included Carlo Ubbiali, Tarquinio Provini, Bill Lomas and Eric Oliver. In the final year, 1959, Honda entered its first ever team of 125cc riders, gaining 6th and 7th place. In 1955 the Clubman Race took place on the Clypse Course but who is the rider in this photograph, provided by an Onchan resident?

In the background is the Blue Dragon Café and Snack Bar in a building that at one time belonged to Henry Bloom Noble but which for many years was a grocers shop run by C. Dibb and Sons. Just after the Second World War it was taken over by Harold Richmond who ran it as a milk bar. The shop stretched across the front of the property with a servery at the Isle of Man Bank end and a kitchen in a lean-to outlet at the rear.

In October 1948 Harold Richmond had plans drawn up by J.P.Lomas the architect to greatly alter the premises. This included a large two storey flat roofed extension at the rear in place of the lean-to outlet. The outlet was to provide a kitchen, bathroom and lounge for a flat on the first floor and a proper commercial kitchen and scullery for the downstairs café. The shop front was to remain as it had been, double fronted but with a solid stone wall and sliding sash window on that part of the frontage nearest to the Isle of Man Bank. Work commenced but then Mr Richmond had a change of mind resulting in revised plans being submitted in February 1949. This provided for all the existing front wall to be removed and replaced by a steel beam set on a cast iron column so the shop front could extend for the full frontage. The café was also to be divided into two unequal parts, the larger occupying about two thirds of the frontage and the whole of the new outlet, whilst the narrower shop was to have a staircase leading up to the flat above.

This was carried out and after about six months work on the property Vincent Shimmin opened his haberdashery shop in the large unit and the narrower section became The Blue Dragon which was later tenanted by Joseph Brian Webb. By 1954 Vincent Shimmin's shop had been taken over by Dennis Corrin who continued the business which included ladies clothing and "Ladybird" children's clothing. In the mid 1970s when road widening was taking place on the other side of the road to make way for Elm Tree House, Wm. Quirk and Sons the bakers moved into Corrin's shop and the blue dragon was a dress shop called "Peg's Popin". This building and its neighbour Kermode the baker's were both demolished with other properties to make way for Bounty House.

In this picture, Teresa who ran The Blue Dragon, which operated as much as a sweet and cigarette shop as much as a snack bar with limited seating, is sitting in the doorway on somebody's knee so consequentially it looks as if she has three legs. This picture appeared in the local press with the query if anybody remembered Three legged Teresa. Immediately behind her is George Clague of Auburn Road who used to play for Onchan AFC. The tall man in the door recess is Ken Astill of Central Drive brother of Gordon Astill the bandmaster.

Victorian Alpine Huts survey, for Parks Victoria April, May 1994: Built in 1937 for the Ski Club of Victoria and dedicated to a pioneer skier, Cleve Cole, this hut was illustrated in the club's journal `Schuss' as a rubble stone gabled building with casement widows and stone chimney. Larger than most cattlemen's huts, the design had a porch and wood box, a living space with a 10 person bunk at one end and a bunk room with heating slabs at the other. In the centre was the fireplace. A kitchen and eating alcove adjoined on the south side{ see also Stephenson: 206}. A memorial stone on the wall of this hut was inscribed with the words: `In Memory of Cleve Cole Died 1936'{ Stephenson: 214}. His death arose from a disastrous skiing trip across the Bogong High Plains with (Percy E ) Mick Hull and Howard Michell, all three being very experienced{ MP p.70}. The architect was Malcolm McColl, Tom Fisher and Harold Doughty acted as labourers on the construction while the stonework was formed by Art Downer and the foreman was M McLaren{ Stephenson (1982): 360f.}. McLaren remained on the site from the 21 February to 17 May 1937 to complete the work. The foundations were in place by March 1937. The huts origins are linked with the August General Meeting of the SCV when a committee, consisting of Gordon Brown (chair), Harold Brockhoff, V Letcher (Vic. Railways), AW Shands, D Gray and D Stogdale, was initiated to raise funds for a memorial hut on Mt Bogong. Other members coopted to the committee were H Doughty (scouts), AW Keown (Vict. Railways), Miss BM Kermode (treasurer and part of the Government Tourist Bureau) and M McColl (architect, designer of hut). Apart from its memorial function the hut would allow access to `really excellent ski runs, better than exist elsewhere in Victoria, becoming accessible to skiing enthusiasts on the highest mountain in the State'{ `Australian & New Zealand Ski Year Book' 1937, p51}. This could not be achieved without `a substantial building' and stone was opted for as the least likely to deteriorate in those conditions, resulting in a cost estimate of 500 pounds and a public appeal. Within 6 months, up until March 1937, they had raised 350 pounds and after a visit to the State Tourist Committee, they obtained 200 pound State Unemployment Fund grant for use to employ local labour in the hut construction. McColl (architect) and Doughty worked on erecting the hut in the summer of 1936-7, preparing three construction stages: the first being the public bunks (for 10) and living space (with fireplace), the second being a club bunk room served by heating slabs in the rear of the fireplace (locked, as club rooms), and the last stage was the kitchen, meal annexe and bathroom{ ibid.}. This plan also obtained approval from the SCV Hut & Trip sub-committee. This hut was one stage in a grand scheme for the mountain, one which might cause considerable controversy today. Then skiers used the Staircase Spur and Bivouac Hut to ascend to the slopes. This route was developed to Cole's plan which had meant the removal of `young timber which grows so vigorously along the crest of the ridge but more clearing and widening of the track was needed. A better solution was a new all-weather access road up the Big River Valley or another around the north or south face of the mountain and entering Camp Valley below the tree line ibid.}. Meanwhile the hut site access time had been cut down by an hour by road and track improvements via Staircase such that 4 hours on horse and 5 hours on foot from Cooper's property to the site was typical{ ibid.}. The Lone Scout section of the Boy Scouts Association had provided for the transport cost of the 11 tons of building materials from Melbourne to Tawonga (Cooper's). Local carter, Dudley Walker, packed the materials across the next 8 mile stage, costing some 19 pounds per ton and taking 6 weeks (February 21- April 7th) with 8 horses. Bright builder, George Sharpe who was experienced in stone construction, was selected to provide quantities and labour costing for the hut. Building materials were provided by H Parsons P/L at cost and D&W Chandler (Fitzroy hardware merchants) also provided discounts. The shell was of stone, with 2 feet high, 15" thick foundation walls set in reinforced concrete, with a damp course and the 12" thick walls built on them. Steps led to the entry area which had a large wood box and ski rack (20 pairs) and from there to the living area with its stone fireplace lined with fire bricks and flanked with two large drying cabinets (heated by slabs in the side of the fireplace and fitted with shelves for boots and hooks for clothes). Water from a spring some 420' distant, was piped into the kitchen bathroom section with its sink and draining board, shelves and a wash basin. There was also a colonial oven, a washing recess and hand pump, and a shower. This hut was thought to be the first to use double casements (double glazing) in a snow resort. The floor level was elevated and the roof was kept to a shallow grade to stop the snow from sliding off and building up around the entrance and windows. The final cost would be about 600 pounds. `The hut has been erected on a site which has a most commanding outlook with glorious views in all directions, has substantial firewood supply right on the spot and is very easily approached from the summit of the mountain'{ ibid.}. A little over 10 years later, the hut had deteriorated considerably to such an extent that its structural soundness would be questionable unless urgent work was done in the Summer of 1948-9. So reported its designed, Malcolm McColl. The main problem was a lack of flashing to one side of the chimney which allowed large quantities of snow to penetrate a 2" gap into the hut ceiling. The roofing also needed renailing and the stone chimney itself was not only too short (requiring an extension pipe to stop it smoking) but had nearly disintegrated. It needed rebuilding. The front steps had been almost destroyed as the mortar had not set in the original construction. The last painting was in 1941 and this too needed redoing at least annually. The putty was falling out and the window sashes coming to bits{ DCNR file H.019905 Report on Inspection of Cleve Cole Memorial Hut November 28-30 1948}. McColl thought that if the standard of maintenance was not kept up the users of the hut would not take care of it. In 1949, the SCV revealed plans to reduce the wear on the hut by building another unlocked shelter with two bunks and a stove nearby. The public would then be charged for access to the original hut on the same scale as members were for the club section of the hut. The money would go into a trust fund to maintain the building. The hut was thought to be the only comfortable accommodation on the Mountain and must remain accessible to the public if only to carry out the development plans of its namesake{ DCNR file H.019905 letter from SCV (H Cartledge) 13.12.49}. With the rapid development of Kiewa scheme and all its infrastructure, more people would soon have easy access to the area. Along with the repointing and rebuilding parts of the stonework, painting the woodwork `new green', renailing the roofing and inserting flashing, other works planned included provision of new high pressure chrome plated taps to basin and sink, one inch boarding to porch interior walls, new glass panes and puttying, new Whitco casement stays to all windows, painting of ceiling with Muraltone along with other interior woodwork, painting the kitchen and shower in light tones, removal of the wall between the kitchen and meal alcove and install kitchen bench around the alcove with shelves above, install shelves around bunks, repair Caneite ceiling and strapping, decrease number of bunks in clubroom and provide storage instead, and wired glass to lower bunk windows. The SCV also reacted to the complaints of local people over the locking up of the hut. The SCV pointed to the generous help provided by the old generation of cattl

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State Heritage ID: 13539

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A round up of some visits from nearly a decade ago when I just posted general shots, to my surprise I took shots of details too, and didn't post them at the time.

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Monday 10th September 2012

I can now reveal that being on Holiday is officially better than being at work. It is a Monday morning, and we have bottled another batch of beer, and i have mopped the floor as we did manage to mess it up, slightly. The house now smells like a brewery, which would not be a bad thing only it was just eight in the morning, and it is a tad early for beer, even for me. In an exciting move, we are heading to Tesco in a while to get ingredients for out Christmas cakes.

Yes, cakes. One is never enough. A couple of years ago, we tried one in November and had to bake another one to replace it. We don't marzipan or ice them, and just leave them with their cakey goodness and Christmas spiciness.

Friday seemed to go on forever until it got to five to four and it was time to head home. The technicians had come ashore early and gone home, so I had the office to myself, therefore my hearty laughing at the Kermode and Mayo film review went unheard except by me.

So, off to Tesco for a week's shopping, and ended up getting enough stuff to last the weekend. And once that was done and paid for, loaded up the car and back home and now the holiday could really begin.

And Friday night was spent watching football. Yes, now the Olympics and Paralympics are coming to an end, it means we must return, ashamed like a unfaithful lover to the old dependable. And England began their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away game against Moldova. I did have to ask Jools to Google Moldova to find where it was, as I really didn't have a clue.

Anyway, it is behind the fridge just to the lest of Romania, apparently.

And England strung together at least 5 passes, played well, and scored 5 goals; and yet managed to look unconvincing switching off several times, just before half time and in the second half and could have easily conceded goals. Just to remind you, by some quirk, England are currently ranked the third best team IN THE WORLD, which I suppose goes to show just how much you should trust information coming out of FIFA towers.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to Mongeham for some foraging action, so we can make jam and jellies. We knew of a footpath behind a garage that is just lined with plum and greengage trees. We picked a couple of pounds and then headed on up the A20 and M20 to head to The Weald for a tour of 'interesting' churches.

Each year English Heritage organises a long weekend where many buildings are open for people like us to visit and photograph. Last spring we visited St Lawrence at Mereworth; and while is it a wonderfully beautiful church, the doors were locked and we wanted to see inside.

First of all we headed inside the M25 to a tiny, but beautiful village on the edge of the Weald where stockbrokers and hedge fund managers have their homes with fine views onto the Garden of england. All along the main road huge gates with security cameras guarded the mock-Tudor mansions hidden behind mature trees.

We turned off down a narrow lane and headed towards to small village of Trottiscliffe; which is not pronounced the way it is spelt so to make the unwary visitor appear stupid. It is pronounced 'Trozli', if Wiki is to be believed.

At the end of a long dead end road leading to a row of cottages and an old stable block is the church. I don't think i have ever seen a church in a more perfect location, it is one of those places that you have to be going as you'll never just pass it.

There was a churchwarden waiting at the door and happy to answer questions and tell us the history of the church. Dominating the tiny church is, what I now know to be from Westminister Abbey is the biggest pulpit I have seen outside a er, cathedral.

We take our leave and head to Mereworth.

We were the only visitors at the church, we parked the car on the verge outside, took in the glorious design of the church before going in. First thing you do see is a pair of spiral staircases; one to the gallery and the other to the bell tower. And straight ahead is a simple wooden door leading to the main body of the church.

I won't try to describe the church, please use the link on the pictures to go to my Flickrstream. The design is glorious, and looking pristine as it has just been restored to its former glory. Or original glory.

Once again there was a churchwarden to greet us, offer us refreshments and answer any questions.

The warden at Spedhurst stressed that we should not miss Groombridge, and as that was next on our list, that is where we headed to next. At least by now the churches were just a mile or two apart and we were rattling through them.

St John the Evangalist is a small chapel, once part of a large estate, dominated by many wonderful 18th century windows and a single handed clock. An old gentleman welcomed us and handed us another leaflet. The mechanism for the clock sits in front of one of the windows, and it's loud ticking and tocking fills the church.

-------------------------------------------

ASHURST.

LIES southwestward from Bidborough on the confines of this county next Sussex, from which it is separated both on the south and west sides by a small stream.

This place is written in the Textus Roffensis, AISCHERST. It took its name from the Saxon word, asces, ash trees, and the British byrst, i. e. the wood of ashes.

ASHURST lies at the southern boundaries of this county, a stream of the Medway separating it from Sussex, and bounding the western and southern sides of this parish. It is in the hundred of Wachlingstone, which here joins the rest of it by a narrow slip running eastward by Tophill and Mitchel's farms, towards Rusthall common and Bishopsdown in Speldhurst. The northern part of it joins both to Penshurst and Speldhurst, in the hundred of Somerden, a part of which joins the western part of this parish, separated from the rest of that hundred, and containing the hamlet of Groombridge, in Speldhurst. This parish consists of hill and dale, the western part is woody, the soil a stiff clay, wet and miry, and rather unfertile. The church is situated on the west side of the parish, about a quar ter of a mile from the river, which here separating, forms a small island, on each side of which there is a bridge, over which the road leads into Sussex; there is no village, the houses being interspersed at different spots throughout it. In this parish is a seat and estate, called Ashurst-place, formerly admiral Forbes's, now the property and residence of Peter Lesevre, esq. (fn. 1)

THE MANOR OF ASHURST, with the manor of Buckland appendant, was part of those lands assigned to Jeffry de Peverel, for his assistance in the defence of Dover-castle, and with other lands made up the barony of Peverel, as it was then called, being held of that castle in capite by barony.

Nicholas de Gerund afterwards held this manor, and its appendage of Buckland, and the advowson of the church of Ashurst, of the king in capite, and died possessed of them in the 52d year of king Henry III. His descendant, Richard Gerund, in the reign of king Edward III. leaving an only daughter Maud; she carried them in marriage to Sir Henry de Chalshunt, who bore for his arms, three bends ermine, and he died possessed of them in the 45th year of it, anno 1370, holding them in capite, and performing ward to the castle of Dover.

They continued in his descendants till Henry V.'s reign, when by the heir general of this family they came to Robert le Hadde, who was afterwards of Frinsted, in this county; (fn. 2) his descendant, Rob. Hadde, esq. of Frinsted, in the beginning of the reign of king Henry VIII. conveyed this estate to William Waller, esq. of Groombridge, who died in the 18th year of that reign, and it continued in his descendants till Sir Thomas Waller, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, alienated it to Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, and lord treasurer of England, who died possessed of it in 1608. His grandson, Richard, earl of Dorset, conveyed the manor of Ashurst, with its appendages, to Sir George Rivers, of Chafford, whose eldest son, John Rivers, esq. was created a baronet in the 19th year of king James I. two years after which his lands, as well as those of his father, were disgavelled by an act then particularly passed for that purpose. On his father's death he succeeded him in this estate, which continued in his descendants until Sir George Rivers, bart. dying in 1734 without issue male, by his will devised it, with his seat of Chafford, among his other real estates, to his five natural children, but his surviving legitimate daughters, and the heirs of those deceased, filed a bill in chancery to set this devise aside, and after a process at law, and several decrees, the court ordered the estates to be sold in 1743, (fn. 3) which this of Ashurst, together with Chafford, accordingly was to Mr. William Saxby, gent. of Horsted Cayns, in Suffex, who died possessed of it in 1783, in which it was afterwards sold in pursuance of his will to Robert Burges, esq. of Lyghe, who died in 1794, since which his widow, Mrs. Sarah Burges, re-marrying James Harbroc, esq. he is become in her right the present possessor of this estate.

A court baron is held for this manor, a heriot is paid on the death of a tenant of the best live beast.

There are no parochial charities. The poor relieved yearly are about eleven.

ASHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.

¶The church is a low mean building, with a wooden steeple, over the porch are the arms of Sir John Rivers, who gave the dial. There are no memorials in it. In this church, before the reformation, was a famous rood, or crucifix, which was much resorted to for its supposed miraculous powers.

This rectory is a discharged living, of the clear yearly value, as certified, of thirty-five pounds, the yearly tenths of which are 10s. 5½d.

The church of Ashurst was antiently esteemed as an appendage to the manor, and continued so till the reign of king James I. when Richard, earl of Dorset, alienating the manor, reserved the church to himself; since which it has continued in his descendants, the present patron being his grace, John, duke of Dorset.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp276-279

A licence plate portraying the legendary Kermode bear found only in British Columbia.

The plate is one of three licence plate designs introduced by the province in partnership with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) depicting scenes from B.C.’s parks and recreation areas. The plates allow drivers to show their support for BC Parks and ensure additional funding to invest in new programs and improvements.

Environment Minister Mary Polak and Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone unveiled the designs on January 18, 2017.

Visit www.icbc.com/vehicle-registration/licence-plates/Pages/bc... for more information.

"Cub Creek", Princess Royal Island, BC, NW Canada

State Heritage ID: 10852

One Tree Hill and Uleybury.

The district of Uley bury was named by Moses Garlick, an English settler who arrived in SA in 1837. He named the area after a place in the Cotswold Hills where he came from in Gloucestershire. Garlick was a devout Baptist and in 1851 he built the Uley Baptist Chapel at a personal cost of £400. Following frequent vandal attacks the church was demolished in 1981. The City of Munno Para erected a plaque here with some confused wording. The plaque inaccurately says Uleybury Baptist was the first Baptist church in SA. One need only read the headstone of Moses Garlick’s grave to realise the falsity of this. Garlick was involved in the founding of the first Baptist congregation in Kermode Street North Adelaide in 1838. The plaque says the Uley Chapel was established in 1864 when elsewhere it is dated as starting in 1851. The first Baptist churches (as opposed to a congregation meeting) built in SA were the Tynte Street Baptist Church and the Finders Street Baptist church erected in 1843. Uleybury opened in 1851. Most Baptists churches were independent congregations but the Baptist Union was formed in 1864 so perhaps Uleybury was the first church of the Baptist Union? Not all Baptist congregations ever joined the Baptist Union. Moses Garlick died in 1859 and has an outstanding sandstone headstone in the cemetery. Other common names in this pioneer cemetery are: Barritt, Bowman, Ifould and McKenzie. Stone from the church was used to build the current stone wall along the road frontage of the cemetery.

A few years after the founding of the Uley Chapel Moses Garlick got to work to have a school built in Uleybury. Reverend John Buttfield donated the land and the solidly constructed Uleybury School opened in 1856.It cost £400 to erect. It began as a Methodist church school until 1874 when it was taken over by the government just ahead of the passing of the Free, Secular and Compulsory Education Act of 1875. In the 1940s its name was changed to One Tree Hill School. It was closed in 1971 when a new One Tree Hill School was opened in a different location. Reverend Buttfield arrived in SA in 1848 and began work as a Baptist clergyman at Gumeracha becoming the first paid Baptist minister in the colony. Buttfield had a brother who had a store at nearby Smithfield and his other brother, Francis Buttfield, was the post master at One Tree Hill in the 1850s. Whilst at Uleybury Rev. John Buttfield became a land owner himself and ended up being a wealthy man. Reverend Buttfield was the first headmaster of the school, as well as the local clergyman, and in the government inspector’s report of the early 1850s it was written that: “Owing to the care he displays, and the consequent progress of his pupils, Mr Buttfield is deservedly esteemed as a teacher in the neighbourhood". Buttfield travelled widely across the Adelaide Plains and Gawler Hills to perform Baptist marriages. His wife died in 1862, aged 36 years, after bearing him eleven children. Since the early 1980s Uleybury School has operated as a school museum.

One Tree Hill was first settled in the 1840s and a township began around 1851 with the building of a hotel the One Tree Hill Inn. The town’s first Council meetings were held here from 1853. The town name came from a single massive gum tree which unfortunately burnt down in 1890. The first Methodist Church was built in One Tree Hill in 1867 after William Gartrell sold some land to the church. A modern church porch was added in the 1980s. Another school named the Precolumb School was also built in One Tree Hill in 1855. It operated until 1938.

James Adamson established a water driven flour mill at One Tree Hill in 1853 as the district was a major wheat growing area. Eventually the flour (or wheat) was carted down the hill to Smithfield or Salisbury railway station. Felled timber was also carted down to the railway stations. The ruins of this mill and water wheel are on the register of the National Estate but they are not visible from public roads. The mill operated until 1870 but Adamson soon sold out to the Kelly family, one of the pioneering families of One Tree Hill. William Kelly was a district founder and became a wealthy farmer. He was a local councillor and built a fine two story Georgian sandstone house on his property called Yelki. His son Edward Kelly, who had been educated at Prince Alfred College, inherited the property in 1891 and created a family business which operated as Yelki Pty Ltd from 1897. His father had established several thousand acres at Yelki in 1857. Edward employed architects to build a second main house on the property in 1909 and it included a septic toilet! It is located on the road to Elizabeth. The Kelly family sold Yelki in 1984.

State Heritage ID: 10480

www.theestablishingshot.com/search/label/EE%20BAFTAs

www.theestablishingshot.com/search/label/EE%20BAFTAs

A round up of some visits from nearly a decade ago when I just posted general shots, to my surprise I took shots of details too, and didn't post them at the time.

-------------------------------------------

Monday 10th September 2012

I can now reveal that being on Holiday is officially better than being at work. It is a Monday morning, and we have bottled another batch of beer, and i have mopped the floor as we did manage to mess it up, slightly. The house now smells like a brewery, which would not be a bad thing only it was just eight in the morning, and it is a tad early for beer, even for me. In an exciting move, we are heading to Tesco in a while to get ingredients for out Christmas cakes.

Yes, cakes. One is never enough. A couple of years ago, we tried one in November and had to bake another one to replace it. We don't marzipan or ice them, and just leave them with their cakey goodness and Christmas spiciness.

Friday seemed to go on forever until it got to five to four and it was time to head home. The technicians had come ashore early and gone home, so I had the office to myself, therefore my hearty laughing at the Kermode and Mayo film review went unheard except by me.

So, off to Tesco for a week's shopping, and ended up getting enough stuff to last the weekend. And once that was done and paid for, loaded up the car and back home and now the holiday could really begin.

And Friday night was spent watching football. Yes, now the Olympics and Paralympics are coming to an end, it means we must return, ashamed like a unfaithful lover to the old dependable. And England began their World Cup qualifying campaign with an away game against Moldova. I did have to ask Jools to Google Moldova to find where it was, as I really didn't have a clue.

Anyway, it is behind the fridge just to the lest of Romania, apparently.

And England strung together at least 5 passes, played well, and scored 5 goals; and yet managed to look unconvincing switching off several times, just before half time and in the second half and could have easily conceded goals. Just to remind you, by some quirk, England are currently ranked the third best team IN THE WORLD, which I suppose goes to show just how much you should trust information coming out of FIFA towers.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to Mongeham for some foraging action, so we can make jam and jellies. We knew of a footpath behind a garage that is just lined with plum and greengage trees. We picked a couple of pounds and then headed on up the A20 and M20 to head to The Weald for a tour of 'interesting' churches.

Each year English Heritage organises a long weekend where many buildings are open for people like us to visit and photograph. Last spring we visited St Lawrence at Mereworth; and while is it a wonderfully beautiful church, the doors were locked and we wanted to see inside.

First of all we headed inside the M25 to a tiny, but beautiful village on the edge of the Weald where stockbrokers and hedge fund managers have their homes with fine views onto the Garden of england. All along the main road huge gates with security cameras guarded the mock-Tudor mansions hidden behind mature trees.

We turned off down a narrow lane and headed towards to small village of Trottiscliffe; which is not pronounced the way it is spelt so to make the unwary visitor appear stupid. It is pronounced 'Trozli', if Wiki is to be believed.

At the end of a long dead end road leading to a row of cottages and an old stable block is the church. I don't think i have ever seen a church in a more perfect location, it is one of those places that you have to be going as you'll never just pass it.

There was a churchwarden waiting at the door and happy to answer questions and tell us the history of the church. Dominating the tiny church is, what I now know to be from Westminister Abbey is the biggest pulpit I have seen outside a er, cathedral.

We take our leave and head to Mereworth.

We were the only visitors at the church, we parked the car on the verge outside, took in the glorious design of the church before going in. First thing you do see is a pair of spiral staircases; one to the gallery and the other to the bell tower. And straight ahead is a simple wooden door leading to the main body of the church.

I won't try to describe the church, please use the link on the pictures to go to my Flickrstream. The design is glorious, and looking pristine as it has just been restored to its former glory. Or original glory.

Once again there was a churchwarden to greet us, offer us refreshments and answer any questions.

The warden at Spedhurst stressed that we should not miss Groombridge, and as that was next on our list, that is where we headed to next. At least by now the churches were just a mile or two apart and we were rattling through them.

St John the Evangalist is a small chapel, once part of a large estate, dominated by many wonderful 18th century windows and a single handed clock. An old gentleman welcomed us and handed us another leaflet. The mechanism for the clock sits in front of one of the windows, and it's loud ticking and tocking fills the church.

-------------------------------------------

ASHURST.

LIES southwestward from Bidborough on the confines of this county next Sussex, from which it is separated both on the south and west sides by a small stream.

This place is written in the Textus Roffensis, AISCHERST. It took its name from the Saxon word, asces, ash trees, and the British byrst, i. e. the wood of ashes.

ASHURST lies at the southern boundaries of this county, a stream of the Medway separating it from Sussex, and bounding the western and southern sides of this parish. It is in the hundred of Wachlingstone, which here joins the rest of it by a narrow slip running eastward by Tophill and Mitchel's farms, towards Rusthall common and Bishopsdown in Speldhurst. The northern part of it joins both to Penshurst and Speldhurst, in the hundred of Somerden, a part of which joins the western part of this parish, separated from the rest of that hundred, and containing the hamlet of Groombridge, in Speldhurst. This parish consists of hill and dale, the western part is woody, the soil a stiff clay, wet and miry, and rather unfertile. The church is situated on the west side of the parish, about a quar ter of a mile from the river, which here separating, forms a small island, on each side of which there is a bridge, over which the road leads into Sussex; there is no village, the houses being interspersed at different spots throughout it. In this parish is a seat and estate, called Ashurst-place, formerly admiral Forbes's, now the property and residence of Peter Lesevre, esq. (fn. 1)

THE MANOR OF ASHURST, with the manor of Buckland appendant, was part of those lands assigned to Jeffry de Peverel, for his assistance in the defence of Dover-castle, and with other lands made up the barony of Peverel, as it was then called, being held of that castle in capite by barony.

Nicholas de Gerund afterwards held this manor, and its appendage of Buckland, and the advowson of the church of Ashurst, of the king in capite, and died possessed of them in the 52d year of king Henry III. His descendant, Richard Gerund, in the reign of king Edward III. leaving an only daughter Maud; she carried them in marriage to Sir Henry de Chalshunt, who bore for his arms, three bends ermine, and he died possessed of them in the 45th year of it, anno 1370, holding them in capite, and performing ward to the castle of Dover.

They continued in his descendants till Henry V.'s reign, when by the heir general of this family they came to Robert le Hadde, who was afterwards of Frinsted, in this county; (fn. 2) his descendant, Rob. Hadde, esq. of Frinsted, in the beginning of the reign of king Henry VIII. conveyed this estate to William Waller, esq. of Groombridge, who died in the 18th year of that reign, and it continued in his descendants till Sir Thomas Waller, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, alienated it to Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, and lord treasurer of England, who died possessed of it in 1608. His grandson, Richard, earl of Dorset, conveyed the manor of Ashurst, with its appendages, to Sir George Rivers, of Chafford, whose eldest son, John Rivers, esq. was created a baronet in the 19th year of king James I. two years after which his lands, as well as those of his father, were disgavelled by an act then particularly passed for that purpose. On his father's death he succeeded him in this estate, which continued in his descendants until Sir George Rivers, bart. dying in 1734 without issue male, by his will devised it, with his seat of Chafford, among his other real estates, to his five natural children, but his surviving legitimate daughters, and the heirs of those deceased, filed a bill in chancery to set this devise aside, and after a process at law, and several decrees, the court ordered the estates to be sold in 1743, (fn. 3) which this of Ashurst, together with Chafford, accordingly was to Mr. William Saxby, gent. of Horsted Cayns, in Suffex, who died possessed of it in 1783, in which it was afterwards sold in pursuance of his will to Robert Burges, esq. of Lyghe, who died in 1794, since which his widow, Mrs. Sarah Burges, re-marrying James Harbroc, esq. he is become in her right the present possessor of this estate.

A court baron is held for this manor, a heriot is paid on the death of a tenant of the best live beast.

There are no parochial charities. The poor relieved yearly are about eleven.

ASHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.

¶The church is a low mean building, with a wooden steeple, over the porch are the arms of Sir John Rivers, who gave the dial. There are no memorials in it. In this church, before the reformation, was a famous rood, or crucifix, which was much resorted to for its supposed miraculous powers.

This rectory is a discharged living, of the clear yearly value, as certified, of thirty-five pounds, the yearly tenths of which are 10s. 5½d.

The church of Ashurst was antiently esteemed as an appendage to the manor, and continued so till the reign of king James I. when Richard, earl of Dorset, alienating the manor, reserved the church to himself; since which it has continued in his descendants, the present patron being his grace, John, duke of Dorset.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp276-279