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The Postcard
A postcard that was printed and published by Ingram Clark & Co. Ltd. of Ilfracombe. The Candar Hotel caught fire and was subsequently demolished. The fire started at 2:30am on the night of 2nd. September 1983 in the shopping arcade under the Candar hotel. In this fire one life was lost.
The Candar Arcade site became the Candar sheltered residential apartments. The opening of Candar apartments was the last public engagement performed by Charles and Diana, as the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992.
The card was posted in Barnes, London S.W.13 on Monday the 9th. June 1924 to:
Miss G. Jones,
Scarth Lodge,
Scarth Road,
Barnes,
London S.W.
Local.
The pencilled message on the divided back was as follows:
"So sorry we were out.
Shall be in on Tuesday
evening if you are out
for an hour. Shall be
very pleased to see you.
Love Adam."
Ilfracombe
The novelist Frances Burney stayed in Ilfracombe in 1817. Her diary entries record early 19th.-century life in Ilfracombe: a captured Spanish ship; two ships in distress in a storm; the visit of Thomas Bowdler; and her lucky escape after being cut off by the tide.
A few years later in the 1820's, a set of four tunnels were hand-carved by Welsh miners to permit access to the beaches by horse-drawn carriage as well as on foot. Previously access was gained by climbing the cliffs, rounding the point by boat, swimming or at the lowest tides clambering around the rocks of the point.
These tunnels led to a pair of tidal pools, which in accordance with Victorian morals, were used for segregated male and female bathing. Whereas women were constrained to a strict dress code covering up the whole body, men generally swam naked. The tunnels are still viewable, and are signposted as Tunnels Beaches.
In 1856 writer Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot) accompanied George Henry Lewes to Ilfracombe to gather materials for his work Seaside Studies published in 1858.
In more recent times actor Peter Sellers lived in the town when his parents managed the Gaiety Theatre. He first stepped on the stage there, and reputedly played the drums. Another actor Terry Thomas visited the town frequently to stay with his sister, and in the same period, Joan and Jackie Collins were schooled here and boarded in the town.
In the last two decades, the town has been home to many artists including Damien Hirst, and George Shaw, a runner up for the Turner Prize.
There is an annual art festival when local artists open their homes for visitors to see their work, and up to 10 permanent art galleries.
The town's first lifeboat was bought in 1828, but a permanent service was not available until the Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a lifeboat station at the bottom of Lantern Hill near the pier in 1866. The present station at Broad Street dates from 1996.
In 1911, the Irish nationalist Anna Catherine Parnell (sister of Charles Stewart Parnell) drowned at Ilfracombe, and is buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity.
Miss Alice Frances Louisa Phillips (born on the 26th. January 1891 at 85 High Street, Ilfracombe) and her father Mr Escott Robert Phillips (born in 1869 in Cardiff) held 2nd. Class Ticket No. 2 on the Titanic, and set sail from Southampton on the 10th. April 1912 heading for New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Alice was rescued in boat 12, but her father was lost in the disaster.
-- The Great Fire of Ilfracombe
The Great Fire of Ilfracombe started on the night of the 28th. July 1896 in the basement of Mr. William Cole's ironmongery and furniture shop on the corner of Fore Street and Portland Street.
In total 35 houses and business premises were destroyed. Later that year the local volunteer firemen who attended the fire were presented with medals and £2 each at a dinner in their honour at the Royal Clarence Hotel.
Since 1896 there have been at least 10 other major fires in Ilfracombe, the most recent occurring in April 2008.
George Mallory
So what else happened on the day that Adam posted the card?
Well, the 9th. June 1924 (or possibly the 8th. June 1924) marked the death of George Mallory.
George Herbert Leigh Mallory, who was born in Cheshire on the 18th. June 1886, was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920's.
Mallory was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering as a student at Winchester College. After graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, he taught at Charterhouse School whilst climbing in the Alps and the English Lake District.
George served in the British Army during the Great War, and fought at the Somme.
After the war, Mallory returned to Charterhouse before resigning to take part in the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition.
In 1922, he took part in a second expedition to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, in which his team achieved a record altitude of 26,980 ft (8,225 m) without supplemental oxygen.
During the 1924 expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, disappeared on the northeast ridge of Everest. The pair were last seen when they were about 800 vertical feet (245 m) from the summit.
Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on the 1st. May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains.
Whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of debate, of various theories, and of continuing research.
George Mallory - The Early Years
George Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, the son of Herbert Leigh-Mallory (1856–1943), a clergyman who changed his surname from Mallory to Leigh-Mallory in 1914.
His mother was Annie Beridge (1863–1946), the daughter of a clergyman in Walton, Derbyshire. George had two sisters and a younger brother, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, the World War II Royal Air Force commander. George was raised in a ten-bedroom house on Hobcroft Lane in Mobberley.
In 1896, Mallory attended Glengorse, a boarding school in Eastbourne. At the age of 13, he won a mathematics scholarship to Winchester College. In his final year there, he was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by a master, R. L. G. Irving, who took a few people climbing in the Alps each year.
In October 1905, Mallory entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, to study history. He was a keen oarsman, and rowed for his college.
While at Cambridge University, he became good friends with future members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Rupert Brooke, John Maynard Keynes, James Strachey, Lytton Strachey, and Duncan Grant.
Among these friends, particularly Lytton Strachey, his letters attest a flirtatious, homoerotic and "explicitly gay" friendship. In 1909, Lytton Strachey wrote of Mallory:
"Mon Dieu!—George Mallory! … He's six-foot high,
with the body of an athlete by Praxiteles, and a
face - oh incredible - the mystery of Botticelli, the
refinement and delicacy of a Chinese print, the
youth and piquancy of an unimaginable English
boy."
After gaining his degree, Mallory stayed in Cambridge for a year writing an essay he published as Boswell the Biographer. George lived briefly in France before he began teaching at Charterhouse School in 1910, where he met the poet Robert Graves, then a pupil.
In his autobiography, 'Goodbye to All That', Graves remembered Mallory fondly, both for the encouragement of his interest in literature and poetry, and his instruction in climbing. Graves recalled:
"Mallory was wasted as a teacher
at Charterhouse. He tried to treat
his class in a friendly way, which
puzzled and offended them."
While at Charterhouse, Mallory met his wife, Ruth Turner (1892–1942), who lived in Godalming, Surrey, and they were married in 1914, six days before Britain entered the Great War.
George and Ruth had two daughters and a son: Frances Clare (1915–2001), Beridge Ruth, known as "Berry" (1917–1953), and John (b. 1920).
During the Great War, in December 1915, Mallory was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant and was promoted to lieutenant on the 1st. July 1917. Mallory relinquished his commission on the 21st. February 1920, retaining the rank of lieutenant.
After the war, Mallory returned to Charterhouse, but resigned in 1921 to join the first British expedition to Mount Everest. Between expeditions, he attempted to make a living from writing and lecturing, with only partial success. In 1923, he took a job as a lecturer with the Cambridge University Extramural Studies Department. He was given temporary leave so that he could join the 1924 Everest attempt.
Climbing in Europe
In 1910, in a party led by Irving, George and a friend attempted to climb Mont Vélan in the Alps, but turned back shortly before the summit due to Mallory's altitude sickness. In 1911, Mallory climbed Mont Blanc, and made the third ascent of the Frontier ridge of Mont Maudit in a party again led by Irving.
According to Helmut Dumler:
"Mallory was apparently prompted by a
friend on the Western Front in 1916 to write
a highly emotional article of his ascent of
this great climb."
This article was published as 'Mont Blanc from the Col du Géant by the Eastern Buttress of Mont Maudit' in the Alpine Journal.
The article contained George's question, "Have we vanquished an enemy?" [i.e., the mountain] to which he responded, "None but ourselves."
By 1913, Mallory had ascended Pillar Rock in the English Lake District, with no assistance, by what is now known as "Mallory's Route" - currently graded Hard Very Severe 5a (Yosemite Decimal Rating 5.9).
One of Mallory's closest friends and climbing companions was a young woman named Cottie Sanders, who became a novelist with the pseudonym of Ann Bridge. The nature of their relationship is elusive; Sanders was either a "climbing friend" or a "casual sweetheart".
After Mallory died, Cottie wrote a memoir of him, which was never published, but provided much of the material used by later biographers such as David Pye and David Robertson in the novel 'Everest Dream.'
Climbing in Asia
-- The First Expedition
Mallory participated in the initial 1921 Mount Everest expedition that explored routes up to Everest's North Col. The expedition produced the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain, as Mallory, his climbing partner Guy Bullock, and E. O. Wheeler of the Survey of India explored in depth several approaches to its peak.
Under Mallory's leadership, and with the assistance of around a dozen Sherpas, the group climbed several lower peaks near Everest. George and his party were almost certainly the first Westerners to view the Western Cwm at the foot of the Lhotse face, as well as charting the course of the Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of the North Face.
After circling the mountain from the south side, his party finally discovered the East Rongbuk Glacier - the highway to the summit now used by nearly all climbers on the Tibetan side of the mountain.
By climbing up to the saddle of the North Ridge (the 23,030 ft (7,020 m) North Col), they identified a route to the summit via the North-East Ridge over the obstacle of the Second Step.
-- The Second Expedition
In 1922, Mallory returned to the Himalayas as part of the party led by Brigadier General Charles Bruce and climbing leader Edward Strutt, with a view to making a serious attempt on the summit.
Eschewing their bottled oxygen, which was at the time seen as going against the spirit of mountaineering, Mallory, along with Howard Somervell and Edward Norton, almost reached the crest of the North-East Ridge.
Despite being hampered and slowed by the thin air, they achieved a record altitude of 26,980 ft (8,225 m) before weather conditions and the late hour forced them to retreat.
A second party led by George Finch reached an elevation of around 27,300 ft (8,321 m) using bottled oxygen both for climbing and - a first - for sleeping. The party climbed at record speeds, a fact that Mallory seized upon during the next expedition.
-- The Third Expedition
Mallory organised a third unsuccessful attempt on the summit, departing as the monsoon season arrived. On the 7th. June 1922, while he was leading a group of porters down the lower slopes of the North Col of Everest in fresh, waist-deep snow, an avalanche swept over the group, killing seven Sherpas.
The attempt was immediately abandoned, and Mallory was subsequently accused of poor judgement, including by expedition participants such as Dr. Longstaff.
'Because It's There'
Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question, "Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort, "Because it's there." George's reply has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering".
Questions have arisen over the authenticity of the quote, and whether Mallory actually said it. Some have suggested that it was a paraphrase by a newspaper reporter, but scrutiny of the original Times report leaves this unresolved.
The phrase was certainly consistent with the direct quotes cited in the report, so it appears not to misrepresent Mallory's attitude.
Mallory's Last Climb
Mallory joined the 1924 Everest expedition, led, as in 1922, by Gen. Charles Bruce. Mallory, who was 37 at the time of the expedition, believed his age would make this his last opportunity to climb the mountain, and when touring the US proclaimed that the expedition would successfully reach the summit.
Mallory and Bruce made the first attempt, which was inexplicably aborted by Mallory at Camp 5. Norton and Somervell then set off from Camp 6, and in perfect weather, Norton managed, without oxygen, to reach 28,120 ft (8,570 m), a new record height.
On the 4th. June 1924, Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 21,330 ft (6,500 m) and had already begun using oxygen from the base of the North Col, which they climbed in 2+1⁄2 hours.
Mallory had been converted from his original scepticism about oxygen usage by his failure on his initial assault, and the very rapid ascent of Finch in 1922.
At 08:40 on the 6th. June, they set off, climbing to Camp 5. On the 7th. June, they reached Camp 6. Mallory wrote that he had used only 3⁄4 of one bottle of oxygen for the two days, which suggests a climb rate of some 856 vertical feet per hour.
On the 8th. June, expedition member Noel Odell was moving up behind the pair in a "support role". Around 26,000 ft (7,925 m), he spotted the two climbing a prominent rock step, either the First or Second Step, about 13:00, although Odell might, conceivably, have been viewing the higher, then-unknown, "Third Step". Odell later reported:
"At 12.50, just after I had emerged from a state of
jubilation at finding the first definite fossils on Everest,
there was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and
the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were
unveiled.
My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted
on a small snow crest beneath a rock step in the ridge;
the black spot moved. Another black spot became
apparent, and moved up the snow to join the other on
the crest.
The first then approached the great rock step and shortly
emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole
fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more".
At the time, Odell observed that one of the men surmounted the Second Step of the northeast ridge. Apart from his testimony, though, no evidence has been found that Mallory and Irvine climbed higher than the First Step; one of their spent oxygen cylinders was found shortly below the First Step, and Irvine's ice axe was found nearby in 1933. They never returned to their camp.
Presumably, Mallory and Irvine died either late the same evening or on the 9th. June. The news of Mallory and Irvine's disappearance was widely mourned in Britain, and the two were hailed as national heroes.
A memorial service was held in London at St Paul's Cathedral on the 17th. October. It was attended by a great assembly of family, friends, and dignitaries including King George V and members of the royal family, Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and his entire Cabinet.
Mallory's will was proven in London on the 17th. December; he bequeathed his estate of £1706 17s. 6d. (roughly equivalent to £103,517 in 2021) to his wife.
Lost on Everest for 75 Years
After their disappearance, several expeditions tried to find their remains, and perhaps, determine if they had reached the summit. Frank Smythe, when on a 1936 expedition, believed he had spotted a body below the place where Irvine's ice axe had been found three years earlier:
"I was scanning the face from base camp through a
high-powered telescope when I saw something queer
in a gully below the scree shelf. Of course, it was a long
way away and very small, but I've a six/six eyesight and
do not believe it was a rock.
This object was at precisely the point where Mallory and
Irvine would have fallen had they rolled on over the scree
slopes."
Smythe wrote this in a letter to Edward Felix Norton. He kept the discovery quiet as he feared press sensationalism, and it was not revealed until 2013, after the letter was found by his son when preparing his biography.
In late 1986, Tom Holzel launched a search expedition based on reports from Chinese climber Zhang Junyan that his tent-mate, Wang Hungbao, had stumbled across "an English dead" at 26,570 ft (8,100 m) in 1975.
On the last day of the expedition, Holzel met with Zhang Junyan, who reiterated that, despite official denials from the Chinese Mountaineering Association, Wang had come back from a short excursion and described finding "a foreign mountaineer" at "8,100 m." Wang was killed in an avalanche the day after delivering his verbal report, so the location was never more precisely fixed.
In 1999, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition arrived at Everest to search for the lost pair. Within hours of beginning the search on the 1st. May, Conrad Anker found a frozen body at 26,760 ft (8,157 m) on the north face of the mountain.
As the body was found below where Irvine's axe had been found in 1933 at 27,760 ft (8,461.25 m), the team expected it to be Irvine's, and were hoping to recover the camera that he had reportedly carried with him.
They were surprised to find that name tags on the body's clothing bore the name of "G. Leigh Mallory." The body was well preserved, due to the freezing conditions. A brass altimeter, a stag-handled lambsfoot pocket knife with leather slip-case, and an unbroken pair of snow-goggles were recovered from the pockets of the clothing.
Personal effects, including a letter and a bill from a London supplier of climbing equipment, confirmed the identity of the body. The team could not, however, locate the camera that the two climbers took to document their final summit attempt.
Experts from Kodak have said that if a camera is ever found, some chance exists that its film could be developed to produce printable images, if extraordinary measures are taken. Kodak have provided guidance as to the handling of such a camera and the film inside, in the event that it is found.
Before leaving the site of Mallory's death, the expedition conducted an Anglican service for the climber, and covered his remains with a cairn on the mountain.
Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay is credited with reaching the Everest summit first, welcomed news of the discovery of Mallory's body, and described as "very appropriate" the possibility that Mallory might turn out to have summited decades earlier. Hillary said:
"He was really the initial pioneer of the
whole idea of climbing Mount Everest."
The 1999 research team returned to the mountain in 2001 to conduct further research. They discovered Mallory and Irvine's last camp, but failed to find either Irvine or a camera. Another initiative in 2004 also proved fruitless.
Reaching the Summit
Whether Mallory and Irvine reached Everest's summit is unknown. The question remains open to speculation, and is the topic of much debate and research.
Mallory's Body
When found, George's body was sun-bleached, frozen, and mummified.
Judging by a serious rope-jerk injury around Mallory's waist, which was encircled by the remnants of a climbing rope, he and Irvine were apparently roped together when one of them slipped.
Mallory's body lay 300 metres (1000 ft) below and about 100 metres (300 ft) horizontal to the location of the ice axe found in 1933, which is generally accepted from three characteristic marks on the shaft as belonging to Irvine.
That the body was relatively unbroken, apart from fractures to the right leg (the tibia and fibula were broken just above the boot), as compared to other bodies in the same location that were known to have fallen from the North-East Ridge, strongly suggests that Mallory could not have fallen from the ice axe site, but must have fallen from much lower down.
The other significant find on Mallory's body was a severe, golf ball-sized puncture wound in his forehead, the likely cause of his death.
The unusual puncture wound is consistent with one inflicted by an ice axe, leading some to conclude that, while Mallory was descending in a self-arrest "glissade", sliding down a slope while dragging his ice axe in the snow to control the speed of his descent, his ice axe may have struck a rock and bounced off, striking him fatally.
Two items of circumstantial evidence from the body suggest that he attempted, or reached, the summit:
-- Mallory's daughter said he carried a photograph of his wife on his person with the intention of leaving it on the summit. The photograph was not found on Mallory's body. Given the excellent preservation of the body, its garments, and other items including documents in his wallet, this points to the possibility that he reached the summit and left the photo there.
On the other hand, Wang (who is known to have taken Mallory's ice axe) might also have taken the photograph for identification purposes, and no one who has subsequently reached the summit has reported seeing any evidence of the photograph or any other trace of their presence there.
-- Mallory's unbroken snow goggles were found in his pocket, suggesting that Irvine and he had made a push for the summit and were descending after sunset. On his attempt a few days earlier, Norton had suffered serious snow blindness because he did not wear his goggles, so Mallory would be unlikely to have dispensed with them in daylight, and given their known departure time and movements, it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall had they not attempted the summit pyramid.
An alternative scenario is that Mallory carried an extra pair, and the pair he was wearing was torn off in his fall.
The Difficult "Second Step"
Experienced modern climbers have mixed views on whether Mallory was capable of climbing the Second Step on the North Ridge. This is now surmounted by a 15 ft (4.6 m) aluminium ladder fixed in place by Chinese climbers in 1975 to bridge this very difficult pitch.
Austrian Theo Fritsche repeated the free climb solo in 2001 under conditions that resembled those encountered during the 1924 Everest expedition, and assessed the climb as having a grade of 5.6–5.7. Fritsche completed the climb without supplementary oxygen, and believes that Mallory could, weather permitting, have reached the summit.
In June 2007, as part of the 2007 Altitude Everest expedition, Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding free-climbed the Second Step, having first removed the Chinese ladder (which was later replaced).
Houlding rated the climb at 5.9, just within Mallory's estimated capabilities. The climb was part of an expedition which tried to recreate the 1924 climb. Eight years earlier, Anker had climbed the Second Step as part of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, but had used one point of aid by stepping on a rung of the ladder, which blocked the only available foothold.
At that time, Anker had rated the climb at 5.10, which he considered to be beyond Mallory's capabilities, but after the June 2007 climb, he changed his view and said that Mallory "could have climbed it".
Noel Odell believed that he had seen Mallory and Irvine ascend the Second Step, but eventually changed his story to say it was the First Step. Towards the end of his life, however, he reaffirmed his original view. Recent observations taken from Odell's vantage point by other climbers suggest that Odell would have probably seen the men at the Second Step as he had initially reported.
Theories
A number of different outcomes have been proposed, and new theories continue to be put forward. Most views have the two carrying two cylinders of oxygen each, reaching and climbing either the First or Second Step, where they are seen by Odell.
At this point, two main alternatives remain: either Mallory takes Irvine's oxygen and goes on alone (and may or may not reach the summit); or both go on together until they turn back (having used up their oxygen, or realising that they will do so before the summit).
In either case, Mallory slips and falls to his death while descending, perhaps caught in the fierce snow squall that sent Odell to take shelter in their tent.
Irvine either falls with him, or in the first scenario, dies alone of exhaustion and hypothermia high up on the ridge.
The hypothesis advanced by Tom Holzel in February 2008 is that Odell sighted Mallory and Irvine climbing the First Step for a final look around while they were actually descending from a failed summit bid.
Assessments by Other Climbers
-- Ang Tsering
Ang Tsering, a Sherpa member of the 1924 British Everest Expedition, was interviewed in 2000 by Jonathan Neale. Ang recounted:
"What I liked about George Mallory
was that he was so friendly."
-- Harry Tyndale
Harry Tyndale, one of Mallory's climbing partners, said of Mallory:
"In watching George at work, one was conscious
not so much of physical strength as of suppleness
and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious was
his progress in any steep place that his movements
appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness."
-- Geoffrey Winthrop Young
Geoffrey Winthrop Young, an accomplished mountain climber, held Mallory's ability in awe:
"His movement in climbing was entirely his own.
It contradicted all theory. He would set his foot
high against any angle of smooth surface, fold
his shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and
upright again on an impetuous curve.
Whatever may have happened unseen the while
between him and the cliff… the look, and indeed
the result, were always the same - a continuous
undulating movement so rapid and so powerful
that one felt the rock must yield, or disintegrate."
The First "Real" ascent, or Just to the Summit?
If evidence were found that showed that Mallory or Irvine had reached the summit of Everest in 1924, advocates of Hillary and Norgay's first ascent maintain that the historical record should not be changed to state that Mallory and Irvine made the first ascent.
-- 1965 Mount Everest summiteer H. P. S. Ahluwalia claims that without photographic proof, no evidence shows that Mallory reached the summit and:
"It would be unfair to say that the
first man to scale Mount Everest
was George Mallory".
-- Mallory's son John Mallory, who was three years old when his father died, said:
"To me, the only way you achieve a summit
is to come back alive. The job is only half
done if you don't get down again".
-- Edmund Hillary echoed John Mallory's opinion, asking:
"If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the
descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain?
I am rather inclined to think personally that maybe it is quite
important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a
mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the
bottom again."
-- Hillary's daughter, Sarah, when asked about her father's take on the debate, said:
"His view was that he had got 50 good years
out of being conqueror of Everest, and, whatever
happened, he wasn't particularly worried. That's
my feeling as well."
-- Chris Bonington, the British mountaineer, argued:
"If we accept the fact that they were above the
Second Step, they would have seemed to be
incredibly close to the summit of Everest, and I
think at that stage something takes hold of most
climbers… And I think therefore taking all those
circumstances in view… I think it is quite conceivable
that they did go for the summit… I certainly would
love to think that they actually reached the summit
of Everest. I think it is a lovely thought and I think it is
something, you know, gut emotion, yes I would love
them to have got there. Whether they did or not,
I think that is something one just cannot know."
-- Conrad Anker, who found Mallory's body in 1999, free-climbed the Second Step in 2007 and who has worn replica 1924 climbing gear on Everest, said:
"I believe it is possible, but highly
improbable, that they made it to
the top."
Anker cited the difficulty of the Second Step and the position of Mallory's body. He said that, in his opinion:
"I don't believe they made it… the climbing up there
is so difficult, and I think that Mallory was a very good
climber, and part of being a good climber is knowing
when you're at too much of a risk, and it's time to turn
back.
I think he saw that, and he turned back and it was
either he or Irvine as they were descending the
Yellow Band slipped and pulled the other one off, the
rope snapped and he came to his rest."
-- Robert Graves, who climbed with Mallory, in his autobiography recounts the story, at the time famous in climbing circles, about an ascent that Mallory made as a young man in 1908:
"My friend George Mallory once did an inexplicable
climb on Snowdon. He had left his pipe on a ledge,
half-way down one of the Liwedd precipices, and
scrambled back by a short cut to retrieve it, then up
again by the same route.
No one saw what route he took, but when they came to
examine it the next day for official record, they found an
overhang nearly all the way.
By a rule of the Climbers' Club, climbs are never named
in honour of their inventors, but only describe natural
features.
An exception was made here. The climb was recorded
as follows:
'Mallory's Pipe, a variation on route 2; see adjoining map.
This climb is totally impossible. It has been performed
once, in failing light, by Mr G. H. L. Mallory.'"
The route is now called "Mallory's Slab", a hard V Diff on Y Lliwedd.
The Legacy of George Mallory
Mallory was honoured by having a court named after him at his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, with an inscribed stone commemorating his death set above the doorway to one of the buildings.
The Friends of Magdalene Boat Club was renamed the Mallory Club in recognition of his achievements in exploration and rowing at the college.
Two high peaks in California's Sierra Nevada, Mount Mallory and Mount Irvine, located a few miles southeast of Mount Whitney, were named after them.
The Times obituary of George Finch called Mallory and Finch "The two best alpinists of their time".
Mallory was captured on film by expedition cameraman John Noel, who released his film of the 1924 expedition, 'The Epic of Everest.' Some of his footage was also used in George Lowe's 1953 documentary 'The Conquest of Everest'.
A documentary on the 2001 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, 'Found on Everest', was produced by Riley Morton.
Mallory was played by Brian Blessed in the 1991 re-creation of his last climb, 'Galahad of Everest'.
In Anthony Geffen's 2010 documentary film about Mallory's life and final expedition, 'The Wildest Dream', Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding attempted to reconstruct the climb, dressed and equipped like Mallory and Irvine.
'Everest', a proposed Hollywood version of the 1924 attempt, adapted from Jeffrey Archer's 2009 novel 'Paths of Glory', had first Tom Hardy and then Benedict Cumberbatch slated to play Mallory, by 2014 it was evident that the film was no longer in production. As of late 2021, it is in production again, with Ewan McGregor starring as Mallory.
In April 2015, it was announced that Michael Sheen would play Mallory in a biopic titled 'In High Places', to be written and directed by James McEachen, but as of 2020, McEachen's website stated that it had not been funded.
Tragedy in the mountains has proved a recurring theme in the Mallory line. Mallory's younger brother, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, met his death on a mountain range when the Avro York carrying him to his new appointment as Air Commander-in-Chief of South East Asia Command crashed in the French Alps in 1944, killing all on board.
A memorial window to George Mallory along with a memorial plaque to Trafford can be found at St. Wilfrid's Church, Mobberley.
Mallory's daughter, Frances Clare, married physiologist Glenn Allan Millikan, who was killed in a climbing accident in Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee.
Frances Mallory's son, Richard Millikan, became a respected climber during the 1960's and '70's. Mallory's grandson, also named George Mallory, reached the summit of Everest in 1995 via the North Ridge with six other climbers as part of the American Everest Expedition of 1995. He left a picture of his grandparents at the summit, citing "unfinished business".
Belgian rock band Girls in Hawaii's song "Mallory's Height" on their 2013 album 'Everest' is a homage to Mallory.
A collaboration of drawings by my friend Alice Pattullo and myself. They were made into a small self-published zine, and a set of 3 posters (digitally printed onto cartridge paper)
Published by O Globo, Brazil 1941
Timely Comics from Brazil are among the earliest publications in Global History.
The artist's hired by O Globo from the era are some of the best in Global history...
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 25th of November 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
OBITUARY.; Madam Eliza B. Jumel.
New York TImes
Published: July 18, 1865
A single sentence in this morning's TIMES serves to awaken many memories of the past, and revive remembrances of men and parties long since crumbled or forgotten. Thus it reads: "Died, on Sunday morning, July 16, at her late residence, Washington Heights, madam ELIZA B. JUMEL, in the 92d year of her age."
Madam JUMEL, whose death is chronicled above, was a very singular person, about whose name twined many marvelous stories, and with whose history the greatest men of colonial and Revolutionary days were intimately connected. According to one historian, she was born of an English, mother, Mrs. CAPET, in the cabin of a French frigate, which in the year of our Lord 1769 was carrying troops to the West Indies from La Brest. The mother died as the child drew the first breath of life. Somewhat embarrassed by the tender charge, the Captain concluded to keep her, but afterward, when driven into Newport, R.I., harbor, he placed her in the custody of an elderly lady named THOMPSON, who agreed to take good care of her. Mrs. THOMPSON was a good woman, and many clergymen visited her comparatively humble dwelling, so that the early years of the little one were passed amid good influences.
Many of His Britannic Majesty's officers dwelt in Newport. Among them was a certain Col. P. CROIX, whose personal appearance is reported to have been most taking -- whose position in society was excellent. The Colonel met Miss CAPET when she was about seventeen years of age, and fell in love with her pretty face and pleasant figure. She reciprocated the tender passion, which eventuated in an elopement, the indiscreet but entirely happy pair proceeding to New-York, where the lady lodged at a "handsome wooden structure," but recently standing where now rests the north wing of STEWART's marble palace.
Brought at once into contact with the best people in the city, the lady became a cultured woman of the world, fond of its pleasures, versed in its intrigues, interested in the cabals of politicians, and espousing with ardor one side or the other of the continual military emeutes with which the latter days of the eighteenth century were so cursed in New-York City. She was present at the opening of the first session of Congress at Philadelphia, in September, 1774, and at the inauguration of WASHINGTON as President, she created a decided impression by her beauty and general air of savoir faire. She was about twenty years of age then, and very elegant in person and distinguished in bearing. Mme. JUMEL first met AARON BURR when he ranked as a Captain in the army, and was greatly impressed by his power and expression. She was even then intimate with BENEDICT ARNOLD, whose wife she fancied her best friend, and with PATRICK HENRY, in whose breast of reserve she started a dangerous fire of love and passion; but, forgetful of those noted men, and of the scores who bent willingly before her shrine, she wrote thus of the man who, in after years, was destined to be her lord, if not her master. She says:
"Capt. AARON BURR, in the hey-day of his youth, as he now was, appeared to me the perfection of manhood personified. He was beneath the common size of men, only five feet and a half high, but his figure and form had been fashioned in the models of the graces. Petite as he comparatively was, he had a martial appearance, and displayed in all his movements those accomplishments which are only acquired in the camp and embellished in the boudior of the graces. In a word, he was a combined model of Mars and Apollo. His eye was of the deepest black, and sparkled with an incomprehensible brilliancy when he smiled; but if enraged, its power was absolutely terrific. Into whatever female society he chanced, by the fortune of war or by the vicissitudes of private life to be cast, he conquered all hearts without an effort; and, until he became deeply involved in the cares of State, and the vexations incident to the political arena, I do not believe a female capable of the gentle emotions of love ever looked upon him without loving him. Wherever he went he was petted and caressed by our sex, and hundreds vied with each other in a continuous struggle to offer him some testimonial of their adulation. And yet, with all this popularity in the polite circles, he never took advantage of his position, and I do not believe that any female ever had cause to complain of his seductive wiles, perfidy or injustice."
The casual meeting between the two took place at the rooms of Lady STIRLING, and resulted in Miss CAPET's acceptance of an invitation to accompany Capt. BURR that evening to the theatre. On the way to the house, BURR asked permission to stop for a friend, and so doing he brought into the carriage and introduced to Miss CAPET as his friend the afterward celebrated MARGARET MONCRIEF. A desperate flirtation followed, but beyond that nothing of any moment occurred between them, and he soon after was called away, so that for years they did not meet.
Continuing her gay career, Miss CAPET met and knew intimately the great leaders of the Revolutionary struggle. THOMAS JEFFERSON was a frequent visitor at her house, and a friendship formed between them which ceased only with his death, in 1826. Old BEN FRANKLIN called her his "Fairy Queen," and was on terms of such intimacy with her as permitted him to salute her lips in the presence of friends. Gen. KNOX was likewise a worshipper before her, and LAFAYETTE was greatly charmed. That such a woman as this should have gone through escapades and adventures is but natural; that she should take pleasure and pride in bringing men of loftiest position to her feet is quite understandable; that her reputation should materially suffer by the scandal of her rivals and the jealous tattlings of her female friends is what one would expect; but that she should finally accept the hand of, and marry, a quiet, hard-working, adventurous trader, is a vagary difficult of explanation. She did it, however. In the early days of this century she was wooed and won by a Frenchman named STEPHEN JUMEL, who, landing here poor, made an immense fortune in the wine trade. He became noted for his wealth, liberality and kind-hearted benevolence, and singular foresight in business matters. Of him our worthy but eccentric fellow-citizen, GRANT THORBURN, said:
"STEPHEN JUMEL, a Frenchman, was among our early merchant princes. One morning, about 10 o'clock, in the year 1806, this gentleman, in company with WILLIAM BAYARD, HARMON LE ROY, ARCHIBALD GRACIE, Gen. CLARKSON, and some dozen others, was reading and discussing the news just arrived from Liverpool in the extraordinary short passage of seven weeks. The matter mostly concerned NAPOLEON I. and the battle of Wagram. While thus engaged, a carman's horse backed his cart into the Whitehall-slip. The cart was got out, but the horse was drowned, and every one began pitying the poor carman's ill-luck. JUMEL instantly arose, and placing a ten-dollar bill between his thumb and finger, and holding it aloft while it fluttered in the breeze, and with his hat in the other hand he walked through the length and breadth of the crowd, exclaiming, "How much you pity the poor man? I pity him ten dollars. How much you pity him?" By this ingenious and noble coup he collected in a few moments about seventy dollars, which he gave over at once to the unfortunate and fortunate carman. This has since been imitated often, but of its originality with him there can be no question."
Shortly after this marriage, the downfall of the great NAPOLEON occurred, and the pacification of Europe was secured. This seemed a favorable opportunity for the wealthy Frenchman, who had long since retired from active business, to take his beautiful and accomplished wife to the centre of continental splendor. They went to Paris, purchased a magnificent establishment, and under the social patronage of LAFAYETTE and his contemporaries, Madame JUMEL became as noted in the salons of the French capital as in the parlors of the western metropolis. Her wit and talent placed her in the very van of the frequenters of the court, and while she never failed to make continual conquests, we are not of those who believe the slanderers of her reputation. Gaiety is not always guilt, frivolity not always the exponent of heartlessness, and despite Madame JUMEL's wonderful gaiety and never-ceasing frivolty, she was deep and shrewd and able enough to maintain her position against the combined attacks of those who envied her.
Her life of prodigious prodigality made sad inroads upon her husband's fortune, and he became low spirited. She rallied him, but investigation demonstrated the comparative wreck of his estate, and she failed to arouse him to the necessary exertion. Self-reliant, bold, independent and clear-sighted, she broke up their establishment in Paris and returned alone to New-York in 1822. Resolved to mend what she had broken, she retired to an estate of her own on the island, and devoted herself to the recuperation of her husband's fortune with such signal success that when, in 1828, at the age of sixty-four, he returned to this country, he found himself possessed of means at once abundant and satisfactory. They lived happily together until his death, which resulted in his seventieth year, from an accidental fall.
At this time Col. BURR was practicing law, with great success, in New-York. His legal position was in the front rank: triumph succeeded triumph and although old in years, he seemed but in the prime of life. There was talk of cholera in the city, and Madame JUMEL, who had large interests in real estate determined upon a carriage tour in the country siring, however, to take legal advice on some matters before leaving, she determined to consult Col. BURR, whose preeminence in real estate law was universally conceded. It was a long time since she had seen him. Years had changed them both; oceans and events had separated them; marriage and its consequences had turned the thoughts of each in other directions; and now, when the one was an old man and the other a well-advanced woman, they were to meet. He was perfect in all the subtleties of social life; she was the exponent, ne plus ultra, of fashionable life. The one could not hope to blind, mislead, or seduce the other. His office was at No. 23 Nassau-street, and she drove thither to consult him. Never forgetful of eye, or feature, or figure, he recognized her in a moment, and, as PARTON in his Life of Aaron Burr, says:
"He received her in his courtliest manner, complimented her with admirable tact, listened with soft deference to her statement. He was the ideal man of business -- confidential, self-possessed, polite -- giving his client the flattering impression that the faculties of his whole soul were concentrated upon the affair in hand. She was charmed, yet feared him. He took the papers, named the day when his opinion would be ready and handed her to her carriage with winning grace. At seventy-eight years of age, he was still straight, active, agile, fascinating.
On the appointed day she sent to his office a relative, a student of law, to receive his opinion. This young gentleman, timid and inexperienced, had an immense opinion of BURR's talents; had heard all good and all evil of him; supposed him to be, at least, the acutest of possible men. He went. BURR behaved to him in a manner so exquisitely pleasing, that, to this hour, he has the liveliest recollection of the scene. No topic was introduced but such as were familiar and interesting to young men. His manners were such as this age of slangy familiarity cannot so much as imagine. The young gentleman went home to Madame JUMEL only to extol and glorify him.
Madame and her party began their journey, revisiting Ballston, whither, in former times, she had been wont to go in a chariot drawn by eight horses; visiting Saratoga, then in the beginning of its celebrity, where, in exactly ten minutes after her arrival, the decisive lady bought a house and all it contained. Returning to New-York to find that her mansion had been despoiled by robbers in her absence, she lived for a while in the city. Col. BURR called upon the young gentleman who had been Madame's messenger, and, after their acquaintance had ripened, said to him, "Come into my office; I can teach you more in one year than you can learn in ten, in an ordinary way." The proposition being submitted to Madame JUMEL, she, anxious for the young man's advancement, gladly and gratefully consented. He entered the office. BURR kept him close at his books. He did teach him more in a year than he could have learned in ten in an ordinary way. BURR lived then in Jersey City. His office swarmed with applicants for aid, and he seemed to have quite lost the power of refusing. In no other respects, bodily or mental, did he exhibit signs of decrepitude.
Some months passed on without his again meeting Madame JUMEL. At the suggestion of the student, who felt exceedingly grateful to BURR for the solicitude with which he assisted his studies, Madame JUMEL invited Col. BURR to dinner. It was a grand banquet, at which he displayed all the charms of his manner and shone to conspicuous advantage. On handing to dinner the giver of the feast, he said: "I give you my hand, Madame; my heart has long been yours." This was supposed to be merely a compliment and was little remarked at the time. Col. BURR called upon the lady; called frequently; became ever warmer in his attentions; proposed, at length, and was refused. He still plied his suit, however, and obtained at lost, not the lady's consent, but an undecided no. Improving his advantage on the instant, he said, in a jocular manner, that he should bring out a clergyman to Fort Washington on a certain day, and there he would once more solicit her hand.
He was as good as his word. At the time appointed, he drove out in his gig to the lady's country residence, accompanied by Dr. BOGART, the very clergy, man who, just fifty years before, had married him to the mother of his THEODOSIA. The lady was embarrassed, and still refused. But then the scandal! And, after all, why not? Her estate needed a vigilant guardian, and the old house was lonely. After much hesitation, she at length consented to be dressed and to receive her visitors. And she was married. The ceremony was witnessed only by the members of Madame JUMEL's family and by the eight servants of the household, who peered eagerly in at the doors and windows. The ceremony over, Mrs. BURR ordered supper. Some bins of M. JUMEL'L wine cellar, that had not been opened for half a century, were laid under contribution. The little party was a very merry one. The parson, in particular, it is remembered, was in the highest spirits, overflowing with humor and anecdote. Except for Col. BURR's great age, (which was not apparent,) the match seemed not an unwise one. The lurking fear he had had of being a poor and homeless old man was put to rest. She had a companion who had been ever agreeable, and her estate a steward than whom no one living was supposed to be more competent.
As a remarkable circumstance connected with this marriage, it may be just mentionen that there was a woman in New-York who had aspired to the band of Col. BURR and who, when she heard of his union with another, wrung her hands and shed tears. A feeling of that nature can seldom, since the creation of man, have been excited by the marriage of a man on the verge of fourscore.
A few days after the wedding, the 'happy pair' paid a visit to Connecticut, of which State a nephew of Col. BURR's was then Governor. They were received with attention. At Hartford, BURR advised his wife to sell out her shares in the bridge over the Connecticut at that place and invest the proceeds in real estate. She ordered them sold. The stock was in demand and the shares brought several thousand dollars. The purchaser offered to pay her the money, but she said, "No; pay it to my husband." To him, accordingly, it was paid, and he had it sewed up in his pocket, a prodigious bulk, and brought it to New-York and deposited it in his own bank to his own credit.
Texas was then beginning to attract the tide of emigration which, a few years later, set so strongly thither. BURR had always token a great interest in that country. Persons with whom he had been variously connected in life had a scheme on foot for settling a large colony of Germans on a tract of land in Texas. A brig had been chartered and the project was in a state of forwardness, when the possession of a sum of money enabled BURR to buy shares in the enterprise. The greater part of the money which he had brought from Hartford was invested in this way. It proved a total loss. The time had not yet come for emigration to Texas. The Germans became discouraged and separated, and, to complete the failure of the scheme, the title of the lands, in the confusion of the times, proved defective. Meanwhile, Madame, who was a remarkable thrifty woman, with a talent for the management of property, wondered that her husband made no allusion to the subject of the investment, for the Texas speculation had not been mentioned to her. She caused him to be questioned on the subject. He begged to intimate to the lady's messenger that it was no affair of her's and he requested him to remind the lady that she now had a husband to manage her affairs and one who would manage them.
Coolness between the husband and wife was the result of this colloquy. Then came remonstrances. Then estrangement. BURR got into the habit of remaining in his office in the city. Then, partial reconciliation. Full of schemes and spebulations to the last, without retaining any of his former ability to act successfully, he lost more money, and more, and more. The patience of the lady was exhausted. She filed a complain accusing him of infidelity and praying that he might have no more control or authority over her affairs. The accusation is now known to have been groundless; nor, indeed, at the time was it seriously believed. It was used merely as the most convenient legal mode of depriving him of control over her property. At first, he answered the complaint vigorously, but afterward he allowed it to go by default and the proceedings were carried no further. A few short weeks of happiness, followed by a few alternate months of alternate estrangment and reconciliation, and this union, that begun not inauspiciously, was, in effect, though never in law, dissolved."
Since then Madame JUMEL, who has never resumed her late husband's name, has resided in her home at Washington Heights, comparatively alone. She knew but few, and cored not to extend her list of friends. She died on Sunday, possessed of considerable property, which her grand-children will doubtless inherit. Her funeral will be to-day.
Published in January 1894 by The Historical Publishing Company, author J. W. Buel, this book contains 300 photographs of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the California Midwinter Fair in 1894.
The Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492. At the core of the fair was an area that quickly became known as the White City for its buildings with white stucco siding and its streets illuminated by electric lights.
The California Midwinter International Exposition—also known as the Midwinter Fair—was held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park from January 27 to July 4, 1894. Following on the heels of the World’s Columbian Exposition, it showcased selected exhibits from Chicago’s spectacular commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s journey to America as well as an impressive number of new exhibits at its specially constructed fairground, Sunset City.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was photographed and published by A. Yallop of Great Yarmouth. They state on the back of the card that it was 'Printed Abroad'.
St. Nicholas
The Norman-era Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth is England's largest parish church. It was founded in 1101 by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich. Since its construction, it has been Great Yarmouth's parish church.
It is cruciform, with a central tower, which may preserve a part of the original structure. Gradual alterations effectively changed the form of the building. Its nave is 26 feet (7.9 m) wide, and the church's total length is 236 feet (72 m).
These days the church is not only used for religious services, but is also a hub for various other regional and civic events, including concerts by choirs, orchestras and other musical ensembles, art exhibitions and, during festivals and fayres, the church opens permitting stalls and traders inside.
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth is a seaside resort and minster town in Norfolk straddling the River Yare, 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous place.
Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, fell steeply after the mid-20th. century, and has all but vanished. North Sea oil from the 1960's brought an oil-rig supply industry that now services offshore natural gas rigs. More recent offshore wind power and other renewable energy have created further support services.
Yarmouth has been a seaside resort since 1760, and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Tourism was boosted when a railway opened in 1844, which gave visitors easier, cheaper access and triggered some settlement.
Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th. century, Yarmouth was a booming resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres.
There is also the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, as well as a surviving Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.
Great Yarmouth in the Past
The town was the site of a bridge disaster and drowning tragedy on the 2nd. May 1845, when a suspension bridge crowded with children collapsed killing 79. They had gathered to watch a clown in a barrel being pulled by geese down the river. As he passed under the bridge the weight shifted, causing the chains on the south side to snap, tipping over the bridge deck.
Great Yarmouth had an electric tramway system from 1902 to 1933. From the 1880's until the Great War, the town was a regular destination for Bass Excursions, when 15 trains would take 8000–9000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.
During the Great War, Great Yarmouth suffered the first aerial bombardment in the UK, by Zeppelin L3 on the 19th. January 1915. That same year on the 15th. August, Ernest Jehan became the first and only man to sink a steel submarine with a sail-rigged Q-ship, off the coast of Great Yarmouth.
Great Yarmouth was bombarded by the German Navy on the 24th. April 1916. The town also suffered Luftwaffe bombing during World War II because it was the last significant place Germans could drop bombs before returning home.
Nevertheless despite war damage, much is left of the old town, including the original 2,000-metre (1.2 mi) protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived. Of the 18 towers, 11 are left.
On the South Quay is a 17th.-century Merchant's House, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. Behind South Quay is a maze of alleys and lanes known as 'The Rows'. Originally there were 145. Despite bombing, several have remained.
Great Yarmouth was badly affected by the North Sea flood of 1953. More recent flooding has also been a problem, with four floods in 2006, the worst being in September. Torrential rain caused drains to block and an Anglian Water pumping station to break down. This caused flash flooding in which 90 properties were flooded up to a depth of 5 ft (1.5 m).
Great Yarmouth Sights and Amenities
The Tollhouse with its dungeons, dating from the late 13th. century, is one of Britain's oldest former jails and oldest civic buildings. Major sections of the medieval town walls survive around the parish cemetery and in parts of the old town.
Great Yarmouth Minster (The Minster Church of St Nicholas, founded in the 12th. century as an act of penance) stands in Church Plain, just off the market place. It is the third-largest parish church in England, after Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire and Christchurch Priory in Dorset.
Church Plain also has the 17th.-century timber-framed house, in which Anna Sewell (1820–1878), author of Black Beauty, was born.
The market place, one of the largest in England, has been operating since the 13th. century. It is also home to the town's shopping sector and the famous Yarmouth chip stalls. The smaller area south of the market is used as a performance area for community events.
The Scroby Sands Wind Farm of 30 generators is within sight of the seafront. Also visible are grey seals during their breeding season. The country's only full-time circus, the Hippodrome Circus, is just off the seafront.
The Two Piers
Great Yarmouth has two piers, Britannia Pier (which is Grade II listed) and Wellington Pier. The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach.
Britannia Pier holds the Britannia Theatre, which during the summer has featured acts such as Jim Davidson, the comedian Jethro, Basil Brush, Cannon and Ball, Chubby Brown, the Chuckle Brothers and the Searchers. It is one of the few end-of-the pier theatres surviving in England.
The Winter Gardens
The Grade II listed Winter Gardens building sits next to the Wellington Pier. The cast iron, framed glass structure was shipped by barge from Torquay in 1903, purportedly without the loss of a single pane of glass. Over the years, it has been used as ballroom, roller skating rink and beer garden.
In the 1990's it was converted into a nightclub by Jim Davidson, and has since been used as a family leisure venue. It is currently (2020) closed. In the meantime it has been named by the Victorian Society as a heritage building at risk of disrepair.
The Marine Parade
Great Yarmouth's seafront, known as 'The Golden Mile' attracts millions of visitors each year to its sandy beaches, indoor and outdoor attractions and amusement arcades.
Great Yarmouth's Marine Parade has twelve Amusement Arcades within 2 square miles.Their names draw heavily on Las Vegas and include: The Flamingo, Circus Circus, The Golden Nugget, The Mint, The Silver Slipper, The Showboat, Magic City, Quicksilver and The Gold Rush.
In addition to the two piers, tourist attractions on Marine Parade include Joyland, Pirates' Cove Adventure Golf, Yesterday's World, the Marina Centre, Retroskate, the Arnold Palmer Putting Green, the Sea Life Centre, Merrivale Model Village and the Pleasure Beach and Gardens.
The Venetian Waterways
In August 2019, the Venetian Waterways and gardens re-opened. The waterways, running parallel to the main beach, were a feature constructed as a work-creation scheme in 1926–1928, consisting of canals and formal gardens, with rowing boats, pedalos and gondolas.
The waterways had been allowed to silt up, decay and become abandoned. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £1.7 m and the labour of volunteers, the flowerbeds have been restored with 20,000 plants, and the 1920's cafe has been restored. That and the boat hire are being run by a social enterprise.
The Nelson Monument
The South Denes area is home to the Grade I listed Norfolk Naval Pillar, known locally as the Britannia Monument or Nelson's Monument. This tribute to Nelson was completed in 1819, 24 years before the completion of Nelson's Column in London. The monument, designed by William Wilkins, shows Britannia standing atop a globe holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left.
There is a popular assumption in the town that the statue of Britannia was supposed to face out to sea but now faces inland due to a mistake during construction, although it is thought she is meant to face Nelson's birthplace at Burnham Thorpe.
The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, but fund-raising was not completed until after his death, and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero. It is currently surrounded by an industrial estate but there are plans to improve the area.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens used Great Yarmouth as a key location in his novel David Copperfield and described the town as 'The finest place in the universe'. The author stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade while writing the novel.
Great Yarmouth Museums
The Norfolk Nelson Museum on South Quay houses the Ben Burgess collection of Nelson memorabilia and is the only dedicated Nelson museum in Britain, other than one in Monmouth. Its several galleries look at Nelson's life and personality, and at what life was like for men who sailed under him.
The Time and Tide Museum in Blackfriars Road was nominated in the UK Museums Awards in 2005. It was built as part of a regeneration of the south of the town in 2003. Its location in an old herring smokery harks back to the town's status as a major fishing port.
Sections of the historic town wall stand opposite the museum, next to the Great Yarmouth Potteries, part of which is housed in another former smoke house. The town wall is among the most complete medieval town walls in the country, with 11 of the 18 original turrets still standing.
Other museums in the town include the National Trust's Elizabethan House, the Great Yarmouth Row Houses, managed by English Heritage, and the privately owned Blitz and Pieces, based on the Home Front during World War II.
The Westland Wessex Crash
On the 13th. October 2014, a memorial stone was unveiled to commemorate the deaths of thirteen people in the 1981 Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex crash.
G-ASWI was a Westland Wessex 60 operating between Bacton Gas Terminal, in Norfolk, and Amoco gas platforms in the North Sea. On the 13th. August 1981 the helicopter lost power to the main rotor gearbox, going out of control. The flight was carrying 11 gas workers from the Leman gas field to Bacton. All passengers, pilot and cabin attendant on board were lost.
At 15:41, returning from the Leman field to the landing site at Bacton, the commander, Ben Breach, sent a distress message reporting that he was ditching due to engine failure. Radar lost the aircraft three seconds later.
A Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Westland Sea King left RAF Coltishall at 15:47, sighting floating wreckage from G-ASWI at 15:57.
Efforts to recover the wreck were delayed, meaning that the wreck was beyond recovery by the time salvage operations started. There was insufficient evidence to explain either the loss of power or loss of control that caused the aircraft to crash. The inquest into the deaths of those on board recorded an open verdict.
[Published in Academic Emergency Medicine, Volume 13, Number 7 p.739, titled "Fatal GSW Right Chest"]
No... this is not Iraq or Israel...
this is 2 miles west of the Loop In Chicago Illinois USA, the wild Westside, circa 2005.
The sea of humanity that floods most urban EDs across the country, contuses the soul of our collective consciousness... how do we allow the degree of hopelessness among millions of humans fester unchecked, amidst the beautiful rolling fields and glowing towers of American wealth, power and global influence?
The pure spirit of our people must harmonize and evolve... the direction of willful change guided by the anticipated effect our actions leave on our children, five generations from now. Regardless of the religious specifics we cherish with gentle hands, when our lasting creations, anoint the souls of distant infants with peace, love and comfort from suffering, we are eternal... our toil insuring the cycle propagates endlessly. I can think of few greater purposes.
...from my eleven years teaching emergency medicine at an inner-city trauma center.
:::
Day 244 ~ Published
My image of Rocky, taken just a few months before we lost him, was reviewed by Sarah Wilkerson in a section of Click Magazine called “Why it Works.” She says,
The organized chaos of patterns, shapes, and surfaces, with light reflecting off of them in so many different ways, is a feast for the eyes. Strong lines and a very low perspective draw the eye deeply into the scene. The framing creates a fantastic contradiction between the primary subject and the visual experience; we observe a lazy dog, but the viewer’s experience is much more active. While the dog sleeps, the viewer’s eyes move about, exploring the house: into the back room, up the stairs, even into the kitchen via reflection of the door.
After working on Time Out for ten issues i finally have one of my shots on the cover.
For this we hired a model and makeup artist and it was thought up by our art director.
My job was easy really. Just the one light needed and shot in our meeting room.
Published by La Selva, Brazil 1950
A friends of mine collection, but I wanted you to have a chance to view these important editions.
Duckboard Place adjoins ACDC Lane off Flinders Lane, between Russell and Exhibition Streets in Melbourne.
Three exposure merge.
This photo was published in Geography Alive 9 (Jacaranda), page 107.
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Davide, Enrica, Giosada e gli Urban Strangers, i quattro finalisti di #XF9, in diretta dal Mediolanum Forum di Assago, Milano, giovedì 10 Dicembre 2015, avranno l’onore di condividere lo stesso palco con giganti della musica come i Coldplay, in vetta alle classifiche in 53 paesi. Chris Martin & Co si esibiranno live in esclusiva per l’Italia proprio sul palco della Finale per regalare al pubblico ben due successi del nuovo album: "A Head Full of Dreams" e "Adventure of a Lifetime".
X Factor Italia vuole siglare un altro primato: l’intera giuria si esibirà sulle note dei propri successi e con le proprie band: Elio e le Storie Tese, Skunk Anansie e Fedez e Mika.
Alessandro Cattelan vi racconterà questo grandissimo evento musicale scandendo i ritmi di una serata che si preannuncia veramente intensa. Avrete modo di assistere a una sfida davvero speciale tra Enrica, Davide, Giosada e Urban Strangers al fianco di un grande artista italiano: Cesare Cremonini. Dopo 34 date del Logico Tour, la pop star bolognese accompagnerà al pianoforte i ragazzi nella prima manche dedicata ai duetti, al termine della quale uno di loro lascerà la gara, oltre ad eseguire "Lost in weekend".
La sfida proseguirà con la manche degli inediti, appena presentati e già in cima alla classifica iTunes. Per lo scontro decisivo, i due super finalisti si giocheranno il podio con un brano scelto da ciascuno di loro tra quelli interpretati durante il lungo percorso ad X Factor. Solo uno di loro si aggiudicherà un contratto con Sony Music Italia e la possibilità di pubblicare un album.
Non finisce qui: un inedito duetto infiammerà il Forum, quello di Fedez & Mika, che si esibiranno per la prima volta live nel loro "Beautiful Disaster". Elio e le Storie Tese si porteranno al Forum uno dei classici storici della band, "Servi della gleba", mentre gli Skunk Anansie la nuovissima "Love Someone Else".
Il vincitore della nona edizione di X Factor Italia è Giosada.
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 10th of December 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images and have any stories and information to add please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order."
I have just published a book called "Nova Foresta". Photographs of the New Forest taken over the last 12 months. I used Lulu.com who print the book on demand i.e. they only print each copy as it is ordered - which should save a few trees. I have approved the pdf which looks good but haven't received the proof copy yet so can't comment on the printing and binding quality. However, if you just can't wait to get a copy (I know you can't) you can order it here:
I'll report on the printing quality as soon as I get the proof, but if you are interested in doing the same I can recommend the Lulu website which makes the process easy.
My photo from this Sunday, "Leaving Skyfall" was published in this week's Georgia Straight, after they saw it on Flickr! I even got paid ;-) Many thanks to The Georgia Straight for the compliment you made my week!
News
Etna, the Forge of Hephaestus - Etna, la fucina di Efesto
by Francesco Pappalardo.
This is an excellent Photography book recently published by this great photographer and flickr friend cicciofarmaco.
This book is a collection of the most beautiful pictures of the Etna volcano paroxysmal eruptions of 2011. As you can see, Francesco has a natural talent in photography and his work is truly inspirational, so through this book you can live again the most spectacular and fascinating moments of the eruptions of the Etna volcano of 2011.
Buy this magnificent Photography book easily online through this link Etna, la fucina di Efesto. by Francesco Pappalardo and enjoy these historic events of nature forever.
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Mount Etna
Mount Etna, also known as Muncibeḍḍu in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian, a combination of Latin mons and Arabic gibel, both meaning mountain) is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. Its Arabic name was Jebel Utlamat (the Mountain of Fire). It is the second largest active volcano in Europe, currently standing 3,329 metres (10,922 ft) high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m (69 ft) lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km² (460 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide in Tenerife surpasses it in the whole of the European region (though geographically Tenerife is an island of Africa).
Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of eruption. It is also believed to be the world’s oldest active volcano. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations.
Geological history
Volcanic activity at Etna began about half a million years ago, with eruptions occurring beneath the sea off the coastline of Sicily. 300,000 years ago, volcanism began occurring to the southwest of the present-day summit, before activity moved towards the present center 170,000 years ago. Eruptions at this time built up the first major volcanic edifice, forming a strato-volcano in alternating explosive and effusive eruptions. The growth of the mountain was occasionally interrupted by major eruptions leading to the collapse of the summit to form calderas.
Etna seen from Spot Satellite.
From about 35,000 to 15,000 years ago, Etna experienced some highly explosive eruptions, generating large pyroclastic flows which left extensive ignimbrite deposits. Ash from these eruptions has been found as far away as Rome, 800 km to the north.
A crater near the Torre del Filosofo, about 450 metres below Etna’s summit.
Thousands of years ago, the eastern flank of the mountain experienced a catastrophic collapse, generating an enormous landslide in an event similar to that seen in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The landslide left a large depression in the side of the volcano, known as ‘Valle del Bove’ (Valley of the Ox). Research published in 2006 suggests that this occurred around 6000 BC, and caused a huge tsunami which left its mark in several places in the eastern Mediterranean. It may have been the reason that the settlement of Atlit Yam (Israel), now below sea level, was suddenly abandoned around that time.
The steep walls of the Valley have suffered subsequent collapse on numerous occasions. The strata exposed in the valley walls provide an important and easily accessible record of Etna’s eruptive history.
The most recent collapse event at the summit of Etna is thought to have occurred about 2,000 years ago, forming what is known as the Piano Caldera. This caldera has been almost entirely filled by subsequent lava eruptions, but is still visible as a distinct break in the slope of the mountain near the base of the present-day summit cone.
Historical eruptions
Eruptions of Etna are not all the same. Some occur at the summit, where there are currently (as of 2008) four distinct craters – the Northeast Crater, the Voragine, the Bocca Nuova, and the Southeast Crater. Other eruptions occur on the flanks, where there are more than 300 vents, ranging in size from small holes in the ground to large craters hundreds of meters across. Summit eruptions can be highly explosive and are extremely spectacular, but are rarely threatening for the inhabited areas around the volcano. On the contrary, flank eruptions can occur down to a few hundred meters altitude, close to or even well within the populated areas. Numerous villages and small towns lie around or on cones of past flank eruptions. Since the year 1600 A.D., there have been at least 60 flank eruptions and countless summit eruptions; nearly half of these have occurred since the start of the 20th century, and the 3rd millennium has seen five flank eruptions of Etna so far, in 2001, 2002-2003, 2004-2005,2007 and 2008.
The first known record of an eruption at Etna is that of Diodorus Siculus.
The Roman poet Virgil gave what was probably a first-hand description of an eruption in the Aeneid:
“ Portus ab accessu ventorum immotus et ingens ipse; sed horrificis iuxta tonat Aetna ruinis; interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem, turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla, attollitque globos flammarum et sidera lambit; interdum scopulos avolsaque viscera montis erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exaestuat imo. (3.39)
“ A spreading bay is there, impregnable To all invading storms; and Aetna’s throat With roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh. Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud Of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust, Shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues That lick the stars; now huge crags of itself, Out of the bowels of the mountain torn, Its maw disgorges, while the molten rock Rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep The fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.
In 396 BC, an eruption of Etna is said to have thwarted the Carthaginians in their attempt to advance on Syracuse during the First Sicilian War.
A particularly violent explosive (Plinian) summit eruption occurred in 122 BC, and caused heavy tephra falls to the southeast, including the town of Catania, where many roofs collapsed. To help with reconstruction and dealing with the devastating effects of the eruption, the Roman government exempted the population of Catania from paying taxes for ten years.
Recent eruptions
Etna’s 2002 eruption, photographed from the ISS.
Same, seen in a wider field.
Etna’s south east crater 2006 eruption, photographed from Torre del Filosofo.
Another large lava flow from an eruption in 1928 led to the first (and only) destruction of a population center since the 1669 eruption. The eruption started high on Etna’s northeast flank on 2 November, then new eruptive fissures opened at ever lower elevation down the flank of the volcano. The third and most vigorous of these fissures opened late on 4 November at unusually low elevation (1200 m above the sea-level), in a zone known as Ripe della Naca. The village of Mascali, lying downslope of the Ripe della Naca, was obliterated in just two days, with the lava destroying nearly every building. Only a church and a few surrounding buildings survived in the north part of the village, called Sant’Antonino or “il quartiere”. During the last days of the eruption, the flow interrupted the Messina-Catania railway line and destroyed the train station of Mascali. The event was used by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime for propaganda purposes, with the evacuation, aid and rebuilding operations being presented as models of fascist planning. Mascali was rebuilt on a new site, and its church contains the Italian fascist symbol of the torch, placed above the statue of Jesus Christ. In early November 2008, the town of Mascali commemorated the 80th anniversary of the eruption and destruction of the village with a number of public manifestations and conferences, where, amongst others, still living eyewitnesses of the eruptions recalled their impressions of that experience.
Other major 20th-century eruptions occurred in 1949, 1971, 1981, 1983 and 1991-1993. In 1971, lava buried the Etna Observatory (built in the late 19th century), destroyed the first generation of the Etna cable-car, and seriously threatened several small villages on Etna’s east flank. In March 1981, the town of Randazzo on the northwestern flank of Etna narrowly escaped from destruction by unusually fast-moving lava flows – that eruption was remarkably similar to the one of 1928 that destroyed Mascali. The 1991-1993 eruption saw the town of Zafferana threatened by a lava flow, but successful diversion efforts saved the town with the loss of only one building a few hundred metres from the town’s margin. Initially, such efforts consisted of the construction of earth barriers built perpendicularly to the flow direction; it was hoped that the eruption would stop before the artificial basins created behind the barriers would be completely filled. Instead, the eruption continued, and lava surmounted the barriers, heading directly toward Zafferana. It was then decided to use explosives near the source of the lava flow, to disrupt a very efficient lava tube system through which the lava traveled for up to 7 km without essentially losing heat and fluidity. The main explosion on 23 May 1992 destroyed the lava tube and forced the lava into a new artificial channel, far from Zafferana, and it would have taken months to re-establish a long lava tube. Shortly after the blasting, the rate of lava emission dropped and during the remainder of the eruption (until 30 March 1993) the lava never advanced close to the town again.
Following six years (1995-2001) of unusually intense activity at the four summit craters of Etna, the volcano produced its first flank eruption since 1991-1993 in July-August 2001. This eruption, which involved activity from seven distinct eruptive fissures mostly on the south slope of the volcano, was a mass-media eruption, because it occurred at the height of the tourist season and numerous reporters and journalists were already in Italy to cover the G8 summit in Genoa. It also occurred close to one of the tourist areas on the volcano, and thus was easily accessible. Part of the “Etna Sud” tourist area, including the arrival station of the Etna cable car, were damaged by this eruption, which otherwise was a rather modest-sized event for Etna standards.
In 2002-2003, a much larger eruption threw up a huge column of ash that could easily be seen from space and fell as far away as Libya, 600 km south across the Mediterranean Sea. Seismic activity in this eruption caused the eastern flanks of the volcano to slip by up to two metres, and many houses on the flanks of the volcano experienced structural damage. The eruption also completely destroyed the tourist station Piano Provenzana, on the northeastern flank of the volcano, and part of the tourist station “Etna Spud” around the Rifugio Sapienza on the south flank. Footage from the eruptions was recorded by Lucasfilm and integrated into the landscape of the planet Mustafar in the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Rifugio Sapienza is near the site of a cable car station which had previously been destroyed in the 1983 eruption; it has now been rebuilt.
Etna’s Sept. 2007 eruption as seen from the southeast crater ridgeline.
Following a rather silent, slow and non-destructive lava outflow on the upper southeastern flank between September 2004 and March 2005, intense eruptions occurred at the Southeast Crater in July-December 2006. These were followed by four episodes of lava fountaining, again at the Southeast Crater, on 29 March, 11 April, 29 April and 7 May 2007. Ash emissions and Strombolian explosions started from a vent on the eastern side of the Southeast Crater in mid-August 2007.
House destroyed by lava on the slopes of Etna.
On 4 September 2007 Etna violently erupted at around 8:00 p.m. local time, spewing lava up to 400 m into the air along with strong winds that sent ash and smoke into the underlying towns. This Southeast Crater eruption was visible far into the plains of Sicily, ending the following morning between the hours of 5 to 7 am local time. Catania-Fontanarossa Airport shut down operations during the night for safety precautions. A similar paroxysm occurred during the night of 23-24 November 2007, lasting for 6 hours and causing ash and lapilli falls to the north of the volcano. Again, the source of the activity was the Southeast Crater. Following several months of rather minor activity from the Southeast Crater and flurries of seismic activity especially in the eastern sector of the mountain, a new powerful eruptive paroxysm occurred on the late afternoon of 10 May 2008. Due to bad weather, it was not possible to see much of the activity at the vent, but several branches of lava traveled down the eastern flank of the volcano, into the Valle del Bove depression. This latest paroxysm lasted about 4 hours, ending on the evening of 10 May 2008.
A new eruption started on the morning of 13 May 2008 immediately to the east of Etna’s summit craters, accompanied by a swarm of more than 200 earthquakes and significant ground deformation in the summit area. On the afternoon of the same day, a new eruptive fissure opened at about 2800 m above sea-level, with a number of vents displaying Strombolian activity and emission of lava flows toward the Valle del Bove. During the following 24 hours the lava traveled approximately 6 km to the east, but thereafter its advance slowed and stopped, the most distant lava fronts stagnating about 3 km from the nearest village, Milo. Ash emissions became more frequent between 16 and 18 May and produced small but spectacular clouds, whereas the rate of lava emission showed a gradual diminution. During late May and the first week of June, the activity continued at low levels, with lava flows advancing only a few hundred meters from the vents as of 4 June. Four days later, on 8 June, there was a considerable increase in the vigor of Strombolian activity and lava output rate. During the following week, lava flows advanced up to 5 km from the source vents. In June and July, the eruption continued with mild Strombolian activity from two vents at about 2800 m elevation, and lava advancing up to 4 km eastward, remaining confined to the Valle del Bove collapse depression. Activity in mid-July produced loud detonations that were well audible in numerous population centers around the volcano. In late-July, explosive activity waned, but lava emission continued at a fairly low rate, feeding short lava flows that advanced little more than 1 km.
On 13 November 2008, six months after its onset, the 2008 flank eruption of Etna was continuing, at a relatively low rate, and it thus became the longest of the four flank eruptions of Etna so far in the 3rd millennium. Previous eruptions, in 2001, 2002-2003, and 2004-2005 had lasted 3 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months, respectively.
Unusual characteristics
In the 1970s Etna erupted smoke rings, one of the first captured events of this type, which is extremely rare. This happened again in 2000.
Monte Etna
L'Etna (Mungibeddu o semplicemente 'a Muntagna in siciliano) è un vulcano attivo che si trova sulla costa orientale della Sicilia, tra Catania e Messina. È il vulcano attivo più alto del continente europeo[1] e uno dei maggiori al mondo. La sua altezza varia nel tempo a causa delle sue eruzioni, ma si aggira attualmente sui 3.340 m. s.l.m. Il suo diametro è di circa 45 chilometri.
Un tempo era noto anche come Mongibello.
Leggende
A proposito del dio Eolo, il re dei venti, si diceva che avesse imprigionato i venti sotto le caverne dell'Etna. Secondo il poeta Eschilo, il gigante Tifone fu confinato nell'Etna e fu motivo di eruzioni. Un altro gigante, Encelado, si ribellò contro gli dei, venne ucciso e fu bruciato nell'Etna. Su Efesto o Vulcano, dio del fuoco e della metallurgia e fabbro degli dei, venne detto di aver avuto la sua fucina sotto l'Etna e di aver domato il demone del fuoco Adranos e di averlo guidato fuori dalla montagna, mentre i Ciclopi vi tenevano un'officina di forgiatura nella quale producevano le saette usate come armi da Zeus. Si supponeva che il mondo dei morti greco, Tartaro, fosse situato sotto l'Etna.
Su Empedocle, un importante filosofo presocratico e uomo politico greco del V secolo a.C., venne detto che si buttò nel cratere del vulcano, anche se in realtà sembra che sia morto in Grecia. Si dice che quando l'Etna eruttò nel 252, un anno dopo il martirio di Santa Agata, il popolo di Catania prese il velo rosso della Santa, rimasto intatto dalle fiamme del suo martirio, e né invocò il nome. Si dice che a seguito di ciò l'eruzione finì e che per questo motivo i devoti invocano il suo nome contro il fuoco e lampi.
Secondo una leggenda inglese l'anima della regina Elisabetta I d'Inghilterra ora risiede nell'Etna, a causa di un patto che lei fece col diavolo in cambio del suo aiuto durante il suo regno.
Turismo e ambiente
Il territorio del vulcano è tutto un mondo di ambienti differenti per morfologia e tipologia. Coltivato fino ai mille metri s.l.m. e fortemente urbanizzato sui versanti est e sud si presenta selvaggio e brullo soprattutto dal lato ovest dove dai mille metri in poi predominano le "sciare", specie nella zona di Bronte. Poco urbanizzato, ma di aspetto più dolce il versante nord con il predominio dei boschi al di sopra di Linguaglossa. Il versante est è dominato dall'aspetto inquietante della Valle del Bove sui margini della quale si inerpicano i fitti boschi. Al di sopra dei 1000 m, in inverno, è presente la neve che spesso dura fin quasi all'estate. Questa è raggiungibile agevolmente dai versanti sud e nord. Di conseguenza sull'Etna si trovavano anche due stazioni sciistiche la cui particolarità è quella di poter sciare sulla neve potendo osservare il mare. Da quella Sud del Rifugio Sapienza, nel territorio di Nicolosi, è possibile ammirare tutto il golfo di Catania e la valle del Simeto. Nelle piste a Nord, quelle di Piano Provenzana in territorio di Linguaglossa, lo scenario che si apre d'innanzi comprende Taormina e le coste della Calabria. Le piste di Nicolosi sono state danneggiate dall'eruzione dell'estate del 2001, quando una colata lavica ha distrutto la stazione d'arrivo della funivia ed il centro servizi passando a pochi metri dallo stesso "Rifugio Sapienza". Le piste di Piano Provenzana sono state colpite dalla colata dell'Autunno del 2002.
L'Etna visto da sud in autunno
Negli anni settanta del XX secolo le piste del versante sud,Nicolosi, sono state protagoniste della "Tre giorni Internazionale dell'Etna" gara di sci alpino che vedeva alla partenza i grandi nomi dello sci alla fine delle gare della coppa del mondo. Poi con il passare degli anni e con l'avvento del professionismo esasperato in tutte le discipline sportive, questa gara non ha più avuto luogo.
L'Etna è anche meta ininterrotta delle visite di turisti interessati al vulcano e alle sue manifestazioni in virtù del fatto che è uno dei pochi vulcani attivi al mondo ad essere a portata di mano di chiunque avendo a supporto ogni tipo di mezzo di comunicazione per raggiungerlo. Sono presenti infatti anche guide specializzate e mezzi fuoristrada che in sicurezza portano fino ai crateri sommitali. Il circondario ha caratteristiche che ne rendono le terre ottime per produzioni agricole, grazie alla particolare fertilità dei detriti vulcanici. La zona abitata giunge fino ai 1000 m.s.l.m. mentre le zone coltivate e boschive vanno fin oltre i 1500 metri. Ampie parti delle sue pendici sono comprese nell'omonimo parco naturale che è meta di turisti amanti della natura e di un sano relax.
Volcan Etna
El Etna (37°45.304′N 14°59.715′E / 37.755067, 14.99525) es un volcán activo en la costa este de Sicilia, entre las provincias de Messina y Catania. Tiene alrededor de 3.322 metros de altura, aunque ésta varía debido a las constantes erupciones. La montaña es hoy en día 21,6 metros menor que en 1865. Es el mayor volcán activo de Europa y la montaña más alta de Italia al sur de los Alpes. El Etna cubre un área de 1.190 km2, con una circunferencia basal de 140 kilómetros.
Hasta inicios de s XX, por lo menos, era frecuente que la población siciliana llamara Gibellu a este célebre volcán; tal denominación local deriva de la presencia árabe en el lugar durante la edad media. En efecto, Gibellu o Gibello deriva de la palabra árabe جبل ŷébel (monte, montaña). Aún en 2005, se llama en Sicilia Gibello o Mongibelo a la montaña; quedando la denominación Etna para el cono volcánico.
En la mitología griega, el Etna era el volcán en cuyo interior se situaban las fraguas de Hefesto, que trabajaba en compañía de cíclopes y gigantes. El monstruoso Tifón yacía debajo de esta montaña, lo que causaba frecuentes terremotos y erupciones de humo y lava.
Su nombre derivaba de la ninfa Etna, hija del gigante Briareo y de Cimopolia, o de Urano y Gea, que se convirtió en la deidad de este famoso volcán. Por ello, fue la juez que resolvió la disputa sobre la posesión de Sicilia entre Deméter y Hefestos.
Uniéndose con éste último fue madre de los pálicos, los dos dioses de sendos géiseres famosos en la isla.
Haciendo abstracción de la mitología, el nombre deriva de la palabra cananea (o del fenicio) attanu (arder) y luego de la griega aithos (con el mismo significado de arder). Durante la ocupación árabe de Sicilia en la Edad Media, el Etna fue llamado Ŷébel Uhamat (Montaña de Fuego), pasando a ser llamado durante siglos por gran parte de los italianos con la palabra mixta (románica-arábiga): Mongibello.
El Etna es uno de los volcanes más activos del mundo, y está casi en constante erupción. Aunque en ocasiones puede ser muy destructivo, no está contemplado como un volcán particularmente peligroso y miles de personas viven en sus alrededores e incluso en sus faldas. La fertilidad de la tierra volcánica hace que la agricultura extensiva, con viñas y huertos, se extiende a lo largo de las laderas de la montaña. Debido a la reciente actividad volcánica y a su población, el Etna ha sido designado como uno de los 16 volcanes de la década por las Naciones Unidas.
etna vulcan vulcano volcan catania katane sicily sicilia italy italia europe europa eu nature landscape author michael castielli free license creative commons high resolution copyright patent wallpaper graphical design disegno new sky travel viaje viaggio trip vacation vacanze vacaciones holiday site web italia italy wallpaper gnuckx castielli creative commons zero cc0 cc news notizie facebook bebo panoramio flickr google googleearth googlemaps maps high qualiy photo gallery picture pic pics geotag geotagged gps locale wiki wikipedia
I created this flower character for a book titled Blossom Buddies, published by teNeues in 2009. The book includes 100 of these plant characters.
The areca nut (/ˈærɨkə/ or /əˈriːkə/) is the seed of the areca palm (Areca catechu), which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is commonly referred to as betel nut, as it is often chewed wrapped in betel leaves (paan). The term areca originated from a South Asian word during the 16th century, when Dutch and Portuguese sailors took the nut to Europe.
The habit has many harmful effects on health. The International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded after reviewing the published medical research that chewing areca nut is carcinogenic to humans. Various compounds present in the nut, most importantly arecoline (the primary psychoactive ingredient), contribute to histologic changes in the oral mucosa. As with chewing tobacco, its use is discouraged by preventive efforts, such as awareness of the risks of chewing buai.
DESCRIPTION
The areca nut is not a true nut, but rather a fruit categorized as a drupe. It is commercially available in dried, cured and fresh forms. When the husk of the fresh fruit is green, the nut inside is soft enough to be cut with a typical knife. In the ripe fruit, the husk becomes yellow or orange and, as it dries, the fruit inside hardens to a wood-like consistency. At that stage, the areca nut can only be sliced using a special scissors-like cutter (known as aḍakattera in Telugu, adake kattari in Kannada,bajjeai in Tulu, adakitta [अडकित्ता] in Marathi, puwak [පුවක්] in Sinhala, jaanti in Bengali, adakka അടക്കാ in Malayalam, pakku (பாக்கு) in Tamil, sarautaa in Hindi, Khilikaati in Odia, and sudi in Gujarati).
Usually for chewing, a few slices of the nut are wrapped in a betel leaf along with calcium hydroxide (slaked lime) and may include clove, cardamom, catechu (kattha) and/or other spices for extra flavouring. Betel leaf has a fresh, peppery taste, but it can also be bitter to varying degrees depending on the variety. The combination of areca nut with betel leaf is called "buai" in Tok Pisin (with the spit being known as buai pekpek), "goi" in (Bodo), tamul (তামূল/ "তামোল")in Assamese, kavala in Kannada, tambulam in Sanskrit, bajjai in Tulu, and paan in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, and Urdu.
Areca nuts are chewed with betel leaf for their effects as a mild stimulant, causing a warming sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness, although the effects vary from person to person. The effect of chewing betel leaf and areca nut together is relatively mild, and could be compared to that of drinking a cup of coffee.
The areca nut contains the tannins arecatannin and gallic acid; a fixed oil gum; a little terpineol; lignin; various saline substances; and three main alkaloids — arecoline, arecaidine and guvacine — all of which have vasoconstricting properties. The betel leaf chewed along with the nut contains eugenol, another vasoconstrictor. Tobacco leaf is often added to the mixture, thereby adding the effect of nicotine.
In parts of India, Sri Lanka and southern China, areca nuts are not only chewed along with betel leaf, but are also used in the preparation of Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicines. Powdered areca nut is used as a constituent in some dentifrices. Other traditional uses include the removal of tapeworms and other intestinal parasites by swallowing a few teaspoons of powdered areca nut, drunk as a decoction, or by taking tablets containing the extracted alkaloids. According to traditional Ayurvedic medicine, chewing areca nut and betel leaf is a good remedy against bad breath. Diplomat Edmund Roberts noted that Chinese people would mix areca nut with Uncaria gambir during his visit to China in the 1830s.[8] After chewing a betelnut, the red residue from chewing the betelnut, buai pekpek, is generally spit out and is considered an eyesore. This has led many places to ban chewing buai as many people spit the pekpek on the ground rather than in a spit cup or waste receptacle.
Now-a-days a special type Areca nut is available in Malenadu region i.e called as "Sweet Areca Nut".
TRADITION
Chewing the mixture of areca nut and betel leaf is a tradition, custom or ritual which dates back thousands of years in much of the geographical areas from South Asia eastward to the Pacific. It constitutes an important and popular cultural activity in many Asian and Oceanic countries, including Pakistan, the Maldives, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Palau, Yap, Guam, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. It is not known how or when the areca nut and the betel leaf were first combined into one psychoactive drug. Archaeological evidence from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines suggests they have been used in tandem for at least 4000 years.
In Vietnam, the areca nut and the betel leaf are such important symbols of love and marriage that in Vietnamese the phrase "matters of betel and areca" (chuyện trầu cau) is synonymous with marriage. The tradition of chewing areca nuts starts the talk between the groom's parents and the bride's parents about the young couple's marriage. Therefore, the leaves and juices are used ceremonially in Vietnamese weddings. The folk tale explaining the origin of this Vietnamese tradition is a good illustration of the belief that the combination of areca nut and the betel leaf is ideal to the point they are practically inseparable, like an idealized married couple.
Malay culture and tradition hold betel nut and leaves in high esteem. Traditionally, guests who visit a Malay house are presented with a tray of areca nuts and betel leaves, in much the same way as drinks are offered to guests in many cultures around the world. There is even a Malay proverb about the betel nut, "bagaikan pinang dibelah dua", loosely translated, like a betel nut divided in half. It usually refers to newlyweds, who are compatible to each other, just like a betel nut when divided in half. The proverb is analogous to the English "two peas in a pod".In the Indian subcontinent, the chewing of betel and areca nut dates back to the pre-Vedic period Harappan empire. Formerly, in both India and Sri Lanka, it was a custom of the royalty to chew areca nut with betel leaf. Kings had special attendants whose duty it was to carry a box with all the necessary ingredients for a good chewing session. There was also a custom for lovers to chew areca nut and betel leaf together, because of its breath-freshening and relaxant properties. A sexual symbolism thus became attached to the chewing of the nut and the leaf. The areca nut represented the male principle, and the betel leaf the female principle. Considered an auspicious ingredient in Hinduism and some schools of Buddhism, the areca nut is still used along with betel leaf in religious ceremonies, and also while honoring individuals in much of southern Asia.In Assam, it is a tradition to offer pan-tamul (betel leaves and raw areca nut) to guests, after tea or meals, served in a brass plate with stands called bota. Among the Assamese, the areca nut also has a variety of uses during religious and marriage ceremonies, where it has the role of a fertility symbol.[citation needed] A tradition from Upper Assam is to invite guests to wedding receptions by offering a few areca nuts with betel leaves. During Bihu, the husori players are offered areca nuts and betel leaves by each household while their blessings are solicited. Spanish mariner Álvaro de Mendaña reported observing Solomon Islanders chewing the nut and the leaf with caustic lime, and the manner in which the habit stained their mouths red. He noted the friendly and genial chief Malope, on Santa Isabel Island, would offer him the combination as a token of friendship every time they met.
In Bhutan the areca nut is called doma. The raw areca nut, which is soft and moist is very potent and when chewed can cause palpitation and vasoconstricting. This form is eaten in the lower regions of Bhutan and in North Bengal, where the nut is cut into half and put into a local paan leaf with a generous amount of lime. In the rest of Bhutan the raw nut, with the husk on, is fermented such that the husk rots and is easy to extract. The fermented doma has a putrid odour, which can be smelled from miles. Traditionally, this fragrant nut is cut in half and placed on top of a cone made of local betel leaf, which has a dash of lime put into it. "Myth has it that the inhabitants of Bhutan traditionally known as Monyul, the land of Monpas where Buddhism did not reach lived on raw flesh, drank blood and chewed bones. After the arrival of Guru Rinpoche in the 8th century, he stopped the people from eating flesh and drinking blood and created a substitute which is betel leaf, lime and areca nut. Today, chewing doma has become a custom. Doma is served after meals, during rituals and ceremonies. It is offered to friends and is chewed at work places by all sections of the society and has become an essential part of Bhutanese life and culture."
The addition of tobacco leaf to the chewing mixture is a relatively recent innovation, as tobacco was not introduced from the American continent until the colonial era.
EFFECTS ON HEALTH
Habitual chewers of betel leaf and areca nut have a greatly increased risk of developing a range of serious diseases, including cancers of the mouth and esophagus. It has many systemic effects.
Chewing areca nut alone has been linked to oral submucosal fibrosis. According to Medline Plus, "Long-term use [of betel-areca preparations] has been associated with oral submucosal fibrosis (OSF), pre-cancerous oral lesions and squamous cell carcinoma. Acute effects of betel chewing include asthma exacerbation, hypertension, and tachycardia. There may additionally be a higher risk of cancers of the liver, mouth, esophagus, stomach, prostate, cervix, and lung with regular betel use. Other effects can include a possible effect on blood sugar levels, which may in turn increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes."
Use of areca nut has been associated with deterioration of psychosis in patients with preexisting psychiatric disorders.
In 2003 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World Health Organization sponsored group, reached the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence that the habit of chewing betel quid, with or without tobacco, is carcinogenic to humans. Support for this conclusion is provided by a recent study which found that paan, even without concurrent tobacco use, is a risk factor for oral cancer. In October, 2009, 30 scientists from 10 countries met at IARC to reassess the carcinogenicity of various agents including areca nut, and mechanisms of carcinogenesis. They confirmed there is sufficient evidence that areca nut, with or without tobacco, can cause cancer.
USE DURING PREGNAN
Chewing paan (and/or other areca nut and betel leaf formulations) during pregnancy significantly increases adverse outcomes for the baby. The habit is associated with higher incidences of preterm birth and low birth weight and height. Biologically, these effects may be a consequence of the arecoline that is found in areca nuts. The habit also exposes the unborn baby to various other toxic components linked to cancer.
MODERN-DAY CONSUMPTION
In India (the largest consumer of areca nut) and Pakistan, the preparation of nut with or without betel leaf is commonly referred to as paan. It is available practically everywhere and is sold in ready-to-chew pouches called pan masala or supari, as a mixture of many flavours whose primary base is areca nut crushed into small pieces. Poor people, who may eat only every other day, use it to stave off hunger pangs. Pan masala with a small quantity of tobacco is called gutka. The easily discarded, small plastic supari or gutka pouches are a ubiquitous pollutant of the South Asian environment. Some of the liquid in the mouth is usually disposed of by spitting, producing bright red spots wherever the expectorate lands. The Shimoga District in Karnataka is presently the largest producer of betelnut in India
In the Maldives, areca nut chewing is very popular, but spitting is frowned upon and regarded as an unrefined, repulsive way of chewing. Usually, people prefer to chew thin slices of the dry nut, which is sometimes roasted. Kili, a mixture of areca nut, betel, cloves, cardamom and sugar is sold in small home-made paper pouches. Old people who have lost their teeth keep "chewing" by pounding the mixture of areca nut and betel with a small mortar and pestle.
In Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, fresh areca nut, betel leaf or 'fruit leaf' (daka in PNG) and lime are sold on street corners. In these countries, dried or flavoured areca nut is not popular. Betelnuts there are referred to in Tok Pisin as buai, and the red spit from them, as well as their shells and rubbish thrown out along with the spit, is called buai pekpek. There has recently been a controversial ban on selling and chewing betelnuts and spitting buai pekpek in Port Moresby. Because of this, many people have tried to smuggle betelnuts into Pom Town. Notably, there was a raid in Hanuabada in May 2015 where several bags of betelnut were confiscated, the total value of the confiscated nut sacks exceeding $180,000 USD. Areca nut chewing has recently been introduced into Vanuatu, where it is growing in popularity, especially in the northern islands of the country. In Guam and the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands, betel and areca nut chewing is a social pastime as a means to extend friendship, and can be found in many, if not most, large gatherings as part of the food display.
In Palau, betel nut is chewed with lime, piper leaf and nowadays, with the addition of tobacco. Older and younger generations alike enjoy the use of betel nut, which is readily available at stores and markets. Unlike in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where the inner areca nut is used, in Palau, the areca nut's skin is chewed along with lime, leaf and tobacco and the juice is not swallowed but spat out.
In Taiwan, bags of 20 to 40 areca nuts are purchased fresh daily by a large number of consumers. To meet the steady year-round demand, two kinds of betel-nut shops sell betel and nuts, as well as cigarettes and drinks, including beer: Small mom and pop shops, often poorly maintained and with unassuming façades, and shops which will often consist of nothing more than a single, free-standing room, or booth. The latter is usually elevated one meter above the street, and measures less than 3 by 2 m. Large picture windows comprise two or more of the walls, allowing those who pass by a complete view of the interior. The interior is often painted brightly. Within such a shop, a sexily dressed young woman, a "betel nut beauty", can be seen preparing betel and areca nuts. Shops are often identified by multicoloured (commonly green) fluorescent tubes or neon lights that frame the windows or that are arranged radially above a store. Customers stop on the side of the road and wait for the girls to bring their betel and areca nut to their vehicles. The habit of chewing betel nut is often associated with blue-collar labor industries such a long-haul transportation, construction, or fishing. Workers in these labor-intensive industries use betel nut for its stimulating effect, but it also becomes a tool for socializing with coworkers. For example, studies have shown chewing betel nut is prevalent among taxi, bus and truck drivers, who rely on the stimulating effect of betel nut to cope with long work hours. For these reasons, oral cancer has been identified as a leading cause of death in professions with high betel nut-chewing rates.
In Hainan and Hunan Province, China, where Xiangtan is a center of use and processing, a wide range of old and young people consume areca nut daily. Most, though, consume the dried variety of the nut by itself, without the betel leaves. Some people also consume the areca nut in its raw, fresh form with or without the betel leaves. Betel nuts are sold mostly by old women walking around trying to sell it, but the dried version can be found in most shops which sell tea, alcohol and cigarettes.
In Thailand, the consumption of areca nut has declined gradually in the last decades. The younger generation rarely chews the substance, especially in the cities. Most of the present-day consumption is confined to older generations, mostly people above 50. Even so, small trays of betel leaves and sliced tender areca nut are sold in markets and used as offerings in Buddhist shrines.
In the Philippines, chewing the areca nut and betel leaf was a very widespread tradition in the past. Now, though, this tradition is almost dead among the urban people in the cities and big towns, and has largely been replaced by chewing gum and cigarettes. Nowadays, older people are the only ones chewing betel nuts. But in rural areas, betel nut-chewing is very much alive.
In the United States, areca nut is not a controlled or specially taxed substance and may be found in some Asian grocery stores. However, importation of areca nut in a form other than whole or carved kernels of nuts can be stopped at the discretion of US Customs officers on the grounds of food, agricultural, or medicinal drug violations. Such actions by Customs are very rare. In the United Kingdom, areca nut is readily available in Asian grocery stores and even in shredded forms from the World Food aisles of larger Tesco supermarkets.
Possession of betel nut or leaf is banned in the UAE and is a punishable offense.
Recently it has been reported that areca nut powder extract is capable of reducing silver ions to create silver nanoparticles, which may be useful as antimicrobial agents.
WIKIPEDIA
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by the Photochrom Co. Ltd. The card, which is a glossy real photograph, was printed in Great Britain. The card has a divided back.
Note the motorbike with a sidecar - something that is rarely seen these days in the UK.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.
These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color.
They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.
In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process.
This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.
Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.
One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.
Photochrom postcard series include:
-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.
-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.
-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.
-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.
Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside resort in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. The town's name is derived from its patron saint, Saint Tudno.
Llandudno is the largest seaside resort in Wales, and as early as 1861 was being called 'the Queen of the Welsh Watering Places' (a phrase later also used in connection with Tenby and Aberystwyth; the word 'resort' came a little later).
-- History of Llandudno
The town of Llandudno developed from Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements over many hundreds of years on the slopes of the limestone headland, known to seafarers as the Great Orme and to landsmen as the Creuddyn Peninsula.
The origins in recorded history are with the Manor of Gogarth conveyed by King Edward I to Annan, Bishop of Bangor in 1284.
-- The Great Orme
Mostly owned by Mostyn Estates, the Great Orme is home to several large herds of wild Kashmiri goats originally descended from a pair given by Queen Victoria to Lord Mostyn.
The summit of the Great Orme stands at 679 feet (207 m). The Summit Hotel, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of world middleweight champion boxer Randolph Turpin.
The limestone headland is a haven for flora and fauna, with some rare species such as peregrine falcons and a species of wild cotoneaster (cambricus) which can only be found on the Great Orme.
The sheer limestone cliffs provide ideal nesting conditions for a wide variety of sea birds, including cormorants, shags, guillemots, razorbills, puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars and numerous gulls.
There are several attractions including the Great Orme Tramway and the Llandudno Cable Car that takes tourists to the summit. The Great Orme also has the longest toboggan run in Britain at 750m.
-- The Development of Llandudno
By 1847 the town had grown to a thousand people, served by the new church of St. George, built in 1840. The great majority of the men worked in the copper mines, with others employed in fishing and subsistence agriculture.
In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool, presented Lord Mostyn with plans to develop the marshlands behind Llandudno Bay as a holiday resort. These were enthusiastically pursued by Lord Mostyn.
The influence of the Mostyn Estate and its agents over the years was paramount in the development of Llandudno, especially after the appointment of George Felton as surveyor and architect in 1857.
Between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno was developed under Felton's supervision. Felton also undertook architectural design work, including the design and execution of the Holy Trinity Church in Mostyn Street.
The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated an electric tramway service between Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907, this being extended to Colwyn Bay in 1908. The service closed in 1956.
-- The Beach and The Parade
A beach of sand, shingle and rock curves two miles between the headlands of the Great Orme and the Little Orme.
For most of the length of Llandudno's North Shore there is a wide curving Victorian promenade. The road, collectively known as The Parade, has a different name for each block, and it is on these parades and crescents that many of Llandudno's hotels are built.
-- Llandudno Pier
The pier is on the North Shore. Built in 1878, it is a Grade II listed building.
The pier was extended in 1884 in a landward direction along the side of what was the Baths Hotel (where the Grand Hotel now stands) to provide a new entrance with the Llandudno Pier Pavilion Theatre, thus increasing the pier's length to 2,295 feet (700 m); it is the longest pier in Wales.
Attractions on the pier include a bar, a cafe, amusement arcades, children's fairground rides and an assortment of shops & kiosks.
In the summer, Professor Codman's Punch and Judy show (established in 1860) can be found on the promenade near the entrance to the pier.
-- The Happy Valley
The Happy Valley, a former quarry, was the gift of Lord Mostyn to the town in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. The area was landscaped and developed as gardens, two miniature golf courses, a putting green, a popular open-air theatre and extensive lawns.
Ceremonies connected with the Welsh National Eisteddfod were held there in 1896, and again in 1963.
In June 1969, the Great Orme Cabin Lift, a modern alternative to the tramway, was opened with its base station adjacent to the open-air theatre. The distance to the summit is just over 1 mile (1.6 km), and the four-seater cabins travel at 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) on a continuous steel cable over 2 miles (3.2 km) long.
It is the longest single-stage cabin lift in Great Britain, and the longest span between pylons is over 1,000 feet (300 m).
The popularity of the 'Happy Valley Entertainers' open-air theatre having declined, the theatre closed in 1985. Likewise the two miniature golf courses closed, and were converted in 1987 to create a 280-metre (920 ft) artificial ski slope and toboggan run. The gardens were extensively restored as part of the resort's millennium celebrations, and remain a major attraction.
-- Marine Drive
The first route round the perimeter of the Great Orme was a footpath constructed in 1858 by Reginald Cust, a trustee of the Mostyn Estate. In 1872 the Great Orme's Head Marine Drive Co. Ltd. was formed to turn the path into a carriage road.
Following bankruptcy, a second company completed the road in 1878. The contractors for the scheme were Messrs Hughes, Morris, Davies, a consortium led by Richard Hughes of Madoc Street, Llandudno.
The road was bought by Llandudno Urban District Council in 1897. The 4 mile (6.4 km) one-way drive starts at the foot of the Happy Valley. After about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) a side road leads to St. Tudno's Church, the Great Orme Bronze Age Copper Mine and the summit of the Great Orme.
Continuing on the Marine Drive the Great Orme Lighthouse (now a small hotel) is passed, and, shortly afterwards on the right, the Rest and Be Thankful Cafe and information centre.
Below the Marine Drive at its western end is the site of the wartime Coast Artillery School (1940–1945), now a scheduled ancient monument.
-- The West Shore
The West Shore is a quiet beach on the estuary of the River Conwy. It was here at Pen Morfa that Alice Liddell (of Alice in Wonderland fame) spent the long summer holidays of her childhood from 1862 to 1871.
There are a few hotels and quiet residential streets. The West Shore is linked to the North Shore by Gloddaeth Avenue and Gloddaeth Street, a wide dual carriageway.
-- Mostyn Street
Running behind the promenade is Mostyn Street, leading to Mostyn Broadway and then Mostyn Avenue. These are the main shopping streets of Llandudno. Mostyn Street accommodates the high street shops, the major high street banks and building societies, two churches, amusement arcades and the town's public library.
The last is the starting point for the Town Trail, a planned walk that facilitates viewing Llandudno in a historical perspective.
-- Victorian Extravaganza
Every year in May bank holiday weekend, Llandudno has a three-day Victorian Carnival, and Mostyn Street becomes a funfair.
Madoc Street and Gloddaeth Street and the Promenade become part of the route each day for a mid-day carnival parade. Also the Bodafon Farm fields become the location of a Festival of Transport for the weekend.
-- Venue Cymru
The North Wales Theatre, Arena and Conference Centre, built in 1994, and extended in 2006 and renamed "Venue Cymru", is located near the centre of the promenade on Penrhyn Crescent.
It is noted for its productions of opera, orchestral concerts, ballet, musical theatre, drama, circus, ice shows and pantomimes.
-- The Llandudno Lifeboat
Until 2017, Llandudno was unique within the United Kingdom in that its lifeboat station was located inland, allowing it to launch with equal facility from either the West Shore or the North Shore as needed.
In 2017, a new lifeboat station was completed, and new, high-speed, offshore and inshore lifeboats, and a modern launching system, were acquired. This station is close to the paddling pool on North Shore.
Llandudno's active volunteer crews are called out more than ever with the rapidly increasing numbers of small pleasure craft sailing in coastal waters. The Llandudno Lifeboat is normally on display on the promenade every Sunday and bank holiday Monday from May until October.
-- The Ancient Parish Church
The ancient parish church dedicated to Saint Tudno stands in a hollow near the northern point of the Great Orme, and is two miles (3 km) from the present town.
It was established as an oratory by Tudno, a 6th.-century monk, but the present church dates from the 12th. century and it is still used on summer Sunday mornings.
-- Llandudno's Links with Mametz and Wormhout
(a) Mametz
The 1st. (North Wales) Brigade was headquartered in Llandudno in December 1914, and included a battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, which had been raised and trained in Llandudno.
Skirting the Fricourt salient, the British 7th. Division took the village of Mametz in the afternoon of the 1st. July 1916. However Mametz Wood to the north-east of the village held great German resistance. This blocked all Allied progress in a northeasterly direction.
After eight days of fierce combat, with heavy losses, did the 38th. Welsh Division capture the wood on the 12th. July 1916.
A monument to the 38th. Welsh Division was inaugurated on the 11th. July 1987. The monument takes the form of a plinth surmounted by a red dragon, the emblem of Wales. With its wings held aloft, it carries in its claws pieces of barbed wire, attesting to the fierce nature of the fighting.
The hostilities brought about the total destruction of Mametz village by shelling. After the war, the people of Llandudno (including returning survivors) contributed generously to the fund for the reconstruction of the village of Mametz.
(b) Wormhout
Llandudno is twinned with the Flemish town of Wormhout which is 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. It was near there that many members of the Llandudno-based 69th. Territorial Regiment were ambushed and taken prisoner.
The Site Mémoire de la Plaine au Bois near Wormhout commemorates the massacre of these prisoners on the 28th. May 1940. The men had been retreating towards Dunkirk ahead of the advancing Germans.
About 100 troops, having run out of ammunition, surrendered to the Germans, assuming that they would be taken prisoner according to the Geneva Convention.
However they were all imprisoned in a small barn, and the SS threw stick-grenades into the building, killing many POW's.
However the grenades failed to kill everyone, largely due to the bravery of two British NCO's, Stanley Moore and Augustus Jennings, who hurled themselves on top of the grenades, using their bodies to shield their comrades from the blast.
In order to finish off the remaining soldiers, the SS fired into the barn with rifles and automatic weapons. A few survived to tell the tale, but no-one was ever indicted for war crimes because of insufficient evidence.
A replica of the barn can be seen at the site of the massacre.
-- Llandudno's Cultural Connections
Matthew Arnold gives a vivid and lengthy description of 1860's Llandudno - and of the ancient tales of Taliesin and Maelgwn Gwynedd that are associated with the local landscape - in the first sections of the preface to 'On the Study of Celtic Literature' (1867).
Llandudno is also used as a location for dramatic scenes in the stage play and film 'Hindle Wakes' by Stanley Houghton, and the 1911 novel, 'The Card', by Arnold Bennett, and its subsequent film version.
Elisabeth of Wied, the Queen Consort of Romania and also known as writer Carmen Sylva, stayed in Llandudno for five weeks in 1890.
On leaving, she described Wales as "A beautiful haven of peace". Translated into Welsh as "Hardd, hafan, hedd", it became the town's official motto.
Other famous people with links to Llandudno include the Victorian statesman John Bright and multi-capped Welsh international footballers Neville Southall, Neil Eardley, Chris Maxwell and Joey Jones.
Australian ex-Prime Minister Billy Hughes attended school in Llandudno. Gordon Borrie QC (Baron Borrie), Director General of the Office of Fair Trading from 1976 to 1992, was educated at the town's John Bright Grammar School when he lived there as a wartime evacuee.
The international art gallery Oriel Mostyn is in Vaughan Street next to the post office. It was built in 1901 to house the art collection of Lady Augusta Mostyn. It was requisitioned in 1914 for use as an army drill hall, and later became a warehouse, before being returned to use as an art gallery in 1979. Following a major revamp the gallery was renamed simply 'Mostyn' in 2010.
Llandudno has its own mini arts festival 'LLAWN' (Llandudno Arts Weekend). It is a mini festival that rediscovers and celebrates Llandudno’s past in rather a unique way; via art, architecture, artefact, sound, performance, and participation.
The festival takes place over three days of a weekend in late September, originally conceived as a way to promote what those in the hospitality sector refer to as the ‘shoulder season’, which means a lull in the tourist calendar.
In January 1984 Brookside character Petra Taylor (Alexandra Pigg) committed suicide in Llandudno.
In 1997, the English cookery programme "Two Fat Ladies" with Jennifer Patterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright filmed an episode in Llandudno.